Oscar nominated actor English actor John Hurt (‘The Elephant Man’) has provided the voice-over for Conor Maloney’s low-budget proof of concept ‘Ayame’, which has been made available to view for the general public.
The proof of concept, which is just over five and a half minutes long, is essentially a prologue for a science-fiction fiction film and tells the story of a world where impending disaster looms. Facing total extinction, a military operation turns to the stars in order to relocate the entire human race. During the exodus, one man is sent to rescue his former comrade after she mysteriously disappears while executing a covert operation off world.
The film stars Laura Graham in the lead role with IFTA nominated DoP Piers McGrail (‘Glassland’) shooting and post-production taking place at Windmill Lane. Conor Maloney directs from a script by Alan and Steven Tully with the project being produced by Tony Callaly and Jason Foran of Cashmere Media & Jang Productions.
Conor and his team shot the proof of concept over three days with the director cashing in his life insurance policy to pay for the project.
The director said: “The initial idea was far too big to take on so we decided to concentrate on just the prologue. This would act as an introduction to the world of Ayamé. Hopefully the future for Ayamé is to be able to elaborate more on the world and take it from being the small segment that it is to hopefully a feature film.”
Producer Jason Foran added: “There's a great sense of pride when you can attach yourself to a project like this, to be able to assemble such a skilled and talented team with very little budget to work with it's one of things that was worth doing.”
Speaking about the project, lead actress Laura Graham said: “What struck me about the project was the concept art and the story and something I've never seen before and I find sci-fi is quite unusual in Ireland.”
Conor Maloney’s proof of concept ‘Ayame’ can be viewed below:
