DEFINITION March 2018

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ALTERED CARBON SHOOT STORY

THE INVOLVEMENT OF NETFLIX WITH ALTERED CARBON TOOK IT OUT OF ITS GRINDING DEVELOPMENT

ltered Carbon started life as a book by British sci-fi writer, Richard Morgan. In 2002, not long after it was published,

the book was optioned for feature film development; little did Richard know, but development hell had just started. If you want an example of how the Hollywood studio system is being disrupted look no further than how the involvement of Netflix with Altered Carbon took it out of its grinding development and assigned it a huge budget without years of painful analysis of its commercial worth. The Netflix show has just aired with ten hour-long episodes and has already been commissioned for another season. The rumoured $7 million per episode arguably initiated other development, more social this time, with the creation of a huge studio complex on the grounds of an old print works in the city of Surrey, part of the Metro area of Vancouver. The new Skydance Media studios now consist of five sound stages and for Altered Carbon that meant the use of one of the longest and tallest sound stages in the world, 500 feet long, 50 feet high and 50 feet wide. This is where the world of Altered Carbon is centred, with a huge San Francisco streetscape circa 2516. Altered Carbon tells the story of a future where those who can afford it copy and paste themselves in to younger bodies or ‘sleeves’ to basically live forever, ‘making death a mere inconvenience’ as the evil Psychasec Corporation puts it. A typical tale of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ that plays out with the cyberpunk feeling of Blade Runner but in ten one-hour episodes. Such a huge visual undertaking needed two cinematographers, Neville Kidd and Martin Ahlgren, and six different directors. Martin Ahlgren noted how ironic it was working in such a huge ‘old Hollywood’- style studio complex where all the departments were housed including editing and stunt rehearsal. “If

ABOVE The world of Altered Carbon was created in a 500 foot long super studio in Vancouver.

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MARCH 2018 DEFINITION

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