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Transhuman Remains - Rogelio Fojo

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:26:23 -0600

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

I first uploaded Episode 1, a time-travel tale called "Dated," as a quick test of the Internet waters. But right now I’m actually pausing to direct the big pilot for the series: a film called "The Stooge." It’s a suspenseful tale of a magician and the people working for him – from an original screenplay written by my friend, mentor and brilliant sci-fi author Christopher Priest, author of the best-selling novels The Prestige (adapted into a hit movie starring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, and Scarlett Johansson) and The Glamour (another big-budget movie coming out in 2012).

Transhuman Remains is an international, bilingual series (some episodes are presented in Spanish with English subtitles ("Dated"), others in English with Spanish subtitles ("The Stooge"). It all depends of the actors I want to work with and the language they happen to speak. Talent is talent. After all, being myself originally from Uruguay, South America, living currently in Los Angeles, California, I naturally straddle two worlds.

Transhuman Remains is a also sci-fi anthology series (I believe this is not very common in the world of web series at the moment). Each episode tells a stand-alone tale, about ordinary characters caught in situations so extraordinary that end up fundamentally transforming their core humanity. These people are literally more than human by the end of each story, because of what they had to go through. And because of that sudden, unforeseen transformation, they’re being closely watched by a mysterious character – The Controller (perhaps an embodiment of that alien monolith testing the evolution of our primate ancestors in 2001?). He’s the only constant link between episodes and I plan to reveal his role by the end of the series. Yes. Pretty much like Lost (does it mean I’m making it up as I go, trusting I’ll figure it all up later!? Only The Controller knows the truth and he’s not speaking-- neither English nor Spanish!)

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

Even though as a filmmaker I’m more focused these days on writing and directing feature films, I realized they do take their sweet time to develop and finance. Meanwhile, I don’t want to get stuck creatively, obsessing after one single vision (the real people in your life get bored sooner or later with you “following your ONLY dream”). So I turned to a long list of story ideas I’ve been writing down for years on my notebooks, and decided not to wait, but to make them into short films for the web.

When a good idea pops up in your head, you can’t discriminate. Yes, some stories may seem small to be given the feature treatment (or maybe not – a web series is also my way of finding out their true scope), but I realized they’re already perfect to fill up an exciting six-minute webisode.

And I’ve been saying again and again to everyone who’ll listen, that the internet is the distribution mode of the future. Our computers and TV will finally merge and we will see no more videos stuttering on a small YouTube window. These humble “children of the web” will grow into something as big, bright and handsome as anything seen on TV today. I just want to be part of that historic moment when it happens. I officially plant my own online flag with Transhuman Remains!

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

Sure: the best mind-bending sci-fi TV had to offer so far: The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Twin Peaks, The Lost Room, Lost, Dr. Who. The two best space / time-travel books I’ve ever read: Christopher Priest’s Inverted World and David Gerrold’s The Man Who Folded Himself (and I’m lucky and blessed with personally knowing both of these great authors). Finally – this may sound odd – I’m a big fan of the best sci-fi/ horror/adventure movie ever created: Jaws. More recently, I enjoyed Primer and Moon.

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

I shot my episodes and experiment with every type of camera I could get my hands on: from a pocket-sized Flip HD camera (Dated, 3 Miles to Calico), to a Panasonic DVX100A, a Red One, a 16mm and Super16 mm Arriflex, etc. I only care about storytelling (and good lighting, composition and sound, of course). Sci-fi lends itself too often to special effects and production-value abuse. So I rather focus on what really counts, not matter the genre: a good story, well told. I use a Mac computer and the program FinalCutPro to do my own editing.

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

My web series was going to be called Camera Obscura originally. I researched the name and there was nothing online with that title at the time. My show was set to debut on 2010, but I fell sick and had to wait until 2011 to resume work on it. By then, somebody else has put that name on a horror web series. So Transhuman Remains (with the + sign) was my attempt to be more original and totally own the name this time around. And it does sound more sci-fi to me. Also, the controversial, disturbing concept of transhumanism suggests a wealth of story ideas worthy to explore. So I like this title better. But alas, I just heard that Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects) is working on his own web series called H+ or Transhuman (Hey, Bryan, turn off your computer and go back to your blockbuster movies!). So I don’t care anymore about titles. I might rename the series Obscure Transhuman Remaining Cameras, if cornered again. Obviously, similar ideas are floating above us like low clouds and we filmmakers just stick our heads on them for inspiration, all of us at the same time (anyway, I know that Bryan Singer, head of Bad Hat Harry productions, loves Jaws too. So I forgive my fellow Jawsie).

Creator Note: I want to mention that I’m fortunate to launch this series with the invaluable help of just a small, international group of talented artists: the aforementioned iconic British writer Christopher Priest, Canadian writer Michael Roth, Uruguayan writer Jorge Quaroni, Uruguayan music composer Ariel Ramos, American producer Jason Fenton and Colombian producer Leonardo Meza. International actors Tania Fontoura, Sofía Fojo Morandi, Herbert Siguenza (TV show Culture Clash, Tom Hanks’ feature film Larry Crowne) and Marlene Forte (JJ Abrams’ feature film Star Trek and TV series Lost). I can’t thank these multicultural friends enough for their special contributions to my web series Transhuman Remains. I’d like to believe that just by banding together to create this “worldwide” web series and telling our optimistic tales of the future, we are all rejecting discrimination and nationalism and wars, and promoting instead global peace and human harmony.

Transhuman Remains can be found online here.

Transhuman Remains - SciFinal Page

More images from Transhuman Remains below:

First production meeting on Oct. 28, 2001, to shoot the pilot episode of Transhuman Remains "The Stooge"
From left to right: Producer Tom Joyner (Jaws), Executive Producer Mike Appel, Director Rogelio Fojo,
Producers Jason Fenton & Gabriel González (History Channel).

Writer Christopher Priest

Composer Ariel Ramos

Contributing writer Michael Roth

Actress in "Dated" Tania Fontoura

Actress of episode "Three Miles in Calico" Sofia Morandi

Actor in "Dream Ring" Carlos Benavides

Actor Les Williams is "The Controller"

Actress Marlene Forte

Actor Herbert Siguenza

Walking In Circles - James Rodehaver

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:55:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Walking In Circles centers around a group of adventurers who are out on their first quest. Krag, a barbarian and leader of the group, intends to seek out the dragon that ate his father and slay it. However, he may have neglected to tell the others about this plan. His party consists of a melodramatic bard, an academy dropout wizard, a pacifist druid, and a psychotic rogue. Together, they spend most of their time arguing and very little of it adventuring. When they do get around to it, they tend to screw it up.

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

Years and years of playing Dungeons & Dragons are primarily responsible for the concept. I've always wondered just what it would be like to talk to adventurers and see who they are in their day to day lives. The result is Walking In Circles, which explores the average Joe worker adventuring type. I actually came up with the series just over a year ago after attending GenCon, which any geek will know is the largest RPG gaming convention in the country. The first character I came up with was actually Garand, who was going to be the leader of the group. As you can tell if you've seen him in action, he would not last long leading anything.

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

My biggest science fiction and fantasy influences are definitely Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. That almost goes without saying, since almost everything else in the genre can be traced back to these roots. However, I kind of twisted those together with The Office to add the comedy. I consider that to be one of the best written comedies to grace television and as such I tried to take what I could from them and put it in a completely different kind of setting. Of course, we cannot forget Monty Python and the Holy Grail either.

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

The series was shot on a Canon Rebel T2-1 which we figured to be the best quality we could get on our budget. We were very pleased with the results and it's an awesome camera considering the price range. All of our editing has been done by our director, Adam Rady, using Adobe Premiere and the visual effects were achieved using Adobe After Effects.

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

Well, one of the coolest things about our show is the fact that we had a crew of three people. We were able to pull off an amazing story with quality video and audio and all we had was three people behind the camera. Everyone has one aspect of production that they are primarily credited with, but at the end of the day every person had to do a little of everything in order to pull this thing off.

Some of the best stuff we have is our props, created by John Buco. We asked him to make a realistic looking warhammer for our barbarian to carry around. What he provided not only looks real, but could probably actually crush a human being into a bloody mess. That thing weighs a ton, and the head is pressure treated wood so it can deliver a solid beating. On the other hand, Garand's sword, which was purchased, is completely useless as a weapon.

