How OVERCLOCK Episode 5 was made
In Episode 5 the army throws everything it has at the Burrower, and Singapore’s towers empty one by one. Follow the morning across a drawn map of the streets, and see how one person made it in Agent Social.
The morning, on a map
Scroll, and the map follows the story: where the Burrower walks, where the five armoured cars go, and what each of them tried. It is drawn to follow the story, not to scale. The real streets bend and meet at other angles.
Tried 0·Worked 0
24 chapters · drawn to follow the story, not to scale
Chapters 1–4 · 0:00
Peter and Joanne are hiding in a Robinson Road supermarket when they find their neighbours, Kevin and Amy. The cashier makes Peter pay for his lollipop before anyone leaves. Then the four step outside and watch the Burrower walk away, one block down.
“You gotta pay for that candy first.”
How it was madeChapter 1 took six takes, the most of any chapter in Episodes 3 to 5, and eleven pictures were painted to plan its opening. The store was painted from frames of Episode 4’s finished film, so it matches from one episode to the next.
Chapters 5–6 · 1:42
Kevin, an army major on holiday, calls his friend Major Alex Ng. Alpha Team’s five armoured cars come in over the Benjamin Sheares Bridge and split up at Lau Pa Sat to box the creature in: Two takes Shenton Way, Three takes Cecil Street, Four and Five go round the front, and One goes after its tail, and Kevin.
“Team, we box it in.”
How it was madeThe shot from above the bridge was first filmed as a 30-second take, then made again as an 8-second take that went into the film whole.
Chapters 8–10 · 2:54
Alpha One rolls out of the dust on Robinson Road and stops outside the supermarket. Kevin goes after the creature on foot with Alex and four of his soldiers, while Amy, Peter and Joanne take a shortcut through a tower lobby.
“Holiday’s cancelled, sir.”
How it was madeThe pickup is cut from two different takes, joined in the middle. The cut is laid out further down this page.
Chapter 12 · 4:20
Tried: Roof gun, into its legs · Alpha Two
Alpha Two noses up to Robinson Road from a side street off Shenton Way, and its gunner fires across the road as the Burrower walks past, so close it fills the view. It does not stop walking.
“Guys, I don’t think these bullets are doing anything to it.”
How it was madeChapters 12 and 13 were both filmed a second time.
Chapters 13–14 · 4:45
Tried: Roof gun, from the other side · Alpha Three
From the Cecil Street side, Alpha Three’s gunner opens up from just across the road. The rounds spark off its head and its side, and it never breaks stride. A minute later the radio says what everyone can see: “Rounds on target. No effect.”
“What is this thing made of?”
Chapters 16–17 · 5:44
Tried: Rifles and grenade launchers · Alpha Four and Five
Alpha Four and Five stop across the road in front of the Singapore Conference Hall and open up with rifles and grenade launchers. The smoke swallows the Burrower. Then its jaws come out of it, and it swats both cars aside.
“Sir, both cars are gone.”
How it was madeFrom the first shot to the cars being swatted, this scene came from a single 30-second take, used whole, on the first try.
Chapters 18–19 · 6:41
Tried: Shoulder-fired rocket, at its neck · Lieutenant Rachel Ma
Kevin’s secret case holds a shoulder-fired rocket launcher. Alpha Three brings it to the back of the hall, and Lieutenant Rachel Ma aims at the back of the creature’s neck. The fireball tears into the hall, and the creature comes out of the smoke, rips the hall open and starts digging.
“We have to try.”
How it was madeThe blast, the slabs it throws, the dive for cover and the dig are one unbroken 30-second shot. In the chapter before it, two stretches of the take were swapped in the edit, so it ends on Rachel taking aim.
Chapter 20 · 7:37
Tried: Air strike · the operations room
In the army’s operations room, Alex’s report comes over the speakers: nothing they have works, and they need air support, but there are still civilians in the area. The jets are on standby. Colonel Lim holds them back.
“First, evacuate the area.”
How it was madeThe whole operations-room scene is one unbroken 30-second shot, filmed on the first try.
Chapters 21–22 · 8:07
The police park across Shenton Way and walk the office workers out, building by building, down the stairs and into the street.
“We are under emergency evacuation.”
How it was madeThe people on the stairs have names too, like Alvin Kwek and Melissa Ho: 39 named characters appear on screen in this episode.
Chapter 23 · 8:57
The police need at least five hours to clear the area, and Deep is still in the air. So the colonel widens it to everything within a kilometre of the hall, and Lieutenant Sarah Ong draws the circle.
“That’s two hundred thousand people.”
Chapter 24 · 9:21
Hours away, in the hold of a C-17, Deep goes over the whole morning’s footage. It walked all the way from the beach to that one building, and didn’t break a single other building on the way.
“So it’s after something under that building.”
In the edit
Three of Episode 5’s chapters are cut from two takes each, and one plays a take’s stretches out of order. Others are the opposite: a single long take, kept whole.
Chapter 9 · The pickup · 3:12
The first 11 seconds come from the second take: Alpha One out of the dust. The rest comes from the first take, picking up 9 seconds in, for the handshake outside the supermarket.
Chapter 18 · The case · 6:41
Alex and Kevin’s two lines come from later in the take, but they play first, so the chapter ends on Rachel taking aim and the next one opens on her firing.
Chapter 19 · What is it looking for? · 7:07
The rocket, the fireball, the slabs it throws, the dive for cover and the dig, written as one shot. The second take went into the film whole.
Itemised
Jess Wong, the cashier who doesn’t care, makes Peter pay for his lollipop before anyone can run from a monster. So here is the rest of Episode 5, itemised.
OVERCLOCK
EPISODE 5 · UNDER THE HALL
ROBINSON ROAD, SINGAPORE
Every clip filmed with Seedance 2.5
Thank you. Come again.
Make one like it
Tell the studio what happens, in order, the way you would tell a friend. Episode 5 is 24 chapters, and three of them were rethought during the shoot. The plan is yours to change.
Watch each clip as it comes back and ask for another take of anything that misses. Chapter 1 took six. Fifteen of the 26 clips used their first and only take.
Keep the best stretch of each take. Join two takes in one chapter, or swap two stretches so a scene ends exactly where the next one should begin.
Ask the studio to paint a chapter’s pictures from frames of your last finished episode, so a place looks the same from one episode to the next.
OVERCLOCK Episode 5, Under the Hall: 9:47 of story and 20 seconds of credits.
