00:00Hi, my name is Jay Zachary Thurman.
00:02I am the writer and director of the Demon Corps, which follows the story of Canadian
00:07physicist Louis Sloughton and his time at Los Alamos.
00:11Many people don't know Louis' story.
00:13He's actually an unsung hero of World War II.
00:17Post Oppenheimer and his time at Los Alamos, Louis continued to do criticality experiments
00:23on a plutonium core then known as Rufus, today known as the Demon Corps.
00:28What happened to Louis that day, he was doing a criticality experiment involving a screwdriver
00:33holding two beryllium spheres apart.
00:36If they ever touched the core that was known as the Demon Corps, Rufus back then, would
00:42go super critical, meaning radiation poisoning to everybody in the room that could potentially
00:49be lethal.
00:51An accident occurred and the two halves met and Louis had a decision to make and he
00:57chose to separate the two with his bare hands and he saved everybody in the room that day.
01:03And no one knows who he is.
01:05Our goal is to really immerse you in the science and in what was going on, but also immerse you
01:10in the love story between Louis and Betty because, you know, that is like a noble through line
01:15that we can all relate to.
01:17All human beings, you know, are in the constant search for love.
01:20What drew me to this story was A, its elements of sacrifice, but B, how unbelievably overshadowed
01:29it is by the far, far, far greater and more famous story of Oppenheimer and his atom bomb.
01:34It's a familiar story told in an unfamiliar place, basically.
01:39You know, it's like a guy giving up everything to save people.
01:43We've seen it done, but we haven't seen it done like this.
01:45Zach, the director, intends to bring the story to life in a way that is beyond imaginable
01:51for a short.
01:52He wants attention to detail for everything, you know, down to the accuracy of the screwdrivers
01:58used at Los Alamos during the 40s.
02:01And the reason being is that, you know, we want to do our due diligence in bringing this
02:06story to life.
02:07I want the audience to be there with them.
02:10I want the exact number of men that was in the room.
02:12I mean, to the point of the Demon Corps itself, we've done insane research to make sure the
02:17exact size, specifications go into this material and this mold that we're making for the prop itself.
02:26Another thing that I can't stress the importance of enough is what happened to Lewis after he
02:33suffered acute radiation poisoning.
02:36You know, the hands, the detail of the pain that this man went through has to come through
02:43on film.
02:43You have to sit there with him because he was forced to sit and watch his body degrade.
02:48So the historical accuracy is critical to Lewis' story.
02:52You want to feel like you're there with this man.
02:54You want to feel like you're at Los Alamos.
02:57And to do anything less than 110% on the historical side of the thing is an insult to Lewis'
03:06legacy.
03:06What excites me about this project is its ambition, its scale, its opportunity to work on location,
03:13in the deserts, in outstanding sets where films like Independence Day and Con Air have been shot.
03:21The Windover is basically a way for all of us to go back in time and it brings a lot
03:28of authenticity
03:29to a project.
03:30I consider myself very blessed that the Sloan Foundation saw fit to give the Demon Corps its
03:35very prestigious award that only grants two students every year.
03:40But even with that money, there's more that we need.
03:44We need to raise more and we need to do that for period-accurate costumes, for an insane location
03:51like the Windover that's so historical where the Enola Gay pilots trained, where they took
03:57off and we need it to bring Lewis' legacy to life and to bring his story to the audiences.
04:05I mean, everybody deserves to know Lewis' story.
04:07Any amount contributed, large, small, is much needed and much appreciated and you will see
04:14exactly your investment on screen when you see how detailed, precise, and just cinematic
04:20this thing's going to be.
04:21Thank you for your time and consideration.
04:24The team and I are very excited to bring Lewis' story to life in the Demon Corps.
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