DarkenSpace is a series of fan-made, dramatic machinima videos based in the galaxy of the game Elite: Dangerous. The video series traces the story of a former shuttle pilot, Draven Darken, who through mysterious circumstances was cast adrift into an enormous, lonely and unforgiving galaxy.

The series uses mostly video footage and environmental audio that was captured in-game. The story is told by the protagonist in voiceover, as we watch the story unfold mainly from behind his eyes, with switches to external views at times in order to punctuate the story as well as to enjoy the beauty of the game environment.

But that's just the beginning of the process. What we believe makes DarkenSpace unique is what happens after the game video is captured. From a professional actor playing the lead voiceover role, to an entirely original music soundtrack composed and recorded for each episode, several hundred hours of work end up going into the creation of a single episode of DarkenSpace.

The video and environmental audio of DarkenSpace are primarily captured from the game Elite Dangerous: Horizons, running on a Windows PC and captured using Nvidia ShadowPlay software. They are then edited in Final Cut Pro X on an iMac, along with some effects and titles being created in Motion 5. The soundtrack is recorded using Logic Pro X along with a host of other software, sample libraries and live recorded instruments.

Up through episode 3 "Violence", the video and environmental audio for DarkenSpace were captured from the Mac OS X version of Elite: Dangerous, using the screen capture software Screenium 3.

Episodes of DarkenSpace are on YouTube, and are also accessible via the Videos page of this website.

DarkenSpace also has a presence on social media. You can follow along with the latest information about the series via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

David Sandberg		Charles Hubbell
Soundtrack composer and arranger Video capture and editing Screenwriter		Lead actor
A Minnesota-based composer and musician, David began his music career as a touring rock guitarist, and later as a composer of original music for television programs and multimedia projects, including the music for a nationally-broadcast infomercial and for the Paint Shop Pro 5 installer and tutorial CD-ROM. Now he primarily writes and records standalone or soundtrack music. David is also an avid Elite: Dangerous player, although ironically he doesn't have much time to actually play the game now that he has to fit the creation of DarkenSpace into his schedule, and much of his gaming time is now spent on capturing video. DarkenSpace was conceived by David as a way to tell stories based in the expansive galaxy of Elite: Dangerous while leveraging his specific talents in music, graphics and video editing. David's music website is Windcry.com.		Charles has worked in multifaceted art mediums; fronting bands, musical theater, miming, acting for stage and screen, directing for stage, and puppeteering. He’s taught a variety of classes, such as Auditioning, Voice-Over work and Shakespeare. His resume as an actor includes movies such as Walking With The Enemy (starring Ben Kingsley), The Monster of Nix (starring Tom Waits and Terry Gilliam), and The Midnight Chronicles, as well as live productions such as Stage Kiss and Charley’s Aunt at the Guthrie Theater. As part of his work on movie projects, Charles has ridden horses and swung swords, traveled to London and Bucharest to play an infamous Nazi, and snooped mysteries around cities in Italy. Working with action projects led him to study kickboxing and fitness to do fight choreography and stunts. Charles makes his current home in Minneapolis and Los Angeles with his wife Megan and their son Henry. His website is Charles-Hubbell.com.

On occasion a few friends of ours have lent a hand in making certain episode bits or in just getting the word out about DarkenSpace, and the makers of DarkenSpace heartily thank them for their assistance:

• Jon Ort - for multiple sessions of ship stand-ins for certain shots
• ObsidianAnt - for graciously publicizing the series via his YouTube channel
• Zac Antonaci - for originally mentioning the series on the Elite Dangerous subreddit

Finally, we offer thanks to Frontier Developments for their permission for us to use imagery and environmental audio from Elite: Dangerous.