The Dark Following [Short Sci-Fi Film] 

Our trailer for the sequel 'The Dark Following: Fragments of the Past' is live now: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DPH6XB-o_Xs.html

Anyone else on a Sci-Fi short film binge? Great short film Toby. I saw in the credits you both starred in the film and did the VFX. Very multi-talented ❤️️

Only 23 more to go. Man, even in the FUTURE adventurers are still trying to find all the Stones of Barenziah...but still awesome work!

A very fun adventure! Great work on the special effects! I really liked the twist at the end!

Great job Toby and Ryan. I was impressed by your diversity of tasks in getting this film completed.

In case anyone was wondering Heroes = skinny jeans and hoodies, bad guys = ski mask and helmet. To be honest, it was a really great short. Would love to see more. Perhaps with a bit of a boost to the funding if the costumes 😜

Congrats, Toby. Really amazing stuff. Those special effects look sick. Looking forward to the sequel.

Hello everyone! Thank you for watching the film! We are inspired by your encouraging feedback, and know we can do better with a larger cast, crew and budget. We are therefore creating the sequel later this year, and as a way to help us do that, we have set up a GoFundMe page here: gf.me/u/xb9qgn I think it's important to highlight that this entire film was created by only 2 people. Including acting, directing, camera operation, sound, drone operation, visual effects, music, editing... just the 2 of us. Every character is myself and/or Ryan, every shot is filmed by myself or Ryan etc... That, plus we had absolutely 0 budget. For this, we hope you enjoy the film for what it is and find value in what we were able to produce using extremely limited resources. If you enjoyed this film and see the potential that this film universe has, we would massively appreciate any donations you can make to help fund a bigger, better and more epic sequel. Thank you so much, Toby & Ryan.

All I could think about was, SO COOL with a Star Trek flavor!!!! Loved it!!!

Some really nice work here, as D00mnoodle points out, there were a couple shots that didn't quite work but a couple that were perfect, particularly leaving the planet. Great stuff! Subscribed and can't wait to see the VFX breakdown!

Nice work on this film! I'm such a fan of this type of film, pushing the limits of what low budgets can pull off to tell great sci-fi stories. Totally believe in what you guys are doing with this and hope you get your sequel funded!

Huh. A bit rough in spots, but entertaining as all hell, and now I want to see where it goes.

The best part: There's a co staring in the credits, yet its all just you 2

I was totally impressed twice once with the story. Twice when I read the credits. Hope to see a sequel.

Futuristic on a planet with floating rocks but still need ladders to clean windows :P

I really enjoyed that! Would love to see a sequel or a series someday. Well done to both You and Ryan! 👏

Kickass work and badass soundtrack and SFX

The visual effects are incredibly hard to do, especially when put into real world shots. They stick out a bit in those real shots but being selfmade it's still very impressive. However when the shots were fully made with special effects (like the space shots) it looked very impressive! Well done

Already love it! :D Imma watch it in Prime though. :)

Honestly I thought it was "shorty" the one who was to play the "treasonous" card. Good "short" one.

Excellent. Left me wondering.

why so many dislikes? wtf. Is a really impressive movie for only two people.

you guys are awesome. want to see more Bill and Ted in space!

Really well done , thank you for uploading

Man! some of these comments are BRUTAL

Way to go guys. Good on ya 👍 Cheers 🍻

Well I hope Jamie learned something here.Nice short and good use of what looks like about a $4k budget.

Great movie, realy liked it, the part on the shiping yard was realy ingenious :D

Must not be too secure, they got right in through the doggie door...

A little too predictable, plot-wise, but fun. The best parts were the last few minutes with the shots of the race back to the Academy territories. Those scenes were stellar, pardon the pun! The run through the warehouse, the prop with the crystal inside were meh, sorry. And the whole "must retrieve stolen power crystal before nefarious entity gets a hold of it, but, the anime, oh noes! Turn-around! Betrayal of team-mate!" trope is kind of overdone. Still, fun romp. I understand the budget limitations, though. I've participated in small, self-funded shorts, and they can be stressful and fun to put together on a shoestring budget. You end up being an every-man sort of worker in these things, doing everything from costumes, sets, makeup, to props, etc, as well as the filming and sound-production, as is shown in your credits. We had a larger cast in ours, all volunteers who did the work gratis, which was effing amazing of them, but we had a large sci-fi club who were really gung-ho on the projects. It helped to be living in a city in the middle of virtually nowhere, too, with a big arts community that had a lot of overlap with the the sci-fi crowd. :-)

For a Star Wars story line, not bad at all. Pretty cool.

