He’s Making “SCP: Containment Breach - The Movie” and We Have Questions - Interview w/ @KeterLabs

Hello there Site 42 staff, as well as those of you from the greater SCP Foundation community. Today we are joined by the director of Keter Labs, the YouTube channel and independent production studio, Zach Alona. Get yourself started. Tell the Site 42 staff, as well as the greater SCP Foundation community, who is joining us here, give your opening pitch for Containment Breach the Movie. All right, yeah, getting right into it. Uh, no problems with that >> [clears throat] >> because we are here to produce a full-length theatrical SCP Foundation movie, hopefully. Yeah. So, yeah. Uh, my name's Zach. I'm the director of the film to be, um, and the director of, uh, the, uh, 10-minute proof of concept short film that, uh, we produced in order to sort of, uh, enhance the pitch a little bit. Um, and that has had really strong reception so far on our channel. If, uh, anyone hasn't checked it out yet, I highly recommend it. Um, and let us know your feedback. But, um, yes, the whole reason why we even produced that film in the first place was to sort of make the case for SCP on the big screen. Um, and we've got, uh, a good handful of video essays also on our channel, um, that kind of break down the, uh, the challenges of working with big budget SCP, uh, media and cinema and content and why we haven't seen something like that yet and how this could, you know, possibly, hopefully, be the moment that sort of breaks the the the door open for, um, more opportunities to produce higher-level SCP content. It's very important news that you're doing there because, although I can yap about these all day as a streamer and shorts content creator, shorts and streams are only viewed by so many people. The main event video essay is the preferred YouTube format. And so, by putting this information through the proper package, you're doing gangbusters and helping the SCP community, as well, to understand what I've been yelling about all these years. And so, I appreciate the help in that matter. Yeah, I mean, you know, we've been following your channel for years and, you know, the it it's very simple similar impetus for for Site-42. So, we're very happy to collaborate on this and a little later we'll maybe make a we will make a big announcement [music] as far as that is concerned. So, excited to do that. First questions first about said movie, why choose SCP Containment Breach the game as your focus as opposed to any other SCP story? What other story did you have in mind for movie before you settled on basing it off the famous game? Yeah, I mean, >> [clears throat] >> there's a ton of reasons and it was a very difficult decision when we were conceiving conceptualizing, you know, this project and and what story might make a good feature film. So, just the fact that, you know, I grew up with Containment Breach. I was kind of into SCP beforehand starting like very early after it first got started, you know, um but Containment Breach was like the cultural moment where SCP, I feel like really kind of leveled up in the in in the collective consciousness. So, it was the introduction to SCP for a lot of people who have been fans for, you know, a decade plus that, you know, sort of that was their introduction. So, when we're thinking about this project and kind of trying to bring SCP into a bigger scope and bring it into the conversation in terms of like cinema and feature films, it just seemed kind of like a natural fit for an adaptation of the video game to be sort of the foundational project for getting a feature feature like the SCP movie off the ground because it's got the name recognition, you know, obviously all the all the I don't want to say overused, but you know, all the all the classic anomalies like 049, 096, every anomaly that's in that in that game are, you know, the fan favorites. They're fan favorites for a reason. And yeah, and also there's also the angle that it's a video game adaptation which helps the case when we're talking to industry people in [music] in in the film industry because you say that and you know, you say >> [music] >> we're adapting a video game that is insanely popular. That perks ears up. So it's it's another more logistical reason to adapt Containment Breach, but um I was telling Flames yesterday when we were conceptualizing the project, it was between Containment Breach and What Happened to Site 13 for what we were going to adapt. And I I really love What Happened to Site 13. It's one of my favorite SCP stories and I hope that if we're able to pull this off, the next thing that we can do or help someone else do is an adaptation of What Happened to Site 13. And yeah, I mean, really what we're trying to prove here is that you know, this is possible. So many people with good reason have sort of written off the idea of a full-length theatrical SCP Foundation movie. And it's like I said, it's reasonable to to do that, but we we really want to challenge that and try to create a moment where more high-quality, you know, big-budget SCP adaptations can take place. What Happened to Site 13 is of course SCP 1730, a foundational haha, that's good. We're going to see that pun a lot today. A foundational action movie-esque SCP which does lend itself to being made into a film with Mobile Task Force Tau-5 Samsara, the cyborg Power Rangers of SCP. And so there's a lot to that. It would be very That would be a very expensive movie. Yes. Next level, it's also very funny you say, "Oh, being able to pitch this to investors as Oh, it's a adaptation of a video game that benefits us." That's a very different story from 20, 30 years ago. Things have certainly changed over time. Yeah, absolutely. I think I think it the industry is in a really interesting spot right now with this uh you know, the adjacent conversations around SCP um with, you know, the Backrooms movie coming out next week, Obsession, a lot of YouTube-native filmmakers making the jump to theatrical releases, >> [music] >> you know, Resident Evil from Zach Cregger is, you know, in the pipeline and it'll be coming out and people are hyped for that. So, yeah, the conversation in the industry definitely has shifted where, you know, things that were kind of unimaginable even 10 years ago are now like, you know, hot topics in the industry. So, we That That was another reason why we're like, "Okay, let's see if we can, you know, uh uh turn the conversation around for SCP because it's it's really just so foundational as, you know, as a intellectual property and also the community. I say, you know, it's like it's hard to imagine this moment in the film industry without the SCP Foundation and its and its uh lore and its community. So, [music] it it it has to be a part of this moment in the industry for sure. And speaking on the YouTube to the internet horror to film pipeline, because as you said, we have Zach Cregger doing Resident Evil, uh just did Weapons recently and Barbarian in the past before that. You've got uh RackaRacka doing Talk to Me. You've got, of course, Kane Parsons, Kane