Stills from Scavengers Reign (created by/art by Joseph Bennett & Charles Huettner, dir by Vincent Tsui, written by Sean Buckelew, 2023).

(screen-capped by C. Colsher)

Styleframe for a mini series projetct with Joseph Bennett and Sean Buckelew

Beyond Apocalypse: Why HBO's Scavengers Reign Demands Your Attention

If you’re looking for a show that will keep you on the edge of your seat, Scavengers Reign is definitely worth checking out. The animation is stunning, and the story is both thought-provoking and entertaining. Whether you’re a fan of science-fiction or just looking for something new to watch, Scavengers Reign is a great choice.  Imagine a post-apocalyptic world where survival is a daily battle, and the lines between hero and villain blur. That's the backdrop of Scavengers Reign. The show hooks you in from the get-go with its gripping storyline, complex characters, and stunning visuals. Trust me; this is one series you won't want to miss. Scavengers Reign follows the Demeter's four human survivors as they attempt to navigate this world in vastly different ways. Loner Azi (voiced by Wunmi Mosaku) tries to build and maintain a homestead with the help of her robot companion, Levi (voiced by Alia Shawkat). Pilot Sam and botanist Ursula (voiced by Bob Stephenson and Sunita Mani) make use of Vesta's many resources to try to find a way off-planet. Then, there's the deeply troubled Kamen (voiced by Ted Travelstead), who finds himself in the thrall of a hypnotic, toad-like creature simply known as Hollow. co-creators Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner (working from their 2016 short Scavengers) craft a tight story of survival and ecological turmoil What makes Scavengers Reign stand out is its ability to weave together action, drama, and mystery flawlessly. Each episode leaves you craving more, with unexpected twists and turns that'll have you reeling. One of the key highlights of this series is its phenomenal cast. From seasoned actors to rising stars, each performance is captivating, adding layers of depth to the narrative. You'll find yourself emotionally invested in the characters, rooting for some while questioning the motives of others—a rollercoaster of emotions, to say the least! Moreover, the production quality is top-notch. The attention to detail in creating the post-apocalyptic world is mind-blowing. The set designs, costumes, and special effects transport you into this dystopian realm, making it all the more immersive. But don't just take my word for it. Dive into Scavengers Reign and experience the adrenaline rush yourself. Be warned, though: once you start, it's hard to stop. So, grab your popcorn, settle in, and prepare for an unforgettable journey through a world where survival is the ultimate prize. This series isn't just entertainment; it's an experience—a thrilling, heart-pounding adventure that'll have you eagerly anticipating each new episode. So, what are you waiting for? Join the scavengers' world, where every decision could be a matter of life or death.  

- Cast: Wunmi Mosaku (Azi), Bob Stephenson (Sam), Sunita Mani (Ursula), Ted Travelstead (Kamen), Alia Shawkat (Levi). Guests: Pollyanna McIntosh (Kris), Dash Williams (Barry), Freddy Rodriguez (Terrence), Sepideh Moafi (Mia), Skyler Gisondo (Charlie). - Credits: Created and executive produced by Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner; executive produced by Chris Prynoski; co-executive produced by Sean Buckelew and James Merrill; supervising director Benjy Brooke; produced in partnership with Titmouse, Inc.       Read the full article

NYCC 2023: MAX's Scavengers Reign Will Be Trippy, Horrifying, Lush and Thought Provoking

On a Thursday panel at New York City Comic Con, Co-creator Joe Bennett was joined by the writers and directors Benjy Brooke, Sean Buckelew, and James Merrill to unveil the pilot episode of their new Max Original series, Scavengers Reign. Based on the nearly eight-minute wordless animated short Scavengers by Bennett and Charles Huettner, the space crew of the Demeter 227 crashes onto an unknown…

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Drone

Noun: A Deep Sustained Or Monotonous Sound

The following is an excerpt from Drone director Sean Buckelew's much longer in-depth behind-the-scenes article found here.

