Scifinal Creators Corner

Butterfly - Matti McLean

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:22:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Butterfly is the story of a man trapped in a world that he hates who find out that he might not actually be a part of that world. The story is designed around the character of Michael, who works a dead end job with no future, has a girlfriend who cares nothing for him, and a boss who wants nothing more then to kill him herself. Everything changes when Michael is confronted at work by a strange man who warns him that he is not who he thinks he is. Unaware of the danger he could be in, Michael begins to question his world and the people around him and makes steps to discover who he once was.

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

As a writer/actor, I'm a firm believer that the more stuff you do for yourself, the better. I've never been one to sit around and do nothing, or to wait until a job comes around before I do something. Everyone constantly complains about the fact that there are no jobs around, but very few people are actually willing to go out and do something about it.

My concept came from the idea of "What can we do with this?" I had access to a cast and a camcorder ; plus I had a lot of time on my hands. I've always had a love of science fiction, so I decided that perhaps I should play to my strengths and write a sci-fi series. I knew we'd have problems with doing a traditional sci-fi show, so we tried to do something that wasn't traditionally "science fiction-y." This is where the challenge came in. We decided that we would create a sci-fi web-series without aliens, other planets, and most importantly, no special effects. With no fancy graphics for our show to hide behind, we knew that our writing would have to be top notch, and so we wrote Butterfly in a way where the science fiction elements would be equal parts mystery and comedy. As a result, I believe we have created a series that is unique, interesting, and above all, fun.

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

Growing up I loved to read and watch science fiction. I remember being addicted to the Animorph series and watching shows like Star Trek; The Next Generation. Movies such as Titan AE and shows like X-Files also helped to spur my love of the strange and unknown. My biggest influence has to be the works of Joss Whedon. Buffy and Firefly crafted a new dialogue that I think defined humorous comedic writing with a science fiction flair. What I really loved about those shows though, was the fact that the script always came first, and the special effects were used to enhance the script as opposed to hide average writing behind flashy gimmicks and graphics. Other influences include X-Men and Justice League (I've always loved super powers and think every human should have them); anime's such as Card Captors and Invader Zim; books like 1984, V for Vendetta, and Watchmen; and games like Jet Grind Radio. (Not really science fiction, but pretty close!)

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

Our camera is a very basic Sony HD camera, and for sound recording, we bought an old Sony microphone. It works for what it is! To edit, I use iMovie on my Mac. Unfortunately my Mac can't play the newer version, so I use an external hard drive to boot up the new copy on a borrowed computer. (Saving up for my own computer though! Hopefully before the episodes begin to expand in length.) It's not the best set up, but it works and it allows me to edit some things.

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

The set for the show's coffee shop and many of our prison scenes have also been used in the upcoming Dark Rising: The Savage Tale of Summer Vale TV show. Within the next month the first few chapters of a novel based around the Butterfly universe will be released by Maggie Moor. It will be made available on the Butterfly website. The show uses a lot of music by video game reviewer Rebecca Mayes, whose songs can be heard on the Escapist Magazine site. Butterfly is also constantly trying to encourage the arts by featuring independent music, clip shows, paintings, and drawings on our website. Any creations that have been inspired by Butterfly are encouraged and we will gladly feature them on the website.

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

Butterfly - SciFinal Page

More from behind the scenes from Butterfly below:

Kortni Bennett is XIII.

Morgan Bedard and Stevie Lyons.

Heather Ballentine as Sandy.

Matti McLean is happy!

Microwave Porn - Ash Catherwood

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:23:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

The show is called Microwave Porn. It's about a talking microwave named Allen who happens to have a pornography addiction. Allen lives with Dave Lessermam, a mild-mannered fellow who is on a quest to find true love. Together they have many unlikely and absurd adventures, such as meeting a woman online who literally turns out to be a demon.

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

Allen was struck by mystical lightning and suggested we make a show about him. The idea was to make a show that created a lot of room for us to experiment with absurdist humor. We figured that if an audience could buy into the reality of a guy living with a talking, porn addicted microwave, they'd likely be receptive to whatever other crazy ideas we wanted to try on them.

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

Monty Python and Douglas Adams are huge influences. And collectively we pretty much worship the writing and sensibilities of The Simpsons seasons 2-5. I'm not sure how much he directly influences the show, but Isaac Asimov comes up a lot. We like to talk about robots. :)

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

The show is shot on a Sony Z7U, which is an HDV camera. We do everything at 24p. One of the biggest things we wanted to do was have the episodes look professional, so we have two Directors of Photography that we work with, Clement Lush and Bruce William Harper. They take turns shooting episodes depending on availability and we schedule the time for them to light things properly. Also, the DP's are present for a final color correction (using Final Cut) which really helps the look of the show.

The Allen puppet is rigged on a dimmer that Ryan operates during the shots to make him talk. We add the eyes in post using basic keyframe animation in Final Cut Pro. All of the picture editing is done in Final Cut Pro. For the VFX stuff like the opening credits we use After Effects.

The audio post in done with Geoff Raffan using Pro Tools. We usually spend a full day in his suite sound designing and mixing the episodes before they are released.

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

In Episode 6 Allen's beard is made from a Teddy Bear. The Demon in Episode 4, Redneck in Episode 5 and Hobo in Episode 8 are all played by writer J. Gordon Ross. Allen electrocuted Dave (Ash Catherwood) during the initial screen tests. All of our pornographic images come from our 'porn sponsor' Third Degree Films who has basically agreed to give us unlimited smut (thanks guys). We convinced (mostly through begging) an opera singer to come in and actually record the backup vocals and opera stings for Episode 6.