Pixels with the Backrooms. Now, all of these adaptations we've talked about so far lean very much into a very kind of serious horror vibe. That doesn't read to me what Containment Breach the Movie seems to be going for. Where are you aiming your sights when it comes to the genre of a containment breach movie. Yeah, so we um we've been developing uh the feature-length script um on the assumption that, you know, we'll be able to make it. Um and we do really want to hit on it centrally being like an action sci-fi horror film. Um in the the Kickstarter pitch video, the uh the comps, as we say in the industry, are uh you know, we're looking at films like Aliens, The Thing, uh even Jurassic Park. Like these are films that I love and have hugely influenced me, uh you know, as a filmmaker and as an artist. So, we and we know that that's, you know, sort of an expectation from the fans. You know, people want to see, you know, serious SCP horror. Now, the proof of concept short film has plenty of that, um but the tone is a little bit more satirical and um maybe not light, but uh uh less grim dark than um I was preferring as a director at that point. Um so, when we're thinking about the feature-length adaptation, um you know, it's it's I'm I'm directing it and I have a certain vision and things that I'm interested as an artist. There will definitely be still be satirical humorous elements, um but our vision from the start has been like, "Okay, in in these first 10 minutes that you see in the proof of concept short, we're kind of massaging the audience into this world and, you know, it it's was conceived as a sort of welcoming thing, where it's like, "Okay, I can get into this world and it's it is quirky." Like SCP Foundation, it's got a lot of humorous elements, too. So, we want to do justice to [music] um the the horror sci-fi core, but also add in, you know, our own artistic sort of proclivities um in the like the the set design. Um the proof of concept short is is very colorful. I love working with color in in previous films that I've done, you know, color is very important to me. And so is so is the humorous sort of tongue-in-cheek Kafka-esque elements that come with the foundation. I mean, one of the plot points in the proof-of-concept short, and it will be a a plot in the feature, is the foundation our version of the foundation is in a budget deficit. And, you know, they they have a ton of money, but it's a very expensive, uh, you know, business that they're working in. So, they the money's got to keep going. They got to they got to knock on the doors of senators and even the UN and the GOC. Uh, they'll have a uh, you know, a representative in those budget meetings in the feature-like film. So, um, there's a lot of potential for me. What I'm interested in like the the bureau- bureaucratic elements of the foundation and, um, just the idea that like, you know, a a an organization that's tasked every day with like saving the world at every moment and at any moment if anything screws up, then that will be really bad. They also need money. So, like, what does that look like? Um, and I'm rambling a little bit at this point, but, um, yes, sci-fi horror, tons of scares, excellent, uh, anomaly design, um, and then peppered in a little bit of, uh, more tongue-in-cheek satirical elements to sort of break up the tension. That's really where we envision putting, um, those elements, you know. They and and they say it's funny that, uh, we we were talking about Zach Braff because he started in comedy with The Whitest Kids U Know. And often what's said, you know, um, in film is that horror and comedy are two very, very similar, um, >> [music] >> uh, genres because if you they they both rely on tension and release. Tension of the build-up to the scare, the scare, and then the the the downtrend of that emotion. And it's the same thing in comedy when you have the build-up to a joke, and then, you know, you laugh and then say, "On to the next thing." So, uh, often people who can who can do comedy and people who can do horror kind of can kind of flip-flop pretty effectively when they understand that. Same with Jordan Peele, same with so many directors of our time. Speaking of you guys' vision, we're looking at a universe of the SCP Foundation that absolutely can't please everyone [music] because one person's favorite SCP is the grimmest grim dark and one person's favorite SCP is the light-hearted camp comedy. And so SCP Containment Breach has own lore with being an offshoot site, a storage facility for Site 19, for having this Dr. Maynard character, for D-9341 a spiral gestalt lore. What of that are you guys taking and what are you going to be making your own different when you go into adapting Containment Breach a game? Yeah, so we want to keep the um the the two things highlighted from Containment Breach. We want to keep the the core plot and the skeleton of the story as the Foundation at large is experiencing it. So, you know, the the plot with and again this is a tough one because I don't want to give away too much of what we're planning, but the conspiracy with the Chaos Insurgency 079, you know, being a sort of linchpin in that, Dr. Maynard is going to be you know, a pretty major character in the film as we plan it right now. So, all of that is and you know, sort of you know, the main D-class working their way through the Foundation. All of that >> The way I'm phrasing it is we want to capture what it feels like to play Containment Breach cuz it's a terrifying game. We want to capture that in the spirit of cinema and in the medium of cinema. So, those two things anchoring the Containment Breach adaptation. When when we're thinking about like what a feature film needs and what the medium needs as opposed to a video game, the Containment Breach game is pretty bare-bones on the story you're actually experiencing, you know, as you play it and you're sort of piecing together, you know, who D-9341 is through things you find in the game, things you pick up, things you encounter. Really, on the flip side, what we want to accomplish with this, too, is we want to paint a very clear picture of the SCP Foundation at large, too. So, um we're taking sort of the skeleton and the core really important elements of Containment Breach, and that's sort of our our skeleton and our our our muscular system, and then we're adding in, you know, elements that weren't in the game, plot points like the budget deficit uh subplot and the uh site director lead character as well, stuff that wasn't in in Containment Breach at all. Make the case for SCP cinematic universe, uh to use a use a turn of phrase. Um and an important part of that is really demonstrating and capturing from the outset what the SCP Foundation is in as large a scale as possible conceptually for a more general audience. So, you know, we we It's important to us to leave room for uh extra lore from the wiki and roll that into the Containment Breach wiki. So, a lot of people are going to be asking the same question in several variations, which is who's going to be in this movie? And so, we