The team have just released a new trailer to outline the project and provide some new enticing footage. Whether you’re a fan of the original film or a rookie fan-to-be, Combes’ creative vision for Commando Ninja II speaks for itself.

This time around, the production is going to be stepping up their game an few notches, going full old-school with on-set practical effects and on-location shooting in Utah and in real South-East Asian jungles in Thailand. Need I say more?

Serve the cause, enlist today, claim your exclusive Commando Ninja perks and make indie retro filmmaking history.

Enlist in COMMANDO NINJA II : INVASION AMERICA

Watch Commando Ninja on Youtube.

Released in 2018, the first Commando Ninja movie is a classic piece in the retro indie scene and a true testament to Combes’ love and dedication to the hardboiled action hero. For its sequel, the team promises to take us on an adventure through the war-torn wilderness of Vietnam where our characters will meet with ancient civilizations and wild animals along their action-packed journey. And we’re not talking about Greenscreens and CGI environments, we’re talking about shooting in some real jungle environments, as the team stated their plans to shoot both in Utah and Thailand for maximum authenticity. Furthermore, the project is set to rely entirely on old-school, on-set practical effects, an unforeseen feat for an indie movie of its kind.

For further info and to play your part in this exciting new chapter in indie retro cinema history, make haste and head over to the projects’ Kickstarter page to chip in and receive exclusive pre-order perks.

Enlist in COMMANDO NINJA II : INVASION AMERICA

Watch Commando Ninja on Youtube.

A veritable spoonful of explosive, post-apocalyptic sci-fi action to make the exhausting election coverage go down, the film is a godsend that is sure to bring you back to those golden years when end times looked a lot more fun. In an age of great divide and turmoil, Cyborg: Deadly Machine is a humanistic reminder of human resilience spelt in the form of a love letter dedicated to classic Eighties and Nineties action flicks.

The French filmmakers deliver above and beyond all expectations, thanks in no small part to the phenomenal score by Synthwave acts Fixions and Meteor (out now on Bandcamp)

Cyborg : Deadly Machine (Movie Soundtrack) by Meteor / Fixions / Kid Zan / Magic Dance

Consolidating cheesy one-liners, stunning stunt work and old-school practical effects eye-candy, the Masebrothers successfully recreate the feel of the classics we all know and love to create a piece of indie retro cinema for the ages.

The French version will also be premiering on Youtube tonight via this second link.

Be sure to Subscribe to the Masebrothers Youtube channel and like their Facebook page to catch the latest news on their upcoming projects and releases.

Last time we met, you had just launched the first Kickstarter campaign back in 2016. How’ve things been going since then?

Raphaël : We’ve been holding up, but it’s been complicated at each step of the way. We estimated our first Kickstarter campaign goal according to our reach and it was a great success. The film isn’t only being financed by Kickstarter. We’re currently working on a budget that’s around half a million euros. We’ve had to find other sources of financing through our producer at Logical Pictures. It was tricky for them, too, considering that this music-heavy project doesn’t quite fit any standard format and that we didn’t want to compromise on that end. To top it all off, it’s also a costly project to pitch. Before shooting, we had to make sure everything fits within reasonable boundaries to get things started.
We had the resources for about fifteen days of shooting, which was pretty tight for us. We went through a few 1st AC’s (First Assistant Director), because a lot of them didn’t think it was possible. We had to find someone crazy enough to understand what we were after and bear with us. The shooting went well, actually. We found the right people who were on the same page, but it was pretty tough. We had a very tough schedule and we had to constantly come up with solutions and workarounds to fit everything in. We had to cut a few things we managed to shoot what we needed to shoot.
Savitri : We prepared a lot beforehand since it’s a special effects film and we had to know precisely which shots we were going to shoot. Changing an angle or technique adds up a ton of effects in post-production. You can’t really improvise on the set.
R : We used film sets, we filmed outdoors, we shot at night… we went through all of the tricky situations but we got through it with some luck. We dodged a storm!
S : We shot outdoors for three days and it was bad weather on the third day, but it’s true that it could’ve been worse.
R : Coppola used to say that no matter if it rains or snows, you should still shoot. You’ll justify it later. [Laughs]