Walking In Circles can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Walking In Circles - SciFinal Page

The Cast and Crew of Walking In Circles.

Border Guardians of Ackernon - Paul Best

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 08:43:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Border Guardians of Ackernon is more of a traditional fantasy than scifi, although there is a blend of both. The story revolves around 5 camp counselors who suddenly find themselves on the medieval world of Ackernon "armed" only with their flashlights and smart phones. The Kingdom of Ackernon is facing some dire times. For centuries they have been protected from their enemies, the Pert, behind the Great Wall of Ackernon. The wall was in turn protected by magic. For unknown reasons, the wall is suddenly failing.

The foundation for the defense of Ackernon has rested with a somewhat reclusive, somewhat secretive institution known as "the University." It is the graduates of this elite school who for centuries have silently died in the shadows protecting sleepy Ackernon. While the University works with the government, they are not part of the government and its members serve solely at the pleasure of the High Lord Chancellor and Board of Chancellors. Like many elite institutions that politicians can't control, there is growing movement within the government to marginalize the University.

Influencing all life on Ackernon are the Dienstag Lichts. Not much is known about this "race" of beings and most common citizens view them as only legend. Educated members of society know they would seem to be as old as the world, have some limited magical powers and are primarily focused on maintain balance in all things. Of course balance may mean helping evil as much as good, depending on your definition of each.
Episodes 1 through 6 introduce the audience to the University. Episodes 7 through 12 introduce us to the camp counselors.

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

The series is based around an original story we released on DVD last year as a one hour TV Pilot titled "Border Guardians of Ackernon - This Ain't Kansas". After gaining some awards at festivals and other recognition, we decided to launch a web series.

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

Top of the list has to be the original Star Wars trilogy. It follows all of the archetypal characters we find in great scifi or fantasy as does my next be pick which is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Further down the list but influential are books like Down Below Station and the Chanur series by C.J. Cherryh, Enders Game by Orson Scott Card, and Firefly by Joss Whedon.

Some negative things, if you will, have also been an influence. One of the overriding considerations in the story and scripting was to address the lack of balance in strong female characters compared to male characters in both scifi and fantasy. Too many times female characters in fantasy or scifi are either there as eye candy or are two dimensional compared to their male counter parts. We wanted strong female leads that could wield a sword but also had to deal with the real life issues that women face in society today.

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

Wolf's Head Productions has been in business since 1992 and has acquired and continues to upgrade a fairly decent inventory of props, costumes, sound, and camera equipment.

For preproduction storyboarding we use Frameforge. For scripting we use Final Draft. For scheduling, scene breakdown, and reports we use Showbiz software.

Because this is a fairly action oriented series we shoot everything 720p using Panasonic HVX200 usually at 24p although we occasionally will under or over crank. As far as accessory equipment we use some of the following depending on the shot requirements Glidecam, 12-foot jib with hot head, camera dolly, fluid head tripods, and a few homemade devices for overhead moving shots.

As far as lighting on our sound stage, sets and locations we tend to use 3200k incandescent instruments with various diffusing gels. We sometimes color correct to 5200k or 5600k depending on the needs. From time to time we may use HMI fixtures.

For field sound we use a variety of boom and wireless mics fed into a Fostex FR2 or H4N Zoom. We usually record at 16bit, 48k unless we are planning on highly processing it for various FX in which case we may record as high as 192.

In post production we tend to use Adobe Photoshop products for our CGI render needs, Sony Vegas for video editing although sometimes we use Avid. For sound editing we use Cakewalk Sonar Pro and several audio programs for cleaning sound. Our film score comes to us from Blue Steer Studios who also uses Sonar with samples from Quantum Leap East/West and other libraries for orchestration and composition as well as live players.

We work a lot on remote locations so almost everything we use is battery operated so we don't have to mess with generators for day shooting.

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

For our tavern set we were able to find a saw mill that custom cut all of the timbers and siding for the set. Most of the weapons we use are real steel. Our favorite manufacture is Paul Chen Han Wei. The only way to get some of our weapons was to construct them from high density plastic. Petrina's bow is actually fiberglass covered with wood grain shelf paper.

We didn't want to tip off the actress playing "Galiene" to the blocking for the beginning of Episode 3 so we could get the most honest reaction. She had no idea what was going to happen. Worked like a charm. You'll have to watch it to find out... no spoilers here!

After months of prep work and 6 weeks of rehearsal we were finally on set for the very first shot of the first day of shooting for "This Ain't Kansas". Our lead was supposed to run down a hill and through a stream. When he got to the bottom of the hill he promptly slipped and did a face plant in the mud. That certainly broke the first day tension.

Border Guardians of Ackernon can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Border Guardians of Ackernon - SciFinal Page

Paul Best and Danielle Golden (Roanue)

El Porvenir - Miguel Garcia Yee

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:33:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

El Porvenir is a thriller/horror web series, about a small town that is being stalked by a mysterious creature. At the same time, the local police is trying to solve a recent murder. Eventually both events begin to crash with each other; forcing the town to question it's priorities, and with time, it's beliefs.

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

We found it interesting to combine the elements of a murder mystery with those of a monster movie as well as a modern western. We always wanted to write something with multiple characters, and be able to handle the dynamic of an entire town since we thought it would be interesting. The monster aspect from the show came from our cultural heritage of legends of the dark abandoned roads that span across our country. We combined this with our love of police procedurals and murder mysteries, and the very essence of the show is the question " what happens when a harsh, realistic world like that of a crime novel, is invaded by the almost mythological world of the monster movie?"

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

Stephen King novels have been a great influence, novels like The Mist and The Tommyknockers, which deal with town dynamics. The landscape itself has had a strong impact and influence on thee direction of the show as well.

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

We have a small skeleton crew of about 15 to 10 people. We use the Canon HV40 to shoot all the episodes, and the creature in the first episode was made out of wood and foam latex. We requested the help of a film student in the creation of more complicated CG shots. But a great deal of the show was developed with off the shelf software like adobe premiere.

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

We are one of the first Mexican web series. Our actors come from completely different disciplines, some of them are theater actors, some television personalities, some have a background in film, and others have no prior acting experience. Production on some of the episodes would be shot completely at night, lasting anywhere from 5 to 6 hours of shooting per night.

El Porvenir can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

El Porvenir - SciFinal Page

Credo - Will Wright

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:38:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Credo is an occult thriller, based in Colchester Essex, where magick exists within the underbelly of society, a melting pot of mystery and intrigue, that involves a Blairite businessman , a psychic prostitute, and a Nigerian shaman, among others.

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

I have recognised a serious obsession that I have developed regarding the depiction of the occult and the opportunity for drama to explore the human condition. This first manifest with The Ritual, a short film that follows the disastrous results of a demonic summoning and Hyperstition, an immersive installation that I developed, that through the attendees into a reality where Digital Philosophy and Post Humanism, collided with magick and H.P. Lovercraft.

All this led to a feature treatment Tobias Bowman and I were developing in 2010 on a funding scheme, prior to the demise of the Film Council, specifically Screen East. It was an occult thriller mixing The Devil Rides Out with The Wickerman, H.P. Lovecraft and The Children of Men. We hope one day to return to it.

After the terrible news that the scheme we were working towards had ended, I started having some strong visual ideas, that seemed to centre around our lead character, the hoodie Jason. I imagined a backstreet deal, but where the items exchanged were ingredients to some arcane spell. Further bizarre interconnecting visions followed and soon I was pitching the idea of an episodic narrative to Toby. He was hooked on the notion of splicing gritty social realism with the strange psychedelic sorcery.

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

Key inspirations are:

Nigel Kneale - Quatermass, The Stone Tapes, etc. It's intelligent mix of sci-fi and occult with social realism. No Kneale, no Dr Who. Quintessentially British and that is an aesthetic we are striving to maintain.

Alan Moore for the creation of John Constantine, Hellblazer comic is a big part of how we are treating our world. Working class values and realities meets gods and demons

Grant Morrison, Zenith (2000Ad) and The Invisibles, for the inclusion of post human ideologies, multidimensional mythos and great characters.

Bill Hicks, because he was the truthsayer of our time. His attitude and ideology underpins some of the central themes of power and identity.

Twin Peaks, probably one of the greatest television shows ever. It influenced so much media and again, manages to depict the mundane and the arcane. Two threads woven together with spellbinding effect.

