Zygote a.k.a Oats Studios Volume 1: Zygote (2017)Directed by Neill Blomkamp As I've mentioned earlier, Oats Studios is a platform from filmmaker Neill Blomkamp (director of "District 9", "Elysium" and "Chappie") to produce and release experimental short films. There are so far three 20-30 min long films ("Rakka", "Firebase" and this one) that have been released, with a fourth one ("Lima") on the way, plus a number of other shorter videos posted on the YouTube channel. I enjoyed the first two shorts so was eagerly looking forward to "Zygote". After having watched it, I think it's the best one yet. It's set in the future, in an Arctic mining base. There are only two survivors out of a crew of 98 – Quinn (Jose Pablo Cantillo), a severely wounded soldier, and Barklay (Dakota Fanning), a synthetic that is part of the mining operations. And there's a terrifying monster that they have to escape from. I loved this film. As with the other two, the production value is terrific, the story is great and I loved how they managed to do world building so well, that it felt much bigger in scope than just watching two actors. The creature design is great (influenced by "The Thing", but unique in its own way). The science fiction and body horror elements are very well done too. Highly recommended. Do watch the short on YouTube and read the behind the scenes article on The Verge. I had done sketches of "Rakka" and "Firebase" earlier, which Neill Blomkamp liked (very happy about that). Here's a sketch of Barklay from "Zygote", done with pencil on paper and scanned. I'm not that happy with the sketch though as the likeness didn't come out that well. #275 / 20-Jul-17
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