Last time you explained that this project was characterised by hybridisation of your « garage-film » work such as Kaydara and a more professional workflow. How did you perceive this newfound work organisation?
S : It was indeed a fifty-fifty mix between both worlds. We had a full team on set and everything, it was great. We were able to focus on work as directors and we didn’t have to handle everything as we did on Kaydara. The « garage » aspect came from the fact that we built the sets three months beforehand ourselves. We handle the special effects too, although we do have people helping. We still handle a lot of aspects. There’s an artisanal side t

o our work that makes sure that our film will end up being made, only we sometimes need to do things ourselves. The shooting was great, but there was inertia that we weren’t always able to control. We used to work at our own pace on our garage projects, so we’re not as comfortable working this way. There’s a whole team behind us that cannot work more than nine hours per day.
R : We had a lot of different crew members come into work for a few days before passing things over to the next team. We weren’t able to keep the same crew for the whole duration with the budget we had, let alone pay for overtime. We had to respect their personal lives.
S : We had to make the most out of what we had, which made things intense. Being a director basically consists in explaining what you’re after. The same goes for special effects. Our inertia is different. It takes more time to get what we’re after. It’s great to have people lend a hand but it’s also complicated, you struggle to get what you’re after. When we were in our garage and no one cared, we were free to do whatever we wanted. We had the space to go through with everything, there were no limits.
R : Working on such an ambitious p

roject forces us to compromise on quite a few things we would have never done in our garage. With that being said, making a film that didn’t look like one of ours was completely out of the question. It’s a struggle to keep the balance. We’re very attached to our artistic integrity and we’re not making this film for money so that that’s all we have. This film isn’t going to make us rich [Laughs].
S : Our job as directors is to focus on explaining our vision so as to translate our world into images. This is a hugely ambitious project that would have taken us an extra two or three years to finish, had we done it in our garage.
R : Roughly the same time it took for Kaydara, basically [Laughs].

Would you call this ‘Do-it-yourself’ approach a passion or rather a necessity? Would you still keep this same approach for a multi-million dollar film project?

R : Not like this. We’ve suffered too much on this project, quite frankly. It’s about finding the right balance, which we didn’t have on this one. I don’t know what we were smoking when we wrote the story! [Laughs]
S : It’s mostly due to the fact that we come from the « garage » world, where everything is possible. There’s no money but all you need is time. Everything is possible to us, really, but when it comes to creating an economically viable product that needs to fit within a certain budget, it’s a whole other story. Our production company still backed us, nonetheless. When you see how much such a project costs, it simply doesn’t make sense to make a film like this, considering that it’s not going to make any money.
R : It’s our gift to humanity! [Laughs] I’d hate to sign for a 200 million dollar movie where I don’t have my creative liberty. Actually, maybe not, I’d probably think about it if I were offered the opportunity … [Laughs]. Nevertheless, the genre films from the Seventies and Eighties that I loved had an artistic identity to them. It’s all about balance. Making a film with such a tight budget compared to its level of ambition is extremely hard to pull off. You basically destroy your social life. You can easily do some things better with a bit more money. There’s no use in having a disproportionate amount of funs, only enough to get things done properly. We’re a lot more lucid now when it comes to what we need to make our films.
S : There are no miracles. A bigger budget means less freedom, as producers want to take fewer risks. Even big directors have to face this. We’ve got some freedom, but a tighter budget also comes with a certain number of other constraints. Making a movie necessarily means making compromises. It’s impossible to make the exact movie you had in mind, and you have to accept it.
R : Bear in mind that we’re making a fifty-minute movie with roughly half a million euros, which is nothing compared to what we’re doing from a technical standpoint. Our first estimates from special effects companies had us looking at half a million euros for half the film, with all technical specs stripped to a bare minimum. We’d have needed twice the budget and we wouldn’t have had the results we were after either. I don’t even think it would have even worked out.
S : People who’re great at what they do don’t work for cheap.

The movie has gone from a thirty-minute format to fifty minutes. Which aspects did you choose to develop with this extra runtime?

