User:Joeofyorkshire/sandbox/Desktop Desperadoes (2019 Film)

Desktop Desperadoes is a 2019 British live-action animated comedy-musical-adventure film directed and written by Joseph Marshall, the film stars Paul Anderson, Peter Jonas, Rosina Halverson Studer, and Joseph Marshall. It centers around Pointer, an animated graphic who works for a hardware firm "Collington Computing". Pointer expresses a strong desire to progress into a larger realm of work but his boss Bob Collington's overprotective nature obstructs these dreams. When he evades the company without authorisation, he attracts unwanted attention including that from a criminal apprentice, Alex.

The film was shot on a HD camera instead of the conventional 4K format most features are shot on. Marshall the film's creator had hoped to have entered it into a film festival but was advised against it as a rejection would be pretty much certain due to the incompatible theatrical format. All of the animated sequences were created using Adobe Flash and later Adobe Animate and superimposed into pre-edited raw cuts of the sequences involving the human characters. For the sequences which were entirely animated, it was a simple matter of layering.

The film premiered on Youtube on the 7th June 2019. Although not an instant success, as of August 2020, the views have been steadily increasing overtime with positive comments particularly praising the incorporation of cartoon physics. It can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc1tr1cwiZs

Plot

Pointer, an animated graphic from the hidden "Desktop Universe" is tired of his monotonous life working for "Collington Computing" a hardware firm run by businessman "Bob Collington". His biggest ambition involves working alongside Collington's American counterpart, Jane Maine who holds a similar position but is CEO of a much larger corporation. Pointer discusses the matter personally with Collington who sincerely sympathises with Pointer but insists that his safety is paramount. In his eyes, the worst case scenario would be Pointer being kidnapped by criminals and them abusing his powers for nefarious purposes. He also advises him to caution his ambitious while reflecting on his long-lost brother Pointer 95 who back in the 1990s arrived at his corporation for a full-time job from "The Desktop Universe". Initially he performed quite well but through unknown circumstances, his younger brother Pointer surfaced from the "Desktop Universe" and joined the company and according to Pointer 95 outperformed him by 50%. Enraged, Pointer 95 ripped open a whole in the space-time continuum and disappeared without a trace. In spite of all efforts, Collington continues to stubbornly ground Pointer who storms off.

The next morning, Collington is being driven to work by his secretary Linda. When they arrive, he discusses his dilemma with her. She suggests that for one day only she takes Pointer out for a day at the beach under the belief that this could at least satisfy his curiosity of the outside world. Collington agrees on condition that Pointer is mostly concealed from sight. Unfortunately, once they arrive not only does Pointer's behaviour stir up a lot of chaos but he physically endangers himself and Linda by provoking a herd of bees to chasing them. This completely destroys any conceivable hope of success Pointer may have had on changing Collington's attitude.

That night Pointer finally snaps and using a portal in his desktop home, he emerges from the headquarters and into the city of Hull, England. He enjoys the experience but encounters a mugging. The victim in question if Alex whom Pointer saves but this attracts more unwanted attention than he could have anticipated. His next location of interest is a military base which Alex is in the process of robbing while wearing a fraudulent uniform. Unfortunately the "Software Heist" fails and he has little choice to abandon his mission but not before observing Pointer's remarkable skills while fighting off a band of pacifists. Alex contacts his boss George Carlson about the discovery and Carlson agrees to aid Alex in his scheme of kidnapping Pointer and absorbing all of his abilities.

Meanwhile, Collington begins to notice Pointer's absence and for a number of reasons grows understandably concerned so he rings up Detective Sergeant Walters and explains Pointer's disappearance. At first he is sceptical as to whether or not Pointer even exists inferring Collington may be delusional but is quickly proved wrong when Collington demonstrates "The Printer" (a device which can be used to strip people of their three dimensional shape) on Linda. Walters agrees and initiates the investigation while promising no BBC coverage whatsoever. Alex sets up a plan to trap Pointer in a cage by disguising it as an audition booth for a non-existing upcoming film which he sends Pointer an email inviting him to it. He accepts and is trapped. However, Pointer pricks himself up the buttocks with an arrow, forcing the cage high into the air and smashing through the ceiling. The cage is also destroyed by an oncoming lorry which Pointer boards.

