What do you get if you combine 70’s SciFi, a 90’s Crime Drama story, and a good old-fashioned Boy meets Girl love story? You get a great film.
LOGLINE
Director Joddy Eric Matthews moves back to DoP Chair to lens Marquette Williams’s visionary SciFi tale as the film leveraged the RENDER Grant from MadWerkz to finish 75 visual effects shots and train the crew on high-end cinematic workflows.
Interval is an independently produced science fiction thriller directed by Marquette Williams and stars Robert Bray, Ginny Williams, Michael James, and Dasia Benton. It was produced by David Hemphill, Johnny Magic, Amara Jester, and Joddy Eric Matthews. Andrew Newsome, Charles Hill, Brian “Essince” Collins, and Williams executive produced the film.
Marquette approached Director Joddy Eric Matthews about serving as the film’s Director of Photography a few months before production began. “I hadn’t served as a DoP for someone else in about a decade”, joked Matthews. “And given the show’s ambitious shooting schedule and the fact that the bulk of the crew would be comprised of people with little to no experience working on a big film, I was hesitant.” True, Williams envisioned a big, stylish, 90s-style science fiction thriller, completed on a small feature budget and leveraging talent from his workforce development enterprise iFilm216 (ifilm216.org).
Williams, an accomplished Director, understood the assignment. “Our students are getting a tight education and immersion into today’s film reality. They start with the basics, learning to grip or production assist, and move up to the more flashy assignments. But everyone starts with that base,” he stated.
“Honestly, when I came down to iFilm and saw what he had accomplished, I was blown away.” Matthews signed on to helm the film’s camera department soon after. He also suggested Producer and VFX Supervisor, Christopher Kennedy, to Williams, given the film’s amount of visual effects. “All in all, it amounted to over 75 visual effects shots. Many of us had used After Effects, (only in REC709 mode), but no one had experience in Fusion or Nuke, colorspace conversions, or working with ACES,” remarked Producer Johnny Magic.
All in all, it amounted to over 75 visual effects shots. Many of us had used After Effects in our workflows, but no one had experience in Fusion or Nuke.
Producer, johnny magic
Kennedy suggested to them that they may want to apply for the RENDER Grant, given the budget and how much visual effects training MadWerkz would have to do.
Matthews had quite a bit of training to do on the camera side. “Marquette had secured the use of an ARRI Alexa Mini and the brand new Ronin 4D camera gimbal combo unit from Liminal Studios (liminalspaceproductions) for principal photography. “Andrew was super helpful and could not have been more accommodating,” remarked Matthews.” iFilm is a shoot culture, everyone there was used to Blackmagic and its camera science, so the concepts of LOG and RAW weren’t foreign to them,” stated Matthews
“ARRI Color Science (LogC4) is not only my acquisition format of choice, it’s currently what I tend to use as my workspace in Davinci, but I had never worked with the Ronin, DJI Colorspace, so I wasn’t 100% sure how it would look versus the Alexa,” remarked Matthews. Again, the RENDER Grant came into play as MadWerkz would assist in the pipeline workflow development and education on accomplishing the post in a wide gamut workflow.
Kennedy added, “The great thing about offering the grant to a wider range of content creators is that we can come in and consult, often giving us the ability to touch future clients way earlier than we normally would.”
MadWerkz’ Jason Mitchwell added, “Overall, it’s been a great engagement and I’m glad we could help bring Interval to audiences everywhere.”
For the last decade, MadWerkz has championed the ability of Independent voices to present richer, more vibrant stories. Through grant programs such as Render and awards for excellence at Film Festivals, such as the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival, MadWerkz has provided over $150,000 in services to Independent filmmakers.
Every year MadWerkz produces hundreds of DCPs for film festivals all over the world. We’ve produced DCPs for a wide range of films such as HBO Max’s United Skates and BET’s Always a Bridesmaid to name a few.
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For more information on Interval, contact Marquette Williams at ifilm216. Interval is in U.S. theaters now. Follow the link for cities and showtimes. Interval Theatrical Screenings
UPDATE: Interval signed a worldwide distribution deal with ITN Distribution.
About MadWerkz
MadWerkz, formerly MadWerkz Studios, is a full-service creative content boutique specializing in high-end cinematic and gaming production, design, visual effects, video post-production, and 3D animation production for television, motion picture, agency, and commercial producers. We also excel in creative content design and production for corporate, independent directors, and producers.
For nearly twenty years, we have been creating world-class design and content. With offices in Atlanta, Chicago, and Cleveland, we provide cost-effective solutions for today’s Content Creator, corporate or theatrical, with the ability to acquire and develop content using the latest technologies.
Our clients include JCPenney, Sepio Systems, Walt Disney, ABC Studios, BET, GE, Amazon, Altria, and Phillip Morris, Indiana State Library, ARCofVa, Special Olympics of Va. The United Black Fund and Quality Holdings.
Our passion for quality and the ability to scale make us unique. MadWerkz artists combine passion, skill, and focus with an unparalleled knowledge of innovative technologies to exceed expectations, whatever the request