can list a hundred different actors, we can list a hundred different SCP characters, both of which people are interested in. So, tell me of the character list, who you are willing to divulge to the chat? Yeah, so uh the main D-class character uh we considered what to do with that quite a bit. We went back and forth uh because, again, it's kind of what I was saying earlier, um there are certain things in any video game adaptation that will need to change um to suit the film medium. And it's my opinion that um while D-341 will almost definitely make an appearance in the film in, you know, some capacity, Probably not going to be just a cameo. He will be, you know, like a character that shows up, but he's not going to be the main character. Um and the reason for that is one I I it's my opinion that with the spiral gestalt and the respawn mechanic and the um the amnestics that they give the D-class in the game Containment Breach uh game so that he doesn't really know who he is and he's discovering that he was, you know, a part of the foundation, um that to me that would become like a character study. We would have to spend a lot of time away from the actual breach [music] and the the action, you know, horror uh uh genre in order to fill 90 minutes of that story. Um so it it it and that's the genius of Containment Breach as a game, right? Like giving you a in-lore justification for the respawn mechanic and giving you a mystery that you, the player, are solving. With a with a film and a cinematic uh media, you're watching things unfold. You're not a part of it. So, that's a problem that we felt like we needed to solve in order to tell this more grander scope of a story with, you know, centering on the Containment Breach itself and the machinations of the foundation and how the people who make up the foundation are dealing with this problem and uncovering, you know, the secrets of the uh conspiracy um that led to the breach in the first place. So, how do we solve that problem? Uh we're changing the the main D-class character to SCP-181, Lucky, um who's a [music] anomalous who was a D-class who um and the foundation discovers that, you know, he's surviving all these, you know, all these experiments and he shouldn't be statistically. So, coming to the conclusion that he's, you know, got an anomalous luck, really. And we're like, "Okay, that is the perfect justification for how this character is able to survive so long into the breach when he's got all these odds stacked against him. >> [music] >> And it really keeps the same spirit of the game of D-9341. But it's much better suited to the cinematic medium in my opinion and much better suited to the story that we want to tell in adapting Containment Breach. So, that's the justification behind why we're and I know D-341 is like super beloved and he's an iconic character. Again, he will be in the film just not the main D-class character. And then also there's going to be another sort of main character the as of to be decided site director of Site 19. Who sort of was really focused on his responsibilities on this particular day running the the budget meeting for the foundation. And then of course he's got all these dignitaries and and senators and and officials who he's trying to get money from. And then everything sort of blows up in his face and now he has to manage the expectations of those people while also making the case why he they should you know give him money while also making sure that as many people survive the breach as possible and re-containing everything that's escaped. So, [music] I mean I just get so excited talking about that plot point specifically because it's like this character is going to be drawn in so many different directions and he will be caught up in the breach himself and he'll be in danger and just seeing how that character is going to do everything that he needs to do and at what cost is going to be really fun and really satisfying. So, as far as anomalies, you know, expect all of the the iconic ones from Containment Breach. Obviously 173 is in our uh proof of concept short film along with nods to um a couple of others and then also, you know, again we wanted to roll in more uh cut wiki lore. SCP-689 is the other sort of big bad in the proof-of-concept short. So, yeah, uh that's about it I hear you designed that 173 that we see. Was that that was you? Yes, that was all me. If I can uh get to recording this weekend, I'm going to be recording a uh a behind-the-scenes video sort of from concept to completion on how we you know, put that together. The the design for 173, the the philosophy behind it, the inspirations, um and then how we actually implemented it as a miniature on set, and also the uh the CGI, too, cuz there were CGI elements. Very fantastic, but CGI, but not AI, I hear. No, never. No. I've I've been so sad in the comments uh of several posts. People being like, "That old lady's face is definitely AI." That's just perfect, man. That grinds my gears so much cuz we spent 3 years of our lives and so much freaking money, and we spent a year in post post-production, and I was doing most of it myself, and I'm sitting here just like losing my mind as a as a as an artist, and then you drop it, and Reddit, it's not a lot of people, but when you see people who are like, "This is AI. This sucks." You know, and it's like, "It's literally not. Go watch the behind-the-scenes videos that we posted, you know, across all platforms of us actually shooting the thing on set. I didn't spend all this time and all these resources for you to write it off as AI. That's my rant. I don't want to I don't want to, you know, get too get too negative, but it's just like, "It's like There's not a lot >> And the feelings are there. The feelings are there. Yeah, yeah. So, we've talked about the main character, D-181 Lucky, with a little bit of 9341 in on the side quest. We've got our 173, our 079, our 689, who wasn't in Containment Breach the Game, but now is making our way in. Uh we have um for other Containment Breach anomalies, that would be your 106, your 049, your 939. There's a lot of anomalies in that game, to be frank. And so, uh when we go over to the doctor side of things, do you have any plans for uh staff characters in mind besides D-9341? Um in terms of uh researchers and and uh you know, foundation staff who are going to be in the film, a character called Dr. Theron Sherman is going to be in the film. Um officially announcing that yes, uh Sherm is on the team. He is going to be playing a on-screen supporting role as Dr. Sherman, and he is also joining uh the Keter Labs team in uh producing this film as a consulting producer. So, he's going to be very close in helping us to uh you know, uh really flesh out this thing and and make sure it's um you know, authentic to the SCP lore and really just like you know, having a uh a huge creative role in you know, the development of the film. So, thank you so much Sherm for joining. Um it's huge. I mean, you know, when we first uh you know, reached out to you before we even you know, uh released the the proof of concept film, the Site 42 community has just been like a huge uh a well of support and and love and gratitude. So, want to express that back to you guys, and it's an honor to have you on board. And it's going to be really fun. If we can do it. Uh first of all, tell me about your filmic background. What have you made in the past? Features, shorts, little bit behind the scenes into your background. All of this background in the chats. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh it's funny. I I was not trained as a as a filmmaker at all. I didn't go to film school. Um I went to art school, which is even worse. Um I studied as a as a painter and a uh and a fine artist. And I only at the very end of of college got into writing and then followed that into screenwriting. So, I've written like a ton of feature-length scripts, gotten coverage on most of them. Coverage is usually really positive. There was one year that I made it into the quarterfinals of the Script Quest screenwriting competition, which is like even at the quarterfinals big deal, like to get really good screenwriting competition. So, that was that was awesome and that was for a TV pilot. And yeah, after sort of my screenwriting era and really honing my skills with that, I got into making just like really low-budget short films, music videos, just around, you know, uh stuff of my own making, you know, stuff I made up. And if you search Zach Lona on YouTube, you can see some of those that stuff. It's really fun. Some of it's from like 10 years ago. And then my my big foray into feature filmmaking was a a movie called He Who Lives in Hidden Lakes. Very SCP-inspired. And it's funny, I was when when that project is when August and I connected and he produced that feature film. Very low-budget, really punk rock, like, you know, we spent like 10 days shooting it straight, which is insane, but we were like in the woods for most of the time and batted away mosquitoes. I almost lost my eye. It was it was a whole story. But there's a behind-the-scenes video of that, too. And and the film was on Amazon Prime in TV, I believe, right now. So, but yes, that that that is sort of a a creature feature mockumentary. It's got, you know, sort of comedic elements, but also horror elements to it. It's really sort of a cerebral look into really it's how a meme becomes flesh, really. It's a it's a it's a mockumentary about a cryptid who's living in a suburban forest preserve, but he might just be a bum. You know, people don't really know what exactly it is. So, people have all these interpretations of what this cryptid called The Hidden Man actually is. So, the film sort of explores that and it transmutates into, you know, uh from a mockumentary style into a more, you know, cinematic style as it goes on. And like I said, it was very from the outset influenced by SCP. I even considered submitting The Hidden Man concept to the wiki. I discovered and remembered that the Creative Commons license was sort of a block into that. So, I immediately wrote that idea off. It's going to be my own thing. Um and we went ahead and made the made the film. Um August has also produced a couple of feature films on on um on his own. He just wrapped uh a short film which I was on set for in Los Angeles, uh which he directed and it's sort of an autobiographical thing about, you know, his mom and him growing up. Um and it it's I've seen it. It's really good. It like he did a he did a bang-up job on that thing. Um so, yeah, we've been around in you know, we've worked in the film industry uh for probably over 10 years now. You know, we we uh edit, we dipped our toes into theatrical distribution a little bit and I can't really talk too much about that. Um but uh we were sort of on the team of kind of a big like franchise that had a a theatrical release like, you know, uh years ago. So, um I don't want to say that like we're we're uh deep into the theatrical world, but we we have brushed up with it. We've been in it a little bit. Um so, we bring some understanding to the to the theatrical distribution space, too. And you have made the claim in one of your video essays that you believe that theatrical runs for SCP films might be the only way for us to financially succeed in this being that the due to the Creative Commons. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? Yeah, so uh basically with Creative Commons, if you don't know, that's what SCP all SCP content and derivative content must be licensed under and really the crux of it is that as a creator you're giving up commercial exclusivity um when you create uh and release an an SCP film or you know a book or something like that at anything. So, that's why studios ignore it um because they almost definitely know about it. They've made things that are inspired by you know SCP, Cabin in the Woods, you know, you name it. But, it's not SCP, right? Like, we want to see an SCP story that's faithfully adapting the thing, but uh to up until this point um it's been regarded as impossible. You can make one and release an SCP film, but as soon as it's online someone is going to rip it and they're going to put it on their own YouTube channel and then that, you know, uh divides the attention and the revenue across many channels that the original creator can't capture because you can't enforce copyright takedowns. Like, you just can't do it. It's it's [music] not legal under the Creative Commons license. However, um this is the whole thesis of how we can get the industry in on financing or helping to finance a uh theatrical SCP film, whether it be this one or or one in the future, too. And that's the theatrical um venue because it's a real-life event. You can't pirate a real-life event, especially with the backing of the community. Like, imagine an SCP movie with the type on the level of The Backrooms movie coming out next week. I mean, it's hard to imagine that uh a theatrical distributor wouldn't see some return on investment in that. So, if you front-load the financial demand like that and make convince a uh production company and a theatrical distributor that they will make money, they pretty much will cuz people want to see this and they want to show up and they can um on a modest budget to produce the film, they can make their money back with a reasonable expectation. Here, the way the the theatrical industry works is that there's a very specific format that most major theatrical runs use and it's called a digital cinema package and it's a very specific, you know, it's not a USB flash drive, although some films are exhibited that way. It's It's to get the best possible theatrical experience, you need to have a DCP. So, if we have all those DCPs, we're the only ones sending them out to the theaters. The theaters aren't going to They could They could share them, but they're not going to because they want people to go to their theater to see it. They don't really have the incentive to share it in the way that, you know, if Netflix put in a SCP movie on their platform, HBO would be there at the drop ripping it and then putting it on their