The Gathering Storm: A Marauders Fan Film

Hey Everyone- We apologize for the delay on this update. We had hoped to have more tangible progress and updates to present to you before posting this, but an update is overdue. First off, we all want to say how much we appreciate everyone’s patience and continued support for this project. It’s taken much longer than any of us had anticipated, but our team is committed to seeing this project through. Unfortunately this year has been challenging for everyone, and progress has reflected that. While VFX has made progress in the past year, it is not as much as we would have hoped. We’ve lost a number of our artists this year, both due to Rowling’s ongoing bigotry making it understandably hard for people to continue working on the film, as well as unrelated schedule and workload issues outside of the project. We started 2023 with 10 artists on our VFX team, and nowadays even on our best days we have less than half that. This leaves plenty of days/weeks where members of our smaller, but dedicated team are entirely unavailable.

While I presume most of you are aware of the WGA & SAG strikes that shut down much of the film industry from May to November, what many people outside of the industry aren’t aware of was the pressure that came down from the studios on those who work in Post Production, especially VFX, during that time. Many of the talented artists on the TGS team work in VFX as their day job as well, and this studio crunch left little to no time for side projects unfortunately. We had artists report working 60-80 hours a week. Other members of the team were out on the picket lines fighting to protect the industry and their livelihoods. All of this led to a rough summer and fall for progress on the project.       Beyond that, a variety of other struggles have also faced our team throughout this past year. Without going into too much detail so as to protect the feelings and privacy of our amazing team, we have had members dealing with life threatening illnesses, deaths of loved ones, others facing numerous struggles due to rising transphobia, and several who simply had less time for TGS due to being forced to take up lower-wage jobs to survive during the strikes. 

    That said, it hasn't all been negative. We've also had members of our team forced to lighten their workloads due to happier circumstances, such as welcoming children, getting married, or attending grad school. It's not all dark clouds and gloomy circumstances, but one way or the other, the past year has undoubtedly thrown so much at our team that progress has at times become far slower and far less than we would have always liked.

    All of that said, there has been some wonderful progress made this year. After a tremendous amount of collaboration between multiple artists, one of our most deceptively challenging VFX shots, the Dungbomb Prank seen in our very first piece of concept art was finally wrapped up by artist Porter Justus.     Work has also progressed beautifully on various digital establishing shots. After a ton of work, our VFX Supervisor Martin Bayang was able to solve the issue of a particularly problematic Petrificus Totalus shot. There has been continued work on some very exciting Potions and Invisibility Cloak effects, and we recently wrapped up the spells for a very fun Lily versus Regulus altercation. And while not completed, there has been a lot of excellent progress has been made on much of the third act, including many of the most difficult sequences of the film.

     To put some more-concrete numbers on the amount of progress we’ve made versus what we still have to tackle, only about 12 minutes of the film remain unfinished as of the time of this update. The vast majority of the film is just about fully locked, barring color and some slight timing adjustments. Within what remains, most if not all effects are already in progress. Obviously the climactic third act contains some relatively complicated VFX shots that may take slightly more time to complete, but the finish line truly is in sight now. 

   One of the last big updates, and perhaps the elephant in the room, is that this year we also found ourselves forced to finally part ways with a member of our team - our composer. This was an incredibly difficult decision and one that we obviously did not take lightly. In truth, we probably took far longer to arrive at this decision than we should have, given our affection for the person involved and how excited we were about the work they had done. 

   Unfortunately, we reached a point where essentially no new work had been done for over a year, despite multiple efforts to reach out and work through various struggles. Continuing with the same situation and with the same composer simply became untenable and we were forced to make the very difficult decision to move on and try to finish off the last several minutes of music needed with a new voice. We are currently in talks with a talented new composer, and had hoped to have the details locked in place before giving this update, but the transition is taking a bit longer than expected. Moving forward, we are hopeful that we will be able to still make use of all the excellent music that our original composer did create for TGS, but working through the logistics of that between him and our new music team remains an ongoing conversation as of the time of this update. We hope to have more details for you in the coming weeks. As difficult a decision as it was, it does also feel like a dramatic step forward that gives us much more confidence today than we had prior to the decision that the film is actually, finally, nearing completion. 

We have said this many times before, and unfortunately it still bears repeating: no one wants to see this film completed and released to all of you more than we do. Even with the tremendous toll JKR’s vile conduct has taken on all of us, our hope remains that TGS can be a small piece of that universe untouched by the emotional baggage that the canonical franchise now carries. In light of the recent strikes in Hollywood, some attention is finally being paid to the insane working conditions many, if not all, VFX artists are subjected to. They are one of the last groups left in the entertainment industry that is not protected by a union, and as such they face essentially unfettered pressure from the studios they work for. Many of the artists volunteering their precious free time to TGS face these conditions in their day-to-day lives, and have still found it in their hearts to carve out time for our little movie. We are so incredibly grateful for them, for their time, and for the contributions they continue to make to make this film look as great as it possibly can. We are committed to delivering the best possible version of this film that we can to you when all is said and done. 

