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Darren Maxwell - Producer/Writer/Director

Darren's 'career' in short films came to a end in 2012 with the completion of his film Red (refer to Films). From there he pursued a number of other projects and passions - not all of which were video related - before returning to video production under a different business name in 2018. Unfortunately in March 2020 this new business venture came to a close due to the Covid pandemic.

So beginning in May 2020, Darren opted to resume video production as a 'bit of fun'. However, it wasn't until 2024 when Darren opted to promote some of his more serious productions under the DMFilms banner.

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SPECIAL VIDEOS (from most recent)

The Making of the 'Star Trek Retro Action Figures From Playmates' documentary

In 2023 Darren was given the opportunity to make a special three part documentary film chronicling the history of the Star Trek action figure toy line produced by Playmates in the 1990's. Yet prior to commencing work on the third and final part of the series, Darren opted to create a special video detailing all the work involved in making it.

The result was a special Making Of featurette outlining the step-by-step creative process required to produce the documentary. The video itself was released in May 2024

For more information, refer to the documentary YouTube playlist

 

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Disturbance in the Force: The Fan Film That Never Was

In 2001 Darren was recruited to be the Director of a large and ambitious Star Wars fan film called Disturbance in the Force. Despite Darren completing all live action principle photography, the film itself was never finished.

On the eve of its 20th anniversary, Darren opted to create a documentary discussing the making of the film, the issues experienced during production, an explaination as to why he believed it was never finished and where it eventually ended up.

The Fan Film That Never Was was completed in February 2024, but was backdated to 2021 in line with the original film's 20th anniversary.

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Sci-in 5 (Episode 1)

Throughout the pandemic period, Darren had been broadcasting a number of live online shows on Facebook and YouTube based around various pop culture related topics. Despite the success of these programmes, often they would have running times in excess of two hours which really limited their replay viewing value. As a consequence, Darren decided to produce a new series of pre precorded videos which would have a running time of no more than five minutes.

The result was Sci-in 5 which was produced as part of Sci-Fi Zone and released in April 2023. In addition, this particular episode is featured to demonstrate the show's style and atmosphere

For more information, refer to the Sci-in 5 Sci-Fi Zone website

 

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Cooking for Nerds

Whilst in the process of making the special videos below, Darren was keen to create an episode of a TV cooking show where a real meal was prepared and cooked on screen, even though it was all done somewhat 'tongue in cheek'.

The result was Cooking for Nerds where Darren appeared to make an actual chicken pasta dish to show how easy it was, whilst making continual references to various Science Fiction movies and TV shows.

In the end the show took two days to film and an extra day and half to finish.

Cooking for Nerds was completed in June 2020.

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The Phantom Nerd Revealed

Once social isolation restrictions were relaxed Darren opted to have a few guests over to his house for a catch up.

On the morning of the event Darren conceived of an impromptu film to shoot that night as a bit of fun. He then wrote the story while Lynne, his partner, was out of the house taking their cat to the Vet for a check up.

The only person who had any inkling of what was to occur was the lead actress Clare McDonald who was asked by Darren to supply her own costume for the film. Everyone else, however, only became aware of the impending production once they had arrived at the house with no fore warning at all.

It was Darren's plan to shoot the film in a 'film noir' style as fast as possible and as a result principle photography was completed in less than two hours. From there the guests sat in Darren's Study and watched as he edited the first draft of the film together. In the end the film took around 28 hours to complete.

The Phantom Nerd Revealed was completed in May 2020.

 

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The Rise of Skywalker - From a Certain Point of View

During the middle of the Covid-19 crisis when self isolation was in full effect, Darren combined his experience in making the Oneself Films along with his production skills of Sci-Fi Zone to create this video. However, unlike the Oneself films which were fully scripted, this production used a more adhoc approach and as a result took 11 hours to shoot.

In the end Darren wanted the entire project completed within a full 24 hour period which is what occurred.

The Rise of Skywalker - From a Certain Point of View was completed in May 2020.

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LCA Productions - promo reel

When Darren was a professional videographer between 2018-2020, he needed to create a new website to promote his business. At the top of the site was a quick 1 minute summary of his production achievements which included some of his film, corporate and TV commercial work.

 

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Sci-Fi Zone (Episode 22)

In 2019 Darren was keen to create his own Science Fiction TV talk show as inspired by programmes such as The Project and The Front Bar. The result was Sci-Fi Zone which ran for one season released on YouTube.

Although enjoyable to make for the cast and crew, the production presented a number of challenges as it was filmed before opening hours inside an actual comic book store during the Winter months. Additional challenges were caused by the store's industrial metal ceiling which featured numerous skylights, a consequence of which were a number of episodes being hampered by changing lighting conditions due to the moving of the clouds along with rain which impacted the audio.

This particular episode is featured to demonstrate the show's style and atmosphere, however, please note it was produced under the LCA Productions banner which was Darren's business at the time.

25 episodes of Sci-Fi Zone were completed between May-November 2019.

For more information, refer to the Sci-Fi Zone website

 

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