VFXShow 254: Monsters of Man

Monsters of Man is the feature debut of Mark Toia, a long time senior TVC director who decided to bypass the whole studio system and self-produce his own action feature film. The film centers around the dangers of sophisticated AI robotics used for military applications when a corrupt CIA agent (Neal McDonough – Minority Report, Captain America and Altered Carbon) conspires with a robotics company to field test highly advanced prototype robots with the aim of winning a lucrative military contract.  In the film, their plan is to drop the robots into the infamous Golden Triangle to test their battle skills on unsuspecting armed drug cartels that no one will miss. The illegal mission is a disaster; haywire robots slaughter an entire village of innocent people.

The VFXShow’s Jason Diamond has a surprise cameo in the film (shot in NY).

In a first for the VFXShow, we invited the film’s Director Mark Toia to join us. As the film is self-funded and extremely successful we thought it was a good opportunity to find out how Mark pulled off this complex effects film for such a tight budget.

The film is streaming now online and via Apple iTunes.

Special guest the director of Monsters of Men: Mark Toia

Squad on the ground this episode are:

  • Special Guest :   Director Mark Toia    toia.com
  • Jason Diamond  @jasondiamond      www.thediamondbros.com
  • Mike Seymour   @mikeseymour.   www.fxguide.com

*  (Matt will be back next episode)

The production mainly used EF lenses

Upcoming shows include Star Trek Discovery, and some additional surprises, with more VFXshow special podcasts in 2021.

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