Phil Hine and Peter J Carroll for their writings on Chaos Magick, Cthulhu Mythos and Post Modern Occult.

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

Whilst we are still in pre production as of writing these answers, I am currently developing a new working relationship with a Director of Photography (Mark Caldwell) and have been shooting some music videos with his Canon 7D, the results are impressive and we will either go with that or the Panasonic AF-AF101, for it's anti aliasing and superior encoding. Mark and I both come from a traditional single camera drama background so will approach the series with the same ethos. Although I am keen on Anthony Dod Mantle's cinematography (28 Days Later, 147 hours) and Nic Refn's style within digital cinema. (The Pusher trilogy, Valhalla Rising).

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

Credo is a hypersigil.

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

Credo - SciFinal Page

Completely Normal Activity - Adrienne Dawes

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 09:07:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series

Completely Normal Activity is a nine episode improvised paranormal comedy web series that follows Richie Cunningham (no, not the guy from Happy Days) a twenty something slacker who desperately wants to be a ghost hunter and discover paranormal activity in the apartment he shares with his girlfriend Relle Ryerson.

The entire creative team and cast all have a background in improv comedy, having studied together at Second City's Training Center, iO (Improv Olympic) and The Annoyance which allowed us to develop a unique process of collaboration to develop the web series characters and story.

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

Producers Ward Crockett and C. Dylan Plummer had recently seen Paranormal Activity 2 and that had got their gears turning on films that could use or expand on the reality-show style. While I'm not a big sci-fi/horror genre fan (aside from Battlestar Galactica and Shaun of the Dead), I am a big process nerd and contributed to creating the workshop structure for developing new material borrowed from my work as a playwright of site-specific and devised theater.

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

Films: Aliens, The Shining, The Haunting, Cries and Whispers, Fanny and Alexander, Broken Flowers, Dead Man, Shaun of the Dead

TV: Twin Peaks, IT Crowd, Arrested Development, Cheers, Lost, Star Trek, Garth Merenghi's Dark Place,The Mighty Boosh, The State, Kids in the Hall, Strangers with Candy

Novels: The New York Trilogy, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Winter's Tale, The High House, Dubliners, Fight Club, Cycle of the Werewolf

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

Cameras: Canon HFS200, three Kodak Zi8, Flip Mino, laptop camera, two 8mm video cams.
Editing: Adobe Premiere CS4 running on an AMD Phenom II X4 with 4 gigs of RAM.
Visual Effects: Premiere CS4 and After Effects CS4

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

We had surveillance set up for each shoot so it was rare that we actually had a cameraman in the same room as the actors (the producer-directors monitored footage from a central "control room" aka my bedroom; Richie/Bryan Beckwith operated most of the hand-held camera). This gave actors the freedom to move around the set and improvise blocking as much as they improvised lines. This also meant we could make fun of the actors behind their backs and monitor them whenever they were on break.

We shot two episodes a day over the course of 2.5 months on Saturdays - in one of the producers' apartment. Despite all the screaming involved with the shoot our neighbors thankfully NEVER called the cops (our set was kind of in a rough hood).

We were a two man, one woman crew and literally shared every single job throughout the process. Season 1 was completely self-funded and with volunteer talent, borrowed/refurbished equipment and donated craft services. Our budget is less than $5,000 total for all stages of the process.

All of our actors can SING! They did their own vocals for the scripted song that is performed later in the series. The song lyrics are the only scripted part of our series, written by the producers with me performing and recording the music.

Martha Hearn (who plays Judy Amethyst) wins the award for actor most likely responsible for breaking another actor. We surprisingly had very few breaks during filming but every time we did Martha was behind the joke. Her character will be introduced Episode 6 and we have some additional promo footage that we'll release with her soon.

Ward, Chris, and I met in Level 6 of the Core Writing Program at Second City. Bryan Beckwith (Richie) was cast in their sketch show Smokin Hot Zombie Tots.

The song sequence in EP 9 (final) was done in one take.

Completely Normal Activity can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Completely Normal Activity - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Completely Normal Activity below:

More blood!

Shooting Completely Normal Activity.

Cast and crew of Completely Normal Activity.

Posthuman - Lyndon Horsfall

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 14:25:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Posthuman is the future story of Charlie Porter, a down and out private investigator who is given the chance to reclaim his life in the same Ghetto he lost it, when he is given a new case by a mysterious woman. He begins to explore a rumoured subculture known as the "Memes," one he has been obsessed with since the disappearance of famed nano-roboticist Dorothy Ascher. The Memes may be a cult worshipping Dorothy, or wanting answers about her disappearance, or they may be planning a revolution against Capital City from the heart of the Ghettoes. As Porter searches for answers, he will question his past, his sanity, and what it means to be human.

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

The concept for the series has been a long time in the making. I was a low budget independent filmmaker many years ago. However, the technology you could afford on an extremely low budget back then was not technology you could make an adequate film with. I was constantly disappointed with a vision I had being compromised due to budgetary and technological restrictions. Just to get some depth of field in your image could be an arduous task. This disappointment led me to put the camera down for awhile and focus on my writing. I have always been a lover of science fiction, so I made many attempts at science fiction stories. However, in attempting to write feature length screenplays, I could never seem to get past the 45th page or so. It seems I could come up with great ideas, but I had trouble carrying them to the end in stories about intriguing characters. I had a whole lot of neat sci-fi ideas, but I always focused on those ideas more than the characters, so the stories always lost their way. Thankfully, I think I'm a much better writer today for learning those lessons.

Then a few years ago, Canon came out with their Hi Def DSLR cameras, particularly the T2i. Suddenly, you could get great HD footage, in 24 frames if you so desired, with interchangeable lenses. Suddenly, for less than a thousand dollars, you could shoot something that looked really pro. When those came out, I knew it was time to get back in the game. I just needed a story to tell.

I thought about a detective character named Porter that I had always wanted to write about, and I wrote the character for Jason Martorino, my friend and a brilliant actor. I just needed a story for the character to inhabit. I wanted it to be a future noir story, but I didn't know what story to drop him into. Another friend of mine suggested that I take all the interesting ideas I had in all my various sci-fi scripts, and drop every one of them into one story and use that to build a world. It was at that point, Posthuman came together. It suddenly all made sense. All the ideas complemented each other, and a story to drop Charlie Porter into became clear. As soon as Jason got on board, it's been a go ever since.Writer-Director-Excecutive Producer Lyndon Horsfall

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

My favourite movie is The Empire Strikes Back, and that is what made me want to be a filmmaker. I'm usually the geeky one to argue that it's not science fiction, but fantasy, but I think we can include that here. I also think it influenced my slightly dark side (no pun intended) in the stories I like to tell. The most influential piece on Posthuman in particular is most definitely Blade Runner. It is also one of my favourite films of all time, and I always loved the way it used a detective story to allow the audience to discover things the same time the main character did. The detective is looking for information he doesn't have, and when he gets it, he's been informed the same time the audience has. It's a great tool in telling a science fiction story, so as to avoid talking heads unnaturally explaining to each other how the fictional technologies work. A detective getting those explanations makes sense and fits thematically. I think science fiction and detective movies and film noir are perfect fits. I in no way want to compare Posthuman to the brilliance of Blade Runner, however.

In terms of other favourites, I also have to mention the new Battlestar Galactica, Firefly and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Those are my favourite science fiction shows of all time. Just amazing drama, amazing fun, and they do what I think the best science fiction is meant to do...use the conceit of sci-fi to comment on the human condition in a unique and interesting way.

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

We're a pretty low key, low budget operation. As I mentioned, I use a Canon T2i to shoot with. My main lenses are a Canon 50mm, a Canon 28mm and a Tamron 70-300mm zoom lens. I find I can get what I want with those three lenses, most of the time. The next episode we're shooting, I think I'm going to want a 24mm...so we'll see just how low that budget is. I also use an Azden boom mic put into the T2i through a BeachTek adapter, which works brilliantly. I've been shooting handheld pretty raw so far, but I just got a Foton shoulder support that I'm really eager to use on the next shoot.

As for editing, I use Final Cut Express on a 24" iMac/13" PowerBook. I do some sound scrubbing on SoundSoap 2. I convert the footage from H.264 to AIC using MPEG Streamclip. My friend Anil Ibrahim does the graphics for the show using Photoshop.