The original ending of Episode 7 just had Allen and Nikki sitting in bed together looking guilty. But Nikki Payne was really excited about pushing it further so we got the makeup artist to scorch her face and tease out her hair. Then we put a smoke machine under the blankets. If you look carefully when she's throwing the shocker to the pretend studio audience you'll notice that the tips of her 'shocker fingers' are also burnt.

Microwave Porn can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Microwave Porn - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Microwave Porn below:

Crew from Episode 107 of Microwave Porn.

Actors Bruce Harper and James Ross.

Apotheosis - Jason Bigart & Jay Erickson

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:49:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Apotheosis is a fantasy based criminal investigation web series where magic, not science, is used to solve crimes. It is set in a fantasy kingdom known as Halsbren where some elements are influenced by traces of our history, while others are completely abstract. The main premise of this first season is that a killer is on the loose and he is using magic to commit his murders in horrific means. So it falls on Sir Edmun and Lady Fiara, two junior mages of the renowned Court Mages of Halsbren, to find this killer and stop him before he can strike again.

This project is made with a small production staff of director Jason Bigart, producer Jay Erickson, costume designers Katie Bigart and Susan Strohmeyer, and music composer Chris Feyrer.

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

The world of Apotheosis was derived from the full feature film The Empty Throne, which was also created by Jay Erickson and directed by Jason Bigart. Apotheosis takes place 10 years prior to the events of The Empty Throne, which theoretically makes Apotheosis a prequel, however its style and story are completely different. At its core it's an origin story. We wanted to let the audience know where Nara, the main character from The Empty Throne, came from and how she became the sorceress she did.

The decided use of green screen and abstract artwork were ideas that came up when attempting figure out how to do certain scenes, like action fighting scenes, without being on locations, or having to design elaborate sets. Most of which were not cost conducive to what we were attempting to produce in the first place.

The term "living comic book" has been used frequently with other full feature films out there, and even web series. We liked that idea, but wanted to take it in another direction. This isn't a comic book; it's a story, an old tale. So we thought, why not give it an archaic feel, like it's coming from a well worn book that could be centuries old. So the next logical step was to make the show appear old, gritty if you will. . . .

To do this we decided to make the whole thing with a sepia tint. It gave it a dark, dirty, almost Noir feel to it, which honestly surprised us. It also added continuity to our series overall because we used the concept of old, worn drawings in our full feature movie The Empty Throne. During the credits of the original film we cross faded the actors' pictures from color to sepia and then turned them into drawings to make the pictures look like they were illustrations from old parchment. It looked cool in The Empty Throne so we were eager to try it again in Apotheosis.

Finally we wanted to make our actors look and feel like they are an actual part of this dark fantasy world. To do that, they had to interact with their world, and the world had to react to their actions. That was the trickiest part of what we had to do. We had to take stationary handmade drawings, and make them come alive. With the limited resources we have available we are very pleased with the outcome.

Another reason we decided to go green screen and draw our world instead of filming on sets was because we faced the problem of time and location. Most of the film crew are members of the United States Air Force Reserves, not to mention we have our everyday civilian jobs. As such we are all separated by vast distances. Jason Bigart, the director, lives in North Carolina. The producer and writer, Jay Erickson, lives in Indiana, and one of the main actors, Travis Hansen, lives in Wisconsin. This made any set creation, and filming on location an almost impossible challenge.

So we decided to work in conjunction with our military lives. As we get together to serve our drill during the day, we film at night. The use of green screen and lighting effects means that the outside environment; be it rain, clear skies, or a pitch black night, has no bearing on our fantasy world. We can film in a thunderstorm and our episode will take place during a bright sunny day.

So far it has all been filmed in a garage, but we are evolving and now have a second studio up in Indiana, which will hopefully double our ability to output our web series.

Name some of your Sci-Fi influences. Any favorite movies, TV shows, novels.

One of director Jason Bigart's favorite movies is Serenity directed by Joss Whedon. That movie was done brilliantly. He is also a big original Star Trek fan as well. As far as t.v. shows he loves watching Dr. Who on the BBCAHD channel.

Jay Erickson, writer of both The Empty Throne and Apotheosis, loves Blade Runner, Aliens, The Empire Strikes Back, and Pitch Black. If he had to pick an influence for his writing though, it would be the last three novels of the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. The world is so dark, and everything is spinning out of control. You just have to love those moments when everything seems darkest, that the most unlikely of heroes steps forward and prevails.

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

Since making Apotheosis is not our primary means of making a living, we have to make do with what we have. Producer Jay Erickson purchased a Cannon XL1 camera, shotgun microphone, studio lighting and a 10X20 foot green screen studio set.

We edit with two Sony Vaio laptops using Adobe software. We use a combination of HD mini DV cassettes, and external hard drives for storage. It works for us because it allows the mobility necessary for our military lives since we are constantly "On the Go." This makes editing possible for us even if we are in remote locations.

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

Someone in Jason Bigart's family bought a gag gift for Christmas two years ago. It is the ugliest fish salt and pepper shaker in existence. Every couple of months a family member would hide it in someone's house where it would stay until that person found it and they would hide it in someone else's house. It got mailed to Jason and he had to keep it for a while because he lives so far away from his family. So we used it as a prop in episode three as an Easter egg for his family. He thinks they will get a laugh out of it.

