Hey guys,

Our newest web series “EVENT ZERO” is now live on Youtube, and features many of your favourite cast members from The Tunnel (Andy Rodoreda, Steve Davis, Luke Arnold, James Caitlin), and has been directed by a collection of amazing Australian directors: Carlo Ledesma (The Tunnel), Shane Abbess (Gabriel), Andrew Traucki (The Reef) and super-awesome award wining rising talent Marc Furmie!

You can watch Episode 1 above, and that will lead you through all 7 episodes. Please let us know what you think by commenting, or hitting us up on Facebook at Movie Extra Webfest. Let ‘em know you want more!!!

You can also check out a stack of Behind The Scenes stuff, including chats and insights with the directors at www.eventzeroseries.com, as well as sign up for emails if you’re that way inclined.

Now that’s done, let’s get back to that Dead End script…

We hit LA. It went well

Still plenty of frames of The Tunnel left to be had! Grab your personalised digital frame at www.thetunnelmovie.net/buyout now.

They’re here.

Go to the Frame Pickup page, enter your email address (the one you used to order) and your first name, and get a bright, shiny frame of The Tunnel with your name on it! Literally!

Feel free to drop by our Facebook Page and share your frames with other frameholders that have been doing the same. Tweet them out. Whatever you want to do – they’re yours!!

It’s been a long way since we first started this thing, and thanks to YOU, the fans and supporters, we have finally been able to release The Tunnel for all to see. Downloads to date on the official Vodo tracker promoted by BitTorrent.com are sailing past the 120,000 mark with no signs of slowing, and we’re cruising past 40,000 frames, well on our way to finish paying for everyone’s hard work on the film.

Don’t forget that as well as downloading the movie, you can also grab a copy of The Tunnel as a 2-disc Hard Copy DVD loaded with over two hours of extras. Grab yours at www.thetunnelmovie.net, or if you’re in Australia or NZ you can also nab yourself a copy at JB HiFi, Sanity, Leading Edge, Network, and Blockbuster.

See you online!!

Well, the secret’s finally out. After years of development  and months of speculation as to what on earth we’ve been actually doing,  our film is officially off to the races. There’s a mixed sense of relief and excitement in us being finally able to do so. Relieved because all the hard work we put in is finally ready for the viewing public, and excited because we absolutely cannot wait to hear what you guys think of the film. If last night’s screening is any indication, I think we did alright.

Photo by Tom Dyson

Last night was our world premiere screening at Popcorn Taxi. Having attended many of their events in the past I couldn’t help but get goosebumps being on the bright end of the stage as I sat for the Q&A session alongside producers Enzo Tedeschi and Jules Harvey, as well as Andrew Denton who provided much needed humour that helped diffuse our rookie nerves. (Thanks to Facebook fan Tom Dyson for the pic!)

The crowd was very appreciative of our efforts and I was approached by a few guys who complimented us on our decision to hold back on the creature’s ‘reveal’, which was good to hear because the less-is-more approach was always something I was keen on doing for this film, keeping whatever is down in the tunnels shrouded in as much mystery as possible.
An hour after the Popcorn Taxi screening I started getting excited text messages from friends saying “hey dude, your film’s on TV right now!” That’s right, a mere one hour after our Popcorn session, The Tunnel made its television debut on Showtime, where it will be screening several times over the next few weeks. You can view the TV schedule on the Showtime Website.

Whilst all this was going on, we also managed to get a special Cannes screening at Marche du Film for some potential investors and distributors and the buzz being generated on the shores of France was enough to get us mentioned in The Cannes Market News and the Hollywood Reporter, as well as Oscar-Winning Producer Ted Hope’s blog. Will distributors be able to look past our unorthodox methods and support us nonetheless? Time will tell.

But of course the big news is that The Tunnel is now finally available online, as we’ve promised all along. Thanks to BitTorrent.com and Vodo.net, you can download the film in awesome 720p HD quality right here.

Whew, I believe that covers all of it. So as you can see, our distribution strategy is as out-of-the-box as they come, but we’re pretty excited to see how it all goes.  At the end of the day what’s important to us is getting The Tunnel seen by as many people as possible, and rewarding you, the fans that have been kind enough to purchase frames back when the film was nothing more than a cool idea and a website.

You guys helped us make it, let us thank you by giving you the option to download our film for free, and if you like what you see, feel free to support us even further by purchasing more frames, donating on the Vodo site, and of course, buying the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD.

I’m pretty stoked with how the DVD turned out. We went to great lengths to make sure it’s packed with enough bonus material to whet any filmmaker and film buff’s appetite. Jules has cut together a terrific 70-minute making-of documentary which provides a great insight as to how we managed to get the film made despite the odds being stacked against us. If filmmaker’s commentary is your thing we’ve got that in there too as myself, Enzo, and Jules sealed ourselves in a soundbooth for a few hours and talked candidly about the film, our bromance chemistry clearly evident on the audio track.

So again, from all of us here at Tunnel HQ, thank you very much for the support and interest you’ve shown. What would have cost millions of dollars to do, you, the social networking masses, have graciously done for us.

With the release a mere few hours away, we thought we’d give you one more good reason to pick up a DVD. In fact, three good reasons:

we here at Tunnel HQ really busted our humps to pack as much value in to our “Hard Copy” DVD as possible – and part of that effort was to include (for the first time on DVD) a few cool short films for your entertainment.