It has been a long road. The end is finally, truly in sight. Please know that we are eternally grateful for your ongoing support and your ongoing patience. We are very much looking forward to finally reaching the end of this journey, together, and finally being able to share this film with you all. Thank you again, and all our love to all of you and yours in the new year.

Hi Everyone,

   I want to sincerely apologize for both the long delay between updates and the necessity for one at this point in general. When we set out to make this project, none of us ever anticipated we might still be working on it eight years later. And while a lot has happened in that time, I promise you, no one wants it to be completed and released more than we do.    2022 has been a difficult year for the project on a number of fronts, but we’re still standing. This year has seen an essentially unprecedented demand for the VFX industry, while they continue to fight for the sort of protections and working standards that the rest of the film industry and most industries in general have. Last year’s near IATSE strike was a wake up call for many of us that the film industry can very easily become incredibly dangerous and destructive to the lives of the people who work in it, and we’ve all tried to do our best to ensure we and the rest of our crew members take the time they need to take care of themselves and their loved ones. This, while absolutely critical and my top priority for the team I am responsible for, has meant that there have been some delays with our progress due to artists needing to take time to focus on themselves and their families, or simply because they’ve needed to prioritize their non-volunteer work, and haven’t been able to juggle both.

   As I’m sure just about all of you know, over the past few years, the original author of the franchise has dedicated her time and legacy to an anti-transgender campaign. I’ve talked about it previously, but it’s been an incredibly difficult situation for all of us. While our film doesn’t benefit her in any way, it’s complicated to dedicate months or years of work to a project that is still playing in her sandbox. For some of our artists, it simply wasn’t something they could come to terms with, and they had to step away from the project for their own well being, which all of us on the TGS Production Team absolutely understand and sympathize with. I’ve struggled with it a lot personally, I know most of us have. Speaking purely for myself, while I think the franchise and world will always be tainted by its author’s bigotry now, I love this film, I am incredibly proud of all of the hard work our cast and crew have poured into it, and I made a commitment to see it through. I intend to do so. But I will never harbor any resentment towards any member of our team who doesn’t feel the same way, and wish them nothing but the best of luck on their future endeavors.

   There’s not much we can do from our small platform to challenge her, unfortunately. Our film is long-since written and shot, and a time capsule of where we all were as fans and aspiring creators when that happened. What we can do is support our trans team members and supporters, and reject bigotry like Rowling’s. We will be adding a note on the situation and our rejection of her and her prejudice at the opening of the film, and I have elected to strike her card from the animated credits sequence. She created the world and most of these characters, I can’t change that. She’ll be credited for her part of course, as it would be wrong not to, but we don’t need to plaster her name across the screen either.

All that said, where is the project at?    The first two acts are just about picture-locked with finished VFX, barring a handful of shots that are currently in the works. Among the work done on this section:

The Third Act is where most of the work is still being done, including a large fight sequence and where most of our focus is.

  Our composer J. Paul Bourque has had a very busy year with his professional composing work in New York, but we’ve slowly been chipping away at the last of the score for the film. We are currently undergoing some revisions to the final sequence, after which Paul and Writer/Creative Producer Ben Wessels will be going back through all the tracks for final adjustments and filling in some final instrumentation, along with the recording of one track I won’t go into detail about that is being recorded live. We’re all really excited about and proud of how the score is sounding, and can’t wait to share it with all of you.   Lastly, while I had hoped to save this announcement until the trailer reveal, I am incredibly excited to announce that over the last couple years we have been working alongside the magically talented Tom Ya, also known as The_H_Project, a french architect who used his lockdown time over the pandemic to create an insanely detailed digital replica of Hogwarts Castle! All of the establishing shots in the film have been replaced with custom shots Tom crafted for the project, and I cannot overstate how much it adds to the final product. Tom is now working, again as he’s able to between his busy day job and time with his new bride (Congratulations again, my friend), on integrating elements of his model into some other shots and sequences, and the results so far have been truly fantastic.

   I want to apologize again to our incredibly patient friends, families, and fans that the project has taken so much longer than any of us have anticipated. We all want to see the project finished and released, and we are working as hard and as quickly as we can to make that happen. But I also just want to take a moment to say how proud I am of our team and everything they’ve accomplished, both on the film and in their personal, professional, and creative lives since the project began. We all really appreciate your years of patience, and we will continue to pour our hearts into this project, and try to get this film finally completed and out to you soon. Happy New Years, everyone. Aaron