R : The movie hasn’t necessarily been developed, plot-wise. It’s just that the movie is very visual and the cinematography is very stylised, so everything took an entirely different aspect than initially planned when it came to actually piece things together.
S : We storyboarded the whole film with a thirty-minute 3D animatic, but it was impossible to tell exactly how long everything was going to last. Once you’re on set, everything finds its own dynamic and its own pace.
R: Our style is a little more old-fashioned, with a more contemplative pace, so things lasted quite a lot longer. Each small addition ended up accumulating, which led us to this fifty-minute edit. We didn’t shoot anything more, it just naturally evolved that way.

How’s the collaboration going with Carpenter Brut? Is the Soundtrack finished yet?

R: Almost! It was a new experience for both of us. He had already done stuff for other directors but never a proper score. He’s said himself that he’s more of a song composer. It was a special learning experience and we had to find our marks as well. I think he found himself a little bit constrained on certain aspects. It wasn’t easy, but I think we’ve reached a cool balance. I don’t think he would’ve written this score on his own, it’s something different. We pushed each other outside of our comfort zones, and the result is a fairly hybrid piece that you don’t really come across in movies nowadays anymore.

So the film was scored with the images in mind?

R: Yes, which made things pretty tricky. You can’t really understand much from simply watching the first edit.
S: The actors are interacting without anything around or in front of green screens. It can be tough to understand what’s going on. It’s easy for us because we know animatic by heart. It was also tough to write the music while the film is being made, as changes required adjustments on both ends.
R: He would sometimes send us a first demo and we’d explain what the scene would look like to help him make edits and adjust the tracks. It shaped up bit by bit in that way.

Did you adapt the edit to the rhythm of the music?

R: It’s really a language. It’s really complicated to make any changes because of the special effects. You need to be precise, which is a constraint. On his end, changing something in the music can also come with a certain number of constraints. That’s the tricky part when it comes to creating both the film and the score simultaneously. Sometimes he’s changed things, sometimes we’ve adapted.

How did this DIY approach of yours come about? Was there any particular work that inspired you?

R: We never really purposely drew inspiration from anyone when it comes to our way of making films. We simply wanted to tell stories and do what we wanted, so we learned everything and progressed for that purpose. Savitri made a lot of models, which came in handy for our Sci-Fi films. He then developed his skills in 3D animation because we needed it. We make things because that’s what we want to do, really. If we were given the means to not have to handle certain aspects of production, we’d simply keep an eye as art directors. We want to keep and respect our artistic vision. There are too many constraints in doing everything ourselves. It’s a waste of time.
S: We just don’t have a choice. We want to make films with the means that we have.
R: It’s fun to make models and the artisanal side is always interesting, nonetheless. Films suffer when there aren’t enough practical effects and too much green screen. We chose to shoot with an old Panavision lens with heavy optical aberrations because that’s the image we like in Eighties films. It’s awesome but it causes a lot of problems. The image isn’t all smooth but that’s what gives it character, though does make things complicated in terms of special effects.
S: The artisanal aspect is awesome. It’s great to be able to do everything from start to finish, but I’d gladly take the opportunity to simply focus on the artistic side of things while others work on rendering the visual effects and building sets and props. We’ve done enough. It would also harness better results. We handle everything because we don’t have a choice, and this approach has its limits. It’s great, but I can’t wait to simply work on the artistic side. We gained another level in order to go further, as we have with each film. What we want is to focus on our vision, not necessarily craft it with our own hands.
R:  Having done all of this will also help us in leading our teams.
S: … and understand the process better. Bad special effects aren’t necessarily the fault of the designer. It’s also part of the director’s vision. If a visual effect doesn’t work, it’s also his fault.
R: There are films with huge budgets with botched special effects. Money isn’t the issue. The issue is with artistic vision and choices.
S: Having the means to your ambitions is also a talent, it’s part of the game, too.

Was it hard to share your workload with a team?

S: It was complicated.
R: We don’t trust people! [Laughs].
S: People can’t read your mind, so they sometimes do the opposite of what you want [Laughs]. Redirecting people requires time and the skills to lead people in the right direction. Other times you just don’t have the resources to keep someone long enough to finish the work they started.
R: That’s what our weekends are for. We enhance and adjust certain things.
S: There’s also a certain balance between what we do and the teamwork. Everything blends together into something coherent nonetheless.
R: Savitri goes over everything during the colour grading process, for instance.
S: We’re working day and night for free because we want to and because it’s our film.
R: We also have obligations towards our backers. We need to deliver something and we can’t simply spend six years in our garage.
S: We also want something substantial, too. We don’t want to lower our standards. We’re working hard on maintaining them, even though it’s completely absurd to spend so much time on a film that’s not going to earn us anything. It’s already great that we’re able to do this, though. It’s impossible to make films like these in France. We didn’t get a single French grant as of yet.

