Haphead screened at the Royal Cinema this past Thursday, and photographer Derek Wuenschirs took some great photos. Check out the complete gallery.

We’re putting the finishing touches on the first season of Haphead, our 8 episode webseries, and we’re going to watch all 70 minutes at the Royal Theatre a week today. It’s the whole deal — q&a with cast/crew, afterparty for everyone, and the theatre is a beautiful venue — they’re even licensed for the occasion.

Thurs. Jan. 22, 7pm
The Royal Theatre (608 College Street, Toronto)
ONLINE TICKETS HERE

And for those not in Toronto — episodes 1&2 hit the internet immediately after the screening! Subscribe!

Haphead is the story of a girl who’s literally empowered by videogames.

Ten years from now, a new haptic peripheral makes videogames so immersive that people learn skills just by playing. Maxine makes less than minimum wage at the factory where they make them, so she decides to become an unofficial beta tester by stealing one for herself. At home, her favorite rabbit-ninja game gets a whole lot more punishing, with the haptic feedback loop beating lethal skills into her muscle memory. Which is good: she needs to level up quick once her employer discovers her on-the-job theft.

Luckily, she’s not alone. There are other hapheads out there, with a variety of game-trained abilities. But while some of them are kindreds, one of them brings death….

Haphead is presented in association with io9, and is funded by the Independent Production Fund.

Every day we get a little closer to a fully finished Haphead series. We’ve got a screening date booked, the test screening’s done and the post-production is rocking out.

You helped make the series. Now see the story.

In early 2015, Haphead hits the big screen. We’ll be showing all eight delicious episodes at The Royal Cinema in Toronto. Tickets go on sale in next year. If you didn’t score a ticket through our Kickstarter campaign, don’t worry you can pick up a ticket in winter 2015. For just $12 you can watch 70 minutes of drama, intrigue and super story telling!

Don’t miss opening night – January 22, 2015!

It’s not too late to get your FALLEN TORONTO calendar!

Want to revel in a full year of stunning post-apocalyptic imagery? There’s still time. We’re selling a limited number of FALLEN TORONTO calendars. Find out how to get yours!

Spacing’s Matt Blackett and Michael Bulko check out the pages of epic destruction.

 Testing, testing. 1, 2, 3 – 8 

When you’re mired in a project, it’s hard to be objective. What’s working? What’s not working? Who knows anymore? That’s why we organized a Haphead test screening with a small audience. In a comfy, cozy room, our volunteers watched Season 1 in one big gulp. Afterwards they told us what worked, what didn’t and helped us pinpoint potential areas of confusion. Armed with specific feedback, our editor Tate fine-tuned each episode making the story tighter and the scenes work harder.

Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts: Tracey B., Maureen W., Joanna M., Emily P.W., Karina and Randal B.

Post-pro round up 

Now that the final edits are made we’re at picture lock. Which means this post-production train is in the final leg of the trip. The colourization started this past Monday. Our visual effects artists, Matt and Barb, have been busy creating some killer visuals and effects. While our machinimist Sagan painstakingly created video game animation.On the sound side, composer Adrian is creating a score that brings out the drama, while sound designer Fanny is carefully enhancing the sound of every shout, whisper and futuristic whirr.

Survelliance drone conceived by Marc Ngui and created by Mathew Borrett

Get your fallen future just in time for Giftmas!

Matt Blackett and Michael Bulko of Spacing check out the new calendar. “Oooh… look at the epic destruction!”

The demand for the FALLEN TORONTO calendars was terrific. So terrific in fact, that for the next six weeks, we’re going to keeps selling the post-apocalyptic pix. There are a limited number of calendars though, so get yours before it’s too late! Otherwise you may be stuck looking at 12 months of weird babies floating in oversized lily pads or doe-eyed, testically-undescended, Teen Beat boy bands. Oh! The horror!

Here’s how you can get your mitts on 12 months of destruction

Visit the new Spacing store

401 Richmond, Ground Floor

Enter off Richmond St. via northeast corner of building

Cost: $25 + tax

Email us your order

Send an email to Sean at sean@smallcity.ca and he’ll co-ordinate a pay method for you. Be sure to include your snail mail address so we know where to send your calendar.

Canada orders: $35 ($25/calendar + $10/taxes & shipping)

USA orders: $40 ($25/calendar + $15/taxes & shipping)

International orders: $50 ($25/calendar + $25/taxes & shipping)

No matter which option you choose, the proceeds from all calendar sales will help support Haphead Season 2!

Once again, traffic on the Gardiner ground to a halt.

