Subliminal Films present:
The Philosopher's Stone
Directed and produced by
Raymond Salvatore Harmon
featuring the music of Bog (myspace.com/boggish)
starring Jacob Andrew Myers
introducing Isobel Julianna Harmon
The Philosopher's Stone tells the story of Jacob Fausstman, a scientist and early alchemist who searches for the key to curing man of the disease of death. In his frustration Jacob stumbles onto another path to achieve his goals. Turning to the dark arts Jacob conjures the demon Mephistopheles and is given the key to eternal life. But his perceptions of 'life eternal' and the nature of his existence comes into question once he has obtained his desire for true knowledge.
Base in equal parts on the Faustian archetype and the biographical story of Dr. Albert Hoffmann's accidental discovery of LSD, The Philosopher's Stone is an homage to early German Expressionist cinema and the psychedelic visualizations of drug culture.
Courtesy of Greylodge.org
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The Philosopher's Stone will be available (via bit torrent) for full dvd quality
download FREE Oct 31st 2008 at GREYLODGE.ORG, subliminalfilms.org, and
streaming at:
for more information please contact:
or visit
greylodge.org
subliminalfilms.org
raymondharmon.com
philosophersstone.org A letter from the director;
In choosing to distribute this film I have decided to skip the theatrical presentation stage and go directly to sourcing the film via the bit torrent network. By giving the public full access to this film I hope to encourage other filmmakers to realize the potential of their audience by abandoning the outdated model of cinematic distribution in favor of an open relationship with the viewers themselves.
After years of struggle with the format of distribution cinema has found an ever evolving platform of distribution on the internet. Years of so called 'format wars', first between film gauges and then between dv formats, have ended in the wake of widening broadband access for the average person.
The ability for anyone to simple download and watch a film already exists, as does the ability for anyone to make a film and allow the world to experience it directly. The filmmaker has a wide range of encoding practices available that allow them to maximize video quality for each project's distribution on the web. As further technologies and better codecs are develop the filmmaker will be able to expand on the available sources for the cinematic presentation.
As much as the Philosopher's Stone visually represents a historic period in early 20th century cinema it looks forward to a future unfettered by lack of distribution and a platform for broadcast that gives everyone a chance to experience cinema to its fullest.
This film is meant as a mirror, reflecting what has been onto what will become.
Obviam lux Lucis
Raymond Salvatore Harmon
October 3rd - 2008