Carlo Ledesma’s most recent award-winning dramatic short, The Last One, is on the DVD in all it’s 33 minute glory. Here’s the trailer:

As if that wasn’t awesome enough, the last short by Producer Enzo Tedeschi (that’s yours truly) is also included. Directed by David Sander (who incidentally is also part of Team Tunnel – Dave is our VFX man), Ghosts of War is an epic WW1 tale of the supernatural. Once again, a trailer for your consideration:

And to polish things off, another of Carlo Ledesma’s short, fun, pieces – a mini-documentary on the Sydney Zombie Walk in 2010:

The Day The Zombies Walked from Carlo Ledesma on Vimeo.

The Day The Zombies Walked from Carlo Ledesma on Vimeo.

Hey everyone,

It’s been a while since we’ve had time to sit down for a bit of a chat. But Carlo and I found a couple of minutes this week to discuss what’s been happening at Tunnel HQ. From the sneak peek screenings of the film to launching pre-orders for the DVD. 

On another note:
We’ve had a few questions lately about some articles in the media that have misquoted the production budget for ‘The Tunnel’ at $435,000, which is whole a lot more than the actual budget of $135,000. We are not quite sure how people have reached this figure so we just wanted to make sure it was clear for everyone – straight from the horse’s mouth – all the money to make this film has come from you. So far that means we’ve raised just under $36,000 of our target. It is thanks to our incredibly understanding cast and crew we’ve managed to keep the ball rolling, get the movie finished and will soon be able to put it out for everyone to watch.

Not long now!

The 2-Disc DVD Hard Copy Edition of The Tunnel features a 70-minute Behind The Scenes Documentary on how the team put this thing together, from the early days of launching the website, through to completing the movie.

Here are the first few minutes of the doco for you to have a look at – please hit up our Facebook wall or Twitter, drop us a line below, or push us out to your friends if you reckon it might be worth checking out!

Any pre-orders of The Tunnel before May 19th receive a free eBook!!

Thanks to our good friends at Aphotic Audio, we have 5 CD copies of “Surge and Subside” to give away to our Facebook fans!

The compilation features some of the most awesome underground / industrial acts around, including Motion Fused, whose track on the compilation “Reflection of Madness” features heavily on “The Tunnel” Soundtrack – check out the video below:

Hear previews of the tracks on this epic 41-track compilation (that’s over 200 minutes of kickass music!) at www.surgesubside.com.

This competition is open to out The Tunnel fans on Facebook. To enter, hit up our Facebook wall and write “I want a copy of www.surgesubside.com!” and the first 5 people off the mark will score a copy of the CD. While you’re there, check out Aphotic Audio on Facebook, too – they have some great artists on their label.

Finally, if you like what you hear, do your bit to spread the word about the compilation, as all proceeds from sales of the CD or download go to helping out the victims of the Queensland floods, who are still trying to rebuild after the devastating disaster.

We are SO excited about finally being able to share this news with you!!

Based on submission of a work-in-progress cut, The Tunnel has been selected to be the opening night movie at Sydney’s “A Night Of Horror International Film Festival 2011!”

This will be a one-time exclusive sneak-peek screening for a small audience, giving us the opportunity to test the movie, get some feedback and make sure we’re giving you the best possible movie we can!!

You can come along to the festival Opening Night on 31st March and be part of a very select few who will get to see the movie ahead of it’s impending release, and give us feedback. For tickets, contact The Dendy in Newtown. While you’re at it, keep an eye on the film festival Facebook page for the rest of the festival program. It’s bound to be a doozy! Now in it’s 5th year, it has been going from strength to strength, and is definitely one of our favourite film festivals.

As a special sign of appreciation for our frameholders, we have a limited number of tickets to give away. If you’re a frameholder in Sydney and can attend ‘A Night Of Horror’ on 31st March, jump on our Facebook Wall and write “I WANT A NIGHT OF HORROR WITH THE TUNNEL!” First in best-dressed, (bonus points for tagging!) and we’ll notify you via Facebook if you’ve picked up the loot!

We can’t thank you all enough for your continued support over the past few months, and the fact that The Tunnel is screening at its first festival is simply a testament to your frame dollars being well spent!! As always, we still need to raise the rest of our budget to finish paying everyone that made this movie what it is – cast, crew and other professionals – so keep spreading the word for us. Still plenty more frames up for grabs!

Team Tunnel hope to enjoy A Night Of Horror with you

Happy New Year, Tunnel Supporters!

With the picture edit locked on New Year’s Day, 2011 marked the beginning of our time doing visual effects, colour grading and sound design & mix.

Thursday night saw the principal cast reunited in the sound studio as we recorded ADR (Additional Dialogue Replacement) for the scenes where the audio recording from location wasn’t quite right. This was an interesting challenge, given that Carlo, our director, is currently in The Philippines preparing for his upcoming nuptials.

The answer? The Internet, of course.

As our actors sat in the sound booth, Carlo dialled in via Skype to direct them from another continent. The information age at work – as you can see from the snapshot of Carlo’s Skype camera, he was drunk with power

Many interesting things are happening around our humble little film at the moment, and while the going is a little slower than we had liked due to our current frame tally, were confident that you’re all going to be quite excited once we can finally announce what’s going down at Tunnel HQ.

Stay safe, and keeping spruiking the website – don’t forget to catch up with us on Twitter and Facebook!!