Twitch Film have just posted the first teaser, and here it is
Looking forward to sharing news about Errors’ first public outing soon.
Latest
In the edit suite
This is all going really well, folks. We’re well into the edit, and it’s looking pretty exciting. The original music is being recorded (and it’s strange and magnificent), special effects are coming along well, we’ve booked in the remaining post-production services. Stay tuned for more news.
Beyond the genome: Cancer’s secrets
The NY Times recently posted a typically well-written piece on the relationship between cell mutations and cancer. It’s like a crash-course in the science that drives the Errors story:
“For the last decade cancer research has been guided by a common vision of how a single cell, outcompeting its neighbors, evolves into a malignant tumor. Through a series of random mutations, genes that encourage cellular division are pushed into overdrive, while genes that normally send growth-restraining signals are taken offline.
With the accelerator floored and the brake lines cut, the cell and its progeny are free to rapidly multiply. More mutations accumulate, allowing the cancer cells to elude other safeguards and to invade neighboring tissue and metastasize.” (Continued)
Artificial genetic information and glow-in-the-dark worms
Another breakthrough in the world of genetic research. See here
Regenerating animals
The science of the Errors story draws on the research into cell regeneration that they’re doing at the Max Planck Institute (CBG) Dresden, most particularly in axolotl. Here are some other examples compiled by New Scientist magazine of some dramatic and weird examples of animals regenerating their own parts. Click here for the image gallery
That’s a wrap!
PRODUCTION UPDATE: Shoot finished! Great job, well done everyone. Very happy. Hope to have a sneaky teaser for you soon.
Media coverage: SCIENCE Magazine
From Cells to Celluloid
“Five years ago, Australian screenwriter Eron Sheean spent several months at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, as an artist in residence, “getting a sense of the place,” he says. Now he’s back with a film crew and actors (including Perfume‘s Karoline Herfurth) to shoot a feature film there.
Errors of the Human Body “is a little science fiction and a little science fact,” says Sheean. In the film, a Canadian geneticist named Geoffrey Burton moves to a Dresden lab determined to cure the rare disorder that took his child’s life. Research is Burton’s way of “solving his emotional problem,” Sheean says, and it eventually makes him paranoid. “I see it as a character drama with elements of a thriller,” he says. A “mood teaser” on the film’s Web site (http://scim.ag/errors-film) shows scientists peering through microscopes in darkened labs; fluorescent lights blink on as a figure stalks the institute at night.
Sheean hopes to debut the film at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Shooting at the lab has gone smoothly, says producer Darryn Welch. “We’re cheating in a few areas—we don’t have access to the BSL-4 [biosafety level 4] rooms—but other than that we have access to the whole place.” One change: replacing the lab’s mice with axolotls, eerie-looking white salamanders known for their ability to regenerate lost limbs. As for how the institute’s scientists—and the film’s de facto extras—have adjusted to life on set, says Welch, “I’m sure they’ve seen stranger things through a microscope.”“
*****
A message from our lead Michael Eklund: “Hey Instinctive Film Fans! Errors of The Human Body is Rockin and Rollin along! We are all working hard and making something very special and cool! Just thanking everyone for their support. 
“
Kickstarter success
Thanks to all of our supporters on Kickstarter. We reached our target of $25,000 with a couple of days to spare. This is crowdsourcing at its best, and we’re hugely grateful for the support.
If you want to get involved and support the film, there’s still a way: go to filminteractor.com for an interactive movie experience.
Adventures in extreme science
Here’s a very interesting profile on a controversial figure in the world of biology and molecular biology. Eric Schadt is a ridiculously prolific US scientist who’s shaking up the world of molecular biology, telling everyone that’ll listen that mainstream science’s ideas of molecular biology are just too simple to be useful. His idea? New Biology – which says that biology is way more complex than we previously thought (‘more like physics’(!)) and that complexity should be embraced.
Some interesting views here (in parts it could be our very own Samuel talking):
“Okay, so the complexity of living systems — and the amount of data they generate — turns out to be too much for even the most heroic of individual scientists to master. All right then: Biologists have to form networks that mimic the biological networks they’re studying. The networks between genes and proteins turn out to be organized socially, like human networks, and so human social networks will be required to understand them …”
Decide for yourself. Here’s the link to the full profile
More media coverage:
BLOODY DISGUSTING: First Stills, Poster and Mood Teaser for ‘Errors Of The Human Body’
DREAD CENTRAL: Stills, Artwork, and Mood Trailer for Errors of the Human Body
HORROR MOVIES: First Poster, Images and Mood Teaser for Errors of the Human Body
AMERICA SCREAMS: First Stills, Poster and Mood Teaser for ‘Errors Of The Human Body’
BLOODY GOOD HORROR: Errors of the Human Body: http://www.bloodygoodhorror.com/bgh/category/free-tagging/errors-of-the-human-body
KLIPS: Errors Of The Human Body – Promotional Video: http://www.klips.net/video/ykvqjz-errors-of-the-human-body-promotional-video.html
Scientist dies of the plague
In previous Science posts were strange stories from the real world of science that are uncanny ‘echoes’ of the narrative in Errors. Here’s yet another, equally weird.
In 2009, a researcher in Chicago died of the plague. He died of the supposedly non-virulent strain that he had been working on as part of a federal bioterrorism research project. They’re working with the plague?
No-one knows how he contracted it, and they only figured out recently that it was lethal for him (but safe for others) because he had an undiagnosed hereditary genetic disease called hemochromatosis, which affected how his body responded to the plague bacterium. Needless to say, authorities are continuing to investigate, and noted that the case raises issues about their safety procedures. No kidding.
