Coming soon from The Artifice, a new online platform that brings you, the audience, into the heart of performance. The long awaited digital capsule is about to arrive!

We expect to go into production in summer 2012. The Artifice is currently awaiting final funding results.

Plans and preparations for the release are in full swing – so what should you do while you wait? Subscribe to our Youtube channel, follow us on Twitter and do like 4+ million fans, like us on Facebook!

Learn more about The Artifice project and the history behind it.

As promised we are back with more exclusive releases from The Artifice OST, this time we have a brand new track from the second composer attached to The Artifice project; Thomas Marek. You may already be familiar with his work if you have seen The Artifice teaser and our recently released short The Lone Wolf. The latest track from Thomas is titled Am I Dead or Just Dreaming?. This spellbinding addition to the growing soundtrack is full of intense highs and mesmerising lows, so take a second to adjust your speakers to maximum volume and lose yourself in the sound of The Artifice!

Thomas Marek has written numerous pieces for The Artifice project, all of which encompass a vast range of styles, moods and instrumentation. Thomas takes his musical influence from film composers such as John Williams and Michael Giacchino, through to “classical” composers such as Ravel and Duruflé, as well as many popular artists. While all of his pieces are completely different, their atmospheric and otherworldly feel remains a constant, and Thomas’ aim is to compose music that takes the listener to a completely different place in ways one might not expect.

Learn more about The Artifice project and the history behind it.

Happy new year one and all – 2011 has massive things in store for The Artifice, what you have seen so far is just a taste of what is still to come!

The first arrival of the new year will be our new film discussions. Every week we will be releasing snippets of our brainstorming sessions so that you can join in with our creative process. The best comments will be chosen each week and given pride of place in our latest posts; that’s right, this is your chance to be a part in the development of The Artifice, so don’t miss out!

There will of course be more information about the people behind the project. You can also expect to hear new tracks from The Artifice OST, information about characters, the second chapter of The Artifice game and finally take a look back at some of the work we have produced in the past that led us to create The Artifice.

It’s a new year with new possibilities, as the separate parts of the project begin to weave together into a tapestry of unexpected sights and sounds, will your ideas become a part of the mystery that is The Artifice? Keep tuned to find out!

What is your opinion? Comment now!

Bushido is the first track to be released from The Artifice soundtrack, which is a passionate and at times haunting mix of multinational inspired tracks. If you were taken back by the lighthearted adventure style of The Artifice game, do not turn away, it is just the beginning of what we have in store. Prepare yourself for an intense journey into the world of The Artifice and don’t forget to keep checking back here for new releases!

Hannah Moulden has been writing the score for The Artifice for some time now and takes musical inspiration from whatever media she comes across in everyday life. With influences from traditional composers like Thomas Newman and Clint Mansell to experimental artists like Kate Bush and Imogen Heap, Hannah crafts both composition and production techniques inspired by these artists to help create music that is atmospheric, emotionally deep, musically intelligent and most importantly different from the traditional soundtrack.

From these origins, sparks of ideas grow into full pieces meant to move and inspire the listener, subconsciously taking them on both an emotional and a physical journey. Each piece takes place in a different part of the world from the Japanese inspired Bushido to the Persian inspired Dark Discoveries throughout the film an eclectic mix of mysteriously familiar instrumentation and rich textures will guide you through the experience that is The Artifice.

Learn more about The Artifice project and the history behind it.

This short film was created on a zero budget as a test shot for our equipment back in 2008. Our aim was to take the simple subject of an evening meal and give it an emotional journey. The soundtrack plays a big part in bringing out the story line, which starts as a casual, almost comical look into someone’s daily routine that builds to a final intense moment that suggests that things aren’t quite as happy as they may seem. Is there more to this scene than meets the eye? What is the hidden meaning behind the Lone Wolf, is it all a dream? Intrigued? Stay tuned to The Artifice!

Learn more about The Artifice project and the history behind it.

Our first aim for the teaser was to give a solid introduction to our style of film making. We wanted to hint at the quality and depth of story that would become a part of The Artifice feature film. Our style is built on intensity, overwhelming the viewer’s senses with creative camera work and sound design, but also daring to slow the pace to a practical standstill. We try to give the viewer exactly what they want to see and hear at the moment that they least expect it.

When we began drafting ideas for the teaser we wanted to create a story that stood out and represented our break from traditional film making. We thought that the moment between life and death would be a good subject to show this as we could use the patient’s journey into an unfamiliar world to represent the audience’s journey into the world of The Artifice. The teaser doesn’t show the patient’s death, it merely shows a different way to look at life. We wanted the audience to come away from the teaser wanting to know what happens next, both in life and The Artifice.

We took some calculated risks when creating the teaser to emphasize that The Artifice is not an average film production, for instance: the average teaser lasts for around 30 – 60 seconds by industry standards, but engaging someone for 60 seconds does not mean that they are interested. We decided instead of sticking to the traditional format, we would create an epic 7 min introduction to the style of The Artifice; we reasoned that if we could hook people for a teaser of this length we will have made a real connection to that audience.

Making this teaser a success was a difficult task considering that this epic storylines special/visual effects, original soundtrack, 50 cast and crew members and three primary locations was completed in just 2 days of shooting and 1 week of editing. All of this would be relatively simple if it wasn’t for our desire to do all of this on a zero budget. We thought that if we could make the teaser reach a high quality on a zero budget and limited time, with all the odds against us, imagine what we could achieve with a fully funded, well marketed feature film.

Like any piece of work produced under such intense conditions, the final cut of the teaser has many flaws, but the achievement of completing it to its present standard in spite of the odds against us, is something we are very proud of. The secret behind our accomplishment was our research into the resources available to low budget film makers (e.g. Andrew Cramer’s Video Copilot tutorials for some visuals), which helped us create the teaser on our tight budget and time schedule.

The teaser is a heart stopping introduction to our vision of the film to come, become a part of The Artifice game in order to be the first to experience the next part of The Artifice saga. The Artifice online show will be arriving in early 2012 so keep your eyes open!

Learn more about The Artifice project and the history behind it.