“It was very overwhelming at first,” said Stephan Zlotescu, writer and director of the acclaimed True Skin, a 2012 short film based on human augmentation in a vastly more tech-immersed world. The film gained almost immediate acclaim and was quickly snapped-up by Amazon Studios to develop as a series following an earlier attempt by Warner Brothers to make it into a feature film. Zlotescu said he wasn’t sure how to deal with the very positive reaction to his internet-based, five-minute film, but at present, working on the series he says things are “coming together nicely”.

True Skin depicts a future in which technological augmentation of the human body is mainstream. “It’s all about the parts, and everyone wants them,” is the opening line in the film, and soon we hear about revolutionary chips, technological enhancements, available on the black market.  Bangkok, a city at present notorious for its plethora of black market goods, is the future home to cyborgs that purvey short-time sexual encounters, drug programs sold as virtual reality packages, and street touts who use holograms to advertise their wares. The short film took place in Bangkok’s constantly eye-opening, sometimes confounding red light district, and so will the show, according to Zlotescu.

Shoestring Budget?

What’s impressive about the film, apropos the stylish special effects, is that you’d think it had been made by a large studio. Zlotescu worked with a cinematographer who goes by the name of H1 to create the visual effects, and the whole thing was reportedly created on a shoestring budget with meager resources.

“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” said Zlotescu when asked if this is true. He explained that on his three home computers he did 90 percent of the VFX (visual effects) himself but did get help from a few guys who worked from his former VFX company. “I also hired freelancers for certain elements from time to time,” he said.

We had heard he made the entire film for $5,000.  “That isn’t accurate,” Zlotescu responded to the rumored budget, “I spent $5,000 just in Bangkok filming.  I spent a bit more on freelancers and equipment.” He also added that he, “couldn’t even begin to quantify the sweat equity invested in this as well as dipping into savings trying to survive while working full-time on this.”

His advice to budding filmmakers set on creating a low-budget short film. “I would not recommend to go about this sort of thing because it’s just pure hell.  It was the hardest two years of my life thus far.” Nonetheless, Zlotescu feels that with consumer technology becoming so advanced we will see more films being made outside of big studios by people with small budgets. “Give it another 10-15 years and you’ll be seeing self-funded features popping up all over the net,” he said.

The reality of the future of True Skin

The tech in True Skin is far from being otherworldly. Cyborgs that sell sex might be stretch of the imagination, but virtual reality sexual escapades are verily here and now. A reliance on virtual assistants, sidewalks filled with holographic images of things we might purchase, the subcutaneously ‘chipped’ body, are all a present reality. A decade ago, maybe even less, True Skin may have seemed like a depiction of an unlikely future, but with recent advancements in AR, VR and AI, the film portrays some easily believable scenarios not far from now – especially the pervasive holograms.

“My feelings are basically that this is how tech is evolving and it’s here to stay,” said Zlotescu. The main focus of the series, or at least the short film, was the augmented human body. He believes such augmentation will happen. “I mean it’s happening now,” he explained, “The only difference I see is when it becomes elective vs. a necessity.”

Speaking of the future, “We’ll have old tech mixed in with new tech in one big mish-mash,” Zlotescu said, “Holograms doing the same functions as AR.  Bionic eyes performing similar functions to Google Glass.  Organic bionics and modifications being grown while metal arms are being built. There will be a lot to choose from so get ready.”

He said there isn’t much he can say about the series at the moment, only that he’s in the process of making it. It’s likely there will be a moral ambiguity concerning the advanced tech featured in the series, such as in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner – that looked at times as though it could have been based partly in Bangkok. Does Zlotescu have any reservations about a future in which man and machine’s relationship is much more intimate? Asked if he would augment his own body he responded, “Hell yeah. Chip me, make me bionic, transfer my consciousness, I’m in!”

Photo credit: Stephan Zlotescu