Project: IJŌ Short Film

Hello, I'm Samuel Chan from Infinitum : STUDIOS Australia and the director for the Science fiction dystopian short film titled "IJŌ". A short film on segregation, corruption, and eugenics.

THANK YOU to all the financial supporters who have donated during our Phase 1 Fundraiser Campaign on IndieGoGo! But we are not done! We are now launching Phase 2!

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"In the far future, the Human race has branched into many races of subhumans. A veteran soldier from the long-forgotten Millennium War – and a member of the ancient warrior subhumans called IJŌ – must prevent manipulative tyrants and the corrupted government from repeating past mistakes."



This film will be the start of an Anthology series, bringing together writers around Perth (and potentially globally) to gain visions and experiences, and will be focused on world-building. This film will be a start to push toward the Virtual Production industry in Western Australia, creating endless possibilities for the filmmaking community.

Format/Tone

“IJŌ” is a dystopian neo-noir science fiction short film with a desired run time of 25 minutes.

Think of “Blade Runner” (1982 & 2017), “The Prospect” (2021), and other similar films combined, the film will dip into the realm of corruption and eugenics. It is a hybrid neo-noir and action film introducing budgeted concepts borrowed from Virtual Production, which was explosively introduced in “The Mandalorian” Disney+ series.

Director's Bio

As a young boy, Samuel Chan has been interested in photography and film since the age of 2, but it was not until the age of 18 when he took his career seriously, outside of YouTubing and playing around with VFX, that he pursued a professional career in the field as a freelancer, later founding the business label Infinitum : STUDIOS in 2020.

Homeschooled since the age of 13, Samuel grew up surrounded by the art of film through his media-oriented family and was mentored by his father, Daniel Chan, who is an academic in screen production and was a Managing Director at ScreenAsia PTE LTD from 2005 to 2009 and an Associate Lecturer at Murdoch University from 2007 to 2010.

A Jack of all Trades from his dabbling in VFX and CGI on HitFilm and Blender to Colouring on DaVinci Resolve and Filming for local companies and businesses, Samuel takes his next step with his most ambitious project yet, “IJŌ.”

The Team

Screenplay:

Samuel Chan

Aaron Tsakaris

Zac Brown

Produced by Sutso Banda

Associate Producers:

Cameron Robertson

Chris Keele

Si Belsten

Executive Producers:

Samuel Chan &

Aron Attiwell

Aron Attiwell is an established filmmaker in the Western Australia filmmaking scene, with his participation as Assistant Director in the feature film Before Dawn (2023) and Director in his historical drama short film Fading Numbers (2021).

Director of Photography: Jack Clement

Score Composer: Gabriel Chan

The Cast

Andre Rodrigues as Song

Ron Arthurs as Commissioner Anwir

Tam-Nhi Tran as The Asset

Si Belsten as Flynn

Chris Walkey as Captain Cethin

Release/Distribution

The film's target release is December 2023 for the 2024 Film Festival Circuit.

The film is aimed to be submitted to major film festivals around the world, most notable would be Tribeca Festival, Sundance, New Directors New Films, CinefestOZ, Hong Kong International, and more. It will later then be released to the public in 2025.

Follow us on Social Media @projectijo for all updates!

Like the video above, all donations, whether it be big or small, will get you a thank you in the rolling credits! So we would encourage that when you donate you should announce yourself rather than anonymously!

Budget Allocation

The second phase of production will have a small platoon of Militia Grunts, aka Stunt Actors. This will also mean we will need to outfit more cast members and supply enough originally designed custom replica firearms (Nerf guns as the foundation).

As the scenes after the Virtual Production in the Studio are in a forest, we will need to provide transport for our cast and crew as well.

Above all, we must ensure the safety and well-being of our cast and crew, including making sure that they are all fed and taken care of.

By supporting our project, your money will go to:

Costumes & Props: $4000

Equipment Hire: $5000

Location Fees & Transport: $1500

Catering: $2500 (7 full film shoot days for 50 people including cast, crew and extras)

Marketing and the planned sequels; Film Festivals: $10,000