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“The Freeman Chronicles” – The Fanmade Half-Life Miniseries That Needs Your Help To Get Off The Ground

Multimedia & Film Half-Life

We’ve seen a lot of amazing fanmade Half-Life live-action films in the community over the years, but for the most part, these have been shorter, smaller creations developed on budgets ranging from “tiny” to “zero”. And while they mostly hit all the right notes even with these minimal resources, one just can’t help but wonder… what if a few of the community’s biggest and bestest filmmakers decided to aim higher than the rest–namely, by putting together a more sizeable budget–offering the fans a more substantial fanfilm than we’ve ever seen before?

Well, it seems the wheels are finally turning on a non-profit, fan-funded Half-Life webseries that might just give us what we’ve been clamoring for: 40 minutes of Gordon Freeman, fighting aliens and spec-ops soldiers on the surface of the Black Mesa complex! And no sword fights.

Meet The Freeman Chronicles, a six-episode Half-Life webseries currently in very early pre-production, created by Chariotdrive (who were behind last year’s Enter the Freeman) and Infectious Designer (creators of Half-Life: Origins and Beyond Black Mesa), and funded by… well, us, the fans.

You see, The Freeman Chronicles is a fan-funded project being hosted on Indiegogo, with a goal of $75,000 and a frightening number of contribution perk levels. As of writing, it is at 27% with $20,441 already raised… and less than 3 days left on the clock!

But this isn’t just a charity drive, as contributors do receive rewards (ranging from an exclusive downloadable HD package of the series itself, plus special features; to a limited edition Blu-Ray and DVD double-disc release of the series) depending on the amount pledged to the project. Higher perk levels even sign you up for the press, cast, and crew screening of the series, but only if you really shell out!

On the crew’s side; no revenue and no profit will be made from the webseries (a pretty lofty promise, for sure), and all donations received on Indiegogo will go directly to the series’ production and development. Apparently, fans will also get to help the filmmakers move the story itself forward, by voting on story scenarios for future episodes, which is definitely a great idea.

Even if the project doesn’t reach its goal, the crew will still receive all the contributions, and the series will still enter production and eventually be released. However, production will be significantly scaled down, possibly to the point where less episodes may be made. At this point, it’s hard to say whether or not it’ll come to that, but it seems like we’ll still be getting a really competent, impressive and ground-breaking fanmade miniseries. Legendary film director, special effects artist and creature designer Steve Wang (among numerous others, he’s done work on Predator, Batman Returns, Hellboy, Blade 3 and X-Men 3) is even on board to bring Half-Life’s monstrous aliens to life, using practical effects rather than CG – a dream come true, if you ask me!

The story itself will represent a sort of “lost episode” within Half-Life 1’s narrative, taking place during Gordon’s trek in the topside areas of Black Mesa, but before he reaches the Lambda Complex. It’s a solid premise, and if you ask me, just what a Half-Life film should contain: “surface tension”, high-octane action, as well as extra-dimensional horror.

On the whole, it sounds like a very interesting and daring project, with a lot of great potential. Even if it doesn’t hit its goal, it’ll still be something really worth seeing in the future – remember, they haven’t even gotten started yet, so the sky will still be the limit for the foreseeable future. In any case, good luck to these guys!

Article Sources

Indiegogo and The Freeman Chronicles’ official website.

13 Comments

  1. Proby. More like a pilot. We could pick up after that episode.

  2. Where the F is Half-Life 3?! This wait is getting ridiculous.

  3. So, uh, any more news on this?

  4. So, the time is up, and they have $22,330. What happens how? Are they gonna make an announcement?

  5. Keep in mind guys that indiegogo takes 9%, plus 3% for credit card transactions, then there is fullfillment of perks. That’s several hundred blurays, DVD’s and CD’s and then the shipping cost to go along with it.

    All said and done its more like $15k

  6. So Enter The Freeman is the first episode of this series?

  7. Fingers crossed this makes it.

  8. Hm, they’ve reached 29.77% as of right now ($22,330). A sizeable amount of money, but they’ve still got a long way to go before reaching their goal of $75,000…

  9. Wow. I’m shocked, and super stoked to see this get off the ground

  10. All I can say is thank goodness this fundraiser doesn’t need 100% to receive anything at all. Even if they don’t raise another dollar starting from the moment I post this comment, they still get $21.4K. That number could indeed be a lot better, but it’s still a respectable amount that should open several production opportunities to these guys.

  11. Wang directed a number of cult martial arts hits, one of my favorites Drive, with Mark Dacascos won an martial arts film festival prize one year over chackie Chans latest.

  12. I really hope this works out.

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