Pointer arrives back at "Collington Computing" and is greeted by an angry Bob Collington who curses him and banishes him up stairs as punishment. That night, Alex, reluctant to give up, sees a news report of Jane Maine's corporation "Desktop Daredevils" gaining a record breaking revenue figure. Alex is flown across to Seattle, United States, and breaks into the headquarters just as it is on the process of shutting down. Alex holds Jane Maine and gunpoint and orders her to send a video to Pointer inviting him for an interview to him company. Pointer receives it and using the transportation from his desktop, flies to the United States and unknowingly infiltrates Jane Maine's residence. Rather than calling her security, she is impressed with Pointer's abilities and instantly recruits him into her company. One day, Alex suddenly barges into the office a second time and finally feels the timing to be appropriate to launch the second stage of his scheme. He sets up a false conference which Jane is instructed to invite him to and Jane once again, under gunpoint agrees.

For the first time to his scheme goes according to plan and traps Pointer into a cage. He then explains his plans are to not only to hijack his abilities but to use his hacking skills to infiltrate global economies. Alex initiates the transferration and all seems hopeless until Pointer sends an urgent email to Bob Collington informing him of his exact address and situation. Jane is held hostage for hours until what appears to be an error disrupts the system. In a blind rage, Alex forces his gun onto the desk leaving it vulnerable to theft and within seconds he finds himself cornered. He is shot instantly but strangely instead of dying, he fades out of existence. It is revealed that Pointer while in his last few breaths gained the strength to morph into the shape of an error which forced Alex to shut the system down. However, Pointer 95 for the first time in over twenty years emerges revealing that Alex never existed, it was merely Pointer 95 disguised in a human hologram. He explains that after rage quitting Bob Collington's company, his self-banishment to The Desktop Universe was not permanent. He entered Earth a second time living with a new identity and swore revenge against the entire computer hardware industry. Pointer 95 pacifies Jane Maine by flattening her and the gun with the printer but is stealthily disarmed once again by Pointer.

Just before the circumstances could have potentially turned grim Bob Collington barges into the room stating to have called the police. Pointer 95 explodes as before and escapes through a portal, Pointer follows him and they both enter the Desktop Universe. They chase each other until they board the search engine which humorously modelled after a steam engine. The two battle until Pointer 95 summons up a virus which forces Pointer to flee. Pointer remerges with a tank borrowed from an army website, neutralising the virus and sending Pointer 95 flying across the room. He lands in a recycling bin while also activating its "deletion" button permanently erasing him from existence. Simultaneously, George Carlson is arrested on the spot when the police finally pinpoint his involvement in the heist earlier.

Pointer emerges from the portal and his two bosses are delighted. Bob Collington not only allows Pointer more freedom of exploration but he also gives him the choice between working for him or Jane Maine. He chooses Jane Maine, the two say their goodbyes and Collington returns to English. The next morning, a jetlagged Bob Collington is sitting in his living room with his wife who is surfing on her Ipad but is greeted by Pointer. He tunnels through the World Wide Web and physically resurfaces into their living room. Pointer shares the excellent progress him and Maine have made overnight spelling out real potential for generations. Collington is delighted and agrees to keep in touch and hang out with Pointer once recovered from his jetlag.

Cast

Production

Development

Desktop Desperadoes has a fairly long history. It originates from Joseph Marshall's Final Major Project of a similar name from 2016 with a slightly different spelling. This itself has a long history where Pointer was only a supporting character and the main character was "the racer" a car which would have a grand ambition of competing in the rallies of the world. On the way out he would encounter an antagonist figure "Charlotte" who would attempt grabbing the character but fail and the racer would resurface into the company and remain settled there. Pointer's role was not only smaller but even his name had undergone an alteration of its own. His name was originally "Mouse" as evidenced by a screentest which can be viewed from "The Joseph Marshall Archive". His name was ultimately changed to Pointer because of confusion from test audiences. It is quite obvious that Pointer's apperance does not even remotely resemble a mouse. The mouse is the device whereas the pointer is the icon used to represent the position of the mouse.