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

Peeing was a bit of a problem on episode 3. All the actors were basically drinking the whole shoot, either ice tea or fruit flavoured vitamin water. By mid-day, there were many pee breaks! We also had to watch our continuity with the levels of drinks in both glasses and the serving bottles. We had a case each of both these drinks, but we weren't sure how much we'd go through, and we didn't want to waste too much by pouring it down a drain, and the actors could only drink so much. So in between takes we had a funnel that we would use to pour the drinks from the glasses back into the bottles. As the shoot went on, we would lose track of the funnel, and throughout the shoot you'd constantly hear people yelling; "Funnel!?!" "Where's the funnel!?!" Oh...and Sara, who plays Gina, is wearing blue fuzzy slippers the whole time.

Another interesting thing that I feel the need to give credit to is an exchange in the first episode, "Strain Theory." When Porter says to Ricky; "They were all bad guys," and Ricky responds with "Were they?" That exchange is a testament to the brilliant acting of Amanda, because it was that line reading that forever changed Posthuman by inspiring an idea in me...one I can't divulge yet, unfortunately! Those are the moments I love, and why I do this. It's those magical moments of inspiration that I live for. The idea that line reading inspired in me made Posthuman so much more that it was, and I'll forever be thankful for Amanda and her talent, even if she has no idea what she did!

Posthuman can be found online and on Facebook.

Posthuman - SciFinal Page

Check out the behind the scenes video about the making of the Posthuman episode "The Past: Promises Reckoned":

More pictures from the set of Posthuman below:

Shooting Posthuman

Jason Martorino as Porter

Joanna Haughton as Dororthy

Sara Mitich as Gina

Voyage Trekkers - Nathan Blackwell

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:03:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Voyage Trekkers is a sci-fi comedy that drops in on a starship Captain and his crew during the worst moments of their galactic adventures. Much in the vein of Star Trek, the show is a love letter to sci-fi situations and genre conventions as we see them faced by the worst crew in the galaxy.

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

I've been wanting to do sci-fi for the longest time; it's absolutely one of my favorite genres. Also, I just wanted to do a show that was 100% about the comedy. There's just so much fun to be had with science fiction, I just love it.

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

As I said before, Voyage Trekkers is a love letter to science fiction, but most obviously to Star Trek. It's interesting, I'm really more of a Star Wars geek than Star Trek, but Star Wars isn't as funny. Maybe it's Star Trek's larger body of work, or the lower budgets they had get by on with the TV shows, but there's much more comedic gold to be had with it. For this show, however, I didn't want to do a one-for-one parody of Star Trek. I wanted the freedom to sprinkle in dashes of Star Wars, or even the old Flash Gordon serials into the show, so we had the freedom to really make it about sci-fi in general.

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

We shot Voyage Trekkers on a DSLR camera, the Canon 7D. We used a Canon T2i as our B Camera, which worked great since it has the same sensor as the 7D, we were able to intercut between the two. I'm editing the episodes on Final Cut Pro. Our visual effects are being created by a band of talented students from the Art Institute of Phoenix, lead by Keirsten Van Hoek and teacher David Stipes acting as consultant. David Stipes did visual effects for Star Trek: The Next Generation, V, and the original Battlestar Galactica. He's also the father of our production designer, Nathan Stipes.

We had a crazy shooting schedule. The episodes are just two to three minutes long each, and we were shooting three episodes in one day. Probably not the best idea. Luckily we still kept the days at about twelve hours long.

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

One of the most rewarding parts of the shoot was making the alien lizard mask. We weren't happy with the masks we found online so we bit the bullet pretty late in the game and decided to create one ourselves. It was a more expensive route to go and we were hurtling closer and closer to our production date. We sculpted it out of clay, created a plaster mold, made the latex head, and then painted it. We were so down to the wire we were painting it the night before shooting. The actor inside the mask, James Hoenscheidt, was completely blind inside the mask. He was a real trooper. We had to lead him around the rocky desert location, angle his hands and head in the directions we need. You can read more about the process of making the mask at our Squishy Studios Blog.

Voyage Trekkers can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Voyage Trekkers - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Voyage Trekkers below:

Commander Powell (Logan Blackwell) and Dr. Rena (Gabrielle Van Buren).

The set of Voyage Trekkers.

Director Nathan Blackwell sets up a green screen shot with actors Logan Blackwell, Adam Rini and
Gabrielle Van Buren.

A Voyage Trekkers retro production still.

Captain Sunstrike (Adam Rini) impresses Princess Alana (Michelle Burchfield) with his gun.

The Apocalypse Diaries - Clea Frost

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:30:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Season one of The Apocalypse Diaries follows a Los Angeles couple caught in the aftermath of strange explosions in their neighborhood. The area has been quarantined and they've been told to stay indoors. But when they start to run out of food and water the boyfriend, Evan, leaves in search of supplies. He never comes back. Jen, the protagonist, turns to the internet to appeal for help as her situation deteriorates.

It's a 'found footage' type of set up with the initial episodes being Jen's video blog as she tries to make sense of what's happening and make contact with other survivors. After these episodes have aired, there will also be some additional content that fills in the story a little more. Later seasons will then follow other characters, although Jen will no doubt come back in some shape or form.

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

The backstory to Jen and Evan's situation is that there's been another accident at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland. The characters don't know this, but it will be revealed over the course of the series.

I find what's happening at the LHC completely fascinating. It's crazy to me that scientists are carrying out experiments to see what happened in the moments after the big bang and to test things like string theory, which proposes ten dimensions of space and one dimension of time, many more dimensions than we currently acknowledge. These experiments could change everything we understand about the universe and our perception of reality.

Also, theoretically the LHC could create a black hole and destroy the world. It's so highly improbable that the scientists don't blink an eye, but even the fact that it's theoretically possible is amazing to me.

So when I was reading about the completion of LHC it got me thinking about how our world might be affected by what's happening there. And then after I had the idea for The Apocalypse Diaries there was actually a malfunction at the LHC and it was offline for a while - life imitating art! Although of course what I've imagined is a much bigger malfunction.

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

When it comes to TV, I grew up watching reruns of the original Star Trek and Lost In Space. Later I was hooked on Star Trek: Next Generation and The X Files, which at its peak it was exactly the kind of material I'd love to produce. More recently I was a big fan of the first three seasons of Lost as well as the SyFy series The Lost Room - I really wish that had been picked up.

Film wise, I remember seeing Alien as a teenager and being completely blown away. And of course there are a million other sci-fi features I love. Everything from indie fare like the Spanish film Timecrimes to Duncan Jones' Moon to Cloverfield to Blade Runner.

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

For the regular season episodes, I edited and created effects using Final Cut Pro. The camera was a Canon HFS100 HD.

But I'm also creating some additional content using Flip video cameras (both Standard and HD) as well as phones, actual webcams etc. I'm excited to use this kind of mixed media approach as it suits the concept and is very versatile.

We shot all Jen's episodes using natural light and a little camping lantern - all practicals so no lighting involved! Made everything so much faster.

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

The dreaded 'orange dust' that coats Jen's skin and clothes is actually a powdered watercolor paint made for kids.

The Apocalypse Diaries can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

The Apocalypse Diaries - SciFinal Page

Laurel Marlantes as Jen.

My Future Girlfriend - Brian Amyot

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:09:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

My Future Girlfriend is a sci-fi romantic comedy. Our main character Clark has reached a point in his life where he just content to be. He isn't inspired, he doesn't feel the need to work hard at his job, or try hard to meet women. His best friends and roommates, Alan and Christina, try to encourage him to put himself out there, but his is just comfortable where he his. Everything changes for him the day he meets Lisa, she seems like the perfect girl for him. They are interested in all the same movies, comic books, and video games. The best part about it, he doesn't even have to try, she just throws herself at him. Then his whole world is turned upside down when Kelly shows up, claiming to be his girlfriend from the future. She tells him they have to get together in the present to save the fate of the world. Now the fate of the world is in his hands, and even harder, he has to choose between the two hottest women he's ever met.

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

Steven Tsapelas, the writer who conceived the idea, wanted to do a webseries that would combine many of his favorite elements, a guy who can't get a girlfriend, time travel, and beautiful girls. He also has a love of romantic comedies, as well as, sci-fi, so he started developing an idea that could work for both genres. We became very excited about combining genres. We love the idea that show starts out like a typical romantic comedy, and then sci-fi elements are brought in that really add a level of excitement to the world. We also wanted to experiment with the webseries format. We produced this like a feature film told in five parts. Each episode has a beginning, middle and end, but when watched as a whole the story plays like a feature film.

