Sci-Fi Short Film "Exo Sapien" | DUST

[@cheesewilliamson]

Hey everyone! This is James C. Williamson, writer/director. Thank you so much for taking the time to check out our short! I'm sure you all have a few questions - please fire away and I will endeavour to give the most non-specific and obtuse answers I can think of! Also, if your question is: "Was X an Evangelion reference?", the answer is automatically yes.

[@weaponxtraining1296]

First off, this was amazing from start to finish! Secondly, what inspired you guys to create this?

[@raat208]

So they knew about machine already and feeding it wii lose memory too.

[@nicknapier4363]

Will there be a part 2 or a further explanation of the story? What was she plugging into, what was the creature, and what happened at the end?

[@rudiboyrip]

Lol wah what¿

[@Michellee970]

I'm so confused.

[@yl0000]

Not entirely clear, but I think this is what happened. They were stranded. They found the dying astronaut. Alex volunteered to transfer her own consciousness into the body using that machine in order to learn of a way out. She needed to periodically plug into the machine to remain in that body. The monster was an unforeseen side effect of this transfer, which is why it seemed to be attracted by the machine. The film also seems to suggest that the monster was part of Alex’s consciousness, so maybe it was just trying to reunite with the rest of her? Anyway, when the machine counted down to 0, Alex’s consciousness returned to her own body, and she remembered Adrien.

[@cheesewilliamson]

👀👀👀

[@Legionmint7091]

I saw the creature as her blood, that went into the machine, manifesting somehow. I speculated the creature was her consciousness struggling to get back into her.

[@TRagin1212]

I am going to need some help understanding this one.

[@mtmirian]

Me too.

[@alo5301]

Me toooooo

[@prk55]

I have no idea what this was about. Not helped by the poor sound and one of the actors bad diction.

[@family77866]

Glad that I'm not the only one

[@pr3tend3r-01]

As far as I understand the black girl was with the group of soldiers and they found this other women dead with box who is headed somewhere safe so she volunteers to be plugged in and hopefully leads them to where the dead one is going

[@shawnerz98]

@3:30 reminded me of a middle school joke: Q: What's gross? A: Biting in to an apple and finding a worm. Q: What's grosser than gross? A: Biting in to an apple and finding half a worm!

[@osmia]

Thanks for having CC enabled

[@Graytail]

Yeah there really isn't enough here to call this done... I will say though that I suspect the stalker creature to be an alternate Cass perhaps? I mean, that machine is draining blood.. the creature seems to be made of blood, and if you look at it at 05:50 where it is kneeling down its head looks quite similar to that helmet Cass was wearing at the crash site. Past that, the amnesia bit for whoever plugs into the machine, the second world in the ending... yeah just not getting that at all.

[@cheesewilliamson]

This guy’s onto something 👀

[@whittaker007]

My guess is that the alien blood monster is the displaced consciousness of the pilot attempting to reclaim it's body that Cass hijacked. And the naked Cass at the end is Cass in her real body awakened now that the pilot has returned to it's body in the compound. Or something? But I have no idea what the infection thing is.

[@auroraglacialis]

I wish we would have gotten at least some clues as to who Cass was and what vessel and why she crashed and what the others were doing there, apparently being somehow trapped.

[@donkenmuir9504]

Good film. I like it. More like this one

[@Knards]

Most of these Dust movies have a non-ending

[@woodturner1954]

I don't get it at all.

[@squeakeththewheel]

i was hoping you/or someone would explain it.

[@mikeuk666]

The sound effects and music overpower the voices at times 😢

[@prk55]

I couldn’t understand one of the actors at all, even adjusting the sound, because his diction was poor and swamped out by the music and sound effects

[@johnflynn6140]

ya it was pretty hard to hear at times, after watching this all I could say was "Umm what" What was any of this about, it may have a good premise of a story but I have no clue what that may be

[@0neIntangible]

At least this time, Dust provided CC Closed Captions, which I needed to understand heavy drawling (British or South African), accents.

[@JameyAston]

This is a common problem with ALL movies these days. Even with big budget box office films, one struggles to hear the dialogue over the noise. And I’m someone who loves the m Film score as much as the film!

[@robert-yv2yj]

Bit late catching up with this, but really enjoyed it. Plenty of unanswered questions, in a good way. Well done.