Ultimately the concept was simplified to a public service announcement video to a character played by Marshall who through so little sleep nods off and enters what is supposedly a dream sequence of various graphics including Pointer causing chaos throughout the house. (i.e. redecorating the house, confusing the house cat, and destroying property) Even the human character is convinced the sequence was a dream but is horrified to discover a crack in his window caused by Pointer.

After graduating, the earlier concept finally found a home in the full-length feature film of a similar name which underwent five whole years of development just to complete the screenplay which also went through many drafts including its first variation where the character in question was not a computer graphic but rather a cartoon character from a fictional TV Programme.

In late 2017, the animation process and filming was authorised to commence.

Filming

The film was shot on a simple HD camera both for budgeting and logistical reasons. To keep pressure of the actors, most of the conversational scenes were filmed separately with an off-screen crew member holding the script in front of the actor so they could read directly off it. There was only once instant of the crew member accidentally entering the shot but it was thankfully solved by layering a fraction of the footage from another shot in post production, hiding the individual in question. When it was not practical (suppose it was a wide shot where hiding a crew member was impractical) another crew member would speak the line to the actors and they would be required to repeat it. During the shoot of the military base scene, Val Marshall (Sergeant Yorkshire's) dialogue was entirely improvised allowing for more freedom of camera movement as well as genuine reactions from the recruits.

Most of the filming lasted from November 2017 to June 2018. However, the first scene where Collington communicates with Pointer via their webcams was originally a direct conversation but the heavily scripted nature of the scene resulted in it feeling too wordy as well as a ridiculously contrived moment when Linda would walk in with a newspaper just as Bob Collington was discussing the murder of CEOS. Rather than returning to the filming location, it was decided the shots involving Collington would be reshoot with shorter dialogue and in front of a white wall in Marshall's home speaking to Pointer online through what is supposed to resemble a webcam chat.

With the limited budget most of the locations used to represent the various the offices were Matthew's Hub, a local drop-in centre for people with high-functioning autism, and one shot involved the council building in the centre of the East Riding Village Cottingham. The residential shots for Bob Collington's home as well as Alex's flat were shot throughout the home of Joseph Marshall's girlfriend Kathy Rowland-Hill (who played Linda in the film) but the scenes involving Jane Maine's residence were shot at the home of the Hull Savoyards chairman Harold Kay. The French Poodles in question where not originally intended as characters from the script but were added so the film could contain the closest it will ever have to a jump scare. The conference room towards the end was shot in what used to be a meeting room at Hull College but was later converted into a student foyer area in late 2018. The few outdoor locations include Dale's Leisure Supplies in Hull for the military base scene as well as the mugging scene and the psychotic mother scene was shot in a field near St John's Academy also in Hull.

Animation and post-production

Every single fraction of the animation process was created using Adobe Flash and later Adobe Animate. The character's individual body parts was drawn on the software itself and similar to the cut-out animation technique, they were digitally moved across the frame to simulate the illusion of life. Every character model had their own different files for various camera angles including "rear" "side-view" "front" (etc). Unlike most films of this kind where the entire film is shot and then the animation process begins as the next stage, this was gradually edited alongside shot which also resulted in it being more useful to superimpose the animation cohesively as well. This is a forgivable decision giving how simplistic the animation is throughout the feature unlike others (where the camera tends to be less static)

Music

Most of the music heard throughout the film is royalty free music which can be found on incompetech.com created by the composer Kevn Macleod who along with his various featured pieces is credited.

Three of the songs featured were composed by Joseph Marshall who has studied Piano up to Grade 7 who also wrote the lyrics. These were all arranged on Sibelius. The first piece "I'm Collington I specialise" is performed by artificial orchestra but Pointer's patter song consists of both the vocalist Julian Savory and the accompanist Joseph Marshall performing in real time. The first section of the final song features Joseph Marshall singing to digitised accompaniment but once Julian Savory enters the piece, it reverts back to a performance recorded in real time.

Jane Maine and Pointer's duet contain original lyrics but the melody is comprised of famous American tune "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". Purely to instill the transition between Englishness and Americanism rather than an artificially American tune.