Very good thanks

Cool well done thanks

fkn good stuff! 👍💜

So these super futuristic people are just keeping some super important crystal in some old janky ass warehouse with barely any protection?? I mean come on, they got space ships, and you expect me to believe they don't have any type of advanced locking system besides that open cage and some dude wearing a big ass helmet ? ? ! !

Brilliant

All you "Bub's" out there. There isn't going to be a sequel on this movie or any other short movie. Nobody in their right minds will fund any of this sort of short movie, with no plausible beginnings or endings.

Great! Sci-fy comedy

You know he's untrustworthy because he's wearing skinny jeans.

That's why I do all missions alone can't trust anyone

I've always hated it when I wake up hanging, upside down, from a tree. Not a bad little short i enjoyed it. interesting story. Effects were great for a low budget short. Acting was a little ruff in places. I saw the twist at the end a mile away. The moment he offered to give up the crystal I knew a double cross was coming, especially after making such a big deal about keeping it. It did set things up quite nicely. You could make a whole movie (series) about trying to recover the Crystal. The only thing i did NOT like was the floating rocks. It reminded me of "Avatar". it made me want to compare it to Avatar. It would have worked better if the were stone monoliths or very ancient ruins, or just left out entirely.

Oh I know, but a BB gun? All the white letters. Guess I'll finish. Just finger up or down. Mmmm why not a .....one more finger. :-

Not bad, music is far too loud, cant hear dialogue. Lighting in store room was horrendous. Otherwise well done

Hipsters vs space balls the movie

Nice short. Although, I don't think it necessary to reload a new mag into your pistol after firing just one shot. Most mags will hold at least 8 shots. :-)

Overly simplistic

Kinda weird...an alternate, but similar universe? Earth kinetic weapons? Jedi robes? Hmmm...

Private movies are moore way entertaining hehe than Star Trek J.J. Abrams; this is likeable version of Stargate Atlantis offshore with Sheppard; I need mooooooore of YOU :D

End they all award winning film,ha ha ha ha

It's a secure military facility and he pulls a garage door up with one hand?

Fantastic. Excelent sports Filmus.

🔵 The very last words of the video (spoken by the 'enemy' just after-20:18) were unintelligible except for the word "Crystal"...that's one heck-of-a-way to end a presentation like this, forcing the viewer to play the last segment over and over trying to figure out what somebody said.

An air-raid siren would have done better for the scene than the Star Trek alert.

He deserved to get caught. Your accomplice told u he had to go to the safe house to get something HE forgot but when you reach he sends you? You don't know what he forgot. Why didn't he go for it? Furthermore, the slip of the tongue spelt betrayal from since earlier. I was going anywhere & I wanted to see the crystal itself before we ever separate until we get "paid".

Like star wars storm troopers: can't hit anything...

Very nice humour, excelelnt acting and marvelous special effects but; far too many inconsistencies (like the shining crystal showing a shadow on the wall). And the ridiculous self-inflating egotic showing off which takes 14% of the whole movie time to display the credits (at start and in the end).

The effects are good, but the dialogue and conversation is really clumsy

The lack of gun knowledge is hilarious

Toby-Impressive effort,great sound track (+Dolby)?Special interplanetary effects and Craft looking Cool!Texture on face additions?To English (l look Caucasian)urban looking?Can’t wait results feature length!?Must listen dialogue again?Room improves?Happy to try?Best wishes.S.

200 million, split, so 100mil each and after this he is at least getting a new ship. With what? A F35 Raptor is 1 Billion and you still can't go into space.

Why did he have to change his cli0 after only one shot? Oh,yeah. Low budget film making. Couldn't afford more bullets. Yeah,saw that ending coming a Long way away.

I was really trying to get into it, even though there's no back story, on the two guys, or why they're doing what they're doing... Then, the one guy totally fucks the other guy over REALLY bad, which was a huge disappointment!! And one has some kind of mind controling supper power, an the other, has lost it.. like, none of this is making a damn lick of sense! 🤨

Meh. I wont do part 2.

;)))

Где ещё такой лесной массив есть на земле????

А парня подставили, получается?

Needs more Sci and less Fi.

Wow a new record, lost my attention in 5 minutes!

Why is it the militia can't shoot straight but the bounty hunters never miss? Also why is the crystal so lightly guarded?