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

The big influences on this show were The Terminator and Back to the Future. All the Terminator movies were an influence, but specifically the first one, because it was low budget, and they had to do the best with what they had. This was an incredibly low budget production, so we squeezed the most out of everything we had. We throw a lot of references to scifi shows and movies into the show, specifically ones that involve time travel. We reference, everything from Star Trek, to Quantum Leap and Lost.

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

We shot on a Panasonic DVX100A. Our cinematographer Jeff Billings also did the color correction and visual effects. Angel Acevedo edited the film on Avid, Chris Hall and Evan Menak did the sound mixing with Protools. They all made the show look and sound brilliant.

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

The producers of this show are all New York guys that happened to be in Los Angeles, and this was their first LA production. The best part about LA is that the weather is great and you can shoot year round. However, that was not the case for us. We shot this series on non-consecutive weekends, spread out over a couple months. Every single weekend that we shot, it rained. We couldn't believe it. Luckily we were able to work around it, shooting exteriors when there was a break from the rain.

My Future Girlfriend can be found online, on Facebook.

My Future Girlfriend - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from My Future Girlfriend below:

Brigitte Hagerman as Lisa

Cheryl Texiera as Kelly

Evan Gaustad as Clark and Cheryl Texiera as Kelly

Kirstin Scoles as Christina, Patrick Cohen as Alan, and Evan Gaustad as Clark

Cavalier - Sebastian Kadlecik

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:22:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Earth's days are numbered so the people of earth quickly put together a lottery to choose two people to go into space, find a new earth, and save humanity. Unfortunately they pick solely based on name, and as the misfortunes of these people mount, a guy named Nancy gets his name pulled out of the hat. The rest is history. Nancy and Bob are now on the prowl for any alien babes with a propensity for human love and baby making.

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

I was changing a light bulb in my bathroom when I slipped of the toilet and hit my head on the tub. When I awoke, in a very small pool of my own blood, the idea was just there. Okay, I actually just thought about doing a web series that would require very little movement, crew, and money but would still be interesting to the viewer and have a lot of possible directions it could go in.

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

I've loved sci-fi since I was a kid. I vaguely remember watching the original Dr. Who with my dad. I love The Hobbit and 1984. When it comes to movies and television, I think I'd have to go with Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and X-Files. It's tough to say; there are many.

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

We wanted it to look lower quality so we went with a Canon Powershot, an iPhone, and an Android. When it came to special effects we didn't have a lot of budget. We went with things that were immediately available with the exception of Episode 9 where we actually rigged some additional lighting and ran an extension cord with a surge protector into the car. Very high tech.

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

The show is actually shot in a Cavalier. That's all I got. Oh, and the dialogue is all improvised.

Cavalier can be found online and on Facebook.

Cavalier - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Cavalier below:

Josh Green (Bob) and the Cavalier.

Aftermath of space travel.

Sebastian and the holiday Cavalier.

Tights and Fights - Scott Albert

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:15:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Tights and Fights is basically a comedy about super heroes. We did our first series, Tights and Fights: Captain Euchre, on YouTube in 2007 and 2008 and people really seemed to like it, so we decided to do a second series, Tights and Fights: Ashes, that picks up where the Captain Euchre series left off, but with different characters.

Captain Euchre has gone missing - kidnapped by person or persons unknown. His disappearance disrupts the lives of other super heroes and villains in one way or another - Major Faultline gets sent to jail, kicked off his super hero team, Ronin Force and his wife, Leopard Woman, wants a divorce. The Plumber, who was held hostage by Captain Euchre, needs to find him to give him the sizable plumbing bill and get his job and life back. Fantabulous Gal has decided this is the perfect opportunity to rise from being a side kick/personal assistant to being a real super hero. And Evil Trojan Borscht... well, he does look an awful like the missing Captain.

The search for Captain Euchre is told in an epic storyline over 180 video diary episodes and countless Twitter posts, Facebook updates, blogs and live social networking performances. But it really about what it must be like to be a super hero, day-to-day. I mean, we don't always get along with our office mates, do we? And neither do super heroes. After all, just because they're the good guys doesn't make them good people.

Oh, I'm Scott Albert, one third of a company we like to call GopherX.net. My partners are Courtney Wolfson and Christopher Guest. Yes, I know, he's not the Christopher Guest. But he's our Christopher Guest.

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

Well, to be honest, the original idea for Captain Euchre came because we wanted to do something fun for a YouTube show that was a fictional story, cost nothing, and wasn't two guys sitting on a couch. So we thought, why not make it a super hero confessional? And Captain Euchre was born.

When we had told that story, we decided to take many of the characters mentioned but never seen in the Captain Euchre story and tell their stories. We thought we'd just do a little bit of writing and start shooting. Nope. It took us about 3 years to get the second series on the web. It was too long but it was worth it.

The tone, the jokes, the stuff that these heroes and villains have to deal with come from us growing up reading comic books. It is all the stuff that a super hero would go through in the comic books, but these guys get to tell us the stuff that they're really thinking and feeling.

And when we started working with more actors/writers for the other roles, they brought in their understanding of comic super heroes. So the lives of our characters cover a lot of ground - in fact we pretty much deliberately parody the epic storylines of the 80's and 90's.

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

Wow, there's really too many to mention them all. You know, at a certain level this series is influenced by clichés, so that really widens the field. And comic books, comic books, comic books. You can also add in lots of comic books written in the 80's and 90's, with writers like John Ostrander (especially Suicide Squad) and James Robinson on Starman. Oh, and Roger Avery's Starman, too. But not John Carpenter's Starman. I guess you can count the super cheesy Saturday morning cartoons like The Super Friends. It is those types of clichés that we make fun of.

Both Christopher and I love Red Dwarf. One of the nicest comments we have gotten was someone saying our show reminded them of Red Dwarf. Of course, Ricky Gervais and The Office made mockumentary type stuff cool. LonelyGirl15 was a direct influence, of course, in the webcam fiction style.

As to the jokes, gags and references, Doctor Who continues to get lots of call outs in the show, especially right now because Major Faultline is tumbling around in time. And there's a whole bunch of Star Trek jokes. There's also jokes about obscure TV Ontario kids shows from the early 80's like Jeremy the Bear and Cucumber Club. The phrase that is used to activate Evil Trojan Borscht's mind control is lifted completely from an Inspector Gadget episode.

A giant influence on the show, and someone that most people won't know by name, is Jill Golick and her work with transmedia and new styles of story telling before anyone had thought to call it anything. She did boymeetsgirl on Facebook, and I was one of the writers on a project called Crushing It that directly influenced our 'live twitter performance' storytelling. She is clearly a visionary, a genius and a great storyteller.

I could go on about the jumble of influences that bubble to the surface in the show. But I suppose I've covered all the big stuff.

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

I'm not really the technical one on the team, but I'll do my best.

We knew going in that we needed to shoot it in HD. That meant we needed a better camera than we used for Captain Euchre. Oh, and we did something to that camera when we shoot one of the Captain's outdoors episodes. It got cold and never really worked again.

Our Associate Producer had a Canon something or other, which we shot a few things on and was a nice camera. But then we got lucky, a friend of ours had to move to Europe rather quickly, and sold us his gear package for a sweet deal - including a Sony EX-1. For us, one of the big benefits was that it used memory cards rather than tape, so ingesting the footage for editing was so much easier and quicker. And it shoots a beautiful HD image. The Canon became our primary EPK and behind the scenes camera.

Most of our other gear was pretty straight forward. We recently did some green screen work (for Episode 80) and it was our first time playing around with that. For an episode where The Plumber is riding a bike and on the run from the cops, we bought a Hero cam - a tiny little waterproof camera that shoots in HD made for the extreme sports market. It's a lot of fun, and for such a small camera it takes a really nice HD picture. It ended up serving as double duty. Because it captures a 180 degree field of view, we mounted it high over our set and let it roll during our taping. We'll be using that footage in our behind the scenes episodes.

For editing, Christopher likes to use Sony Vegas. We're quite used to people who, when they hear us say that, get angry about it. I guess it has a bad reputation... or maybe it is just not Mac. But it does pretty much all of what we need to do in post in one program, it runs fast on the PC we use to edit, and it has built in setting to output the best possible video for YouTube. We've experimented with a bunch of different ways to get video on YouTube, and Sony Vegas was the best that we found. We do use Final Cut on a slower Mac machine in order to digitize and edit our EPK footage.

