Halo: Faith

Halo: Faith was a planned fan-made feature film set in the Halo universe. Directed by Jared Pelletier, the film focuses on a group of SPARTAN-IIs who are using Mark VI MJOLNIR armor prototypes against the hegemonic empire, the Covenant, during the Fall of Reach.

The film would be 16 minutes long, and rely on computer-generated imagery as well as that of live-action. Faith was intended to be released on November 20, 2011, and had finished principal photography, but the film ended up being put on hold indefinitely.

Synopsis
It is the Fall of Reach and the four SPARTAN-IIs of White Team, White 1 Anton-044, White 2 Malcolm-059, White 3, and White 4, are prepared to assist in the battle. An unnamed admiral tasks them with reinforcing the evac point at the Manassas Spaceport, where the troops defending the Kilo 1 orbital defense generator are expected to fall back should they fail. As their Falcons cross the mountain range, they are attacked by Covenant anti-aircraft fire, taking out White 3 and White 4. Malcom reports the Covenant troops are breaking from attacking Manassas to the generator outpost, while Anton picks up a distress hail from Isaac-039, on the ground defending with the troops. He reports the generator is damaged though still functional, but all the Marines and Green Team are dead, and the Covenant is mobilizing additional forces, including a Scarab, to attack the outpost. Hearing this, Anton and Malcolm abandon their original mission so they can defend the generator with Isaac, and leap from their Falcon after it flies them over.

The three Spartans assemble and fight a swarm of charging Covenant, Anton using a minigun, the other two with assault rifles. Anton fights a Mgalekgolo approaching him, and when his machine gun fails to do anything to it, kills it with a pair of pistols piercing its weak points. Isaac, however, is trying hard to not be overrun, but ends up being killed by a Sangheili with an energy sword, though he uses his last seconds to draw a grenade and takes the Elite with him. Both Anton and Malcolm witness this, unable to help him.

At this point, the Scarab has finally arrived, and it begins firing at the two Spartans before being distracted by a Warthog. Thinking of a way to destroy it, Malcolm spots a Banshee overhead and has Anton gets its attention, while he also gets the attention of the Scarab. As the two prepare to destroy him, Malcolm snipes off the Banshee's stabilizer, sending it crashing into the Scarab. Both explode, and Anton uses his armor lock to survive the blast.

The remaining Covenant retreat, securing the victory at the outpost. Malcolm broadcasts its victory, while Anton logs Isaac as MIA. Malcolm reports that the Kilo 3 and 4 generators are now under attack. Anton requests permission from Sierra Actual for White Team to defend Kilo 3, and the screen cuts to black, then to Halo: Faith ' s title.

Appearances
Note: All appearances listed below are non-canon.

Production
Halo: Faith was inspired in early 2010, when Jared Pelletier was approached to direct a short film based on James Cameron's Avatar. Pelletier said of the project: "The goal of the film was to showcase unprecedented visual effects for a micro-budget film exhibited exclusively on YouTube. That project never came to be, but the idea of creating something incredibly ambitious and revolutionary was inspiring. I wanted to set the standard in this category."

A script was written by Jake Commons, but was discarded after finding the first few days of shooting of it didn't translate into a cohesive narrative. Instead a new script was written by Erik Tallek, Faith's director of photography, while keeping some of Common's touches. The story would not fully adhere to the Halo canon, but chose to be its own story while maintaining the basic feel behind the franchise. Most of the focus would be on the Spartans, who Pelletier felt were the series's backbone, and what made it unique from other science-fiction franchises.

Filming began on September 2010, with a total budget of $850. The project was green-lit after the crew hired the puppeteer Pete Mander, who had gained fame for his animatronic full-scale Sangheili. Ryan Memarzadeh and Anthony Ingruber played the film's Spartans. Principal photography finished on April 22, 2011, and the remaining work would be incorporating the computer-generated effects. Juan Garcia led the special effects, and hired employees who had worked in Industrial Light and Magic, Weta Workshop, and Digital Domain. At least 95% of the film would incorporate CGI. Pelletier also held interest in converting the film to 3D.

Travis Wright led the concept art, creating several redesigns of the film's Covenant to make them look more scary. The Grunts of Faith were based off of gorillas and octopi, with elements of albinism and rusty armor included. Hunters were the most difficult for him to redesign, but Wright eventually painted their armor to resemble Kayan neck rings. At least one Bungie artist worked with Faith to design a new weapon dubbed M3ZA (or "B"), and the crew was in talks to have Steve Downes briefly reprise his role of John-117.

Two contests were held to promote participation with fans. One was to submit artwork as a potential Faith poster, and another was to film one's own live-action trailer. Many Halo fans submitted their own entries, hosting them on DeviantArt and YouTube. The winners were featured on Faith's Facebook, alongside production images and completed CGI clips.

Soundtrack
The original score was composed by Daniel Ciurlizza and Giancarlo Feltrin, who also led the sound design. Feltrin heavily influenced his scores on those of Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, and also incorporated Middle Eastern elements. The soundtracks were later released for free on YouTube and purchasable on iTunes. The music for the trailer, released on November 10, 2011 was composed by Christopher Xaio.

Cancellation
The short was to be released on YouTube on November 20, 2011 (initially it was to be released on the 11th), and be distributed by Machinima.com. Several theater premieres would also be held at Toronto, Philadelphia, and Berlin. However, the date passed without any release, and on January 2012, Pelletier announced on Faith's Facebook page and on his own that the completed film may not see the light of day. Faith ' s Facebook account and Wikipedia page were then deleted, and its IMDb page was blanked. Its Twitter account lingered a little longer until it was eventually replaced with promotion for a Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer remake.

Pelletier could not confirm the reason for cancellation, saying that his distributor informed him that Microsoft may have pulled the plug on the project as the film skirted closer to a copyright violation, due to the involvement of so many major visual effects companies. Later, in an interview with Red Sikes's podcast, he hinted that the issue was the short's planned wide release, and that the crew ended up not contesting Microsoft's complaint because they had been offered opportunities for bigger feature films. As a concession he released the script, as well as suggesting the later release of the raw footage on Faith ' s own YouTube channel. The crew ended up moving onto new projects, Pelletier planning new films based on Red Dead Redemption, Batman, and Bioshock.

While the plans for these are likely discarded, Pelletier had spoken of Faith being followed by two sequels. All that is known of them is that the second film would have had two female Spartan protagonists.