Seems decent story, pity about the actors, could not believe them.

This is too much

🔵 IMHO the biggest hold-back to the credibility of this presentation was the weaponry, quite cheesy and not credible at all,.....I mean c'mon, laser firing Walthers that somehow require magazines?.....smh.

Not a very "secure facility" if they could just over the door and walk in.

Moogy Banna Hilstopaflingon The acting stinks. Wooden and strained. I couldn’t finish the video because it was just so bad. Not sorry! I tried! Just no good.

wtf is this bs

Campy acting. Characters not believable at all. Great camera work and pretty good story line.

Unrealistic. Loading bays & semi-trucks on another planet with no roads? 1911's that shoot laser bullets... using the same bad guy over and over? Not dressed the part for being on another planet, etc, etc..

Bad directing, terrible acting. 99% of these sci-fi shorts are awesome; this one sucked imo.

Remember kids always put on your hood before shooting someone like the guy who saves him!!.. and the so called comedy is bad and unnecessary!!

Crap.

Wahoo! Awesome stuff Toby, loved it! Camera work all excellent, especially in low lighting - special effects look fantastic too, really brings the world to life - cant believe you guys did all the music, it sounds epic!! Top notch stuff, cant wait for number 2! Although I personally think Adrian was much better in Four4: Brief Encounters ;) GREAT WORK, especially considering it was all self funded. Makes me want to write another short film myself. Keep creating guys!

Cool concept... I don't get the guns though!? They have clips and chambers,but Lazer bullets? Anyways,would like to see more👍

Anyboby else notice that the siren at 13:32 sounds like the red alert siren from star trek?

With friends like that, who needs enemies. Good job on the show guys.

😜Those securities eyes are covet in their own sweater😅

they keep a deadly crystal in a unit in an industrial estate probably in Peckham or something GREAT film though

Lots of fun but some big plot holes that I know you can avoid next time. Go for it!

Pretty awesome. Would love to see a behind-the-scenes sorta thing.

Uncocked 45, cloppy shoes, poor tactics. Otherwise well done.

Awesome!!!!!!!!!

Definitely better than I could do, but that isn’t saying much. But as a viewer, I see several problems. First, not a fan of the telekinesis. It seems like a ripoff of The Force, especially when the tall guy chocked the guard. Second, the guns. I understand that this was a very small budget, but you could have tried to make them look more advanced than modern day weapons. You could have added a few pits and pieces to make the air soft guns look futuristic. Just look at Star Wars and Firefly for good exams. Also, don’t shoot your weapon “gangster” style (tall guy), it just looks stupid. Third, the bad guys outfits. For a few dollars more, you could had added some tactical looking vests over their Halloween body suits. The guards looked to skinny and about as threatening as a 6 y.o. kid. And last, the whole bit about stopping at the safe house. Why did they stop in the wide open for a minute to discuss this? Wouldn’t that be a better discussion to have while onboard their ship? Actually I know the answer to that, it is because you didn’t have the budget to have a interior of the spaceship, but it still was out of place. Also, why did the tall guy stay with the ship and the other guy go down? It was the tall guy that said he needed to pick something up? And again I know the answer, it was so he could double cross the other guy. That is just poor writing that makes it too easy to see the double cross coming. Other than the things mentioned above, it was not half bad. With a few changes it could be good.

awesomely performed, from conception to final editing! As always, I love what you did with the music here Toby! I couldn't see this on Amazon, probably not available in my territory, glad you posted it here as well

Great film. Love to see a sequel. My only (minor) criticism is that the enemy are such bad shots. A few lucky misses are fine, but it gets silly when they're running through a bombardment from above completely unscathed. It's clearly set in the far future and we have to assume that any society that can build FTL starships has equally advanced military capability, including weapon guidance systems. Those two would be history after the first two shots.

Adrian looks dumb reloading after one shot. He already looks cool checking jaymee's weapon...not needed. Jaymee gross on you...went from not liking him to my fav at the end..He wins you over

So much high tech. and still needs to touch their helmets to communicate.

why in blender 3.2.0 there aren't your Geo nodes man, i'm raging so much, why!

Saw that coming.

If we're going to do this I'm going to need your help ….. How funny!

Damn you, arms corporations, for produce single bullets magazines for future pistols! Wait, actually, it's not a half-bad idea, one will think twice before pulling the trigger!

Seriously, how many times does "Adrian" have to cycle the slide or change mags to fire two shots in the beginning of the film?