- Select a language for the TTS:
- UK English Female
- UK English Male
- US English Female
- US English Male
- Australian Female
- Australian Male
- Language selected: (auto detect) - EN
Play all audios:
Science fiction on a shoestring isn’t unheard of (who can forget “Plan 9 From Outer Space”?), but to make something that’s not going to inspire “Mystery Science Theater”-style commentary
takes ingenuity. Visual effects supervisor Mark Russell had just $200,000 to create “Sleep Dealer” director Alex Rivera’s vision of a near-future in which Mexican migrant workers perform
manual labor across the U.S. through virtual-reality rigs. When Rivera envisioned a factory where hundreds of workers -- lined up as far as the eye can see -- plug themselves into their
machines, Russell had to deal with the fact they could afford to build only four worker stations. He suggested putting a mirror along the back of the set to reflect the actors and set up a
green screen behind the camera crew. “We extended the green to be able to erase the camera digitally. The mirror made four look like eight, and [on the computer] I made the eight look like
50.”