As you watch the series pay attention to the Summoning Table. It is a dragon table that is often seen between Sir Edmun and Lady Fiara as they are conducting their investigation in the Mages Tower. You will notice little bottles around a crystal bowl. With each consecutive episode these bottles grow in number. In actuality they are the emptied remains of energy drinks that we've had to consume to maintain filming all through the night! We've already filled the bowl with them and they are over flowing everywhere!

Apotheosis can be found online and on Twitter.

Apotheosis - SciFinal Page

Robot, Ninja & Gay Guy - Travis Richey

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:57:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Robot, Ninja & Gay Guy is a sitcom web series about a guy who loses his boyfriend and puts out a Craigslist ad for new roommates. When the only two to respond are a Robot and a Ninja, he is forced to accept his quirky new roommates, and over time, even become friends. It takes a lot of queues from sitcoms of the 70's and 80's, like Three's Company and Perfect Strangers.

The style of the show is along the lines of Arrested Development with very strong influences from the writing of Joss Whedon.

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

About three years ago, X-Box was having a contest where they wanted web series pilots, so I got a few of my friends together from ACME Comedy Theater (a sketch and improv theater in Los Angeles) and had a brainstorming session. Curtiss Frisle offered up three concepts - one of which was Ninja, Robot & Gay Guy. There wasn't much more than the title and the idea that it was a roommate comedy, but I was just starting out in web production with The Musecast (A year-long documentary project that ran for two seasons on Youtube), and we simply didn't have the finances to produce anything, so I sat on the idea for two years. Finally, after I'd been dating Rob [Wood, Director] for a while, we started talking about producing stuff that he could direct and I could act in, and Robot, Ninja & Gay Guy (RNGG - the title had switched around by then) was at the top of my list. I'd met Eric Loya a few years ago, and he actually was part of the second season of The Musecast. From that, I was able to get a sense of how seriously talented a writer he was, and asked him to be the head writer for the show. He said yes, and then not much happened for a short while. Rob and I were looking for an apartment, with an eye for something we could also use as a set for both RNGG and another series I do called 2 Hot Guys in the Shower. We found a great place and then out of the blue Eric sent me three episodes of the show to read. In his email he said, I'm not in love with these at all, so if they suck, that's okay, I just wanted to do something. I was laughing out loud at the scripts, so I decided, with no equipment and VERY little money, to go into production the next month, July 2009.

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

The show itself is an homage to the great 70's and 80's roommate sitcoms like Three's Company and Perfect Strangers, but we also draw heavily on all those shows where there's a being in the house who shouldn't be. ALF, Bewitched, and to a lesser but more thematically similar extent, Small Wonder. I've always been a huge nerd, and almost all my stories have had some sort of supernatural element to them. I'm an avid comic reader, though my budget for comics has dried up in recent years. I love video games. I think Star Trek is probably the best franchise in the world, but I also loved Star Wars (up through the Timothy Zahn books - I think Lucas effectively killed that part of my childhood with the prequels). I love Joss Whedon's various series and his writing. He's amazing.

I know that Eric Loya is also a big fan of Joss Whedon, and is heavily influenced by his writing style. We both really appreciate smart writing. We like a story where you don't have to tell your audience everything. Let a plot detail simmer for a little bit. We'll come back to it. Wait, did Robot just say he was going to kill everybody? When are we going to hear more about that? Don't worry, we will. :-)

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

Oh, the technical aspects of the show. This is a tough one, because we have very little to work with. I've put in about $10,000 into the first season, which is a minuscule amount. We shoot on a Canon Vixia HF200, which is a beautiful little AVCHD camcorder. Only $600 on Amazon, but it's full HD, and it's CMOS sensor gives really nice detail in low light. In episode three we switched from putting the camera on a tripod to using a Glidecam HD1000. That gives the camera itself some life, and I think has gone a long way to giving the show more energy. I edit all the episodes myself, and I use Final Cut Studio, which I basically taught myself how to use from scratch on a short film I wrote called Another Life (an unconventional superhero story, by the way - see it on my Youtube channel sivartis). You can see as Robot, Ninja & Gay Guy goes on that I continue to learn new things about filming and editing. For instance, I didn't know how to properly color correct until episode 9. I cringe at some shots in earlier episodes, but I promise, they're all going to be fixed for the DVD release. But when you're working with no budget, you kind of just have to make it happen, right? We're hoping to up our production value a little with a new camera for our next series, as well as subsequent seasons of RNGG.

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

Ha! Yes, we've got plenty of stories. All sorts of plans that went wrong. Adaptation has been a must on our set. For instance, we originally planned on shooting the first 4 episodes in one day. We got through one and a half. We originally were going to work with two cameras, to make things faster, but that backfired. And worst of all, while we were shooting "Origin Story," the combination of the HDMI cable to the monitor and the XLR microphone cable for the boom caused us to pick up a Mexican radio station, which was really loud and heavily featured a women screaming. We ended up switching the boom mic over to our second camera, and everything was suddenly ok. The sound seemed a little off, but still much better than the Screaming Lady. As it turned out, we had moved the boom mic, but not the monitoring headphones, so still had an overpowering Screaming Lady on audio. We ended up having to ADR the entire episode from scratch, complete with foley.

Robot, Ninja & Gay Guy can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Robot, Ninja & Gay Guy - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Robot, Ninja & Gay Guy below:

Eric Loya, Ryan Churchill, and Rob Wood on location.

