Droid Police in Tetra Vaal

[bonniegrrl]

Mixing cinéma vérité-style footage of a Johannesburg township and CG footage of what could be a tougher protocol droid cousin of C-3PO, South African born director Neill Blomkamp makes a compelling short film called Tetra Vaal.

According to Very Short List:
Directed by 27-year-old Neill Blomkamp for the Embassy Visual Effects Inc., the short -- a pseudo–corporate video for a fictional robotics company -- shows a robot cop policing the streets of a Johannesburg township. The effects go beyond the extraordinary (even the robot’s relaxed-alert cop posture is stunningly lifelike), and the combination of the documentary-style footage and computer-generated images is convincing enough that you might find yourself wondering if you were on vacation during the announcement that robots are indeed now among us.

Watch the video of Tetra Vaal here.

Blomkamp also directed a short called Yellow for the Adidas film series about a Blade Runner-like replicant who's escaped a top-secret military facility and is on the run amongst us.

Watch the video of Yellow here.

Blomkamp's work as a 3-D animator can be seen in such TV programs as "Smallville," "Dark Angel" and "Stargate SG-1." He's currently directing the film adaptation of the hit video game Halo.

---------
SOURCES: Starwars.com Blog, Very Short List, Youtube