READ: Over the course of four years, BATMAN: Under The Dark had remained in "silent" production, taking its time within scriptwriting (retrieving ideas that were lost), gathering materials, sets, and figures needed to proceed with said project, and casting the multifarious set of Batman characters, pertaining to both pre-existing lore, and that of which had yet to be seen on screen, through an original take, with an original cast, via a smaller scale. In the span of those 1,460 days, life brought upon tons of its busies, lots of heavy travelling matters, and several unexpected technical delays on progress (mainly due to personal events on my end), hence, led to constantly postponing a release that was never on a steady foundation to begin with. Sure, the initial plan was to get it out as soon as possible (admittedly aimed for mid-2016 - late 2016, and then, late 2018 - early 2019, post its year-long marketing campaign - that became years-long lmao), but again, changing circumstances affected these plans, so the pilot was invariably being pushed to a different date, every few months out... I guess, it truly became a pressuring hassle (which you never want when working on something you care about) when I announced an "official" release date for March 5th, 2020-- a date that seemed likely at the time-- but when the path started to look bleak, the date was changed to August 14th, 2020, and in the place of the so-called, "original release date", was a 3-minute clip of the Episode, featuring Tom Howe's Joker, and SkyFlake VA's Ward, during the opening moments of Episode One. As time went on, the world unexpectedly went into a full-blown lockdown in the midst of a crisis/pandemic, leaving me stranded during & after a vacation trip - FAR AWAY from a functioning stop-motion animation studio (lol) - for an additional three months, delaying Under The Dark's pilot for a second time. To fill in the blanks, co-writer, Stealthabotte, and I spontaneously developed an Alternate Reality Game, akin to The Dark Knight's Scavenger Hunt back in 2008, tracking a revered reporter named Angelo Torres, through a series of evidence folders, provided to prove suggested theories right (related to the series' plot), all leading up to the narrative executed in Under The Dark. "The Hunt" was a contest-like experience that allowed players to- not only delve deeper into this alternate take on The Dark Knight's Gotham City- but to also immerse the audience within the mythos that Angelo had established (not to mention the prerequisite prizes of Amazon gift cards, exclusive only to the most effective & efficient evidence examiners). ...and then, and then, and then, when even this ARG wasn't enough to keep the train moving (amongst its roadblocks in the timely, technical, practical, and logical planning phases, a short-film tied into the game was forced to be put on hiatus also, because we were handling a task that was genuinely never-before-seen at a level like this, and therefore, the workload, too, was never-before-seen... it was all just so overwhelmingly awesome, but overwhelmingly awesome is still overwhelming), and thus, the more recently announced release schedule became but another stunt to be pulled, another trick to poke fun at, and very apropos of what The Joker would do. Fast-forward to a couple of teaser images on Instagram, and conversations with peers, I just knew this consistently cruel turn of events couldn't keep on keepin' on, and we needed to settle on one final date, laugh at one final joke to tell (peep the idea behind this teaser, and a previously scheduled one I had, titled, "The Final Joke" verbatim)... ...and what better day to release this sucker, than on the day DC's "Fandome" launches the first part of its event, dubbed, "Hall of Heroes", for the following 24-hours (showcasing upcoming DC in all of its comic book-y glory?) Conversely, what better date to present in the announcement teaser itself, than September 12th, 2020, the same date DCFandome Part 2 is set to continue? Poetic cinema, if I do say so myself. Point is, if you're still reading this hella long chunk of text that RUclips definitely considered too long for its description, I really wanna say a genuine, "Thank you." for being here, for being by my side, for understanding my situations, for supporting this channel - thru thick, and thru thin, for supporting Project422 Films in general, and for remaining as excited as you were for this project when it was first announced, today (I know, some of you will absolutely get sick of all the shifting, and decide not to take this walk with me anymore, and I totally understand that-- still, please know that I love every single one of your faces, that I will continue to work my hardest, to put out only the best content for you to enjoy, and that I'll be here for ya, when you decide to indulge in my nonsense once again :) whether you check it out tomorrow, on September 12th, or in twenty-five years, I am so, so deeply grateful) Thank you for merely existing within a period and space in which I can share my God-given gifts with everyone, in a manner that's so easily accessible. None of this is possible without