On locatiion with RNGG.

Rob Wood, Brian Giovanni, Travis Richey, and Nicky Brendon on location with RNGG.

Travis Richey and Ryan Churchill on screen as Eric Loya looks on.

Dominance - Roger Evans

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:17:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Dominance is about people and the choices that they make; especially rash decisions. It explores what can happen when we only consider our loved ones and overlook others and the overall domino effect that can occur. It's "Crash meets the Manchurian Candidate".

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

The idea for Dominance developed out of the US military posturing following 9-11. I was intrigued how we have developed smaller and deadlier tools and inventions for war. And how we rarely consider the "collateral damage" of warfare.

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

Some of my favorites are the Andromeda Strain, Colossus the Forbin Project, Dr. Strangelove, the Outer Limits, and the Twilight Zone.

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

Several HD cameras were used in shooting Dominance: the Sony PMW-EX1 & HVR-V1u, JVC GY-HD100u. Editing was achieved with Adobe Premiere CS3-CS5 with the Genarts plug-ins. We did the 3-D work utilizing Poser, Daz ,and Vue. Other software we used during post-production included Syntheyes, Mocha, After Effects, Particle Illusion, Swish, and PhotoShop. Our computing power was via a variety of PC's with up to 8 Core Xeon processors.

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

The research that was done on the project validated the technology we were using. Much of it started out as just speculative at first but ended up being strangely prophetic by the end. The Caduceus nano-scopic device we used evolved from four programs giving it an almost organic feel.

Dominance can be found online here.

Dominance - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Dominance below:

Bad medicine in the making

Closeup of a soldier on Dominance virtual set

Roger using a steadicam on the virtual set.

Saving Anna on location

Shooting a scene at the hospital lcoation.

Have Sword, Will Travel - Bobby Lento

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:25:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Have Sword, Will Travel (HSWT) is a very unique and funny action-packed adventure series through time. Coming out of retirement Col. Hawk leads his Starcom companions against the evil forces which seek to use the time travel technology for their own financial and greedy means. These are his adventures.

Filmed entirely with one camera, this award-winning web series brings you back to when television was in its infancy. Old school so to speak. Every episode is filmed with its own style of that particular era in time. For example, episodes set in the 1800's -1950's are shot in black & white or sepia - to not only give it a look but a feel. A variety of actors from all over the world star in HSWT such as Enrico Ganino (Italy), Kei Hirayama (Japan), Shi Yan Hui (China), Vernon Wells (Australia), Thomas McKenna (Great Britan). Myself, as well as Donny Williamson, Daniel D. Houy, Chuck Paxton, and Terrie Helie all reside in Los Angeles.

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

In 1989 I was the lead singer for a successful rock band and avid sword practitioner. Through my many experiences with the "Hollywood elite", I was introduced to a gentleman named "John" through a prominent entertainment attorney. After having this man and attorney over to my house on several occasions as my guest, the conversations over time became very interesting at the least. Soon after HSWT was airing as a Public Access show and that is where I developed the character of Col. Hawk who mirrored, and let's say lived the adventures of this man named John. My character on the show, Col. Hawk is a time traveler from the future that returns to the present time and various times in the past on missions for the military.

Back in 2000, a man named "John Titor" started to communicate with people online, describing himself as a time traveler from the future and that he was sent back in time on mission for the military. The story of JT became an internet phenomenon. Coincidence? Or reality? My concept seems to have a real controversy surrounding it. Is this internet mystery man John Titor for real? Did I really meet this man? Or am I this man? I have always wanted to travel through time as we all have fantasies about.

Combining other elements from shows from the past such as Gilligan's Island, Wild Wild West, The Mummy, Back to the Future, etc., I have created a very unique and controversial concept. It's ready to be developed for network TV, 3-D or the big screen. The stories and possibilities are endless!

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

I love to read all kinds of books on physics and string theory, Plato, Lao Tse, history, etc. Einstein is a hero, as well as many others. Michael Crichton was awesome and his novel Timeline would have to be one of my favorites. Also Whitley Strieber's Communion. I am fascinated with Edgar Cayce The Sleeping Prophet, Jules Verne and other visionaries. I grew up with Star Trek, Roy Rogers, Gilligan, and the Skipper, Wild Wild West was a favorite, Batman and The Green Hornet too. But I have to mention my all time favorites: Some Like it Hot, The Great Race, and Elvis in Tickle Me. I also have to mention the spectacular job done in a little known movie favorite of mine called Kingdom of Heaven by Ridley Scott, to whom I have had the honor of working with. I never dislike any movie or any book!

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

The production of our show is very simple. We use only one camera an XL1. Great camera and it really takes a beating. I use a shotgun mic and boom. We don't use many lights just natural lighting and we don't use anything or anyone else. We don't use a crew. I basically do everything because we save time and in doing so we can produce more episodes. The benefit of doing more episodes is that we can grow faster improving along the way and tell more of our stories. We can produce episodes 3x a month as opposed to one episode a month. I also save money. My main peeve is waiting for everyone. By doing it my way by myself I can guarantee it will get done without having to wait for a bunch of crew to stop eating all the donuts! I edit the show using Avid. A very good system. It helps me keep the show looking like it was made in the 60's. Old school, not filled with a million special effects tricks. I do use green screen because finding a castle in Burbank is sometimes hard to do. I make all the costumes by hand and I have a leather shop at my house where the wardrobe is created, along with the weapons, props, and sets. I own four horses that can be seen on the show and they rock! The music we use on the show comes from a variety of prominent recording artists from all over the world such as Vixen, Maxine Petrucci, Poison Dollys, LoveBone, Terry Hellie, and many others. .