When do you think the film will be finished?

R: We’re sure that we’ll finish it this year. Our Kickstarter campaign will help pay for a few more VFX artists to help us optimize certain things.
S: The film will be done this autumn but we don’t know yet when exactly it will be released.

Any closing words?

S: Thank you to everyone who supported us on this adventure and to all of those that have yet to support us! [Laugh]

Interview conducted and translated by Robin Ono
A huge thank you goes out to Alexis and Seth Ickerman for making this interview possible.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity and join the adventure. Visit Blood Machines’ Kickstarter page to learn more!

Seth Ickerman

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Having loved their previous, action-packed short Rage of Fire II, we were thrilled to hear that the guys are back at it and ready to take their craft to the next level. Retro-heads, meet Cyborg – Deadly Machine, the Masebrothers’ latest love letter to Eighties Action Sci-fi flicks, a love letter to James Cameron’s Terminator… with a tomato-flavoured twist! The guns are loaded and the pasta-water is on the stove, however, the Masebrothers are in need of your help to get their dream project to life, which is why they have set up a Kickstarter page to call upon your interest and support for this project. As we further enquired about the project, we took the opportunity to ask Masebrothers co-founder Mathieu Caillière about the channel as well as the project.

First off, can you say a few words about your background as a collective?

We’re a bunch of buddies that make short-films. Two years ago, we decided to start a Youtube channel and make videos dedicated to Eighties and Nineties pop-culture. We basically wanted to do work on something related to the whole Retrowave culture, whether it be music, films or retro-revival TV series.
Masebrothers is basically three creators: Jérémy Vazzoli who has a graphic design background, myself (Mathieu Caillière) –a graphic designer who does a bit of 4D Cinema, VFX and film post-production, – and Sébastien Petitjean, with whom I createdthe channel and who is also a graphic artist. Sebastien does the writing and I’m more on the directing, editing and special effects sides of things.

At which point did you realize you wanted to work within the whole Eighties and Nineties pop-cuture aesthetic?

We’re actually Eighties kids. I’m thirty-five and we’re all around the same age, so it’s what we knew when we were kids. We’re paying homage and recreating the candor of our childhood, how we heard music and how we saw movies back in the day. It’s basically a tribute born out of our love for that era.

The credits in your videos and short-films indicate that you all have a large set of skills. Were there any that you were recquired to learn on-the-fly?

We do work on many aspects, but we keep learning with each shoot we do. Our limited means of production forces us to think of new, smart ways of moving forward and overcome constraints. Of course, it would be great to have more resources and more people to guide us along, but we also learn a lot this way. I did study editing though, so I already knew that. I started making movies when I was in middle-school, so my first steps in filmmaking were with me playing with my dad’s film camera when I was a kid.

Your videos feature a whole lot of old props and accessories. Were these part of your collection or did you have to hunt down some of these objects for your purpose of the videos?

Actually, we’ve had to buy a lot of things – like old TVs’, old dial-up telephones and radios, because we unfortunately didn’t keep everything from back then. We also got a lot of things from our families. We’re very fond of vintage action-figures we used to play with when we were kids, so some of those were part of our personal collection that we kept in our dusty cardboard boxes. We made a trailer called Toys War, where we only used action figures. There were basically X-Men and GI Joe figurines fighting together. We used some of our own and bought a few more for the film. It was part of our little passion as collectors.

Are there any props you’re still looking for? Some things that are hard to come by?

We’ve had trouble finding a good Sony Walkman Cassette Player. They’re hard to come by and they’re really expensive to buy online nowadays. There were also these watches with TV screens on them. It would be awesome to find one of those. Those are also outrageously priced, they’re collector’s items. If we manage to get one of them, we’ll obviously make a film based around them [laugh].