you. Yes, I'm super meticulous about my work; yes, my craftsmanship, attention to detail, stubbornness, and anal-retentive methods of making sure every nook, cranny, and crevice of this project is up to par & perfection - as per my standards - have come at the expense of a sooner output product (aka, the damn near five years it's taken to even produce), and yes, I'll only ever continue to be as such, but that's simply because I love what I do, I love doing it for you, I'm passionate about this filmmaking thing (heck, majority of this upcoming episode is heavily inspired by some of cinema's greatest film pieces, and definitely takes cues from only the best movies ever made - with a couple of TV influences, here-and-there), I'm passionate about these characters, and I'm honestly super passionate about making people's lives lighter through fiction... Looking at something and being more than content with how it came out, and being beyond happy with the final result of that something which I literally worked day-and-night on, sleeplessly edited, tirelessly animated, halted months of important education to pursue, and spent thousands of dollars to produce is a feeling humility can't quite wrap its head around yet (currently writing this copy/pasted text at 7AM, and just finished uploading this video xD)... I hope that same essence, energy, and spirit are communicated into your viewing experience, and eventually, captured in the final episode... ,,,and I really hope you end up loving it as much as I did making it, because I think- not to pat myself on the back (but maybe to pat my awesome collaborators & cast on their backs)- that this very stop-motion production is the epitome, and the exact definition of the term, "passion project", since that's essentially all that it is, and all that it was ever meant to be. So, in closing, I love you, thank you, and see you soon. . . Check out my other pages aside from RUclips: *Project422 Films on Instagram: instagram.com/Project422_Films *Project422 Films on Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/project422films/ *Project422 Films on Discord: Project422Films#3630 *Project422 Films on Twitter: twitter.com/Project422Films *Project422 Films on Facebook: facebook.com/Project422Films (temporarily unavailable)
This will be the best stopmotion to ever come out. At this point with the amount of work that has been put Into this I'm just calling this a actual film/episode. I CANT WAITTTTT
![Batman: Arkham Knight - The Voices of Arkham [Behind the Scenes]](/img/1.gif)
READ:
Over the course of four years, BATMAN: Under The Dark had remained in "silent" production, taking its time within scriptwriting (retrieving ideas that were lost), gathering materials, sets, and figures needed to proceed with said project, and casting the multifarious set of Batman characters, pertaining to both pre-existing lore, and that of which had yet to be seen on screen, through an original take, with an original cast, via a smaller scale.
In the span of those 1,460 days, life brought upon tons of its busies, lots of heavy travelling matters, and several unexpected technical delays on progress (mainly due to personal events on my end), hence, led to constantly postponing a release that was never on a steady foundation to begin with.
Sure, the initial plan was to get it out as soon as possible (admittedly aimed for mid-2016 - late 2016, and then, late 2018 - early 2019, post its year-long marketing campaign - that became years-long lmao), but again, changing circumstances affected these plans, so the pilot was invariably being pushed to a different date, every few months out... I guess, it truly became a pressuring hassle (which you never want when working on something you care about) when I announced an "official" release date for March 5th, 2020-- a date that seemed likely at the time-- but when the path started to look bleak, the date was changed to August 14th, 2020, and in the place of the so-called, "original release date", was a 3-minute clip of the Episode, featuring Tom Howe's Joker, and SkyFlake VA's Ward, during the opening moments of Episode One.
As time went on, the world unexpectedly went into a full-blown lockdown in the midst of a crisis/pandemic, leaving me stranded during & after a vacation trip - FAR AWAY from a functioning stop-motion animation studio (lol) - for an additional three months, delaying Under The Dark's pilot for a second time.
To fill in the blanks, co-writer, Stealthabotte, and I spontaneously developed an Alternate Reality Game, akin to The Dark Knight's Scavenger Hunt back in 2008, tracking a revered reporter named Angelo Torres, through a series of evidence folders, provided to prove suggested theories right (related to the series' plot), all leading up to the narrative executed in Under The Dark. "The Hunt" was a contest-like experience that allowed players to- not only delve deeper into this alternate take on The Dark Knight's Gotham City- but to also immerse the audience within the mythos that Angelo had established (not to mention the prerequisite prizes of Amazon gift cards, exclusive only to the most effective & efficient evidence examiners).