Drone is concerned with some pretty lofty concepts and we wanted to be sure we fully understood the director Sean Buckelew’s point of view before we dove in, so we requested a reading list and pounded through some relevant literature in front of a log fire on our Christmas break. We found Frankenstein to be the most fruitful reference, paralleling so many of the key ideas in Sean’s script in an equally lyrical way.

To kick us off, Sean sent us a WIP along with some spotting notes. In true Buckelew fashion, they were fun & casually worded but extremely well thought-out.

His first note: “Overall, I think the sound/music oscillates between two modes: one is kind of bureaucratic and banal, the other is dreamy, impressionistic and poetic” presented to us the idea of a duality at the heart of the story. So, borrowing a technique from David Sonnenschein’s book Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice, and Sound Effects in Cinema, we plotted a table of two columns with relevant motifs aligned with the two main ‘modes’ that Sean discusses. We thought the film a little too nuanced to label “good vs evil” or “man vs machine” so we decided upon the much broader terms “Inside” & “Outside” to name the two forces.

Our “Bipolar Evaluation” of Drone:

We then mapped out the timeline of the film with colour-coded slugs that tracked the two main polarities to help us plot the emotional beats of the story arc, forming a solid guide for us to follow while we worked.

A couple of weeks later, we presented our first sketch to Sean: We went big from the outset, unabashedly invoking signifiers from the sub-genre of ‘hollywood flying music’, Namely: a soaring melody, vivid chordal gestures, and rich, lush strings over a floaty waltz feel. This OTT feeling seemed to elevate Newton’s monologue into the realm of fantasy, contrasting with the cold cynicism of the office scenes.

In a previous collaboration with Sean, Lovestreams, we relished the opportunity to create an  Enya-inspired, floating & ethereal ‘semi-New Agey’ score that could perform on a dual level: Being playfully ironic while legitimately tugging at heartstrings. We approached Drone with a similar sensibility.

Sean’s response was very enthusiastic: “you guys are fucking brilliant, skillbard strikes AGAIN!!!!”. Smashed it first time!

But really all credit goes to Sean for making it easy to get right. When a filmmaker  understands their message, thinks things through as thoroughly as Sean does, and takes the time to communicate so effectively with collaborators, it starts to feel like all we need to do is go away and start pressing the buttons. He had notes, of course, but nothing major, so we pressed on, fleshing out our demo and writing cues for the rest of the film, sending regular WIPs to Sean for his thoughts. We also started work on the sound elements, focusing mostly on the bombing scene to establish overall dynamics of the film, since that’s the loudest/most intense bit.

Now we had established the musical DNA for Newton’s journey and we set about extrapolating, variating and developing outwards to set up the other cues.

EG During Newton’s death cue we rendered a sombre, minor-key variation from the core motif.

As usual, music was the most noticeable emotional & atmospheric signifier but every sound you hear was considered in terms of how it contributed to the story emotively, narratively & even conceptually. Perhaps the most obvious example is processing of the dialogue EG: a feeling of alienation was often achieved through tactical intelligibility of dialogue. It’s not always clear what Newton is trying to tell us while he’s delivering his manifesto because, ultimately, it was never heard or understood outside of creating a spectacle.

Similarly, a lot of the dialogue in Drone is heard through speakers, we’re not sure if this is something we discussed with Sean but our perception was that this was an expression of technology’s power to create distance between people. It seemed important that this is something that is felt by the audience. We did a lot of ‘reamping’ by hacking gritty, small speakers to make this talker—>listener detachment palpable.

Once all the music was written and demoed and approved by all parties, we sent our sample-based mockups to our talented orchestrator Finn McNicholas (Midsommer, Daniel Isn’t Real, Swansong) and briefed him on how we’d like them to end up when played by the orchestra. Finn listened carefully to what we’d programmed in MIDI, transcribing it to page to achieve everything we were expressing in a way a room full of 30 people can understand and play without complication.