platform. Much harder sell for someone, you know, who it might be interested in financing a film. Whereas with theatrical, there's there's much more just like logistical hurdles that would need to be overcome and incentive structures that just aren't there that make a theatrical, you know, SCP event much more viable from, you know, a financial perspective. Early sets the thesis. I mean, it it really feels like, you know, going back to the idea that there's this moment in the industry that makes it the perfect time to, you know, prove this to the world is, you know, if we had tried this, you know, maybe 5 years ago, maybe the fans would give, you know, the same the same level of support. We would We would all get behind it, but the industry wasn't at a point where they would consider it. The fact that SCP is so beloved and so huge has got such a a rich lore going back, you know, decades at this point, almost 20 years, is a very strong selling point, especially, I mean, The Backrooms is going to just It's going to be A24's biggest theatrical opening of their entire history as a company, probably. That's what people are saying. So, the I've already [laughter] got my tickets. Yeah, the fact that it is the backrooms, which is very hard to imagine the backrooms being what it is without SCP, we've got a real we've got a real pitch here to uh you know, to to try to get in on this this this era in in the film industry. And we're looking at as we said before, you've got all of the YouTube horror makers, you've got the backrooms going from 4chan to theaters. [music] You've got the Amazing Digital Circus putting its finale in theaters, which means that really not just that movies are making their way, but just theatrical adaptations are now taking more and more from the internet because you need something to get people in the door. And imagine what's going to happen after we get our first SCP feature, we get it in the door, we get it in the theaters. People go and see it because they're going to want to see this landmark event. And then how many stories are there in the SCP written universe that could easily be adapted. Any independent director like you, like anyone, can say, "Oh, this could be investment worthy. This could happen." The door will be kicked in and I I'm sure there's going to be a flood of it just as soon as it starts uh >> [music] >> once that box is open. Yeah, like I always say, you know, it's it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when for those exact reasons. When did you get into the SCP Foundation? When was your initial jump in? It's been a part of my life for quite some time shortly after, you know, I first got started in 2008. I was never a big 4chan guy, but I was sort of aware I was in the creepypasta, you know, world and you know, uh SCP right like right out of the gate was just like a huge part of that. It was so enticing for middle school me. Uh it was probably >> [music] >> like, you know, 13, 14, 15. You know, that first 173 4chan post is just like it is just stuck in my mind and then, you know, Markiplier did his his live streams of Containment Breach or not live streams that didn't exist yet, the let's plays. Um, and I, you know, like we were talking about, that was sort of a moment where like SCP really leveled up in the in the um, >> [music] >> in the collective consciousness and it also >> watch the uh, listing of how many SCP articles written by by year, you can just see the Containment Breach lump. Yep. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I have seen that chart. You know, I was big into Halo and stuff and like I said, aliens and dressing park, it's all sort of like, you know, like the sci-fi with horror elements is is just my bag, so um, it's always been something I've I've come back to. What are your favorites of the SCP archive? Over 10,000 SCPs, there's got to be a couple that are at the top that you worry about. I really really love what happened to site 13. Um, I really wanted to adapt it but like you said, it's it's it's just going to be a bigger budget, so we got to we got to start with a more sort of contained story. Um, that's the one I always go back to and you know, these might be basic, um, but I really love the ones that are just like a a weird object that does weird stuff like me, the toaster, I'm a toaster, uh, the uh, self-replicating cake, um, just stuff that like behaves weirdly in a way that it shouldn't um, is stuff I'm I'm I'm a sucker for. The the vending machine, where you type in whatever liquid you want and then it it comes out and yeah, uh, um, also one I forgot that I just I always find I found just like super terrifying is 303, um, and [music] he actually did there's a little Easter egg in the proof of concept short where 303 kind of shows up. Not many people have found it but you know, take a look at the uh, you know, what what that anomaly is and and how he works and you know, showing up in the window and the sense of dread and you can you can triangulate where he shows up in the in the in [music] the film. Oh, the doorman, the doorman. We want to run down the Kickstarter, we want to run down its stretch goals. Why have you structured it the way you have? Yeah, this is this is something that has come up and we've added a fact on the um frequently asked questions entry on the uh actual Kickstarter page. You might notice that the base goal for the SCP movie Kickstarter is $125,000. And under our stretch goal section, you can see that if we hit that, that allows us to do the next 10 minutes continuing the 10 minutes we've already done. That's not a feature film. That's a 20-minute short film. The reasoning behind that is that we want to be very transparent and sort of responsible with the amount of funding that we're asking for versus, you know, what we can actually accomplish at each five potential financing level, each stretch goal. You'll see that subsequent stretch goals are like add another 10 minutes. That's 30 minutes, 40 minutes, uh which is could be technically a feature film. Um so, we really want to keep the door and the potential open for uh making this a success uh at any level of funding for the Kickstarter. What the most important thing to keep in mind is that even at that base goal, like we were talking about earlier, Kickstarter doesn't need to be the only financing path to um be full-length SCP movie. We know that even $125 or $125,000, $125,000, I would love to make a a feature [laughter] film for that. $125, oh no, no, no. I'll give you a tree fiddy. It's okay. Don't want to pretend that $125,000 buys a 90-minute feature film because that would be insane. We just talked about how we are not using AI and you know, we want it to look good and be human-made. And feature films are super expensive. So, no matter where the Kickstarter lands, it's super important that we hit that base goal because that allows us to go to other financing sources, whether it be private investors, maybe even studios, grants, [music] uh to say, "Look, there's real demand for this. People are financially supporting this already. Make up the difference. There's an opportunity here." Um so, it's it's twofold, um the way the stretch goals are structured and and the base goal, cuz we don't want to we don't want to hit set the base goal so high that people look at it and they're like, "Okay, well, they're never reaching that in the first place." 