...and then, and then, and then, when even this ARG wasn't enough to keep the train moving (amongst its roadblocks in the timely, technical, practical, and logical planning phases, a short-film tied into the game was forced to be put on hiatus also, because we were handling a task that was genuinely never-before-seen at a level like this, and therefore, the workload, too, was never-before-seen... it was all just so overwhelmingly awesome, but overwhelmingly awesome is still overwhelming), and thus, the more recently announced release schedule became but another stunt to be pulled, another trick to poke fun at, and very apropos of what The Joker would do.
Fast-forward to a couple of teaser images on Instagram, and conversations with peers, I just knew this consistently cruel turn of events couldn't keep on keepin' on, and we needed to settle on one final date, laugh at one final joke to tell (peep the idea behind this teaser, and a previously scheduled one I had, titled, "The Final Joke" verbatim)...
...and what better day to release this sucker, than on the day DC's "Fandome" launches the first part of its event, dubbed, "Hall of Heroes", for the following 24-hours (showcasing upcoming DC in all of its comic book-y glory?) Conversely, what better date to present in the announcement teaser itself, than September 12th, 2020, the same date DCFandome Part 2 is set to continue? Poetic cinema, if I do say so myself.
Point is, if you're still reading this hella long chunk of text that RUclips definitely considered too long for its description, I really wanna say a genuine, "Thank you." for being here, for being by my side, for understanding my situations, for supporting this channel - thru thick, and thru thin, for supporting Project422 Films in general, and for remaining as excited as you were for this project when it was first announced, today (I know, some of you will absolutely get sick of all the shifting, and decide not to take this walk with me anymore, and I totally understand that-- still, please know that I love every single one of your faces, that I will continue to work my hardest, to put out only the best content for you to enjoy, and that I'll be here for ya, when you decide to indulge in my nonsense once again :) whether you check it out tomorrow, on September 12th, or in twenty-five years, I am so, so deeply grateful)
Thank you for merely existing within a period and space in which I can share my God-given gifts with everyone, in a manner that's so easily accessible. None of this is possible without you.
Yes, I'm super meticulous about my work; yes, my craftsmanship, attention to detail, stubbornness, and anal-retentive methods of making sure every nook, cranny, and crevice of this project is up to par & perfection - as per my standards - have come at the expense of a sooner output product (aka, the damn near five years it's taken to even produce), and yes, I'll only ever continue to be as such, but that's simply because I love what I do, I love doing it for you, I'm passionate about this filmmaking thing (heck, majority of this upcoming episode is heavily inspired by some of cinema's greatest film pieces, and definitely takes cues from only the best movies ever made - with a couple of TV influences, here-and-there), I'm passionate about these characters, and I'm honestly super passionate about making people's lives lighter through fiction...
Looking at something and being more than content with how it came out, and being beyond happy with the final result of that something which I literally worked day-and-night on, sleeplessly edited, tirelessly animated, halted months of important education to pursue, and spent thousands of dollars to produce is a feeling humility can't quite wrap its head around yet (currently writing this copy/pasted text at 7AM, and just finished uploading this video xD)...
I hope that same essence, energy, and spirit are communicated into your viewing experience, and eventually, captured in the final episode...
,,,and I really hope you end up loving it as much as I did making it, because I think- not to pat myself on the back (but maybe to pat my awesome collaborators & cast on their backs)- that this very stop-motion production is the epitome, and the exact definition of the term, "passion project", since that's essentially all that it is, and all that it was ever meant to be.
So, in closing, I love you, thank you, and see you soon.
.
.
Check out my other pages aside from RUclips:
*Project422 Films on Instagram: instagram.com/Project422_Films
*Project422 Films on Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/project422films/
*Project422 Films on Discord: Project422Films#3630
*Project422 Films on Twitter: twitter.com/Project422Films
*Project422 Films on Facebook: facebook.com/Project422Films (temporarily unavailable)
Yoo this really feels like a movie! Man this is gonna be good. And Joker is incredible!
Anxious to see complete this masterpiece!
No words are left that can summarize or describe how eager I am for Under the Dark to see the light of day.
Let the hunt for the hype begin...
;)
Hyped as HELL!!!
This will be the best stopmotion to ever come out. At this point with the amount of work that has been put Into this I'm just calling this a actual film/episode. I CANT WAITTTTT
So cinematic! Love the professional feel to all your projects!
This looks nice man 🔥🔥🔥
God, this is so good!!!!!
Excited to see where this goes!
So Epic!
Bro i can’t wait for your video