Alien Encounters film stars local actors and features Plymouth, Dartmoor and Exeter
Rendered Pictures is a small independent film company based in Exeter founded by my husband, Neil Rowe, and me in 2015 following the release of our first feature film Robot World.
Robot World is a sci-fi feature film which was released on DVD and online in the UK, USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Germany and China. The film is still available to buy on Amazon.
Neil’s brother Ian Rowe is also part of the company and helps with our projects. Robot World, in fact, stars Ian as the only actor in the piece and he also features in Alien Outbreak, our second movie.
Robot World won awards at various film festivals in the UK and USA, namely best feature film at Unreal Film Festival Memphis USA, best feature effects at Other Worlds Film Festival, Boston, USA and best director at Hyperdrive Film Festival, Sussex.
Since the release of Alien Outbreak in the USA we have received some lovely reviews and much acclaim for the visual effects that feature heavily throughout. Neil’s background is in CGI and all the robots/drones were designed and built by him and his friend Gareth Knight.
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The budget was small and therefore we did not have the funds to employ a large team of CGI artists like you would typically have in films that take on visual effects in the manner we did.
But we were able to achieve good quality visual effects for a low budget model, which is what our company is all about. Neil has also worked with various other filmmakers lending his vast knowledge and skills within the visual effects field.
We also had help from Neil’s cousin, Amy Blevin who is a concept artist. Amy designed the alien ship; it was good timing as she had just graduated from university so was able to help out on this project. Amy is also an extra in the pub scene along with Neil’s dad, aunty and uncle and several of our friends. Working with such a low budget we really do appreciate the help from our friends and family!
In 2015 we signed on with sales agent High Octane Pictures and are still working with them. They are busy securing various distribution deals around the world for Alien Outbreak.
Alien Outbreak is a much bigger production as we learnt a lot from our first feature. This time round we had a slightly larger budget and therefore were able to pay more for our locations and even assemble a cast, moving on from a one actor piece! We were even able to employ a sound engineer on set and in post-production and a makeup/visual effects artist at various points throughout.
As with Robot World we kept it local, using actors and crew from the South West and locations in and around Dartmoor, Plymouth and Exeter. We worked with the Duchy of Cornwall office and the Dartmoor National Park to secure permissions for filming on their land.
Alien Outbreak is crammed full of visual effects and special effects. As with Robot World we filmed all of our greenscreen work in our garage, garden and lounge. This again keeps our costs down.
We filmed Alien Outbreak over 17 days; these were broken up over the course of four months. These included both day and night shoots. We were running around Dartmoor at all hours; it was challenging conditions at times. The cast and crew were amazing and simply got on with it. It is an eerie landscape but one which we think really adds to our film.
We are currently in post-production with our third feature film. We have been scouting around for more locations and have our eye on a place in Okehampton. This time round we are hoping to step up another gear and hire a cameraman!
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