For uploading to YouTube (you think that would be the easy part) we found that we wanted to upload it around 3 AM our time. At first it looked like someone was actually going to have to stay up until the wee hours of the morning to do it, but then we found this great little piece of software called TubeShack. It automates the upload for you. It isn't 100% reliable, but then what is if you're going to set it and walk away?

We use Google Docs for everything. We have a large team, especially in the Transmedia writing side, so being able to quickly throw up a document that everyone can see and contribute to in real time is a life saver. I honestly don't think we could be doing much of what we do for our Transmedia stories without it. And we have a grandfathered, old TubeMogul account, so we use that to keep track of our stats.

Gee, are you sorry you asked yet? (Yep! Just kidding. -Editor)

Can you tell us any interesting facts or trivia about your show? Any funny stories? (For example: Captain Zerks' eyeballs are made from whiffle balls).

Whiffle balls are awesome!

Trivia-wise, well, as you can probably tell from the section on influences, the show is jam packed with obscure references that could pass for trivia. Here's something - we screwed up the Plumber's name. In Captain Euchre, you can clearly hear him call The Plumber Vern Stroveco. In Ashes, The Plumber (same character) is named Robert Strovesco. Sure, we could come up with all sorts of retrocon explanations, but the truth is we screwed up and didn't catch it until it was way too late.

Here's a funny story. Chelsea Larkin (who plays Leopard Woman) is the only writer in the early days who we hadn't worked with in the past. She came and auditioned and blew us away because not only was she funny, she improvised almost all of her lines. She kept apologizing because she figured we'd be mad that she's not saying the dialogue as it was written, and we kept saying, "No, no! We want you to improvise! We want you to say whatever you want, cause that's really how it'll be when we shoot it." And whatever Chelsea says is just funny. So we cast her.

Anyway, that's not the story. The very first day of writing, Chelsea arrived late. She was clearly embarrassed about something, but just as clearly she was having a hard time not telling the story of why. In bits and pieces she told us that she was late because she was having a hard time parallel parking. She kept trying to fit into this one spot over and over. But she couldn't do it. And there was this older guy watching her. Finally she rolled down the window and told him, "I'm having a hard time parking because I'm blind in one eye." Totally a lie. "Could you help me out?" So he, thinking he was doing a good turn to the handicapped, eagerly climbed in and parked Chelsea's car for her.

Chelsea's good at getting people to do things for her. She's so loveable you just can't help yourself. In real life, she's not really like Leopard Woman at all.

Tights and Fights can be found online, on Facebook, Twitter, and more!

Tights and Fights - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Tights and Fights below:

Tights and Fights Writer's Room

Bottom, Left to Right: Scott Albert, Adam Swimmer, Billi Dee Knight, Mark Brown;
Top, Left to Right: James Nadiger, Crystal Wood, Alan Flanagan, Scott Watkins, Devin Smith,
Mike Drach; Behind the camera: Christopher Guest.

Self Centered - Steve Keevil Kevin Proctor

Fri, 20 May 2011 14:30:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

KEVIN PROCTOR: 'Self Centered' is about Lydia, a young actress who has played her last cards and is on the brink of burning out. She's selling out to rag mags with 'kiss n' tell' stories and pretty much trying to put herself back in the spotlight by being in the limelight for the wrong reasons. She attempts suicide and wakes up in a Clinic in the future and is told that she is the saviour of mankind.

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

STEVE KEEVIL: Myself and Kevin had been discussing for some time doing a web series, and Kev asked me to write a comedy about a celebrity rehab centre.

I went away and wrote Self Centered. One of Kev's first comments was that it wasn't funny, I think he even tried to take it away and add jokes to it. I think during the process I just found the idea of that sort of comedy vacuous, in terms of raising the importance of celebrity. And then I decided to run with the idea, what if a celebrity were the most important person in the world.

KEVIN PROCTOR: It did start out as a comedy. A comedy about a rehab centre, in fact I still have the first episode where the main character is dropped off at the country manor estate to begin her stint in rehab. I guess it kind of went down the lines of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

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

STEVE KEEVIL: For this I think clear influences for me were David Lynch, La Jetee/ 12 Monkeys, Quantum Leap.

KEVIN PROCTOR: We had very little money and time but achieved a great deal with what we had. We had four days to shoot six episodes so you're not going to end up with THX 1138 but for me, Jacobs Ladder, a Robert Edwards film called Land of the Blind and Lynch were always big factors.

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

KEVIN PROCTOR: Catherine Derry our DoP shot on a Panasonic P2 camera using P2 cards which, after each day of shooting, were taken to the post production house in Soho and downloaded. We were fortunate to have two large post facilities to do the editing, grading and sound design & mix.

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

KEVIN PROCTOR: Yeah, we managed to wipe a scene without realising and then, through fate or whatever, we actually re-shot it differently the following day. P2 Cards are great and you can use them again and again, but if you don't download them properly, you're going to erase footage.

Self Centered can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter (Steve / Kevin).

Self Centered - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Self Centered below:

Editing Self Centered

Kellie Shirley as Lydia

Zoe Liang (1st AD), Simon Tcherniak(The Custodian), and Kellie Shirley (Lydia)

I Am Tim - Jamie Simcox

Fri, 13 May 2011 12:52:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

I Am Tim is a fake documentary (fockumentary?) that follows the misadventures of Tim Helsing, a rather normal young man who has recently discovered that he's the last in the bloodline of the Van Helsings. It's currently watched by a small number of die-hard fans who are the main reason we keep going. They want to see how the story finishes.

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

It started life as a zombie documentary series called Zombie Force back in 2000, a time long before broadband and web series. A few friends and I filmed a thirty minute episode in one day, showed it to about five people, then binned it. Several years later, the idea resurfaced, but some friends of mine were already basking in the success of their own web series - Zomblogalypse. So a few rewrites later, I Am Tim was born.

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

Supernatural, Fringe, The X Files... the list is endless. I'm a massive geek. I make my girlfriend endure every episode of the series I follow (sadly, she drew the line at Leverage...). John Carpenter is a huge influence. Episode 3 of I Am Tim is a little tribute to the man. The long, slow shots, simple score. The Thing is probably my all time favourite film, and the main reason I Am Tim only uses practical effects. Not a single CGI frame will ever be used, much to the despair of Simon Fisher, the mastermind behind all the props, make up and effects you see in the series.

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

For series 1 we filmed on a Canon XHA-1 I think. It belongs to the actor who plays filmmaker Richard Timmons. For Series 2 we're shifting to HDSLRs - two 550Ds and a 60D. I've spent a lot of time on YouTube researching homebrew steadicams, shoulder mounts and follows focus rigs. We made a lot of mistakes in series 1, and whereas we've learned from them, we really don't want to repeat them. I edit using Final Cut Studio running on an iMac (which I will be paying for FOR ALL OF TIME).

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

All the actors who play RedShirts are instructed to bring a bin bag, a change of clothes, a bottle of water and towel. They get some serious abuse. Some are pretty good at dodging the splatter, but some get hosed. Simon built a pressurised cannon to fire the blood from. It can hold 4 litres, and goes up to 60psi. He's told me he's adding another 4 litres for series 2. I feel for those guys...

I Am Tim can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

I Am Tim - SciFinal Page

Stacks - Cherie Peters & Kathy Forti

Fri, 06 May 2011 11:05:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Kathy: It's all about one woman's search for truth in a crazy world of lies and deception. The main character, Cali Cavaleri, is no perfect heroine. She's been known to tell quite a few whoppers to cover her ass, because her life is pretty much a screw up. In Stacks, she finds herself caught up in the intrigue of discovering greater forces at work behind the scenes which govern her world in true conspiracy style. In her wildest dreams she would never have imagined that finding a dead guy's cell phone would open up a whole new reality for her that she would have to make sense of.

Cherie: This is a story of young girl who comes to realize the truth isn't always what it seems. Ironically, Cali Cavaleri makes a living writing lies for the tabloids and finds herself in a 6th dimension of truth...in the LOT (The Library of Truth) where all truth for all time is kept. Only a powerful few know of about the LOT...and Cali soon finds out that the truth can kill.

