Commercial directors David and Ian Purchase—The Purchase Brothers—have made a new web series based on VALVe's Half-Life video games, apparently guerrilla style on a very shoestring budget with no crew and no script. The first two eps are made for about $500. That's pretty impressive.
The series, called Escape from City-17, depicts a group of survivors on the run from the Combine. The first episode is online, and you can tell it was shot without a script because, well, it's really nothing but run-and-guns.
It's not as visceral or as visually convincing as the Halo shorts, but it gets the job done as a fan film. The bad dialogue and acting are to be expected, since this is primarily an exercise in showing off the potential action movie to be snared from the Half-Life universe. The directors claim that they are in touch with the guys at VALVe, so maybe if they donate a little more budget, the next episodes can be a lot better.