After a month of fretting, nail-biting and non-stop promotion, it’s a relief to see that green stripe of success.

We did it! We raised just over $30,000 on Kickstarter. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen. Whether you donated to the campaign, shared, posted, liked, tweeted, talked about it or blackmailed your loved ones into giving – we are very grateful for all your support. We couldn’t have done it without you.

5 down. 3 to go.

While the campaign was heating up, Tate was busy editing episode after episode. He’s already finished early cuts of the first 5 episodes and the series looks awesome. It’s a dramatic tale that’s heavy on story, peppered with action and keeps you wondering what’s going to happen next.

Maxine stonewall Katherine, the ambitious Pervasive Insurance agent.

Hal the Hammer loses his cool at the Aster*sk Factory

Shout-out time

A lot of people donated their time and talents to create a variety of interesting and wacky rewards for our fundraising campaign. Warm thanks to these very generous people.

• Barb Benoit for the gorgeous crystal necklace
• Ben DeVries and Kai Ferris for the stunt lessons
• Derek Quenneville for the quirky, 3D Clone your Head reward
• Mathew Borrett, Sanford Kong, Terry Lau for the FALLEN TORONTO calendar artwork
• Ryan Leis for the handmade Haphead belt buckle, Overgrowth pendant and the extra campaign videos
• The Monkey Vault for the parkour sessions
• Wolfire Games for the Overgrowth games

These rewards were amazing. Thanks to the team for allowing us to offer them! And thanks to you for helping us make this fundraiser a success!

A week or so ago we released a brand, new Kickstarter reward – a pin-up calendar called FALLEN TORONTO. It’s 12 months of bleak but beautiful images of post-apocalyptic Toronto donated by Toronto artists Matt Borrett, Sandford and Terry Lau. It got some online buzz with hundreds of posted comments on various websites. Here’s a collection of some of our faves.

8 great quotes about FALLEN TORONTO

“…gorgeous images of a fallen Toronto.” -Annalee Newitz, Editor-in-Chief, io9

“Pretty creepy…and very well-done.”  -Skye, blogTO

“The idea of a post-apocalyptic Toronto got me all shaking in my boots with excitement.” – Jwdd, blogTO

“I’ve always thought that raccoons will inherit Toronto…” – Mice, BlogTO

“It’s fun to imagine what Toronto’s future could look like if everything went wrong.” – Toronto Standard

“…the apocalypse is soo coooool… ” – Dan, commentor in blogTO

“11 great pictures of post-apocalyptic Toronto, and one pic of later-this-year Gardiner Expressway.”  -Jwcorey,  io9

“Still looks better then Detroit.” – Jgenao, io9

On-set moments. Off-scene waiting. Hamming it up and toning it down. We’ve got a bunch of great production pix for you to peruse. Take a moment to check them out.

Unless otherwise noted, photo are courtesy of Brendan Adam-Zwelling.

– Photo credit: Derek Wuenschirs

The Kickstarter campaign to finish HAPHEAD, our neo-noir webseries set in 2025 Toronto, started last week. This week we have a new reward!

Post-Apocalyptic Pin-Ups

We’ve been making sci-fi movies for the past seven years here in Toronto, and consequently visualizing the future here a lot. So we’ve put them together in a 2015 calendar called FALLEN TORONTO as a new reward. If you live here you can shiver in nameless dread all the year round, and if you live elsewhere you can revel in schadenfreude at the fall of our socialist den of iniquity.

Some months feature the work of HAPHEAD’s brilliant 3D artist, Mathew Borrett, like this one that reminds us that winter is coming… the beautiful and terrible winter…

Concept illustrations for GHOSTS WITH SHIT JOBS by the marvellous Sanford Kong show us that art, even institutional art, is a fragile thing & needs support (hint hint)…

And Terry Lau‘s graphic design warns us of the peculiar dangers after the 2026 mutant spider infestation.

A Glitch in the Mayoral Matrix

In the calendar, beyond the usual holidays and such we’ve added events of note such as the CN TOWER COLLAPSE (2032) and DEAMALGAMATION DAY (2019).

We’re having a bit of trouble with October 27th, however.

It keeps randomly fluctuating between FORD NATION ALLEGIANCE BBQ and ELECTION DAY. I guess until us Torontonians decide our future this Monday, these timelines will be unstable.

As an asian female, candidate Olivia Chow would obviously be playing the part of our mayor in a sci-fi story.

Vote Utopian! Vote Chow!

Yes, Yes, But How Do I Get the Calendar?

Easy! Go here, and check out the rewards.