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

When hearing the title Have Sword,Will Travel one might say to themselves "Oh no, another sword show!". But I wanted to tell stories where the word "sword" stands for "The Sword Of Justice". We have the privilege of working with screen legend Vernon Wells from Road Warrior. Mr. Wells even directed a few episodes with us and still joins us from time to time (No pun intended!). We also have been working with Master Shi Yan hui from the American Shaolin Academy, a 34th generation Shaolin Master from China. We were happy to have him join the show as Starcom Agent Woo, who is often coming to Col. Hawk's rescue. The fights to be aired in upcoming episodes are extremely difficult to choreograph, but with the talent that has joined the show recently, we will surely amaze.

The best times we have are when we are filming. The laughter never stops. Donny Williamson (Jadad) and Dan Houy (Panama Red) keep us all in stitches, but Chuck Paxton (Dr. Ocularis) is really out there. I have been asked if the good Doctor really injected me with the Pharoh 200--his mind control experiment made with THC--and I always laugh because it was really foam rubber pressed inside of a prop syringe. It looked so real but it was just movie magic.

Italian actor Enrico Ganino who plays bad guy "Rheeko" is the glue that holds the show together, not only with his great comedic acting abilities, but also by being assistant producer, cameraman, driver, stuntman, swordsman, friend, and even prop builder when needed. I count on his abilities a lot and he never lets me or the cast down.

Mostly everything we use is made from cardboard or some unknown element. One time one of the characters on the show tried to test my wardrobe expertise and gave me a window shade from a car and said "What can you do with this?". I laughed and within four hours I made a complete suit of scaled armor and a Spartan Helmet! The fun never stops and the adventure seems to have just begun. HSWT gives all who participate a reason to get up in the morning. I respect and admire everyone that has joined the family and worked so hard in crazy conditions--rain, over 100 degree heat, wind, and mud some times up to 14 hours a day only to come back the next day to do it all over again for no pay and little or no recognition from their peers. We are all lucky just to be able to share a donut that is if we can afford it! Some have cried and some have missed important functions in their lives, but to bring just one moment of joy and entertainment to the audience is all they ever ask in return. Without the hard work and dedication of the cast and family members support, HSWT would not be here to enjoy. I love them all! Come with us now on an adventure you will never forget! Do you have the courage to join me?

Have Sword, Will Travel can be found online here and on Youtube.

Have Sword, Will Travel - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Have Sword, Will Travel below:

Bobby Lento on horseback at Col. Hawk.

HSWT group shot.

Bobby and women warriors on set of HSWT.

Amy Brammer as Payen.

Dead Wait - Justin Parlette & Eric Havens

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:26:00 -0500

Tell us about your show.

Dead Wait is a zombie-horror-comedy-romance-buddy movie-adventure series about what it means to be alive in a world overrun by the undead. Without trying to be too pretentious, Dead Wait hopes to explore societal norms, faith, and is essentially trying to crawl into the space between morality and mortality and see what's rotting there in the dirt. What does it mean for society when not even death means what it used to?

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

Justin: Eric had been tossing around the idea of a guy barricading himself inside his apartment waiting for the zombie apocalypse for a while, and we met up to watch A Serious Man (which is a highly underrated flick you owe it to yourself to see) and started talking filmmaking.

Eric: I mentioned the basic concept for Dead Wait, and Justin immediately started be-bopping ideas about - and most of them were good.

Justin: The pogo stick was lame.

Eric: The zombie fish were lame.

Justin: You said we were past that and it would never be used against me.

Eric: We decided to meet up again and outlined the basic arc for the series, started writing the first season and two months later we were filming the first season.

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

Eric: my scifi list is pretty boring; Kubrick, early Ridley Scott, Romero, Vonnegut, etc. The normal people.

Justin: In general, I'd say my biggest influences are Steve Martin, Woody Allen, Larry David, The Coen Brothers, and Hitchcock. I grew up on Star Trek and Star Wars, always adored Logan's Run - but I've always gravitated more towards comedy. Joss Whedon does a great job of bending genres and folding them on top of each other.

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

Justin: We shot the first season using a Canon XH A1, a light kit we borrowed from some friend who shoots pornographic films, excuse me, "art nouveau," and edited using Apple's Final Cut Studio. Our score was composed by Ludo's Tim Ferrell using Apple's Logic and a whole bunch of pricey plug-ins that I can't even begin to remember.

Eric: There's a dulcimer in there, I think.

Justin: Probably. I'll wager we have some xylophone, too. I know he hooked his guitar up and did some fancy musician-type things. The man's a wizkid. Can a man be a wizkid? Should that be wizman?

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

During the delivery guy sequence in the first episode, which we filmed on maybe day three? I dunno, they all blended together after a bit, but while filming that we only got two takes of our actor/script supervisor Jesse banging on the door because this old lady from across the hall started screaming for us to keep it down. She didn't make a peep during the HUGE zombie fight, or when we were running with our camera and sound crew down the halls banging into things, but for some reason door knocking pissed her off something fierce. We also had a blast working with Dan, the man is the improv king and kept everyone in stitches. We're really hoping to have some of the outtakes on a DVD release because comedy gold like that can't be left on the editing room floor.

