HALO 8 Entertainment

HALO 8 Entertainment

HALO-8 Entertainment is a transmedia entertainment company specializing in cinema, documentaries, genre graphic novels, midnight movies, music-driven lifestyle videos, and animation. Its most popular releases include arthouse films Pop Skull, Threat; animated series Godkiller, Xombie; lifestyle-DVD franchise Fitness For Indie Rockers; and documentaries Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods, Your Mommy Kills Animals, N.Y.H.C., Ctrl+Alt+Compete.

Comics Beat recently called HALO-8 "one of the few companies we’ve seen that has an overall feel for whatever they’re calling transmedia these days."

Formed in 2005 by filmmaker Matt Pizzolo and producer Brian Giberson as a film production–marketing–distribution studio, the company has grown to include a comic book/graphic novel publishing division, two DVD Premiere shingles (indie-lifestyle sublabel DiY-Fest Video and cult/exploitation sublabel UnitShifter Films), and fashion/branded-apparel division H8LA. HALO-8's film catalog is split roughly 50/50 between in-house productions and third-party acquisitions, although the upcoming slate is primarily focused on in-house transmedia productions.

HALO-8 made a name for itself as an innovative and risk-taking company by developing unique, tech-driven production and distribution strategies such as designing the illustrated film format (a cinematic style of limited animation that merges sequential art with 3D CGI, motion graphics and dramatic voice performances in the style of a radio play) and developing the non-linear film format EtherFilms (which adds hypertext and multi-platform transmedia functionality to film), and by championing controversial films such as animal-rights documentary Your Mommy Kills Animals that drew the ire of the Center for Consumer Freedom who waged a legal campaign to block release of the film.