About a little girl, a monster, finding love and writing INHUMAN

Strangely enough writing "Inhuman" didn't start out being influenced by the classic Frankenstein story by Mary Shelley but by another legend, very closely associated with Frankenstein. It's the "Golem of Prague". In this little known legend a famous Rabbi by the name of Judah Loew ben Bezalel created the Golem out of innate matter, usually thought of to be clay, to teach a younger Rabbi about man's ability to create life but not the soul, only God could do that. It was in effect a philosophical lesson but the Golem lives on in myth as an indestructible creature capable of great violence without the attending guilt. In fact a silent German film was made out of the Golem myth. It was called Der Golem and as you can see from the photos below the similarity with Hollywoods first foray into Frankenstein territory in 1931 must have been influenced by it.

FRANKENSTEIN 1931

DER GOLEM 1915

I was interested in the Golem myth (I even visited Prague and the synagogue where the Golem is still believed to be hidden in the attic rooms) and started researching similar legends. I'd always known about creation myths but didn't realise how many of them related to man being created out of clay, usually containing some fault or other. Here's a list with Wikipedia links.

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The Greek Titan Prometheus gave the gift of fire (a symbol for the soul) to humans (that he made from clay) but was punished by Zeus for eternity for his crime.

In the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish, the goddess Ninhursag created humans from clay.

In Africa, the Yoruba culture holds that the god Obatala likewise created the human race.

In Egyptian mythology, the ram-headed god Khnum made people from clay in the waters of the Nile.

In Chinese myth, the goddess Nuwa created the first humans from mud and clay.

According to Genesis 2:7 "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

According to Qur'an[23:12–15], Allah created man from clay.

Mayan myth holds that Tepeu and Kukulkán (Quetzalcoatl) made the first humans from clay, but they were unsatisfactory.

The Māori people believe that Tāne Mahuta, God of the forest, created the first woman out of clay and breathed life into her.
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What fascinated me was this idea of something akin to human but really not like us at all. He/she/it is without conscience, without a soul. A being without morality. Is that an evil thing or can't we even apply such moral rules to a creature so outside of our understanding and principals of good and bad? After all a Golem is a naive creature, in fact not dissimilar to a child. And of course let's not forget a very recent incarnation of 'Golem'.

GOLLUM - LORD OF THE RINGS 2001

There is no evidence that suggests J. R. R. Tolkien was thinking of the legend of the Golem of Prague but since he was a well researched and an eminent scholar he must have known about the Golem myth. In any case I feel the inclusion of Gollum as 'Golem' is justified since his character is defined by slavery to a power beyond his control. Gollum had developed an abnormal morality and had virtually become an automaton.

In modern stories this still fascinates people. Spock from Star Trek has always been a favourite, as has Data from the later series and many robot characters scattered throughout science fiction beginning most famously with the female robot in Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" all the way through to Blade Runner with it's Nexus-6 Replicants, essentially fake humans who supposedly have no real history (read that as no soul) and therefore need them implanting as memories, albeit false ones.

THE ROBOT MARIA - METROPOLIS 1927

ROBOT MARIA WITH FLESH ON - METROPOLIS 1927

ROY BATTY - REPLICANT. BLADE RUNNER 1982

At the other end of the spectrum we have our real human version of the Golem, the psychopath, whose almost alien morality strikes fear in us but holds our attention equally well. These characters point to the same deep questions we ask about ourselves. What is right and wrong? Is right and wrong just a point of view? Is there truly a universal morality independent of man?

Too deep? Yeah, me too. For me these things only come alive I believe in drama, their underlying truths just make for great stories. Will he kill her? Will he find out what it means to be human? Will she ever get over the death of her father? That's what "Inhuman" is about. A soulless monster and a grieving innocent little girl can illustrate for most of us basic questions when we wonder if they will find common ground or fail in tragedy . . . and bloodshed.

Wanna learn something? Here's how. Cut yourself. Or score.

We've decided that 'Inhuman' is kind of like an open source film. By that we mean you download all the footage and edit it yourself, or just download the film with no music and create your own music for it. Of course we'll be doing our own cut but I have this fear in me that someone out there is going to cut or score it better than we do!

But in the continued new tradition of crowd sourcing, crowd funding and the general idea of openness each production department that makes Inhuman is going to have it's own blog as we move through to get this film made. That means blogs on set design, lighting, editing, directing, writing, acting and scoring and sound. This idea we are going to carry through to other film projects within the Flux Universe including other types of interactivity. We are thinking about mobile platforms, user created graphic novels, animation and so on.

Our weapon of choice

What do the new Spiderman movie in 3D, Peter Jackson's 'The Hobbit' and Ridley Scott's new SciFi film 'Prometheus' have in common with a small short film like ours?

The Epic Camera. That's what.

Ok, we don't have the budget (but you could help us out a little bit) for the multi million dollars sets, the cast or the special effects but damn we are going to make this film look good. No scratch that, we are going to make it look great. The power in our film is story. No doubt about it whenever someone reads the script they are intrigued, enthralled and dying to know the ending, but what better way to make this an experience to remember than great images. Hence our choice of Epic. Without going into great detail the Red Camera Company has made it possible for small film-makers like us to use Hollywood standard camera's, and to do it cheaply. What once cost hundreds of thousands in camera gear has been reduced to a fifth of that and more in some instances.

Why else would Peter Jackson buy thirty of these and James Cameron buy fifty!

Shots from my previous short film BLACK SUN (no sound)

These shots lose a bit of their drama through having no sound as yet. We've just started editing and I have a feeling we wont be finished until Jan 2012. I think Inhuman is going to look a lot better. For Black Sun we only had a Canon 5D which for a web film is fine, for TV it's also ok...just. We're planning to get Black Sun into the Cannes Film Festival in the Short Film Corner section and Inhuman will be going there too. You can have a chance of coming with us, flight from any major international airport and accommodation paid for by us. But I'm hoping Inhuman will do better than that and perhaps get into one of the more serious competition sections.

But for Cinema shooting on the Red MX 4K or Epic 5K is pure cinema. You can see some of my other work over at my Vimeo channel. Click the picture or here.

Location Hunting Photos

Various locations around the Thames river in London, even all the way down to the estuary near the Queen Elizabeth bridge where I found this small gypsy like boat community. Apparently they have been there since the 1930's.

The Flux Universe now has a society of followers called the ACOLYTE's

We wanted to give a name to the collective of people who really like what we're doing and came up with Flux Acolyte.

Acolyte's get all the special stuff as the Flux Universe grows. Certain pledge amounts automatically make you a Flux Acolyte for life but we are thinking of extending out beyond Kickstarter after we have finished Inhuman. If you're interested just drop us an email and we'll put you on the list for further info when it comes up about Acolyte membership.