You can find Dead Wait online, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

Dead Wait - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Dead Wait below:

The Dead Wait hero prop!

Justin and Eric on location.

Justin goes over a scene with Dan Hillaker (Adam) and Vanessa Severo (Zoe).

Eric deep in thought.

Justin discussing a scene.

eScape - Michael Feurstein

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:00:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

On the surface the show's about a group of kids trapped inside a video game. We'll find out who they are, but we'll also see where they came from, and eventually who they're going to become. They all have their own things to work out. "Steven" is obviously hiding something, so he's an angry kid. He's gotta get that under control. "Jack" appears to be the natural leader of the group, but something holds him back. We also have a strong female lead named "Myrna." At school, kids try to take advantage of her brains, but then they don't want to choose her in gym class. So, she's held back by that double-standard and has to bust through it for the good of the group inside the game. In the end, the series is about facing your fears, working together and finding your hidden power. And computer hacking. And monsters.

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

My actor friends had been asking me if I had any projects coming up. And the families of the kids I taught in extracurricular video classes asked if I'd be doing summer programs. So I put the two together and invited a selection of the kids over to my studio. I had a bare concept for the show, and we worked together fleshing out each other's characters and nuances of scenes. A lot of it came together organically. I'd set up a concept, and through workshopping or even being on set, the flow would change and become its own thing. Several of the now major characters erupted suddenly on set, off script, because the actors were either late to the set and we'd moved on, or because I wanted to work with more families.

I've always wanted to helm an episodic piece with twists and turns and cliffhangers. My brother and I would plot out comic books, and our own little TV shows, for our family. They always contained a lot of characters, a mysterious plot with sudden changes, and really many of the elements of the structure found in eScape. And so working with kids on this show, I was also able to return to my own childhood and bring up a lot of the things that had originally excited me about making movies. Many of the props in eScape are actually old childhood toys of mine! A major theme of the show comes out of that process too: the return to childhood, the return to what once inspired you that maybe you've lost over the years.

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

Haha, well I just used the word 'lost' which you can't use around me without thinking about the show that just recently ended. LOST was definitely a major influence, not only in the initial homages we made during eScape, but also in the way stories are told. It changed my entire method of delivering a story. JJ Abrams gave a speech once for TED talk where he spoke about a mystery box, I recommend checking it out for anyone interested in exploring ideas about unraveling mysteries, or fathoming shows like LOST, haha.

I watch a lot of scifi shows like the recent Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica's reimagined series, and even going back to Sliders and X-files. I tune in to kids shows like The Last Airbender, which is just a stellar yarn and it's saturated in amazing culture and motifs. I can't believe something as unique as that lasted as long as it did and had such a following in its demographic, it's a cut above the rest. So there are lots of shows and movies that have driven my creativity and changed my way of storytelling.

Books, too, factor into the mix. I was an old fan of Choose Your Own Adventures. My middle school English teacher turned me on to William Sleator and his Strange Attractors and Green Futures of Tycho which were an awesome read at that age.

You didn't mention video games, which would be a great influence on a show like this, hehe. I really like Portal, the humor embedded in the dark and dangerous corridors. That's something we injected into eScape pretty early: putting kids in situations normally dealt with by people much older than them. How do they solve a puzzle that puts them in danger and still keep their kid-sense about them. And you'll see in our show influences from early graphic adventures like Monkey Island and the Tex Murphy series. Find-an-object, use-an-object. The complicated plot thickens even as more solutions are presented.

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

We started out with two DVX-100a's on set, to capture the kids documentary-style. We weren't sure if the conventional route was gonna work. This is evident in the scenes on the road with the vehicles parked. But the kids responded well to repeating takes, so we graduated into a single-camera set and some of the kids took up boom and grip. Now those kids are working with me on larger productions, such as a documentary aimed at PBS and national commercials.

I own and operate an indie lighting and grip rental house, so they have exposure to and use of Arri, Kino Flo, Mole Richardson. Shawn Schaffer was instrumental that first year in bringing his expertise as Director of Photography, so that I could focus on the kids and their acting. My parents helped a lot with set construction, wardrobe and props. It was a huge undertaking, and all the families soon became involved in the little bits that formed the whole.

The first cut was really just for the kids and their families. We had a local premiere that did well. It was interesting to hear from people who walked into the show without expectations. They were really excited. It had amazed them, piqued their curiosity and creativity. People were coming out of the woodwork to be a part of it. We realized we had something special and built it out for a wider audience. At first my brother was the sole visual effects artist, spending hours on the effects as I sent them. Many times I would give him a simple concept, and he would deliver just an absolutely stunning effects shot. So he was a large part of the creative process too, because where I might have scripted a simple orb of light, he put his own ideas into it and turned it into an organic part of the story. Runic Films later came to me and convinced me that kids everywhere needed to see eScape. This meant a bigger workload, so some of Runic came aboard the visual effects department. Everyone at Runic is helping prepare the show from top to bottom for the official launch on August 6th. In fact one of the episodes was written by Carlos Pedraza and Ben Alpi, and that was invaluable: I was finally able to look at a piece of eScape from the outside.

I edited all the first season cuts on Adobe Premiere, which crashed a lot on this older PC I had. Now we all cut on Macs with Final Cut Pro. Our voice redubbing sessions took place in my studio, which is part of a converted firehouse. The actors crammed one at a time into an upturned padded drum-kit's road-case. A lot of the music was donated, and my father Ray Feurstein did the incidentals and part of scoring. Wardrobe and props were he and my mother Joan. It was a family affair.