[@ieatcaribou7852]

Another visually brilliant confusing mess that could’ve been saved with less than a minute of exposition. Definitely a reason why over 100k views has garnered a mere 3k likes.

[@cpuuk]

Just the essentials in that box, apples, water bottle, dessert browning torch (for the crème brûlée and fighting monsters). Good film.

[@randallpage8402]

This one does not really make sense.

[@immanutt4442]

one of the very best short films

[@RegBarlow]

When I was at school I was taught that stories needed a beginning, a middle and an end. None of here. Or perhaps you could’ve started at the end and worked backwards. Just my opinion.

[@lisanidog8178]

I’m hooked on Dust. These films are amazing! Great story lines, top notch acting. Kudos to these filmmakers and their actors. Dust is a very safe addiction and every day I need my fix.

[@davidursin2150]

The problems I had with this story was that it didn't answer all of the 4 main questions: 1 - Who is the main character/protagonist I thought it was the dying astronaut but at the end that was confused with the implication it was Alex dwelling in her? 2 - What is the main character trying to accomplish I wasn't sure initially then I then heard the astronaut say she wanted get off "this rock" and back to where ( I never learned). 3 - Who's trying to stop the main character I never got a solid answer to that. Initially I thought it was the liquid/blob monster, then I thought it was the additional characters that were added when she suddenly woke up in a building basement. But they turned out not to be antagonists and the blob monster returned to attack them too so... back to the monster??? Then the end of story discussion amongst the added characters about Alex being trapped in the astronaut's mind "to figure a way out" confused my understanding of what had been happening all along - very frustrating. Maybe that was intended as a reversal, but still, it left me feeling frustrated not intrigued. 4 - What happens if they fail I guess if they fail, they remain "stuck on this rock" since that was repeated by the additional characters at the end, as well. If I watched this a few more times I would likely get a better understanding of what's going on, but not being able to understand it the first time around, IMO, points to a need for some rewriting.

[@KimoBruddah-ki2oo]

Yeah, i love Dust, and this is the first one that disappointed me. It was bad. Made no sense. You are shipwrecked, so take over the mind/body of someone else, so you know where the rocket ship is hidden? But instead, all you find is a sweet butt at the end? ok, sure.

[@nikospitr]

Hope it was a whole movie :) Very interesting!

[@williamkeily6686]

Outstanding

[@martyschrader]

You know, it would be nice if pieces like this could actually tell a story instead of mashing together little bits and pieces of a story and leaving the whole as an incomprehensible jumble. "Never leave the audience wondering what the heck just happened." Y'all violated that rule.

[@leonestello]

I feel Violated too😠

[@prk55]

Poor sound, not clear at all what was going on.

[@cheryldevine42]

Same

[@michauui]

mysterious.. exciting... but could not understand it so far..

[@cliffontheroad]

We are, I am, still waiting for the promised answers to questions already posted. If the machine kept her memories repressed, why did she awake in the field alone AT THE END, or were both wakeups during repression? Never the purpose exposed for volunteering (dream image with the others around her), and that was not a clue HOW she could provide answers to getting off the rock. Tangent; someone who writes a manual knows what it should convey but a first time reader does not understand a poorly written manual. Has potential as a film; has holes. Award givers may not care if a "they lived happily ever after" is achieved. Far tangent; close is only good with horseshoes and hand granades.

[@clue0001]

Was that an RCA connector plug combined with a needle, a guitar cable jack and hose for charging/transfusion?! That's a good use for such components in a Sci-fi environment.

[@solotrotrotro2530]

its not a good use, its a lack of imagination...and budget, probably. my 5 year old boy notice that and says: dad its fake!!

[@Dave0zz]

@@solotrotrotro2530 RCA jacks aren't as common as they used to be. I noticed it, but it didn't put me off.

[@nefariumxxx]

Yes and you missed: classic 12AX7 style vacuum tubes and vintage surplus geiger counter enclosure used for the device.

[@cheesewilliamson]

Was a tough choice between RCA or coaxial!

[@TimGreigPhotography]

...and the sort of thing we all have laying around.

[@corychristensen5917]

WOW, my TV isn't the greatest, but how black her hair looks is amazing. Great job

[@Dice-Gamble]

Her hair was out of this world. (pun intended), I kept thinking about it.

[@m118lr]

..?

[@cheesewilliamson]

Shout out to Liza’s braids ✌️

[@hilaryc3203]

If you look at the film you can see how all the colours are more saturated. It adds some grit to it.

