Apocalypso Ascendant


 * "'I don’t know what the future holds, all I know is that something big is about to happen.  Something bigger than any of us.' ―Zar Vox to Theodoisa Ontilés and Thalia Mazin"

Apocalypso Ascendant is a 2022 short film written and directed by Andrew Zemotel. It is the predecessor to the Apocalypso! feature film and serves as a proof of concept pitch. It follows a minimal set of characters in a limited number of sets. Apocalypso Ascendant is the first installment in the Apocalypso! series created by Andrew Zemotel. Apocalypso Ascendant is scheduled to be released in 2022 on the Zandrew YouTube channel. The film will be produced by Sara Bourjjai, Evan Mickey, and Andrew Zemotel.

Logline
When two lieutenants in the Hisperian Special Forces are sent on a retrieval mission, the pair discover much more than they expected.

Synopsis
The Hisperian Royal Space Ship Calypso dispatches two Lieutenants- Thalia Mazin and Zar Vox- to retrieve the data box of a crashed escape pod from Dereth, a desolate and uninhabited moon. The pair encounter Theodosia Ontilés, a survivor of a previous crash who helps them as their mission soon takes a series of unexpected turns.

Dereth, Moon of Zulmitune
The majority of the film takes place on the uninhabited moon Dereth, which orbits the planet Zulmitune. The moon has many forests, rivers, plateaus, and mountains, as well as large craters that forests have grown through. In the film, we only see the crater forests.

Locations on Dereth Featured in Apocalypso Ascendant

 * Forested Crater
 * Landing Craft Clearing
 * Valzovech Radar Station

Conception
During post-production of Miss Ingenious, Andrew Zemotel began discussing the concept of a "sci-fi short-film" with producers Sara Bourjjai and Evan Mickey. In October of 2020, Zemotel began to work on this, writing what was intended to be a five minute short, and by December, had a thirty-two page screenplay. He had originally envisioned that the film would be split up into five episodes each roughly six minutes long that could be played in sequence as a film. Original notes for the plot line for the film was that it told the story of "two space cadets [who journey] to an uninhabited moon to search for survivors of a crash."

In December 2020, Zemotel began talking with Salwa Shuman on forming a film production company, which was later named C135 Productions, LLC. Apocalypso Ascendant would be the first major film produced by the company. In January 2021, talks continued on making Apocalypso Ascendant a reality. By February of 2021, pre-production was in full swing, with their first official meeting taking place on 13 February 2021.

Production was slated to begin at the end of April 2021, though due to various complications and a reshuffle of the team, production was pushed back until July of that year.

The Apocalypso Ascendant Instagram account was launched on 17 February 2021 with two posts: an introduction post and a crew call for a cinematographer and an art director. Posts on this account were stagnant throughout the spring, until on 26 July 2021, it was revitalized with a redesign of the Apocalypso Ascendant font. Construction of the set began in late July of 2021. It was during this time that Jennifer Segale, Andrew Zemotel's lifelong best friend, joined the team as an associate producer.

Production
This section will be expanded later.

Music
This section will be expanded later.

Sound
This section will be expanded later.

Sources and Inspiration
This section will be expanded later.

Trivia

 * The Apocalypso Ascendant font is Unica One and uses all caps