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

Weather was always an issue, most of eScape being outdoors. The last day at Lock 7 park it rained torrential and hailed in between our last takes. The kids would dive for cover, then come out when it cleared, then again and again. A lot of the shots you can see the damp ground and beaded rain on the cars. We were literally followed by a single drizzly storm cloud on an otherwise blue sky day. We were shooting the monster chase scenes, and it was one of those clouds that was just so small, the size of a minivan. But it kept circling overhead. Very strange. Our final hour at Camp Chingachook in Lake George ended with a storm and power outage... but that turned out fortunate because it forced us to shoot the end of the season somewhere else. The scene benefited from that change. We were up against a lot of adversity by shooting this on next-to-no budget, and with many kids who had never done anything like it before... but with every challenge there was a resounding victory.

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

eScape - SciFinal Page

Brain Eatin’ Zombie Babies - Steve Schnier

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:12:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Brain Eatin' Zombie Babies - is a micro-series. It's very short episodes that tell a joke - and then get out. There's character development, but that will come from viewings of the accumulated episodes. The micro-series comes from the original Simpson shorts that played as bumpers on The Tracy Ullman Show. And we all know how that worked out.

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

The key idea behind the show was to create and develop a solely-owned property. I created the TV series Freaky Stories that played briefly on Fox Kids in the late 90's. It ran for 3 years in Canada and in most of the world. I wasn't happy with the way the distributor handled it. Although the show did very well with audiences, they couldn't find it a good home in the US - and broke the half-hour episodes up into shorts to sell piecemeal.

I felt that I should do my own thing - but budget being a consideration, opted to do a micro series of very short episodes. I'd rather do something small, very well - than large and poorly. I'm not big on gore. I don't really watch zombie movies - for the most part, they're illogical and poorly done. And they all boil down to something in the dark jumping out at you. I am however, interested in true Haitian zombies - and would LOVE to see a good movie based on that.

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

The usual influences - King Kong (1933), Star Trek (I've got Shatner's phone number), Star Wars, the Alien series. Blade Runner. I see all the big blockbusters. 2001 killed any desire that I had to go into space. It's so empty out there.

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

We're shooting with 2 digital home video cameras. One is a Hitachi that burns blu-rays, the other a Sony that downloads from a hard drive. Editing is done in Adobe Premiere CS4. Visual Effects are all done as live floor effects. They're crude, messy and really add an oomph to the show. Plus there's the element of "Is this going to work?" - which keeps you on your toes. When someone gets slimed, they really get slimed.

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

Alyson Court who plays "Mom" is "Claire Redmond" in the Resident Evil series. Alyson and I have worked together for many years, starting with my TV series Freaky Stories. She's brilliant, very funny, a complete joy to work with - and doesn't mind if you dump disgusting stuff all over her - which on a show like this is a good thing.

The puppets were *ahem* "borrowed" from a defunct puppet shop. There are actually 3 puppets standing in for "Daisy" - in various stages of decomp and FX useage. There's a mini "Daisy" where she looks all nice and sweet. All the kids want to play with her. There's a larger "Hero" Daisy that we rig for FX - such as the vomiting. I constructed an esophagus out of a bicycle innertube + a snorkle mouthpiece. Then there's the "blue" Daisy - its in an advanced stage of decomp with chunks of flesh missing. There is a fourth, male, older puppet who will possibly appear in the second series. He will be a full body "walker" - operated via Bunraku. He is actually more of a Haitian zombie and will be more frightening than the Daisy puppets.

The series from "first idea" to online presentation took five weeks.

The vomit is made from pea soup + alphabet noodles for good luck. The snot is actually the same stuff they used for ectoplasm in Ghostbusters (and alien snot) in Alien(s). It's actually 13 years old, left over from Freaky Stories. I keep gallons of it in my basement for just this type of occasion!

Brain Eatin' Zombie Babies can be found online and on Facebook.

Brain Eatin' Zombie Babies - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Brain Eatin' Zombie Babies below:

Puppet creation zone

On location shoot

Steve Schnier on location

On location with Brain Eatin' Zombie Babies

Shifters - Matt Young

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:35:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Shifters is a sci-fi/adventure series aimed at teenagers and young adults. It tells the story of Michael Fleming, Sam Braden and Krystal Mack - three school friends - who end up stranded in a parallel universe, a world that is similar but with vast differences to their own. It is not until they enact a daring plan that ultimatley has them shifting from world to world in an attempt to find their way home, unbeknownst to them of the mysteries and villians that await them!

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

The idea for Shifters came to the director when he was only twelve-years-old, he wrote stories and his siblings would subscribe to each story and await them anxiously. His first real fans! It was originally called Timegate and the first few episodes very similar to what they are today, even the characters; the main difference would obviously be that the story, characters and show overall matured with the director as he grew through his teens and into adulthood. In January of 2009, he sat down a put out a first draft of the pilot and it all spiralled from there and became Shifters.

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

The biggest sci fi influences for this show would most definatley be Stargate, Lost and the most obvious would be Sliders.

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

The pilot was originally going to be ultra low-budget and shot on a small HD consumer camera, but after meeting up with filDirect Matt Young and Cast of Shiftersmmaker Daniel Maddock, whom the director had worked with on a previous production a few years earlier - the production became a whole lot bigger.