[@goldenagenut]

Cool creature effect!

[@faustocardy5018]

I couldn't understand what was going on. But reading the comments kinda help.

[@glennkrieger]

I'm not sure what was going on, but it kept my attention.

[@RodrigoPalma700]

Thanks.

[@raphlvlogs271]

interesting situation ambiguous outcome makes you wonder what will happen afterwards

[@manfrommoon552]

This film is not to my taste. A tangled story that spins around a technical device. Why does one want to escape from this planet at all? The astronaut wakes up in a worked field and there are factory ruins. All this does not fit together properly

[@rudevalve]

Certified Gold!!!!!

[@cheesewilliamson]

You get a gold star ♥️

[@cheesewilliamson]

Answers? Or just more questions maybe? 🤔

[@davidknight3249]

Excellent.

[@AcapulKero]

We need defenitly a second part to know the whole story. :)

[@Aurealeus]

That was the second part. What's missing is the first part telling us who, what, when, where, why and how.

[@AcapulKero]

@@Aurealeus You´re right!

[@someguydino6770]

I hate it when within the first minute or so the writers test your gullibility. There's no way in hell that girl would ever be able to put on that helmet with those beautiful, long, kinky, Bob Marley braids! NO WAY!

[@thomasgee9265]

I love stuff like this. Her hair sticking out of her suit seal at the neck hurt AtD.

[@mykemech]

Plus waking up in a cultivated field. :)

[@Wanelmask]

The way some scenes are shot + certains soundtrack reminded me of an lsd/ketamine trip I had back then. Outside of that, the fck is going on with the plot?!

[@pablosuarez4592]

EXCELLENT ❤

[@ncox001]

Let me get this right. You wake up on an alien planet and the first thing you do is REMOVE YOUR HELMET?

[@Windrider6]

Yet another DUST video that has a start, and we will probably never see the end. I weary of DUST videos that are boosters for writers and directors, but are not for Sci Fi fans.

[@bjb7587]

Same. I gave up watching Dust for a while because of this. Guess it hasn't gotten any better. Omeleto is a good alternative.

[@thelonelyloner7]

I can't understand sh*t

[@wingstrongwingstrong]

nice musical accompaniment

[@PrimitiveInTheExtreme]

Great trip.

[@cheesewilliamson]

Thanks so much dude!

[@PrimitiveInTheExtreme]

@@cheesewilliamson 🤝

[@nicolaphenixborgonon5723]

Top suspense. Lovvve it.txx

[@auroraglacialis]

So, that fractured ghost was presumably Cass, or what remained of her, but how did it affect the guys in real life rather than just Alex who is in that body of Cass. I also assume now that Alex was in that bunker in a coma because her consciousness was in the Cass body and this was prolonged everytime she plugged in - so in the end it means Alex should have woken up but for some reason instead she went into some other place, maybe stuck inside Cass mind....

[@olivier-pierredebelmont.3630]

Due to heavy rain of my tin roof in my shack south of Cambodia,I must look at this again when rain stops.... I am little bit confuse about this all😊

[@christopherdiedrich40]

Yes there are a lot of holes in this & you are not alone in being confused.

[@olivier-pierredebelmont.3630]

@@christopherdiedrich40 ah.ok👍

[@pineapplegritz7281]

I for one, certainly enjoyed the (cough) ...ending 😂

[@miningquest]

Me and You my Friend, SA Colored A**🤣

[@PopJacare]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Yup! Kept rewinding JUST that part!

[@Supernavneet23]

Hehe. Yeah😅

[@eddisonlewis8099]

Interesting acting

[@magnetdesignandadver]

Love it. Great production values. Great cast and acting. The 'entity' is freaky. The end scene is awesome and totally unexpected. It seems they 'borrowed her' (the one guy said 'she would be on auto pilot') and then when they all died she went back to her original body where they had found her. And she has to go from there - the only survivor....or maybe not?

[@WarrenStarCat]

SIp Ties do not cut that easy, but very good film......Fucking Amazing....