Moving on to the main subject: Cyborg – Deadly Machine. What is it about and what are your ambitions for the project?

Cyborg –Deadly Machine is the story of a bunch of a Resistance-faction that’s fighting against machines. The atmosphere is very similar to James Cameron’s, only here we have some pretty eccentric characters on board. The Resistance is led by this female warrior called Stacy who, on her way, meets our main-man Alex, a guy who is fixated on making tomato sauce in a world where tomatoes have pretty stopped growing. Together, they will find a way to fight against the machines, all the while being tracked by an ultra-sophisticated, deadly Cyborg.

Cyborg – Deadly Machine is a tribute to Eighties and Nineties Sci-Fi and Action films. It’s a continuation of what we do on the channel with our sketches, fake-commercials, fake trailers and short films. Last year we release a short called Rage of Fire II dedicated to action films and retro-gaming, and this time around we wanted to pay tribute to the Sci-Fi genre, namely the Terminator franchise that we grew up on and its technical aspects. A lot of these films were done with mostly practical effects. We’d like to work with more traditional means, such as animatronics and model-sets to create our universe. The idea is to use the old means to shoot the film with our own means. That’s what we want it to look like, anyway. There will still be some digital effects for things like gunshots and explosions for budgetary reasons, but we’ll be using animatronics for the Cyborgs in the film, for instance. The film will be roughly twenty to thirty minutes long. That’s what we’re aiming for with the Kickstarter project, anyway.

How did the tomato sauce storyline come to be? It sounds like you had a lot of fun during the writing process.

[laugh] The film is pretty serious from a visual perspective, but here at Masebrothers Productions we’ve got a thing for humor and the absurd. We’re not making fun of Eighties films but rather we’re having fun with their common tropes. We wanted to go for something a bit more light-hearted, thus came the whole idea with the tomato sauce. It’s about a quest for flavor, in a barren, post-apocalyptic world that has lost all flavors, where it’s all about survival and robots ruling over everything. Alex’s way of being consists in seeking things that remind him of humanity, symbolized to him by tomato sauce. He’s also followed around by a little robot, who will be adding to the film’s comic relief.

Your Youtube channel combines sketches in both English and French. What made you decide to start shooting these short films in English?

We launched the channel with a film called Kickin’ Jack, which we filmed exclusively in English. We were really marked by the big, buff voices we used to hear in American blockbuster movie-trailers, more so than those we’d hear in French. We wanted to use them in our films. We’re heavily influenced by American pop-culture and Asian films like those made by John Woo, and we wanted to do a throwback to the way we perceived them at the time. Some of our sketches are in French because all of our short-film are done in English because we weren’t sure we were going to gather an audience for them in France. Given that we followed certain channels like NewRetroWave, we figured there’s a larger audience that would be interested in what we do, namely thanks to films like Kung Fury that really helped in getting the ball rolling. We thought it would be more fun to branch out beyond French audiences, even if we do sometimes shoot sketches in French because it’s also part of our culture.

Is your DIY approach more of a personal choice or rather the result of a perceived lack of interest from production studios?

I don’t think we’d be of much interest to producers. We didn’t go see any, and I can’t really think of anyone we could conceivably work with. It’s not like we’re Christophe Gans [rire]. We’re pretty low-level, so it’s a little complicated. We’ve always done things this way. We’ve often stitched things together ourselves. We’ve gone through a few official procedures for the project but it’s tricky. We figured the best way to get this project off the ground would be to turn towards the Retro community and to our loyal fans.

How did you meet your music collaborators, Meteor and Fixions, with whom you will be once again working on Cyborg – Deadly Machine?

I believe I first came across Meteor through NewRetroWave [laugh]. I got in touch with him around the time I was starting to work on Kickin’ Jack, as I had fallen in love with his first album Parallel Lines. I was a huge fan of his work and so I offered to make a music video for one of his songs called ‘Escape the Fate’, and the video actually ended up on the NewRetroWave channel, actually. Our collaboration started from there. He was also a fan of our work and when it came time to make Kickin’ Jack he gave us his consent to use the music from his album and he really appreciated it. Up until now we just used his songs for our videos. We also used his second album Inner Demon in Rage of Fire II. It only seemed natural to work with him again, as I’m a huge fan of his and I really want to get an original score for the project.