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

Kathy: One night I woke up from a dream so compelling I had to write it down. It was three in the morning and I couldn't get back to sleep. I had information about portals, inter-dimensional depositories for Truth, even information on the banking crisis and how it would be played out. And, mind, you, all this information came to me before the real banking crisis occurred. It all seemed so real and my head was spinning with what I felt was a very interesting storyline. The concept was turned into a TV pilot I wrote called Stacks, which took place in the real Library of Congress--the mother of all portals. The script won an award at the Slamdance Teleplay Competition, but went no where due to the writer's strike at the time. So I adapted it and down-scaled it for the Beverly Hills Library with a female lead versus a male one. Originally, Zack was the main character.

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

Kathy: Stargate, The Matrix, The X-Files. I'm really enjoying Ancient Aliens on the History Channel. That really gets you thinking.

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

Cherie: We shot Stacks in six days with a crew of five, all of whom have worked on television series and feature films. We shot on the Sony Z1U HD camera and edited on an AVID DV Pro system. We were fortunate to get the visual effects artist who has worked on many feature films including Titanic (Hitoshi Inoue).

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

Kathy: Most of it the show was funded on game show winnings that just happened to fall into my lap. I was invited to be a contestant on a new game show called Catch 21 that dealt with blackjack and trivia. I didn't know diddly about blackjack strategy at the time, but I did have a head for useless facts and a fast hand buzzer reflex. To make it even more challenging, I was sick with food poisoning the day they shot the show and felt like crap. I dragged myself in to the studio and all I can say is the game show gods must have taken pity on me. I was sure I'd be toast before the first round was over. Instead, I was the first female winner to win the jackpot. I was told I played a perfect game, so someone up there must have known I would need funds to pull off Stacks.

Cherie: The LOT was shot in a mortuary! We loved the marble floors and high ceilings, put up a green screen and it was created in post! It was a bit surreal filming there!

Eric Martsolf, who played Agent L. Hunter who stars in Days of Our Lives tends to play such serious roles, but he is actually hysterical off camera. He had the crew laughing constantly! He should definitely do a comedy! Sam Vitez who plays Annika has a band (Rough Duchess) and plays the local clubs here in LA. And Jackie Tohn who stars as Cali, entertained us with her humor and song in between takes. She has awesome pipes!

Stacks can be found online and on Twitter.

Stacks - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Stacks below:

DP at work

Jackie and Sam shooting on green

Director Paul Peters on location

Setting up a location shot

Jackie waiting for her cue

Sam Vitez getting makeup

PASSENGER - Al Galvez

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:44:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

PASSENGER follows the lives of many different characters on several planes of existence and realities. It's set in several different time periods on earth from thousands of years back to the present and future, as well as in the dream world, heaven, hell, and other planets. It's the collision and marriage of spirituality and science. Our main anti-hero Michael is deep in the trenches of a final war front on earth, between heaven's armies and his brother Lucifer's dark angels. PASSENGER is a type of Film-noir, or cinematic series, with an avant-garde, modern-day musical approach, in the style of Pink Floyd's The Wall.

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

In short, I couldn't get much more than an audition for the role of a waiter on a mainstream TV show, so I decided to make one of my own, haha!

I realized I had to create the opportunities I wanted for myself on my own and to my fullest creative potential, and the right business would follow. And this format is ideal for that, not just as an actor, but as a visual artist, musician, writer and director as well. So Initially I set out to write and produce a scene as a demo reel which I felt best represented who I was about overall. Then my imagination and excitement for the project went full throttle, and before long it had grown as a concept for a mini series on the web.

You have to carve out a voice for yourself amidst the clutter and static, so I've created a vehicle of my own to carry what I want to say without asking for permission or dealing with too many politics, or agendas. The underlying message of PASSENGER is just that, a creative rebel yell-a war cry to one self, to unleash your full potential, assume responsibility, and push the envelope of what's possible. To brake away from the system, challenge the establishment and the powers that be, and stop doing what's expected of you but rather what you need and want to. My character of Michael on PASSENGER is the embodiment of that idea, as an Archangel who has been demoted and sent out on exile to earth indefinitely, for following his heart. We've all faced that purgatory time in our lives, where we're neither here or there, but almost in suspended animation, trying hard to wake up and find our place in the world. This show also serves as a great opportunity for me to tie in my work in different mediums, which has always been very thematic overall, into a unified vision.

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

Some novels which have influenced my writing overall are Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World. Movie-wise I'm a big Stanley Kubrick fan, Blade Runner really spoke to me. The Thing, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Dune, Gattaca, Contact, Stargate, and of course the original Star Wars trilogy. My brother and I collected every single action figure when we were kids.

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

I wanted to raise the production value bar of independent programming overall, and bring my work to a competitive level with current mainstream cable channel programming, not merely as a concept, but in its execution as well. So I thought why not just go all the way and do a pilot for a one hour television show, and stream it online first as a web series? For that I needed to shoot in a format which not only works for the internet but is also broadcast ready for future programming on cable, so we shot it on the Red Camera, and film. We edit on Final Cut, and use After Effects for most special effects. Now we are in production for the first full season of thirteen one hour episodes which should wrap principal photography by the end of this year. And we are currently streaming the first chapters' episodes online, as six to seven minute mini-episodes through our online channels, and the show's official site www.passengershow.com.

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

I wanted my character to drive a Jeep in the pilot, but I soon learned that Jeeps are almost impossible to rent in Los Angeles, for some odd reason. Suddenly it was the night before the shooting day when we were gonna need it, and nobody could find me one. So I approached this sketchy used Jeep dealer the morning of, but he only sold his cars, not rent them. When I approached his lot, he was using chewing gum to hold a car's side spoiler, that should have been a clue, but I had ran out of options. So I found the perfect '89 Jeep, but he wasn't gonna let me take it unless I bought it. We came to an agreement that if I returned it within 24 hours, he would cancel the sale and charge me a re-stocking fee as a rental. So after hours of credit checks and a phone book size amount of paper work, the old car was finally mine. So, I'm already late to my own shoot and production is calling me freaking out, but the calls keep dropping cause our set was in near desert Santa Clarita. I jump on the car, turn the ignition... and nothing happens. So then the dealer admits the car hasn't been started in years and he calls his mechanic to come down. The mechanic checks the batteries, changes spark plugs, etc, trying out all sorts of things, until the engine finally turns on. And then he tells me: "If I were you, I wouldn't turn it off until you get there, cause it probably won't turn on again." So I jump in, and its a stick shift, which I knew how to drive but hadn't really done so in years. And this cars gears were brutally rough at best, and as I start inching and sputtering off the lot, it keeps wanting to shut down on me. I don't know how, but I made it onto the highway, and up and up deserted mountains towards our location. By this time I had no reception or way to get in contact with my crew, and if the car stalled, my show would probably go down the toilet. And then I felt this amazing feeling I'd never had before, this euphoric thrill of the insaneness of the whole situation, of putting all of my money into this huge gamble. And suddenly I was laughing my ass off, enjoying the feeling of this type of empowering freedom, of going after what I want no matter what. It was one of the best days of my life.

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

PASSENGER - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from PASSENGER below:

Al Galvez directing on location.

Riding in the famous Jeep.

Al Galvez prepping a scene.

Passenger on set.

Don Swayze and Kadyr Gutierrez on set.

Al Galvez directing a scene.

The Immoral Dr. Dicqer - Lindsey Schmitz

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:26:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

The Immoral Dr. Dicqer is a look into the future from 500 years in the past. Painstakingly recreated from the etchings adorning the wall of a Tortugan bawdy house, we have attempted to accurately depict, for today's audience, the conception of life in the 1980's held by the greatest and most prophetic minds of the 1480's. And the main guy is a gynecologist.

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

The urge to make this show came from the fact that I wasn't seeing anything like this yet, and Odin help me, I wanted to. They don't make enough programming for intellectual perverts these days.

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

I am currently reading Huxley's Brave New World, but I can't say I agree with his stance. No family to worry about? No God holding you down? Dystopia, my ass. So I just chuckle my way through it. Some favorite sci-fi movies: 70's and 80's stuff. Logan's Run, Mad Max, Blade Runner, Escape From New York. Giant Monsters: Ray Harryhausen vs. Japan. TV: Battlestar Galactica (new or old, each for their own reasons), watching Lexx right now and enjoying it. Dr. Who, of course. Alex Baker (Dr. Dicqer) swears the only real Dr. Who is Tom Baker (no relation), and I'm inclined to agree.

