A British independent feature needs a little help getting over the line.
Cyberlante is the most recent in a slate of thriller-based films from Raya Films, an independent, London-based studio with an international focus. Its recent work includes two short films and two completed features, including the award-winning Do Something, Jake which is now available on Amazon Prime (that we’ve covered before in Film Stories).
Cyberlante shows an embracing of new technology for Raya. This new experimental feature takes its cues from the recent iPhone work done by Steven Soderbergh (Unsane) and Sean Baker (Tangerine). This one is shot in a verite style using modern smartphone technology using a Google Pixel camera and the Filmicpro app. Created by Raya founders director James Smith and writer/producer Caroline Spence. Cyberlante follows the life of Matt (Gavin Gordon), an expert in cyber technology who uses his skills to infiltrate the systems of a suspected murderer.
The production story of Cyberlante reveals the many twists and turns of making an independent feature. It rose from the ashes of a film that was aborted after a mere two days of completed principal photography, leaving the crew thin and without camera equipment. Smith and Spence returned to the drawing board and within 24 hours had the framework for a new feature (based in part on the one that had had to be scrapped). A little over a week later, principal photography on Cyberlante commenced.
This was a schedule that included script-writing on the fly, casting a day before shooting, and an armed robbery that only scratches the surface of as Spence puts it “seat-of-your-pants micro-budget filmmaking at its most nerve-wracking.”
However, not only does it show the struggles of low-budget independent filmmaking. It also demonstrates what can be achieved by a passionate crew and a team that believes in their craft.
With a soundtrack completed, Cyberlante is currently in the heart of post-production. Having reached this far as the beneficiaries of private funding, the team is now embarking on an online crowdfunding campaign to raise a minimum of £2,000 to finish their film off. This will help to finalise the sound design and mixing, which will see Cyberlante over the finish line and into release.
Their campaign is running now, if you can support it. The link is here.
Further updates too via Twitter @RayaFilms and @CyberlanteMovie.
—
Thank you for visiting! If you’d like to support our attempts to make a non-clickbaity movie website:
Follow Film Stories on Twitter here, and on Facebook here.
Buy our Film Stories and Film Stories Junior print magazines here.
Become a Patron here.
See one of our live shows, details here.