Blackbird

A husband and wife debate the idea of uploading her consciousness to an AI after she’s impaired in a severe car accident.

Written and Directed by Mike Thompson

Produced by Laury Christensen, Mike Thompson, Thomas Johns, & Sarah East

Director of Photography – Thomas Johns

Cast

Chris Petty – Matthew Scott
Sarah East – Sarah Scott
Chris Taylor – Sebastian Synthetics Employee
Rebekah Lynn Dow (Voice) – Sebastian Synthetics Rep
Derek Sawyer – Chris
Elise McKenna & Jennifer Sparks – Office Workers

Crew

Adam C. Thomas – First Assistant Director
Tommy Baker – First AC
Russ Allen – Second AC
Sound Mixer – Tim Miller
Andrea Ahl – Production Design & Hair/MakeUp
Marshall Shartzer – Art Director
Kristina Kubrick – Costume Designer/Wardrobe
Janelle Stevens – Key Grip
Alex Lemon – Grip

Post Crew

Edited by Mike Thompson, Thomas Johns, and Austin Sheehan
Derek Sepe, MPSE – Sound Editor
VFX by Christopher Shiner and John Wheeler
Thomas Johns – Colorist
Andrea Acs – Trailer Editor

Blackbird is a film that served two purposes for me as a filmmaker. It allowed me to work in a genre that I’ve loved since I was a kid, a lot of my early cinematic loves were sci-fi films, but it also helped me cope with a personal experience.

A few years before this film was even an idea, my wife went through surgery to remove something that the doctor believed could be cancerous and all seemed well. Years later, we were told that a second surgery would be necessary and, needless to say, my mind went to all of the worst places and an overwhelming sense of fear and sadness took over. I didn’t want to express those feelings to her, my role as a partner was to be positive and help stifle whatever fears were creeping into her mind, so I decided to use a short script to allow me to express what was going on in my head.

The script was written in the Salt Lake City airport returning from Sundance. I outlined it like a drama using all of the thoughts I had about what was going on and ended up deciding to turn it into a genre piece inspired by films like Solaris, Blade Runner and even Starman. I always loved that those films were these vast concepts involving space, artificial intelligence, and alien beings, but, at their core is a love story that pushed the boundaries of what love can actually be.

Blackbird is a love letter to those films and other films like them and I can only hope that it accomplishes even half of the emotional pull that I feel when watching them.