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

We shot the show on 720p HDV with a JVC HD100U. It was edited on Final Cut, and the compositing was largely done in After Effects with some help from Shake. Some matte painting and 3D file editing in Photoshop.

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

I still have the speculum from the first episode, but I'm afraid to use it.

The Immoral Dr. Dicqer can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

The Immoral Dr. Dicqer - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from The Immoral Dr. Dicqer below:

Aggie – Cody Rhyse

Henry Dicqer – Matt Andrews

Nurse Dregg – Babetta Juergens

Sheena Dicqer – Cindy Merrill

Trudy Darling – Kaylee Brown

Overturn - John Deryl

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:56:00 -0600

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Overturn is the first international online show. Our cast and crew includes representatives of the US, Australia, Italy, Nigeria, Ukraine, Denmark, and Vietnam.

Our series is made for those who love to unlock secrets, uncover plans, and unravel mysteries. If I were comparing it to other shows, I would say that the closest one would be LOST. Because in Overturn we deal with global mysteries that do not reveal themselves until the end of the show. The story creates multitude of questions, but answers them very slowly. It is like a labyrinth that grows all the time, and you have to connect past, present, and future in order to understand what is happening.

The main character is Christopher Gabriel whose life is a complete enigma. Since he was a kid, he has been having nightmares. Very scary and real. No one seems to be able to help him, and he is in real despair. His life has no meaning and no purpose.

Suddenly, some strange people kidnap him. They conduct a number of creepy experiments on him. He tries to resist, but they are too powerful. The strange thing is that the more time he spends with those people, the more he feels some changes in him. He cannot understand whether those changes are positive or negative, but his normal life goes further away every day. Together with Christopher, our audience will be trying to find the answers to all puzzles of Overturn.

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

It is a completely original idea which was developed slowly and carefully. I would say that we have enough story lines and events for a feature film, but we decided to split it into a multitude of episodes.

The most important thing in this concept is the liaisons that connect different time periods. I was playing with time very much while I was working on the story. The past plays a big role especially. Only when you learn the past will you be able to understand what is happening in the present, and what might happen later.

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

I love everything that is produced by J.J. Abrams, directed by Stephen Spielberg, James Cameron, Stanley Kubrick, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott.

Movies - 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, Avatar, Inception, The Matrix, Blade Runner.
TV shows - LOST, Fringe, Star Trek, The X-Files.

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

We used a Canon 7D camera which I think provided us with a very good quality image. We did not use much lighting because the majority of dialogs occur between two people. Usually it was 3-4 items of lighting equipment. We also used a boom mic and lavaliers. Overtun is all about the story, so we almost did not use CGI. That is why it was enough for us to edit it on a PC. We used some Adobe After Effects though.

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

Our actor Konstantin Gerasimuk plays one of the most mystical characters in the story. The character's name is The Servant.Throughout the whole season he does not say a word. All of his scenes are quiet. But in the last episode he has a line that wraps up the first season. The line is, 'Welcome back.'

When we were shooting this scene we faced an issue. The character's nationality has to be unknown, but Konstantin is from Ukraine, a Russian speaking country, so he would speak his only line with a thick Russian accent. First we trained him for about half an hour, and it sounded more or less indeterminately. But after we started shooting, his accent came back again. We did about 25 takes hoping that we would have some material to choose from.

But later, when we were editing the last episode, it became obvious that all takes sounded Russian! We decided to call
him for a voice over session which lasted for about one hour. All that time was spent for the sake of one line!
When we finished, we understood that it would probably be impossible to make him sound completely not Russian, but
we did not want to voice over him with someone else because his voice sounded very mystical.

Eventually, we used one of the first takes recorded on the set :-)

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

Overturn - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Overturn below:

Actress Maria Glazunova.

Sound Mixer Alex puts a lav mic on Konstantin Gerasimuk - The Servant.

Co-director Helene Wang discusses the Park scene.

Pieces - Dylann Bobei

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:12:00 -0600

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Pieces is based on a couple different concepts that have come together to form the overall show. The first cool thing about the show is the "Dream Concept". The beginning of each season will feature a montage of seemingly random images and clips. They act like one of those dreams where you just remember bits and pieces. In this instance, however, these images return over the course of the season and actually play into the story so it becomes somewhat of a game for the audience to try and spot these instances and use them to predict where the show is going and when the next image or clip might pop up.

The next aspect of the show is, of course, it's actual story. Jacob Clarke gets a diagnosis of cancer and begins to hear a voice talking to him in his head. Is this a side effect of the cancer? Or is it something else? The voice guides him to do things he normally wouldn't have ever done and his entire life gets turned upside down because of this.

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

The original concept actually came from waking up after a really strange dream where I could only remember random bits and pieces that weren't even related. I thought, "that would make a cool tv show. Having to try and piece together these little fragments into an overall story." And thus, Pieces.

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

LOST is definitely up there as one of my biggest influences. Not that the show will borrow a lot from LOST, but more so, I was very inspired by what LOST did and I think it helped me to get to this point of creating an original web series.

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

We're using a Canon HF M32 to do the filming. We're a bunch of people interested in telling a compelling story and for a lot of us, it's our first time at a bigger project so we wanted to tackle it in a way that was do-able, but would still look great as a final product. We also want to send the message that anyone has the capability to run with an idea and make something out of it. You can buy this kind of HD camcorder at almost any electronics store. We're using a RODE VideoMic for capturing sound and dialogue. We'll be utilizing After Effects for a lot of the visual stuff and post production work.

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

Well I think it's really neat that the entire idea came from having a strange dream one night. It really goes to show that ideas can come at any time and it's all about how you run with it. Another thing to note is that for most of us, this is our first time on a project like this. There's nothing special about us, we're just a bunch of people interested in making an amazing show and having people watch. Anyone can do this kind of stuff if they put their mind to it.

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

Pieces - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes of Pieces below:

Amber Plante as Claire Jermaine

Jesse Laing as Detective Max Edwards

Trevor Kristjanson as Detective Carter McNeil

Mark Opinga on location

Where Were You - Edward Drake

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 11:17:00 -0600

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Where Were You (WWY) is an ambitious take on a well worn cliche - the ‘Zombie' genre. Set in a future eerily close to our own (a year from today), WWY examines the effects of a ‘21st Century Black Plague' on a world already at the brink of implosion through the eyes of Sarah Finch, a doctor heading a royal commission into the events, and Manni, a vengeful youth eager to figure out why things continually went from bad to worse during ‘Black December'.

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

The zombie genre is such an untapped well of ideas. You can be incredibly creative, but many fail to understand how versatile the genre is. I always had a fascination with great sci-fi, but the best stories were the grand ones such as Star Wars, but also the intimate, like The Thing.

There's an awkward middle ground that the genre seems stuck in, and I knew that my idea stood a chance because it goes beyond many of the standard limitations.

I wanted to take the zombie apocalypse, place it in a real world environment, and experiment with looking at the smaller stories spread throughout. This concept evolved and made Where Were You what it is today.

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

Anything and everything, not just sci-fi either. From District 9 to Frost/Nixon, Gears of War to Left 4 Dead, The Walking Dead to Misfits. Anything and everything - I always take something away from everything I've watched, whether it be an idea or an interesting concept, and tried to make it my own.

With WWY, I have the opportunity to cross into different genres and really experiment to create some new out of something old.

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

We shot on a Sony HVR-V1 - a very nice DV camera. Most of the audio was mastered in post too, but we still had on site recording. Timothy Ratcliffe was the genius behind the editing and visual effects. I had bad habit of finding interesting effects and showing them to him. Not once did I hear ‘Sorry, can't do that'. We always found a great compromise. He was using an old PC running CS4.

The original edit was complied in Adobe Premiere, and then we moved to After Effects for the flourishes. We used whatever we could get our hands on, including using tutorials online.

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

On the first day of shooting we began by sitting down with the cast and crew and saying that I wanted to make something special. Everyone was really positive so I put them to the test. Originally, we had planned to open with a great panning shot of park with survivors walking over a hill to find a wall of infected. The shot looked great, it took hours to do, but when we got in the edit suites we realised it didn't fit with the tone and style we had set out to achieve. So, in the trailer you only see it for a couple of frames.

Where Were You can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Where Were You - SciFinal Page

Below is a Where Were You behind the scenes featurette: