About

“Turn it off” is a short film project detailing the adventures of a number of “light creatures”. These creatures, called “brites”, are made from light, and only come out to when the streets are empty and the lights are off. The underlying message of the piece is an ecological one: the creatures are unhappy with the amount of energy being wasted in the city and set out to make themselves heard over the course of one evening in Dublin. They tour the city leaving graffiti behind them which points out the amount of energy being wasted in the city. A storyboard can be viewed and downloaded here (PDF)

The production is being powered by solar energy. As far as we are aware this is the world’s first short film production entirely powered by renewable energy. We have secured a 2000 Euro grant from Comhar, an Irish government body responsible for sustainable development. This grant is being used to install Solar Panels in our production studio, these panels are being used to power all aspects of the production, from the laptops used in post production to the batteries used by the cameras in the photography. The characters made from EL wire will be powered by rechargeable batteries charged from the solar panels. Any travel to filming locations will be done by bicycle.

The film is scheduled for completion in January 2009

The video is in part inspired by a light writing short produced by Lichtfaktor.

The project is a collaboration between John Callaghan ( Cal-Tv.Net, TheBubble.ie, Mercury Boy) & Jonny McCauley (http://www.behance.net/jonnymccauley)

Also part of the team is technologist Brian Solon, illustrators Dave Comiskey and Chris Judge and sound designer Paul Nelligan

You can contact us at turnitoffproject@gmail.com