Hey Everyone- 

   First off, apologies for the long delay in updates. Things have been moving, but slowly, and it hasn't felt like there was anything tangible to offer as an update. But we're sorry for the lack of communication on our part, and we'll make a point to do better moving forward. Additionally, Tumblr got mistakenly left off when this Update went out a couple weeks ago.    It's been a long year for all of us, and our team, from the pandemic to natural disasters to more mundane issues of busy work schedules and personal struggles. We've had several members of our team have babies, struggle with health issues (including COVID), lose loved ones, have to move great distances (some internationally due to the pandemic), and more, but we're still here, and still pushing onward. We made an incredible amount of progress on the film in 2020 and early 2021, but the back half of this year has been challenging for a lot of our team, and production has slowed a bit. But overall, we're nearly done with VFX, and the film is looking INCREDIBLE. We have a couple of sequences we're still working on, but it is amazing to finally see these sequences taking shape the way we had imagined them.    Things had admittedly been sparse recently, but just in the last week I've received some gorgeous shots from some of our biggest moments in the film!     Our composer Paul is hard at work wrapping up the last of the score despite his busy schedule, but it is absolutely beautiful. He's got about 3 minutes left of the finale, and then he will be going back through for final tweaks and adjustments before it is sent off to the sound team. Color has recently gotten underway, with a lot of back and forth work happening between color and VFX, but we're doing everything we can to keep things moving as efficiently as possible.    There's been a lot of discussion lately about work-life balance for artists in the film industry, notably with the recent IATSE strike that nearly happened earlier this year. Artists and crew members fighting for rest, decent hours, and the ability to have a personal life with their family & friends outside of work. While obviously TGS isn't nearly on that level, and while VFX is largely a non-union field, all of this is something we've always tried to respect with our team, and something we've been especially trying to be mindful of lately. Especially because our incredible VFX artists (as well as the rest of our team) are all working professionals, who are volunteering their limited free time to this project in addition to their primary jobs, and we couldn't possibly be more grateful!

    We're incredibly grateful for all of your continued patience and support. We hope you are all doing well and staying safe out there, and wish you a Happy New Year!

The TGS Team

Hey Everyone!

  Again, I want to apologize for the infrequent updates on our various pages. That's my own fault. Our team has been hard at work, but I'm a production department of one most of the time, and I haven't prioritized keeping in contact with all of you as much as I should.

   That being said, I am incredibly proud of the progress our team has made over the past months, especially in light of everything going on. Despite an ongoing global pandemic, people working from home, losing jobs, homeschooling, medical emergencies, moving, family deaths, and more, our team has pushed through and persevered. The VFX team knocked out a higher rate of shots than I'm pretty sure we ever have before, and the list of remaining shots is shrinking. Most of the film is done, with mainly just a couple action scenes remaining.  

  I'd love to take this moment to give a shoutout to some of the talented artists currently working on the project- Quentin Vectan Berbey, Tom Ya, Pablo Nadal, Guillermo Valades, Nathan Collins, Evan Magruder, Max Wright, Luke Duffy, Alyssa Nichoas, Porter Justus, and Martin Bayang!

  Outside of that, our composer J. Paul Bourque is almost done with the film, currently working on scoring the last few minutes of the finale. Once he's done, Paul & cowriter/Remus actor Ben Wessels will be going back through to finalize score elements. I'm currently sitting here working on audio post stuff, which does still have a decent amount of work left, but I'm hoping to be able to dedicate more time to that now moving forward. The final element will be color correction once the VFX team has completed their work.

  It has been challenging, our team is entirely comprised of volunteers who are donating their evenings/weekends to working on the film as they're able, while also juggling families, day jobs, social lives, and more. I spend several hours a day running feedback, organizing assignments, and managing production, but progress is ultimately dependent on our talented artists' availability, which fluctuates week to week. I want to thank everyone for all of their patience and enthusiasm for this project, and of course all of our artists for all of their hard work. It's been a long road, longer than any of us ever anticipated, but I'm really proud of how things are looking, and am excited to share it with all of you.

Aaron

Hello Everyone-    First off, I want to apologize for the lack of production updates lately. I've received several messages asking about what's going on recently, and I've been trying to find a moment between production duties & personal life madness to draft something up. Things have been progressing well, and I will follow up this post with a more in-depth production update shortly. But before that, there are some important topics in our community I feel need to be addressed.

    In the past year, JK Rowling has come out with several Transphobic comments, followed by a recent essay filled with inaccurate and dangerous misinformation, fear, and hatred, doubling down on these dangerous opinions. We, like many of our fellow fans, were horrified and ashamed of what the creator of this beloved story, who many of us had looked up to, was using her platform for. We feel that what Daniel Radcliffe wrote for the Trevor Project best sums up our stance on the matter-

    “Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I. According to The Trevor Project, 78% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported being the subject of discrimination due to their gender identity. It’s clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm.

    To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you. I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you. If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred. And in my opinion nobody can touch that. It means to you what it means to you and I hope that these comments will not taint that too much."

     This world & story are immeasurably important to many of us, but the dangerous rhetoric that Rowling is spreading is inexcusable, and we must all find a way to address that. The Harry Potter community has grown beyond its creator. We will all continue to push for the core values of the story-those of love, friendship, and acceptance- both within the HP community and society as a whole. Regardless of how close to home opposition to those values may come from, we must all continue to work everyday to reject such ignorance and exclusion, to protect those must vulnerable in our community.

Trans Rights are Human Rights Black Lives Matter Black Trans Lives Matter No One is Free Until We Are All Free