See the full scores for this cue here.

To invoke Newton’s destructive intentions, Finn helped us pin down and notate a number of ‘extended techniques’ for our orchestra to try; often ‘unmusical’ playing styles that push the instruments outside of its regular usage into more savage tones.

This musical thread begins during the night time cue ‘Alienation.’ Newton’s monologue describes an “interwoven fabric” while we see a spaghetti junction. We wrote a long sustained drone featuring an airy random textural movement from the string players, giving a musical sense of threads rubbing together.

Later in that cue when Newton describes the destruction he is about to bring forth while we see a field in flames, we wrote two powerfully opposing chords with a tense and nervous tremolo, going between ‘sul tasto’ (string player playing close to the neck) and ‘sul pont’(string player playing close to the bridge) to express his destructiveness and contradictory nature.

In the death scene after he crashes we hear a scratchy gnarly string articulation, Newton’s full destructiveness wrought…

When we had worked through exactly what we wanted with the orchestration, we attended and directed the session with the Budapest Art Orchestra (Queen’s Gambit, Locke & Key, Godless).

A portrait of two composers and orchestrator on the day of recording

Covid prevented us from attending the session personally—which was a shame because a pint of beer in Budapest is like £2!

Unfortunately their live room camera fell over immediately upon starting our session so this is the best angle we have.

Hear each cue in isolation here:

1. A Minute Ago, Rachel Rose (2014) 2. Voyage in Time, Tonino Guerra & Andrei Tarkovsky (1983) 3. Long Haulers, Amy C. Reid (2018)  4. Solar Breath, Michael Snow (2022) 5. Drone, Sean Buckelew (2022) 6. Why do you call me when you know i can’t answer the phone, Dineo Seshee Bopape (2012) 7. Maquilápolis [city of factories], Vicky Funari & Sergio De La Torre (2006) 8. Harlan County, USA, Barbara Kopple (1976)  9. Losing Ground, Kathleen Collins (1982) 10. Lava, Richard Foreman (1981)

found a good scene from some short film so i clip it and make it loop

original source:

http://animatedshortfilms.net/index.php/lovestreams-sean-buckelew-asf-2d-3d-stop-motion-animations-cartoons-animated-short-movies-films/

Week 2 Reflection on "American Dream" by Sean Buckelew

When we finished watching this animation it shocked me because it did not end the way that I thought it would. By the name of the title I thought that it would be about immigrants since that's what I have always associated "American Dream" with because when immigrants migrate to the United States, they talk about how they'll have great opportunities, rights and an amazing life in America. This is not true today. The message that I got from the animation is that you have to live your life like everyday is your last.

Stills from Scavengers Reign (created by/art by Joseph Bennett & Charles Huettner, dir by Vincent Tsui, written by Sean Buckelew, 2023). (screen-capped by C.Colsher)

Exclusive Interview: Sean Buckelew & Benjy Brooke of 'Scavengers Reign'

Scavengers Reign ended last week with an incredible season finale, “The Reunion,” full of potential for another season, more jaw-dropping animation, and deeply rich stories. Set on the treacherous alien planet Vesta Minor, the MAX original animated show follows the survivors of the Demeter, a cargo freighter that has shipwrecked in space. The survivors have to navigate life on the planet, where…

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A Malfunctioning UAV Becomes A Viral Sensation In Sean Buckelew’s ‘Drone’

A malfunction sends a military drone on a live-streamed journey of self-discovery, creating a short-lived viral superstar. from Cartoon Brew https://ift.tt/TfW9auI

A Malfunctioning UAV Becomes A Viral Sensation In Sean Buckelew’s ‘Drone’

A malfunction sends a military drone on a live-streamed journey of self-discovery, creating a short-lived viral superstar. from Cartoon Brew https://ift.tt/GTabDYt

