Asylum - Dan Williams

Posted by Steve on 8 October 2010 | 0 Comments

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Asylum takes place at a hospital for the criminally insane. This particular institution is home to some of the most difficult cases in the country, and the doctors are mostly left alone to do there work. But after an outbreak of violence, an administrator from the Department of Mental Health is dispatched to investigate the goings-on at the hospital. Turns out the hospital is also home to some secrets, which we'll uncover throughout the series.

Where did the idea/concept for your web series come from?

I read a book called The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Dr. Oliver Sacks, which described patients of his with these fascinating, bizarre, and sometimes heartbreaking mental illnesses. The more research I did, the more unique cases I found, and eventually I felt like you could build an entire series around diagnosing and treating patients -- like House for mental health. And, of course, because we would be dealing with psychosis and the various ways that individuals perceive reality, there seemed like an organic way to incorporate some sci-fi and mystery elements into the series.

Name some of your sci-fi influences. Any favorite movies, TV shows, novels?

One of my all-time favorite TV shows is The X-Files, and that definitely influenced the way that Asylum was constructed. I loved that each week Mulder and Scully tackled a new case, but were also piecing together this larger conspiracy. The show also did a great job of mixing intense, dark stories with lighter, heartfelt ones.

Tell us about the technical production of your show. What camera & equipment did you use? Editing software & hardware? For visual effects, etc?

We shot Asylum using the digital RED One camera, which captures with the same quality as a 35mm film camera. Luckily, we were able to find some fantastic locations to use, so there was no need to green-screen anything. Also, we did all of our make-up effects on set and built any special props we needed from scratch. Since so much work was put into the physical production, we haven't had to do any effects work in post.

Can you tell us any interesting facts or trivia about your show? Any funny stories?

- We shot at Linda Vista Hospital in East Los Angeles: an abandoned hospital that was recently featured on Ghost Adventures.
- There is a scene where a patient begins foaming at the mouth. To do that, the actress put a couple of Alka Seltzers in her cheeks.
- If you would like more information about the hospital featured in Asylum - St. Dympna Hospital for the Criminally Insane - you can find it online here.

Asylum can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Asylum - SciFinal Page

Ryan Romero (Assistant Director), Dingani, Erik Curtis (Director of Photography),
Scott Brown (Director), Brian Pelkey (Gaffer), and Ryan Ovadia (Key Grip) (l to r)