[@MrYekunoamlak]

Good job sci fu mystery

[@alexisschumacher]

I understand nothing… Nothing nothing nothing

[@Failte630]

Ok, there's a lot going on here and I enjoyed watching it, hoping it would explain itself. But it didn't. What did Adrian mean at 11.57 when Alex, (not Cass, as named in the introduction to the story) asked where they are. He said, "I thought you'd never be able to tell me that". I know this might sound weird but the ending of the film brought the story of Adam and Eve to mind. There was a bad apple and a good apple, a man called Kane, (in the Bible that was Adam and Eve's 1st son, and he killed Able their 2nd son). And she woke up at the end of the film, in the nude, walking in what looked like a beautiful mountain scene ( the garden of Eden??). Yes, the captions were welcome, cos it was not easy to hear everything. I hope u keep making films. But u will need to help the viewers a bit. We don't want to be spoon fed, but a few clues here and there would help. 😊

[@SamanthaTollstam]

Reminds me of the book "expendable"

[@41divad]

Obscure... a few high points

[@absolutesrunner]

Sick 6's

[@elegantcourtier]

Is there a behind the scenes making of for this short film --??

[@charless7903]

great story line, but is it eve or lilith thats the question, next title- before adam

[@Oliviakhouk]

This is probably the first film that I want crazy about? Because I still have no idea what happened 😊

[@ghimmy47]

The world is full of people who have an idea or bit of info in their head and assume everyone else knows because they personally know. The attempt to tell that story is a complete failure with me and I reject it being my fault. Who does that leave?

[@Gisburne2000]

I have that problem with some of the stories I write, but because I know it's something I do, I always go back to it later, thinking, "Am I the only one who's going to understand this?" and make changes if I am. I don't mind a bit of mystery, or a story leaving you thinking, "I wonder what happens next?" but if all a movie leaves you with is "I have no idea what ANY of that was about, or what it means, or where it leads", as this movie definitely does, I'm left cold by it.

[@prk55]

I didn’t understand this at all.

[@whittaker007]

Welcome to Dust 🤣

[@kevinmkraft]

This was good. I'm still trying to figure out what happened in it, though.

[@Thormic77]

Hmmm... is it part one? What just happened out there....

[@cheesewilliamson]

Try watching it backwards 👀

[@ingridvergara702]

@@cheesewilliamson Ok, but how?

[@graffixx8088]

interesting---but have no idea what the hell its about or whats going on...

[@sydneyperry8703]

Still confused on what “the terrible truth the device was trying to protector her from” is. Regardless I loved it, very unique and the lead actress was incredible.

[@sonovivo1247]

I especially loved the final images… it's a small relief to the sick shyness of most American (short and long) movies :-)

[@MrSky084]

Pretty sure the opening drone sequence was reversed as the 'smoke" is going back into the damaged items on the ground..... First thing I noticed.

[@Bonewerkz]

It's a 4d creature. It can go trough 3d doors.

[@jackieanderson9408]

Sweet 🎂

[@echo-channel77]

If I have to think this hard to figure out wth is going on, it ceases being entertainment.

[@SynthoidSounds]

Interesting, but there's a lot of missing pieces, can't really see the entire picture or even enough of a major portion of it from which to extract a potential interpretation. Meanwhile, couldn't help but notice Cass's interesting hair.

[@MissOlympia2023]

I want more. This was very interesting & mysterious.

[@TM-cf9ek]

Dear James C. Williamson (writer/director), thank you and your team for the great effort you put in this short. With your permission I will rate from 1 to 5 the following: Story : well, the ideea is good, but it looks confusing as the storyline is not very fluid and while some scenes are slow without telling anything others are abrupt bringing information from nowhere. The memories ideea is brilliant, like being trapped inside someone universe. The creature on the other hand is poor and childish. A more "unseen" monster would have done better. 3 stars Lights on set: 5 stars. Great lighting. Sound: 3 stars, could have been better on all aspects. Camera: 5 stars. Beside the running from the monster scene, which was quite "static" camera was superb. Thumbs up for the camera operator. Color grading: 5 stars, fabulous colouring and good editing. Actors: well here we have big ups and downs. While the two main characters were overall not bad at all, the "running from the monster" scene was one of the worst I ever saw. Good actors don't have tons of Drama and Acting school degrees or being members of Actors Guild, they are natural and convincing. In the aforementioned scene they were supposed to run for their lives, instead they were doing some early morning jogging. After the male character is stuck in the doors yelling for help, the female character was so bad in acting. Her body language was "well, ok...ah...I will help you 'cause I don't have what to do anyway". Acting for that scene receives a 1 star, overall 3 stars for the entire movie. Costumes: 4 stars Vfx & makeup: 4 stars

[@chivo850]

Do you notice that James hasn't replied? It's cause your feedback isn't needed. If you're not a real critic, then your just someone with an opinion. And if you have been following shorts for some time, you would have noticed that these are like anthologies. So the story lines are meant to have holes in most.....Just stick with watching...critiquing isn't your strong suit.

