One Night In Hell


[discography | gallery]

Brian May 'One Night In Hell'

Premiered on 31 October 2014 and released on 3 November 2014.
Length 7 minutes.

 

Directed and written by James Hall and Jason Jameson
Produced by Paul Laikin
Executive producers Jim Beach, Brian May and Denis Pellerin
Produced by the Unanico Group and Duck Productions, in association with The London Stereoscopic Company

Original score produced by Brian May
Engineered and co-produced by Kris Fredriksson
Mixed by Kris Fredriksson, Richard Stockwell and Justin Shirley-Smith
Recorded by Stanislav Baroch at CSNO Studios, Prague
Performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Steve Sidwell



'One Night In Hell' is a short film which is heavily based on Diableries stereo cards, which Brian has collected for over 40 years, and which were the subject of his book 'Diableries - Stereoscopic Adventures In Hell'. With a running time of 7:06 (6:66), the film premiered on Halloween on 31 October 2014, on the Sky 3D and Sky Arts channels. It was available to download from 3 November, and shortly after release, the film was ranked #1 on the worldwide iTunes Short Films chart.

The film begins with Brian placing a stereo card in a viewer, before the camera moves into the viewer itself. The film then switches to animation, featuring a number of scenes based on real Diableries cards, following the journey of a skeleton and his guitar through the underworld. The final scenes feature an orchestra, with the skeleton accompanying them on guitar. The camera then leaves the stereocope viewer, returning to real life, where Brian is impaled with a trident before briefly becoming a zombie.

The film features a new track by Brian, also titled 'One Night In Hell', which is based on 'We Will Rock You' and Tchiakovsky's 1812 Overture. An excerpt of the track is heard at the start of the film, and in full at the end. The track was released as a download single, and the video features footage of Brian, playing alongside the animated skeleton.

The download also contains a short documentary titled 'Diableries Brought To Life', lasting 7:37, which features interviews with Brian, Paula Fleming, Denis Pellerin, producer Paul Laikin, and sound designer Brian Cargill, and covers Brian first discovering Diableries, their history, how the film was produced, and the techniques used.

The film was available through two different downloads. Firstly, the iTunes download contained SD or HD versions of the main 'One Night In Hell' film, followed by the 'Diableries Brought To Life' featurette (as one full download, rather than two). Secondly, the download on Vimeo featured nine videos, namely 'One Night In Hell' as a 2D English version, 2D French version, 3D TV version, 3D iPad version, 3D iPad mini version, and 3D iPhone version, plus the official music video, and 'Diableries Brought To Life' English and French versions. The film also appears as a bonus feature on the 2016 Blu-ray reissue of 'The Mask' (a 1961 film, not the one starring Jim Carrey).

In 2015, it was announced that a full length feature film is in development, for potential release in 2019.