For Fixions, it was actually him who contacted us first. We didn’t know who he was but we later found out that he was the guy who made the soundtrack to Mother Russia Bleeds. We eventually hit it off and became really good friends. Furthermore, he also lives around my area so he also participates in the making of our videos.
I think the pair will really add something to the project through their complementary styles. Meteor is rather Synthwave/Outrun-driven, whereas Fixions is sounds more Darksynth, which will go well with the whole post-apocalyptic decorum and the machines in the film.

Closing off : can you name one of your favorite albums, movies and books?

The Killer by John Woo, Inner Demon by Meteor and The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

Any closing words?

Cyborg –Deadly Machine is a project we’re really passionate about. We believe we’ll be able to make something really fun and special. We really want to work with these Synthwave artists and we hope that you will find some cool stuff on our Kickstarter page and that you’ll dig it. Keep listening to Synthwave and ‘Stay Cool, Stay Retro!’.

Be sure to check the ‘Cyborg – Deadly Machine’ Kickstarter page here if you wish to know more and support the project.

Commando Ninja

Witty fight scenes and clever one-liners are a plus, but the real focus here is how much gore this trailer has. There is plenty. There is also a nice little easter egg at 2:01 in the trailer. Subtle, but very cool indeed. If you guys are fans of Kung Fury then you will ultimately love this awesome new project that has started up on Kickstarter. Feast your eyes on the “Commando Ninja” Trailer! For lovers for laughs and gore

This is an over-the-top Action Comedy and a lovely tribute to 80’s Action Heroes Movies. The wait for Kung Fury II will be a long one, and Comando Ninja promises to fill that void for your wait. Boasting a soundtrack with Cobra Copter, Flash Arnold and OGRE, this has all of the right ingredients to be a real success. It beckons you…

Support this project today and let’s make this movie happen!

Commando Ninja

“The year was 1985, Daniel McCormack was like any other man, dreaming of sports cars and a brighter future with his girlfriend, Jennifer. One night Daniel stops an assault on several civilians by the notorious Kano Gang who have been overpowering the city of Santa Mira. Unfortunately, Daniel’s bravery is short lived as he is murdered by Johnny, the gang’s leader. A year later, on a thunderous October night, Daniel rises from his grave seeking revenge on the men who took his life, his future and his dreams.”

This is “Night Run”.

Let’s make this movie a reality and support the Kickstarter Campaign

Tales From the loop is a table top RPG set somewhere in the 80’s mixing ET, Stranger Things, X-Files, Cloverfield and maybe some Stand By Me, created by scifi artist Simon Stålenhag.

Art by Simon Stålenhag

After earning a whopping 3,745,896 SEK ($425,849.27 US Dollars) on Kickstarter, this pen&paper roleplaying game will soon grant you the experience of playing as teenagers in the late Eighties, solving Mysteries connected to the Loop. Choose between character Types such as the Bookworm, the Troublemaker, the Popular Kid and the Weirdo! Everyday Life is full of nagging parents, never-ending homework and classmates bullying and being bullied.

The Mysteries let the characters encounter the strange machines and weird creatures that have come to haunt the countryside after the Loop was built. The kids get to escape their everyday problems and be part of something meaningful and magical – but also dangerous.

Art by Simon Stålenhag Art by Simon Stålenhag

The core rulebook will contain several complete Mysteries to play and a complete campaign setting, based on the Mälaröarna islands outside of Stockholm. In addition, the core rulebook will include an alternative campaign setting in a US location, based on Boulder City, Nevada. The US setting text will be written by the award-winning game writer and author Matt Forbeck.

All art in the game is of course done by Simon Stålenhag himself. Most of the art will be drawn from the pages of the Tales from the Loop artbook – many scenarios in the game are based directly on illustrations in the artbook – but the RPG will contain some new original art as well, including the cover image. The book will have approximately 150-200 pages, in the US Letter format.

Art by Simon Stålenhag

For more information you can go to their Kickstarter page @ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1192053011/tales-from-the-loop-roleplaying-in-the-80s-that-ne

Free League Publishing @ http://frialigan.se/en/

Please look here for clarification of the epicness to come.

Now that your sense are fully alert, please view the video below: