Deadheaders - Cinemotion

What is it?

The DEADHEADERS idea was inspired by an argument between a bus driver and a bike courier following a near fatal accident.

Bruce Davidson was that bus driver and after two decades on the job he was compelled to share that experience as well as many other wild interactions on mass transit.

The idea was written first into a screenplay, and then, years later a novel (self published) and now revisited and written as an 8 x 1hr episodic limited TV series.

The novel was self published and still available on lulu.com but begged to be seen onscreen. Taking a break from the bus driving, Bruce revisited the screenplay but instead of a movie he expanded the story into an 8hr miniseries for it’s first season…

Season 1

Anxious young Myles Walker is a recent hire of Metrocity Transit as a Bus Operator. Mere weeks after completing training, Myles is involved in a fatal collision that rocks his reality and sends him down a road he could not have predicted.

Fellow bus operators Max, Randy, Bumper and Whyte help Myles dispose of the deceased, thereby initiating him into the secretive group known only to themselves as DEADHEADERS.

Myles suffers from guilt and depression but the DEADHEADERS support him, assuring him that he’s protected. Unfortunately, as an investigation into the death heats up, Myles is actively threatened and fears he may be on the road to hell.

How can production begin NOW?

Rather than take the traditional route of submitting scripts to agencies in search of funding, Bruce wanted to take a much more active roll in moving forward…

In Hollywood, it's who you know

Childhood Friends

When Bruce was about 7 years old a kid moved next door to him named Scott Barrett Franklin (Barrett was his middle name but he dropped ‘Franklin’ later in life). Bruce happened to have the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle toy and so naturally Scott and Bruce became best friends (the law of children).

He who has the most toys wins

Keeping up with the Davidsons

Not to be shown up by the motorcycle toy, Scott’s mum bought him TWO 8mm film camera at a garage sale for $8 each. One had a rotating turret for changing lenses and the other was capable of single frame exposure for animation. For Scott, that Saturday in 1976 began the career he has today.

FDF Productions aka

Franklin Davidson Films

After seeing Star Wars together in 1977, the pair began making ‘sequels’ using paper mache masks and firework-filled plastic models. Perhaps because his mom made their ‘company’ T-Shirts, Scott’s name was put first and Franklin Davidson Films was born.

Decades later Scott (Barrett) formed a company to produce 3D animated films using the astounding Unreal Engine 5. Cinemotion's first film was a Star Wars based parody called Dark Side EP1: Chrome Armor

Now in Los Angeles Scott had pursued and became skilled in all avenues of filmmaking. He has worked in special effects on Harry Potter 3 and the Star Wars sequels, directed the in-game movies for Enter the Matrix and edited 1000’s of commercials for NBC.

Being a cog in the Hollywood wheel never gave Scott the satisfaction and joy that he had as a kid making small productions with his close friends. Thanks to the Epic tools of the Unreal Engine, Cinemotion allows Scott and his small crews to produce AAA Studio-level results.

Chrome Armor was a success (as a learning experience and 350,000 YT views within a month) and so Scott was ready to take on new films with IP NOT owned by Disney. Scott and Bruce had remained in contact all these years and the idea of doing something with Deadheaders came quite naturally. Together they would set out to make the diner-based opening scene of the series…

INT. DEAD END DINER: Season 1, Episode 1, Scene 1

In the middle of the night, four Bus Operators pull into the parking lot of the Dead-End Diner on the fringes of Metrocity.

Inside, the weary men sit and order coffee from their waitress, Kaitlyn, and discuss the horrible events that just took place as they regroup and plot the details of any further cover-up.

It’s apparent by their conversation and body language that there’s a pecking order among them and that something deadly serious has just recently transpired. Myles, in his mid-twenties, appears to be the most shaken up by the earlier events. He just wants to go home. The crude and heavy-set Bumper (mid-thirties) seems to revel in the situation and anticipates a hearty meal with extra bacon. Randy, late-thirties is quiet and has lost his appetite. while Max holds court, pondering their next moves.

