Indie fantasy movie 'Bloodspell' released

Running the gauntlet of its Hollywood hi-tech rivals, Scottish indie Strange Company has launched the first part of 'Bloodspell', a computer-animated action-adventure fantasy film, produced over three years on a budget of less than £5,000.
Free to download and view on its website (www.bloodspell.com) from July 2006, the feature-length Bloodspell tells the story of a world where some people carry magic blood in their veins: when their blood is spilled, its magical power is released. The movie follows the adventures of Jered, a monk of the magic-hating Church of the Angels, as he discovers he is one of the 'blooded' and has to flee for his life into a bizarre magical underworld.
Strange Company, producer of 'machinima' films which manipulate 3D game software to create original animated stories, shot Bloodspell using the visual technology of the computer game 'Neverwinter Nights' (http://nwn.bioware.com ). By using the game's existing graphics instead of the time-consuming frame by frame rendering techniques of movie powerhouses like Pixar and Dreamworks, and by calling on a largely volunteer work force, Strange Company produced its epic for a tiny fraction of any Hollywood budget.
Science fiction author Cory Doctorow says of Bloodspell: "There's some damned fine storytelling here. The Strange Company folks are at the forefront of using the machinima medium for feature-length drama."
Convinced that big budget commercial films mask uninspiring stories with flashy visuals, artistic director Hugh Hancock comments: "What we lack in slick polish we make up for in originality and passion."
(GB)