The Arksville Homicides – Crowdfunding CGI Horror Series

The Arksville Homicides – Press Release

“For those big on machinima, the paranormal and horror, this original roller coaster ride into a demonic hell set against the backdrop of small-town America, will have you leaving the lights on.”

1541
Famed Spanish Explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado is heading through what is now modern day Kansas on a mission.

A box containing unknown contents that has been kept sealed under lock and key by the Vatican has been delivered to him to take far from civilization and bury as deep in the Earth as possible, never to be found again.

1967
Arksville lies within the forests of Pennsylvania. It is a large town on the verge of being a city. Since the closure of the local coal mine in 1931, and sighting themselves as a ‘get away from it all’ hamlet, tucked into rural Pennsylvania alongside the Susquehanna River the town has thrived on tourism.

Frank Wepps and his family escape from a horrible dark event in Frank’s police work in Pittsburgh, hoping to start afresh in Arksville, Frank has a new position at the Arksville Police Department.

Frank’s superior – Lieutenant Eidalman, a cynical and jaded cop, once idealistic but now just sick of the bureaucracy, control and corruption of the town council.

Chief Gardner of the Police Department is deep in the council’s pocket and in an effort to keep the image of the town pleasant, his department only reports a fraction of the actual crimes. They even occasionally collude with the local crime family which uses Arksville as a conduit for arms-smuggling.

Mayor Adinberry’s only concern is money, and the grand image of the town.

But something is wrong from the start of Frank’s arrival – the feeling someone is stalking his family.
Sure enough a figure that has a strange unearthly feel is seen following his daughter – Patricia, and his wife – Lucy. Soon bodies begin turning up around the town, locals being dispatched brutally and horrifically, mutilated beyond imagination.

What follows in a private manhunt for someone or something lurking in the alleyways and town fringes of Arksville. Primary suspects being a cult led by a recluse named Harold Dyer, Frank and Eidalman are unable to obtain any proof, and with influence coming into the town from the local crime family, the police’s hands are busy enough.

Working against the town council, the local crime family and the satanic cult, Frank and Eidalman will have a front-row seat at a showdown between good and evil.

THE PRODUCTION
I have been putting together the world’s first CG Horror series ever created, called ‘The Arksville Homicides’ based off a story and independent horror I made back in 2001-2004.

This is the story of good versus evil on a grand scale, starting in a seemingly nondescript American town and in the end possibly engulfing the world.

WHAT DO I HOPE TO ACHIEVE?
A crowd-funded Horror Series that releases quality, engaging, riveting and scary as hell episodes every month! There will be twists and turns and deep characters that you care about.

An interactive experience for any fan of horror, they can chat with the creators, the voice actors.

EPISODE RELEASE
The prologue episode will be released between late-September to early-October 2013.
Beyond that the plan is 1x 10 minute episode every 4 weeks, released on youtube, bliptv, vimeo and other media formats.

CROWDFUNDING
A campaign will be released on Indiegogo (http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-arksville-homicides-world-s-first-cg-animated-horror-web-series/x/1674911)alongside the release of the prologue episode. This episode has been in the works since March 2013, currently I am utilising my two computers to render this, and it’s taken a very long time! A great deal of money received via crowd-funding will go on animation stations to speed up the render times, additional software to increase the quality of the animation, and money will also go to crew and voice actors for their time.

TARGET AUDIENCE
Generally those in the age group of 15-25, mostly aimed at males. They like thrills and action, also males tend to enjoy CG created content (the gamer types), However a recent study done by Zara Butterworth (http://www.slideshare.net/zarabutterworth/researching-horror-audiences) shows that women have now exceeded men for the first time watching horror.

LEWIS ROSCOE
Creator
Born in Takapuna, Auckland, NZ in 1982 and an only child until 13, Lewis created his own entertainment. This led to a love and over-enthusiastic desire for film-making and story-telling, which he pursued through and beyond high-school. He was even invited down to WETA in Wellington by Academy Award Winner Richard Taylor himself after seeing one of Lewis’ films in 2001.

In 2004 Lewis pursued animation and the mix was complete! Self-taught and two years at Animation
College New Zealand, Lewis has now been able to create anything he can imagine.

The Arksville Homicides was a story he first came up with in 2003, being the backstory to an independent horror he had made at the time.
Previously Lewis created ‘Frontier – Prelude to Darkness’ a web-series that ran from 2009-2012 and in 2012 he teamed up with ex-WETA animators to make a rebooted pilot episode called ‘Frontier – The Rising Shadow’ which premiered at the Auckland Armageddon Expo in 2012.
Other interests lie in acting, Lewis has done acting work on TV commercials and also a role on prime-time New Zealand drama Shortland Street.

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