Sockland is a medieval fantasy world where sock puppets live. They live off the land and have diverse towns and reigns. Imagine a Saturday morning puppet TV show, expanded into a massive world.

This is a completely original new concept and story. There’s no book, comic, tv show or short story where this was inspired from. It started as a simple idea of a sock finding an abandoned egg, leading to a misunderstanding and eventual unraveling of a mystery. The medieval setting came naturally, it lent itself to a more visual and action oriented adventure, no phones or modern conveniences compel the characters to move, act, jump, attack, defend, chase, run and explore.

The film is child friendly, yet it also deals with characters choosing between pragmatism and what their conscience tells them. While some characters are very clear cut, others have very difficult choices to make, so even though the movie is relatable to children, adults can also enjoy and have fun at the trials and tribulations the characters go through in this adventure. There are no curse words, no innuendos, no potty humor and no metaphors for current political or social affairs. It’s meant to offer all audiences a way into an unseen world with its own culture and history. A land inhabited by a very diverse cast of sock puppets with their own quirks and goals. This is definitely a worldbuilding movie that offers more than just a superficial morality tale.

I posted a facebook ad in several Vancouver actors’ groups. I got around 45 replies, I did a second run and got an additional 5 applicants. I had a spreadsheet detailing my initial impressions, feedback, second readings and further assessments, it was a spreadsheet race to the finish, where some actors made it to the end and others didn’t fit into the project.

I am really happy to have cast the talent that’s in the movie. Ever since the first table read, everything clicked and brought the movie to life. Jonathan, the lead, gave so much dimension to the character, he has a warmth that is rare to find, it was a very difficult character to cast, I’m so glad he applied. Avery, who plays Lana, understood the character very early on in the casting process, she captures what I imagined and wanted for the character: A strong loving leader. Hans is the perfect counterweight to Jonathan and Avery, he plays the main antagonist, he had complete control of his voice and offered a wide range of emotions to a seemingly one note villain. Blake is that actor that can get it right on the first take 99.99% of the time, either he understood the characters he played at first glance or he perceived my sensibilities, but he definitely got the characters I offered him, and he took on the largest number of characters out of any other actor, he really populated Sockland. James Ellis really surprised me with his versatility as well, I knew he was talented and had great control of his voice, but he also offered a colorful variety of voices that I just had to offer him the wackiest characters. Trona brought a realness and counterweight to the oblivious nature of the socks inhabiting Sockland, I wish I had written more characters she could’ve played, but oh well… sequel? wink wink

CG. The original concept started with sock puppets against a greenscreen for private youtube videos. As the story developed and got more epic, many stunts couldn’t be performed for real and CG socks started coming in. For this movie, in order to maintain quality and consistency, I decided to go fully CG. Logistically, it was getting very expensive to factor in warehouses to build the sets and have dozens of performers operating crowd and battle scenes (yes, there are battle battle scenes), so CG was the best option for quality control, versatility and cost.

Just me… just me. It’s hard convincing a studio to finance a brand new IP about socks in a medieval setting. By doing it myself, I don’t have to halt production at any time and cede control to investors. So just me.

After work and on the weekends. Also to be fair, I started Blueffy in 2020, many assets are already in my CG library, I’m updating them to hold up to scrutiny on a 4K screen. Also, since I already had a dry run in 2020 with Blueffy, I already have a roadmap, I know what I want, so I don’t have to give myself notes and second guess myself. I do what I want and get the result immediately. All the lookdev took place in 2021, all the rules as to how the socks move and look are in a character bible I wrote. All the information is laid out before I model the first polygon up until I press render. A lot of time is saved in knowing what I want and knowing the tools by heart.

Hard to answer, I do keep a record though. Since I’m still in the middle of animating and rendering, The cost keeps climbing. This is not a cheap project, but it also isn’t as high as other CG projects.

The movie has a 2025 premiere goal. As to the platforms and venues, I am currently shopping around for new distribution deals.