Last Hope

Last Hope is the title of a 20-minute short film based on the Videos About Deep Stuff series on the Augustus Clearwater YouTube channel. The film is directed and executive produced by Tyler Pilkinton along with Evan Patrick, who also co-wrote the screenplay. The film stars Pilkinton and Patrick as well as Luke Rawlings.

According to Pilkinton, the film "serve[s] as an epic conclusion to the current story line". It was released on August 21, 2015.

Cast
Tyler Pilkinton as Himself

Evan Patrick as "Scorch"

Luke Rawlings as The Boss

Development
The first draft of the script was written in November 2014 and was 35 pages long. According to Tyler Pilkinton, the script went through four revisions before it was finalized.

Pre-production began in April 2015, during which Pilkinton storyboarded a revised version of the script and scouted filming locations.

Casting
Clinton Taylor and Daniel Xi were originally part of the cast but were removed due to script revisions. Luke Rawlings was asked to portray Taylor's character in the final version of the film.

Filming
Unit one filming began on 29 June 2015 and reportedly ended on 2 July 2015. According to Pilkinton, second unit photography began on 30 June 2015 and ended on 13 July 2015.

Design
Pilkinton created a storyreel for the film using the same storyboarding software as Animalia World, Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 4. The storyreel was based on an earlier draft of the script that mostly resembled the final version of the film, especially the first act, but was ultimately not used as a reference during filming.

Pilkinton, who also served as chief editor of the film, wanted the style to invoke a cinematic feeling and used a color scheme found in many modern sci-fi/action movies. He also wanted the film to feature some 3D animation and created multiple environments and effects using Blender 3D animation software.

Music
The music is scored by Kevin MacLeod.

Remastering
In late 2016 and early 2017, Pilkinton announced in vlogs on both Augustus Clearwater and his channel Anim8orkid that he was planning to release a remastered version of the film with "updated special effects," reportedly based on a cut of the film edited for submission to the 2016 Indie Memphis Youth Film Festival. The remastering of the film was released publicly on Augustus Clearwater on August 25, 2017.