Cyberpunk Studios

XBAND (2024)

(2024)

When relationships go sour, fate can be a killer!

YOU WOULDN'T STEAL SOMEONE'S ORGANS...

PROPOSED CAST & CREW

TBC as CASS ETTA

Cass is a young gamer into old technology. Her latest acquisition being an XBAND modem. After suffering a horrendous car accident, she awakens in her flat to find all of her analogue technology has begun haunting her with a terrifying and violent apparition. Can she trust her best friend, Sadie? And will the verbally abusive Vin turn violent now that painful truths have been exposed?

TBC as SADIE PAYER

Sadie is Cass' best friend, currently in a relationship that has grown hostile. But is she the victim of a romance gone stale, or is she actively gaslighting Vin? Increasingly self-serving, and with her heart about to fail, will Sadie protect her best friend or will she bail?

TBC as VIN NELL

Vin is a man at breaking point. His behaviour has grown increasingly erratic, but behind his eyes lays a distinct fear that Sadie is cheating on him. When an argument with Sadie causes a car crash, Vin finds himself trapped with the spectre of her illicit lover and unearths truths that threaten the remainder of his stability.

TBC as DAVEY DEE

Davey is the man Sadie has been seeing being Vin's back. A biker with a low moral centre, but is he so immoral as to kill the others to save himself?

Rory Joscelyne

Jamie Evans

TBC

DIRECTOR, WRITER, EDITOR

PRODUCER

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

SOUND ENGINEER

SOUNDTRACK COMPOSER

HAIR AND MAKEUP KEY

PRODUCTION MANAGER

TBC

CASS ETTA

SADIE PAYER

VIN NELL

DAVEY DEE

DOCTOR

NURSE

POSTER ART

City skyline

Photo By: John Doe
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Birthday Sparks

Photo By: John Doe
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Fashion Magazine

Photo By: John Doe
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Blurred Lines

Photo by: John Doe
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PRODUCTION STILLS

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TRIVIA

BASED ON A SHORT FILM

Initially titled X-Band, this feature began life as a Short Film written during the 2019 - 2022 COVID Pandemic. This version had almost no dialogue, and only featured two characters - Natalie and Jonathon, with rare voiceovers from dead girlfriend Cassie to support Natalie against Jonathon's murderous rage.

X-BAND IS A MODEM

The original Short featured heavy usage of the X-Band modem, an old Sega Genesis (Mega Drive), Super Nintendo (SNES) and Sega Saturn cartridge that allowed internet gaming over American phone lines in 1994. Several extras were filmed to explain this device (seen below), but due to potential copyright issues and the evolving nature of the feature script the modem became a background object. It is still visible in several scenes.

CYBERPUNK SLASHER

When developing the feature, it was decided that the film had to have as much mass-market appeal as an indie film could get, without becoming meaningless or dull.

The merging of the ever-popular horror and slasher genres were chosen to help sell the movie, with some concept artworks being made to find the balance between horror and sci-fi aesthetics.

THEMING THE CHARACTERS

With such a small cast, it's important that each character stands out from each other, without ignoring cyberpunk aesthetics.

Cass Etta was designed to resemble a colourful cyberpunk fan, with colourful hair and reflective two-tone costumes.
Sadie Payer was designed to be a femme fatale ala Jessica Rabbit, but with a synthwave style.
Vin Nell was designed as an everyman, only having a few rave-inspired flourishes and a youthful appearance.
Davey Dee was designed as an older, more intimidating retro biker - a punk-adjacent look still thematically used in cyberpunk media.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

The character names started out very differently (Natalie, Cassie, Jonathon), but as the story developed and included more outlandish ideas, it was decided to have more fun with the names.

Cass Etta - Named after cassette tapes

Sadie Payer - Named after a CD Player

Vin Nell - Named after Vinyl records

Davey Dee - Named after DVDs

The names were assigned based on physical relation as media. Cassettes and CDs sold alongside each other in shops for a long time. CDs surpassed Vinyls and (for a time) the vinyl format was considered obsolete. CDs are physically more in line with DVDs, appearing to have more in common even though they deal with different mediums (Music for CDs and video for DVDs).