125 is still very achievable. So, it's a it's a balancing act between, um you know, being uh upfront and responsible about what we can reasonably guarantee just from the Kickstarter funding, um versus leaving the door open for uh the well, the campaign to actually get funded and then [music] um using that as leverage to enter into these conversations, no matter where the Kickstarter lands up and and saying, you know, "Mr. Investor, Mrs. Investor, you could you could, you know, help build on this and help make this happen." Also, I am dearly hoping that uh we can get more community input on this than investors, if only because uh the community always is worried when it comes to Hollywood, when it comes to Netflix, that oh man, while I would adore to have that kind of backing, we also worry about what the outsiders from the community trying to come in would do with the story as opposed to someone who actually cared about the community as a whole. Yeah, well, it and actually SCP is uniquely advantageously positioned when we're talking about that conversation, because one, we've got the Kickstarter kickstarting the whole thing, um and and the fact that uh we're being so open and you're being so open and we're publicly, you know, involved in the community, um anyone who comes on board in that capacity is a is is going to need to understand that this is, you know, sort of an open conversation in how to authentically adapt SCP, because that's the most important thing. I mean, if the if the fans aren't happy, no one's going to show up to the film, and then, you know, and then we failed. So, and that's different from, you know, more closed IP, like even even the backrooms, where, you know, the fans are kind of, you know, on on social media, and they're they're talking, but the film was uh developed and produced completely behind closed doors, and oftentimes the IP is sort of already set, and people own the IP, and >> [music] >> um sometimes even when when fans have that reaction to to changes made in, you know, other stuff, and the actual IP owners or people who are involved in those companies that are making the calls directly to change certain things or do do do things in a certain way, and in the case of an SCP movie, that's one of the super advantageous things that it has going for it is that, you know, fans will have real leverage in, you know, ensuring that the uh we're doing the SCP, you know, Foundation justice in our adaptation. And speaking of outside support, bringing in Decentralized Pictures, how did how did that connection happen? Where does this come from? What are you guys doing to work together on this? Yeah, so DCP has been a great partner. We've known the folks who who run DCP for a good handful of years now, and we sort of got connected through, you know, just our work in the general film industry. We got connected to Leo, the CEO. Um and if no one is familiar yet, I'm sure a lot of people are familiar, but got to plug it, like one of the our first stretch goal beyond the base goal at $150,000, if we hit that, we are going to put um we're going to put up $20,000, and Decentralized Pictures is also going to put up $20,000 of grant money to host a sort of uh, of sorts, a grant competition on the decentralized pictures platform where filmmakers from the community will pitch SCP short films, um, and between, you know, DCP and us, uh, as the Calla Labs team and the community voting on that platform, we're going to be green-lighting two of those, uh, SCP short film pitches, uh, with that with that grant money from the first stretch goal. So, I mean, I can't overstate how insane that is, that we were able to to pitch this idea to DCP and they were like, "Yeah, this is like we see the opportunity here. Uh, this is great." And the, you know, the fact that they would commit to, under certain conditions, just giving $20,000 of grant money to an SCP filmmaker. Like, that's This is an actual, like, you know, indie film industry institution that was co-founded by, you know, members of the Coppola family and like really legit people in the indie indie film space. We need to be pushing that angle harder, I think, because, you know, that's that's just huge for the legitimacy of of what we're trying to, you know, do with SCP and, you know, it shows you that the door could be, you know, kind of opening to bigger budget, uh, SCP short filmmaking. Exactly. I'm talking to short filmmakers all the time behind the scenes. Everybody has the project, but the problem with these projects is the budget cuz filming is expensive and without people who are willing to invest in SCP, uh, we're all kind of cash-strapped. And so, this as an opportunity to get someone in the Hollywood sphere, a Hollywood nonprofit saying, "Hey, you guys, we see you. We think you can mobilize. Show us what you got. This is our shot." Yeah, I mean, DCP, they just spent the past week at the Cannes Film Festival, which is like the biggest film festival in the world, and they were there and they they announced their new streaming service. Um, so, they they they are legit and they see the potential in SCP, and they want to help us out. But we got to we got to get to that number first. Getting through the last of my questions here. We're down We're done with serious business. We're on to the silly shits. Why did Markiplier call you an idiot? >> [laughter] >> He got me. >> What did you do? I made him mad. I made him mad at a very I'm not I'm not that sorry because here's the thing, he It's so funny. Go watch Power Power Wash Pals episode like 12 or something. His his podcast replays Power Wash Pals. He called me an idiot. I don't think he was he was talk He wasn't directly talking to me like "Zack Lone, you are an idiot." He He He's He saw the title and thumbnail to our open letter to him asking him if, you know, we could open up a conversation in regards to him coming on the on board the the cast for SCP Containment Breach the Movie. Um, and it really was my fault because I didn't title that that video very effectively. The original title was open letter to Markiplier the SCP movie. Right now, it's open letter Markiplier, we are making an SCP movie. Cuz what happened, as he explained it, was that he saw that title and thumbnail. He thought and assumed that this was a video where people were asking him to make an SCP movie. And as That was not the proposal. Um, but he didn't click on the video, somewhat understandably. And he's like, you know, uh Well, you can go watch the the Power Wash Pals podcast, but that is why he called me an idiot cuz he's like, "Don't tell me what to do. I need a break. I spent all this money. Don't tell me to make an SCP movie." Even though that's not what we were actually proposing. We were making the SCP movie. Um, and we would we would still love to have him aboard. I mean, I'm I'm wearing my Iron Lung shirt right now, coincidentally. Uh still a big fan. I don't take it personally. Like, he he he's, you know, he's got to deal with a lot >> He's busy. Yeah, exactly. So, I I you know, people are saying like, "Oh, I wish, you know, Markiplier said no." He didn't He didn't say no. Um, he didn't say no to the actual uh yes or no to the to the actual proposal. We don't know if he's seen the actual proposal yet to, you know, see if he's interested in possibly joining the cast. So, if anything, he said no to making his own movie, which means there's less competition for your movie. So, honestly, that's a bonus. Yeah, yeah. So, uh you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't count on it, but I also wouldn't count it out. Uh hopefully, Markiplier down the line finds out the truth of this scenario. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I would I would appreciate that. For the Kickstarter roles, where these people are going to get to do voice lines and/or be a walk-on extra in the film. Now, I do believe those are already all taken up, right? Yep. We had three three voice lines and three uh walk-on extras, and those are all gone now. How much say are they going to have in what they're doing? What character will they be do you have in mind for that? I think some of them are Mobile Task Force members or something. Well, that's that's kind of the uh just the title of the tiers. So, we're thinking like, "Okay, like, these are like experiential things. You're you're you know, you are our Mobile Task Force." Um, you know, that said, I think uh it it might depend. I mean, really, what we want to make clear is that priority number one is making a great film. Um, so, we have very specific ideas on how to do that. We're also definitely open to um fun ideas that uh you know, our collaborators might have, especially from, you know, the Kickstarter. Um, so, we we want to make sure that uh those folks are feeling really good and proud of uh, their part in the movie. Um, but uh, how it will probably go is we will probably come at them with an idea. Um, and uh, and then just kind of like workshop it from there. You know, it's like, okay, we have this sequence where an extra can plug in here and interface with uh, such and such possible list of SCPs that would fit in this dramatic scenario. You know, what do we think about that? And then we'll just kind of workshop it from there. But um, yeah, just to just to be clear like we will have uh, sort of the final say, but we want you to we want you to be happy with uh, and really proud of your part in the movie, too. You know, not everyone is going to uh, to be able to to back it financially. That's totally fine. If you do want to still, you know, uh, support and boost the project, you got to share it, you know, tune into Cherm's live streams, uh, subscribe to our YouTube channels, just like engage, engage, engage. We need the algorithm to favor us. We need the algo gods to, you know, pick us up and swoop us away. Um, and we need to set that up set up set that up as much as possible and that's that's where you guys really come in. Um, at a very fundamental level is just like keep keep sharing, keep engaging, share with your friends, uh, you know, repost across platforms. Just every every little engagement helps. If you're someone who wants to share this project on the Reddit, I just ask you to not come off as too, you know, self-promotional um, or or you know, just kind of be friendly and organic and um, make it a a constructive conversation um, you know, around like the art and and the lore. Um, and don't try not to try not to be so so pro-movie because there there's a different culture um, on that platform that you have to respect and we want to respect that. We don't want, you know, any any uh, um, sort of uh, you know, unauthorized messaging reflecting badly on the project or like on us. Because it's been it's been tough to get into like a self promo mode just as a person and as an artist. But like at a certain point like yeah, you need to What I've learned is that you know, if you if you don't ring your own, you know, toot your own horn to a certain extent especially now with, you know, just algorithmic slop just just flooding every platform. Like you you you need to do what you can to to stand out especially if we have like a mission driven thing here where it's not just about us. It's you know, about making something happen for like this entire community and this entire fan base and all the creators who helped get it to the spot. I mean, that makes me feel a lot better about like taking a little bit more direct salesy approach which is not in my nature at all. So yeah, it's it's a delicate thing but I think I like to think generally that you know, it's been it's been more effective than um than I've than we anticipated. One thing I can tell you guys from personal experience is [music] you're going to be better off a lot of the time with about 80% algorithm engagement versus 20% actual posting to communities. Posting on your own social media feeds, Twitter, Threads, Blue Sky, Instagram, [music] Facebook, God rest us all. How many there's too many. But when you post them on your own profile, you're posting to your community even if you have like 100 followers. That still gets it in the algorithm as existing the phrase SCP Containment Breach the movie [music] gets in the algorithm. And so between liking and reposting what Ketter Labs is doing and posting your own things rather than posting specifically in Discord groups, in Reddit groups where the communities have rules and are a little more tight knit and are trying to [music] out to filter out spam. What you're doing is you're getting the algorithm to do the work for you >> [music] >> rather than purposefully posting. It's the same way that the Paul brothers blew up is they kept sending their fans back and forth with their little rap battles, and they kept getting more and more comments and engagement, and that was natural growth according to the algorithms. Uh on the same thing, uh is there anything Zach in particular you would like people to be saying about the film when they are posting things? A lot of what people posted already, especially on like, you know, Twitter and stuff like that, have just been like, "This This looks amazing." I mean, we put so much work into uh illustrating our vision for the for the film, and obviously it's it's evolved a little bit uh since then as we look towards the feature-length version. >> [music] >> Um but man, we just poured our heart and soul into that into that 10 minutes, and it was just a ton of work. Um so, you know, I think if people see that like, "Oh, this is, you know, an actual thing, you know, it's it's low-budget, but it looks really good, performances are great." Anything that uh uh will signal to people that this is uh you know, this is a legit project with legit filmmakers behind it. They've already, you know, showed what they can do. Um and, you know, I think that it's worth uh you know, backing and and sharing and and stuff like that. I would I would definitely keep it not all the time, but uh maybe center it on like, you know, the the proof that we've tried to supply. If you think that it it's enough and it resonates with you, and the most important part I think is authenticity. Authenticity, I was about to say the exact same thing, which is making it about your personal likes, even dislikes in the comment, as long as it's, you know, the SCP Foundation is an arts community built on critique. So, we all know it's not going to be perfect and what can be done better in the future is fair game, but your personal thoughts and excitement are so much more important to a comment in a post than just a little random thing that could have been written by AI bots that people will see it and just wipe it past their eyes, not pay attention. So, that kind of authenticity can be a great help. >> Uh do you have any preferences, regulations, rules when it comes to making edits of the movie or trailer for those who are making film edits and song edits and stuff like that? Look, it's it's a it's released under the Creative Commons. You can do whatever you want with it. You can you know, you can make an edit. People have already made edits. There was someone from Italy who reached out to us a couple months ago who was asking for permission to do an Italian fan dub of the the proof-of-concept short film. We're like, you don't need our permission at all, but it's great that you reached out because we can give you the stem the audio stems so you can so you can make your your dub. So, yeah, whatever you want to do with with the materials we've released are is fair game. People have already done a ton of amazing edits. I mean, Flames has been posting edits of of the film on on his TikTok and it's in you know, the video he posted that we talked about at the top of the hour. So, yeah, I mean, the the more of that we can get going. If if it if it creatively speaks to you and it's a project you want to you know, sort of put together. Definitely, by all means. And let us know like at our Discord or you know, wherever and we'll [music] we'll boost them because we love to see them for sure. Ketter Labs Discord server, make sure you're finding your way there, people. And on that same note, remember Creative Commons 3.0 share-alike license. So, that means that once you make your edits, all you got to do is credit Ketter Labs, link to the original video that you're making the edit of, and you are and then release your work via the same Creative Commons license. Are you keeping the Ketter Labs Discord 18+ or you going to keep it clean enough that minors can join and do you have the moderation to handle such a thing? Yes, so admittedly August and I are not the biggest Discord users. We're still kind of learning the platform. We did just crown Dr. Alexander Knox in our Discord the our inaugural mod. So, uh join the Discord but it's a little bit, you know, we're we're getting it up and running still. And I think that's not really something we had considered yet. As far as, you know, the age limit, I know the SCP Wiki Discord has, you know, is 18 plus the site is 18 plus. So, we probably, you know, want to follow through with that. But, you know, at the same time it's like I I SCP when I was when I was, you know, 13. So, you know, I I do want to be sensitive to, you know, younger fans who maybe shouldn't be, you know, engaging with it but they're going to anyway. That's just how the internet works. Everybody is wondering what SCPs are in this movie. Uh you don't have to answer these cuz they would be spoilers. I just want you to hold the best face you can and any twitches will be taken as a yes or no answer. Will SCP 953, the polymorphic humanoid otherwise known as the Kumiho, be in Keter Labs SCP Containment Breach the movie? Maybe. Will SCP 999, the tickle monster, be in the Keter Labs SCP Containment Breach movie? Prognosis is good. Oh, that's better than maybe. Uh will SCP 426 I Am a Toaster be in the movie? Probably not but if it does show up it'll be like a little gag thing that we're, you know, There's going to be a ton that are going to be like, you know, just quick things, quick cameos in the background or, you know, stuff that that fans will appreciate but don't like, you know, This cuz at the same time it's like we, you know, we Again, the biggest priority is making a faithful adaptation and a good film of SCP Containment Breach. We're not going to be able to fit in like every idea that everyone has or um you know uh which SCPs are included. We really want to you know have have uh intention behind what we're putting in, but there's there's going to be a lot of room as we're traversing the facility um to to see and and and give give give nods and give flowers to uh the deep cuts um in some capacity or another. All right, you're slowing down my rapid fire though. Quicker answers. Will 049 be in the movie? Yeah, absolutely. Will 035 be in the movie? Absolutely. Will there be a Little Caesars pizza box to represent SCP-458, the infinite pizza box, in the movie? That's very easy to do. Actually, no it's not because as I I Little Caesars is we can't we can't have them. >> no, product placement, exactly. Unless they pay us for that product base placement, which is another avenue for financing, which we have thought about. >> calling you out. All right, so we'll Will Dr. Alto Clef Alto Clef be in the movie? Possibly. There's a possibility that he could be the uh the leaning site director role. I have no promises. We're still you know, figuring out what that character specifically is, um but he he is a contender. And will SCP-527, Mr. Fish, be in the movie? I'm not familiar with that one. It's a guy whose head is a fish and wears a top hat. He's He is Mr. Fish. He His only power is being Mr. Fish. I I'll go have I'll have I'll have to read the uh the the the entry on that one to to decide uh but I I'll be honest, probably not. Probably doesn't fit the tone of the film. And the very last one I'll ask about because Dr. Frogman requires it because his name is literally Dr. Frogman, SCP-8012, Wigglebert the Great, the frog wizard. A frog with a wizard hat. Put him in a jar. I don't care. Maybe. WIGGLE BIRDS! WIGGLE BIRD GANG, RISE UP! All right, Zach. Thank you very much for joining us on today's stream. Any last words before you sign you off and get you to your video essay work? Uh just thank you. Thank everyone who's here. Um thank you for all the the backing and the support behind the Kickstarter whether financially or otherwise. Thank you to uh the entire community cuz uh it's [music] it's so encouraging to see you know the that this is actually something that people want. It makes us feel like we haven't wasted the past 3 years of our lives putting this together. Thank you very much for joining us today, Zach. You have a great rest of your day. Thank you so much. Uh look out for the the backrooms video tomorrow morning, everyone. Uh cuz that will be going live. Amen and cheers. Catch you next time, brother. See you.