Royce Essig has been pursuing a 25 year dream to produce a sci-fi drama. He and his team are close to completion and have used virtual reality technology to finish the product. I interviewed him at Far Point 2018.
1:07 – Royce Essig and his team are doing an independent sci-fi series called Dark Operations Terminus. It’s been a 25-year dream and ten years ago they released their first DVD. It’s a three part sci-fi drama.
2:32 – They hope to release it next fall. It has a virtual reality element to it. One is the Oculus Rift where you get into the world. They have also applied the Microsoft Hollow Lens technology. It projects a hologram you can see and record and import into the game.
4:49 – The game is done in memoriam to some developers who they’ve lost. One of the people who helped with Terminus was a Major who passed away in Iraq.
5:52 – He uses Magic Vegas to edit. Everyone on the team is self-taught. He uses music to inspire his work. Muppets music and tv for example. He also loves to edit.
7:37 – They all started doing this twenty-five years ago when they were all in a sci-fi club and wanted to do a fan film. The realized they needed a good camera guy, good equipment and so on. Now they can do it professionally.
10:03 – Royce likes The Greatest Showman because it breaks the typical mold of American television actors and actresses. Star Trek inspired the film they’re working on now. He also liked Space Battleship Yamato, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. The people into this nerdy stuff are the best people around. He loves John Williams and James Horner. Horner used his Battle Beyond the Stars music for Star Trek II.
13:07 – He wanted to be a pilot when he was young.
13:27 – They’re on Facebook/Dark Operations and post updates from the set.
 
Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Battleship_Yamato
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080421/
https://www.facebook.com/DarkOperations/
 
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Guests: Royce Essig
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: science fiction, video game, film, virtual reality, magic vegas, oculus rift, microsoft hollow lens, space battleship yamato, battle beyond the stars, star trek, star wars, battlestar galactica
http://media.blubrry.com/sfasf/content.blubrry.com/sfasf/Film_and_game_producer_Royce_Essig_interview-CreatingSFF_Episode_46_.mp3