Toonami scavengers

Toonami scavengers movie#

Toonami scavengers series#

Toonami scavengers tv#

A similar effect can be caused to living plants by dead plant biomass.Įxcessive accumulations of dead plants can also bind up much of the nutrient capital of ecosystems, so that not enough is recycled for use by living plants, and ecosystem productivity becomes constrained by nutrient limitations. Large quantities of dead animal biomass can represent a indirect health hazard to living animals, by enhancing the survival of pathogens. Scavengers provide a very important ecological service, because they help to rapidly reduce dead animals and plants to simpler constituents, and thereby prevent an excessive accumulation of dead biomass. Scavengers are part of the detrital food web of ecosystems. Some scavengers specialize on feeding upon dead animals, or carrion, while others feed more generally on dead plants and animals. A scavenger is an animal that seeks out and feeds upon dead and/or decaying organic matter. After his diabolical plan to invade America’s children’s hospitals was foiled in season one, Chucky now seeks revenge on those he holds responsible: surviving teens Jake (Zackary Arthur), Devon (Björgvin Arnarson) and Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind), along with his ex Tiffany, now his sworn enemy.Scavenger - Dead, Scavengers, Biomass, and Animals.

Toonami scavengers tv#

In the TV series, Chucky crosses paths with archenemies, old allies and new prey, as he seeks to inspire fear and mayhem wherever he goes. “Chucky” is a continuation of the iconic film franchise chronicling the murderous escapades of the notorious killer doll.

Toonami scavengers series#

“Chucky” is back on SYFY and USA with Season 2 of Don Mancini‘s series on October 5.Īnd the “Chucky” issue of SFX Magazine is available now! How is THAT doll going to be brought into the mix in Season 2? We’ll find out soon… Tiffany will be back in “Chucky” Season 2, along with Glen/Glenda in human form, and it seems we’ll also be seeing the original pre-transformation Tiffany doll as well! That is, the doll before Tiffany gave her that iconic blonde hair makeover.Ī series of new images from “Chucky” Season 2 have made their way onto social media, courtesy of SFX Magazine, and glimpsed in the photos is the original Tiffany doll on set! Granted, we didn’t see all that much of Tiffany in the finale, but it was all about setting the stage for what’s to come in Season 2. The only thing standing in Andy’s way, however? The Tiffany doll! Andy Barclay hijacked the truck in an effort to thwart Chucky’s master plan, and Andy is now the only thing standing in between Chucky and world domination. The doll made her presence known in the final moments of the Season 1 finale, revealing that she’s on the truck with the army of Chucky dolls that are about to be given to children all across the world. Tiffany was of course introduced in Bride of Chucky, the doll inhabited by the evil spirit of Jennifer Tilly‘s Tiffany Valentine.

Toonami scavengers movie#

The Season 1 finale of “Chucky” re-introduced beloved legacy character Tiffany, marking the first time we’d seen the killer doll since her brief appearance in 2017 movie Cult of Chucky. Co-executive produced by Sean Buckelew and James Merrill for Green Street Pictures. The series is produced by Titmouse, the award-winning animation production company behind “ The Boys: Diabolical” and the upcoming Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe.īenjy Brooke serves as supervising director executive produced by Chris Prynoski, Antonio Canobbio, Shannon Prynoski, and Ben Kalina for Titmouse. You can find and watch the original short on Charles Huettner’s YouTube channel. “Scavengers Reign” it is based on the short film “Scavengers,” which premiered on Adult Swim’s Toonami block in December 2016. They begin to learn the true nature of this planet as they try to survive long enough to escape or be rescued.” The plot follows “the surviving crew of a damaged deep space freighter who are stranded on a beautiful yet unforgiving planet. The series is targeting a 2023 release and is co-created and executive produced by animators, writers, and directors Joe Bennett and Charles Huettner. HBO Max has ordered the adult animated sci-fi drama “Scavengers Reign” to series, with the announcement and first look unveiled at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.