Visit to the Edit Bay Part 1: ‘Skyline’ Footage Reaction

Back when we did our set visit last spring, B-D had no way of knowing how big the Skyline phenomenon would become – how distribution rights would be picked up by a major studio, or how it would be marketed as the 21st century’s answer to Independence Day, or even whether it would enjoy a theatrical release at all. And yet, miraculously, all of that has happened; this tiny film, reportedly shot for less than $1 million and filmed entirely in and around co-director Greg Strause’s apartment building, has become an almost tentpole-sized event film, in direct contrast with its humble, low-budget beginnings.

So it was a surprise at first when I heard that the Brothers (that is, Greg and Colin) would be hosting a meet and greet/footage preview at the offices of their digital effects company, Hydraulx, back in September – not a typical publicity maneuver for a highly-anticipated big-studio movie. But then, the more I thought about it, the more it actually seemed exactly right. A casual, stripped-down affair at the filmmakers’ home base was actually quite in line with the ethos of the film – a labor of love by two filmmakers who’d become so disillusioned with the business-as-usual Hollywood game that they decided to strike out on their own, taking the reins of their own fate from a system where you’re less likely to knock down doors than you are to slam your fists against them, repeatedly and with no acknowledgement from the other side, until your knuckles are bleeding.

I arrived rather breathless at Hydraulx’s Santa Monica offices, scooting inside the building just in the nick of time after having circled the block for several minutes searching for a parking spot (a commodity that, in case you haven’t heard, can sometimes be hard to come by in the City of Angels) before finally snagging one at a meter located around the corner.

The Brothers (Greg is only a year older than Colin, though somehow the age gap between the two seems significantly greater) entered the crowded room of journalists in good spirits a few minutes after I rolled in, inviting us (in booming voices peppered with the flat-voweled inflections of their Chicago-adjacent upbringing) on a quick tour of their impressive offices. In a downstairs room, a group of visual effects artists sat at banks of computers spread along each wall, working on digitally animating the film’s nasty alien invaders into the live-action footage. Despite the Brothers’ scramble to finish the effects by the looming November 12th release date, there wasn’t exactly a crackling sense of urgency evident in the crowded room of computer animators; then again, the sight of someone typing away on a keyboard doesn’t exactly give off the same blood, sweat, and tears vibe as, say, someone performing an act of heavy-duty manual labor.

We continued on past the main room into a smaller one containing a large computer station (apparently worth something on the order of $250K), on the monitor of which the Strauses displayed some footage of star Eric Balfour, dirty in a white tank top and dripping with sweat, beating the shit out of a harmless pad on the rooftop of the apartment building. The image on the monitor then suddenly switched from Balfour throttling a pad to Balfour throttling a spiny alien invader, sprays of extraterrestrial blood spurting through the air as, through the magic of CG effects, the actor now appeared to be caught up in a bout of hand-to-hand combat with the otherworldly creature.

It was an impressive effect, to be sure, but what we’d really come here for was to view the promised preview footage, and promptly thereafter we were herded into the official Hydraulx screening room, where we settled into our seats to await what we were all hoping would turn out to be a new and exciting vision as promised by the impressive recently-released teaser. Complete with that epic final shot of the city of Los Angeles being sucked up by what appears to be a giant alien vacuum, my curiosity had officially been piqued by the spot, and I was feeling optimistic. So would it live up to the steadily-building hype – which had kicked into high gear following a Skyline panel at this year’s Comic-Con that had successfully generated a healthy amount of fanboy buzz? After a brief introduction by the Strauses, the footage was rolled.

And it was…okay.

Given the film’s miniscule reported budget, the effects – those that that had actually been finished, anyway – were truly impressive. Amazing, even. As a movie…well, it’s hard to say. While we were treated to liberal doses of testosterone-heavy action scenes, the overall effect was that of a shallow Michael Bay extravaganza shot on a shoestring; unfortunately, the footage we were shown didn’t manage to convey the nifty sense of dread milked so compellingly in the teaser. Here’s a sampling of some of what we saw:

1) Eric Balfour and Donald Faison run along the roof of the apartment building, trying desperately to outrun a floating alien ship emanating a blue light and seemingly threatening to suck them away. They reach the door to the stairwell – but it’s locked. As the alien ship grows closer, Faison takes a handgun and blows several holes in the doorknob. The door still doesn’t budge. Just in the nick of time Scottie Thompson (the actress who plays Balfour’s girlfriend in the film) opens the door from the other side, and as the blue light from the alien spacecraft catches her face, a crackling sound accompanies the sight of dark tendrils spiderwebbing across her skin…

2) Balfour, Faison, and the rest of the main cast of characters watch images play out on Faison’s T.V. set of a U.S. military fighter jet streaking across the sky, in an attempt to shoot down one of the alien ships (in a scene that instantly called to mind Independence Day). It doesn’t go well.

3) Several of the young adult characters – Faison and his girlfriend (?) in one car, and three other characters (Balfour, Thompson, and Brittany Daniel) in another one following just behind – race towards the exit to the building’s parking garage. As Faison’s car exits into the sunlight, what looks like the foot of a Transformer smashes down on top of it. Faison miraculously manages to get out of the car alive (his gal pal isn’t so lucky) and attempts to crawl away as the alien behemoth bears down on him and his three friends in the car behind scream for him to “Run!” Or something. (I realize portions of this scene are glimpsed in the full-length theatrical trailer).

4) Back in the parking garage, a middle-aged couple packing up their car is attacked by an alien creature that has managed to infiltrate the building, and the man suffers an unfortunate decapitation (we’ll have to wait and see how grisly the death comes off in the finished product, as the effects displayed in the scene weren’t yet complete). Balfour and his two girlfriends watch as it happens, then drag the man’s screaming wife into the elevator with them.

Again…a lot of running, a lot of screaming, a lot of slam-bang action sequences…and not much in the way of substance. It would be unfair of me to judge the film before viewing it in its entirety, but I will say that viewing these scenes actually dampened my enthusiasm for the project quite a bit – like I stated before, I really dug the teaser – much as viewing the Michael Bay/Roland Emmerich-esque full-length trailer (complete with soaring, rah-rah music that tells us to be excited! in no uncertain terms) also seems to have slightly dulled the anticipation of others I’ve spoken with. Regardless, I’ll withhold from making any strong, overarching judgments on the film until it’s released – the D.I.Y. Strauses deserve, at least in my view, to be given the benefit of the doubt.

Be sure and check out Part 2 of our `Skyline’ coverage, where cast and crew sit down for a Q&A!