How would it be made?

CG filmmaking is as complicated as live-action and contains many of the same departments and skillsets. Scott and Bruce have authored a google sheet with as many single tasks as could be thought of, while adding to it as each task appears that they hadn’t. It has become a living document of progress, mistakes and what’s ahead. After each task is complete the boys add ‘DONE’ to the status column before they move to the next. The list has 486 entries and growing…

'Shooting' location: COMPLETE

Metrocity is represented by the spectacular Matrix city sample released for public use by Unreal Engine 5. A vacant lot was created near the waterfront and the diner found its home.

The UE marketplace provided the 50’s-style American Diner. Customized for Deadheaders, the setting has exactly the tone the scene called for.

AI assisted in customizing the Diner

Midjourney was called on to create the bacon-loving child sitting behind the delicious ‘BIG BLOODY’ BURGER.

A little photoshop assisted with the creation of a Dead End Diner logo and the rest of the placemat design.

AI tools allowed the small team to quickly create the appropriately inappropriate illustration that added a subtle irony to the situation at hand.

The completed placemat took roughly 1.5hrs.

Props: COMPLETE

Keeping the peace

Police Car

This car will be animated by recording gamepad input as it is ‘driven’ to its mark!

Disturbing the peace

Max's SUV

This vehicle is also drivable and will be recording coming onto the scene pulling their small metal boat.

Perfect for dumping bodies in the river

Small Metal boat

This little run-about is really too small to carry four grown men and quite overloaded with two dead bodies wrapped in plastic.

Haulin' wood

Logging Truck

This big rig belongs to the trucker who is having a leisurely meal in the diner. It is an imposing presence in the parking lot.

Uniforms for everyone

Waitress and Bus Drivers

The waitress uniform will be fitted to Kaitlin and the bus drivers will each have different pieces of their uniforms.

On the job

Police Uniform

This Uniform will be fitted to Roger and Claire using Marvelous Designer and then exported to UE5 for clothing simulation.

IT'S MADE OUTTA PEOPLE!!!

Characters: COMPLETE

At 3dscanstore in the UK real people are being scanned and turned into Metahumans. While the ‘composite skin’ of the metahuman designer looks very good, matching the real skin and bump texture of a real human to their complementary model takes the amazing technology to the next level! We selected 8 people who looked the part and they became our character ‘husks’. Our actors will puppeteer these face bags by adding voice and full facial expression.

Dead End Diner

Voice Acting: COMPLETE

Mark Strohman plays Max, a no nonsense pack leader. Kaitlin Weichsel plays TWO roles, the waitress and a female police officer. Using ElevenLab’s “Performance to voice” AI, her second character sounds completely different than her natural voice (which is used for the waitress). As an experiment in this technology, Scott Barrett voices FIVE characters, each sounding vastly different. The single actor was able to play ‘off himself’ by timing his delivery to his previous takes.

Take a listen (Spoliers!)

Soundtrack: COMPLETE

This is the DIALOG ONLY soundtrack. It combines all of the actors best takes (recorded separately) into a wonderful scene with chills and spills!

real people bring characters to life

Body Capture: NOT COMPLETE

Cinemotion has a 6-cam gopro system. In the video below Scott and Mark run body capture for EP2 of Dark Side. The same setup will be used for Deadheaders to get the characters moving.

real people bring characters to life

Facial Capture: COMPLETE

Metahuman Animator is an unparalleled way to bring a facial performance into UE5. A simple iphone transmits depth and video which gets applied to all of the characters onscreen.

Pecan Pie….

Ready to eat.

Possibly warmed.

When the men show up at the diner there is one more customer. His name is “Truck”, on account of the fact that he must be the guy who arrived in the massive logging truck that is in the parking lot.

If there is one thing you can say about Truck, is that he has the good sense to order the best thing on the menu, Kaitlin’s homemade Pecan Pie.