[@RM-nm3xn]

No, we don't need a second part.

[@renanmonteirobarcellos6131]

Death Stranding?!

[@fionajane56]

Simple things make a short film more intense. The young womans dreads would never be acceptable in space or under a helmet of any shipsuit.

[@DarkMUMY93]

❤

[@walkers198]

The very end was kinda worth it 😏

[@pqsk]

Why is the dust app not available on iOS and on tvOS the app just loads a black screen?

[@Mallory-Malkovich]

Some stuff happened, but was it a story?

[@Darkwolfpicturesfilms]

Interesting concept, terrible delivery. Its poorly expressed or not expressed to be precise, that the blood monster is the fractured consciousness of Cass trying to regain control of her body and that Alex consciousness is stuck and lost her memory from things going bad during the procedure and is now mixing bits she actually remembered up but the build up should've been actually discovering what Cass was doing on the planet and what went wrong and relaying it to her team before slowly starting to forget things. Just my 2 cent.

[@Darkwolfpicturesfilms]

Camera and anamorphic lens use lovely btw kudos to the dp. Except for the distortion effect and grade during the flashback a bit over the top.

[@zulfikardarekhan6585]

Human charging machine 😊😊😊

[@cheesewilliamson]

Power bank in an orange jumpsuit

[@antoipepper]

Hello. Please where can I get the equipment used in this video. Is it sold by your organization?

[@cheesewilliamson]

Hey AP! On camera, we used the Sony Venice + Panavision Xtals

[@crucial0072]

We need more! Work on it! Give us the answers....in another film. 😊

[@cheesewilliamson]

Hey AP! On camera, we used the Sony Venice + Panavision Xtals

[@crucial0072]

@@cheesewilliamson that's great, but we want another film. 😂😂

[@christadauria4362]

There was the new species of Exo- Sapiens as only one female exo- sapien on the super Earth in her encounter with other human beings as the astronauts from our Earth in our Solar System in our Milky Way Galaxy.

[@JameyAston]

First the positive. I enjoyed the acting and the directing seemed ok. The score supported the suspense idea. The negative. All the points raised. Confusing story, bad audio engineering, unsatisfying finish.

[@joustingdude]

I mean... it was interesting? But I can only speculate on the story as it remained disjointed throughout. And the vague resolution was not at all resolved. But it had great production value and reasonably good acting, but the dialogue was unhelpful and vague. I think it deserves more time to actually tell a story, this felt loike there was a LOT of story being compressed into a tiny window of time.

[@bennaustin6632]

It would be nice to be able to hear the dialogue without excessively loud music drowning it out

[@captainjj7184]

Good production nevertheless and I will be watching any sequels to this, I understand first hand how hard it is to shoot these considering all the limitations and this picture ends up pretty amazing. Just a script note maybe her over the top "Manga" attitude as a captive could be toned down a bit (unless it's part of the story, dunno I haven't watched this story's prequel) - but who am I to complain after that ending :)

[@ThomasPCGuruENGINES]

Loved the side boobage at the start which cleverly foreshadowed the nude girlage at the end which was a clever way to, um, symbolise vulnerability. Yeah. Noice.

[@blakepooler]

Sliding lock on a sliding door eh? Other than that twas good

[@TheCaznut]

Love all the South African accents

[@cheesewilliamson]

Hectic, bru

[@m118lr]

I’d say..NASA’s ‘Space program’ is in REAL bad trouble..

[@cheesewilliamson]

Is space even real tho?

[@lencrowell9564]

What the hell. a bad drug trip. !!!!!

[@traffa2]

Forbidden Planet, Id scenario?

[@michiganmagneto]

I don't get it

[@bradameerbeg2154]

Was it meant to make sense?

[@rickradix7464]

Human on the outside but what is on the inside?

[@mich3694]

Activar los subtítulos en español gracias

[@leonestello]

What?🕳️

[@nicolaphenixborgonon5723]

Head actrice is very good and beautiful...