The pilot was shot on the Sony HVR-ZIP High Definition camera and recorded to Sony HDV Master Grade Tapes. The entire shoot was done with one camera but with the backup of professional sound and lighting equipment thanks to some of the crew coming from Springfield University in Brisbane.

We filmed the show in a total of 12 days, over six months spanning from June 20 through until December 14, 2009. With post-production occuring in the midst of principal photography.

The pilot was then finally edited on Canopus Edius Pro 5 and graded using Apple Color before being encoded to Apple ProRes files (The only type of file that would be recognised on both a MAC and PC) before being put back into Edius, a sound mix done and the final edit rendered out in SD and HD Master formats.

It sounds easier than it was!

We are now entering into production on the second and third episodes. Each on their own will suprass the pilot in so many ways! So be on the look out for them later this year!

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

The city museum in the pilot was in fact shot in three very different locations in and around Brisbane. The main foyer was shot at Brisbane City Hall, the curators office was at the Macarthur Museum and the lower levels/warehouse was shot at the Commissariat Store on William Street. Put all together and it became the City Museum in an un-named city that the show takes place within.

Better yet! The stone/gem device that allows our heroes to travel from world to world; "The device was created by an intelligent group of beings over half a century ago..." is in fact a Samsung MP3 Player.

Shifters can be found on Facebook here.

Shifters - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Shifters below:

Matt Young (center) with the Cast and Crew of Shifters

On set of Shifters

On location with Shifters

Shifters Poster

Universal Dead - Kelly Parks

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:53:00 -0500

Tell us about your show.

Universal Dead is old school zombie horror. The setting is five years after a zombie apocalypse has all but destroyed civilization -- a setting I wanted to explore because most zombie moves are set during the zombie outbreak itself. I wanted to see what the world would be like long after and how the survivors would get by. One way we show that is with the bite check scene in episode 1. These are survivors and they don't fall for the cliche situations so often shown in typical zombie movies.

Our plan for the web series was to follow the typical business model by putting out episodes for free, hopefully building a fan base, then selling a DVD. The first season would have had 10 episodes.

I say would have because things have gone a different, unexpected, awesome way for us! Universal Dead is going to be a feature film! We're working out the final details but it will be released through Paramount sometime next year. I'm pretty sure that will make us the first web series ever to make the jump to the Big Screen.

Unfortunately this means we can't release anymore episodes but I promise it will be worth the wait when you see the movie.

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

My business partners and I are life long zombie geeks. We had to make a zombie movie.

We'd talked about it for a long time and originally thought about a story that takes place 50 years after the zombie apocalypse rather than just five. (We will re-visit that idea eventually). But then I came up with a new theory as to exactly how zombies work. The idea that it's all caused by a virus never made sense to me so I wrote a short script called The Presentation, about a scientist who presents the new theory as part of a demonstration that goes terribly, terribly wrong.

The Presentation became Universal Dead and served as the basis for our first three episodes. While we were working on that I wrote Universal Dead as a feature film script, which came in handy soon after.

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

My favorite horror movie is Day of the Dead (the 1985 original version, not the truly awful 2008 remake), the third in Romero's original Dead movies. I was a fan of Battlestar Galactica but I haven't been able to forgive them for that lame series finale. My current favorite TV show is Stargate: Universe.

I love the hard science sci-fi so I prefer Heinlein, Niven, Pournelle, etc. I'm also a fan of S.M. Stirling and John Scalzi.

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 Panasonic HVX200 camera. That's what our brave DP was holding when he was hanging out of a helicopter to get the opening shot for Episode 1.

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

My ex-wife played one of our zombies in the field being shot by soldiers. I was offered the role of soldier so I could... but I declined. Too tempting. ;)

Universal Dead can be found online here.

Universal Dead - SciFinal Page

Cast & Crew of Universal Dead on set.

Hamilton Carver: Zombie, PI - Ben Cunis & Clint Herring

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:21:00 -0500

Tell us about your show.

"Like most of these stories, it all started with the Dame. Hamilton Carver was a lowly Private Eye in a lonely city, and the one thing going for him was the girl. They called her the Lips, and she was the mob princess of Noir Town.

When Hamilton and his partner, Harry Callahan, found her shot dead, Hamilton swore revenge. After a long investigation, nothing turned up...until the ghost of The Lips appeared. Hamilton did what any good PI would do - gathered all of the suspects for a pot-luck dinner, and worked it all out.

Sort of. Until he got shot to death.

And that's where our story begins."

Hamilton Carver: Zombie, PI is a mixture of hard-boiled noir, zombie comedy, gritty drama, ninja chases, dames, betrayals, redemption, and is ultimately a story of second chances. The series premiered in its entirety on May 11, 2010 at the E St. Cinema in downtown Washington, DC, accompanied by the appropriate massive afterparty filled with whiskey, toasts, and a noir-attired crowd of zombie noir enthusiasts. It's all one big story divided into episodes that culminates in some great twists, full of unforgettable characters and a gang of damn good looking dc actors.

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

Granite Kiss Productions was formed as a result of a pair of two-fine-mother's sons named Ben Cunis and Clint Herring getting some folks together to compete in the 2008 DC 24 Hour Film Race. In those 24 hours the motley crew wrote, filmed, edited, scored, and submitted a little short called The Choices of Ghosts, where Hamilton Carver and Harry Callahan were born, shot, and the rest of this sorry story began. From there on out, it was obvious: they had to make more.

Basically, the whole thing started in the feverish hours of a night of writing madly so the whole thing could be shot in a basement at 8am in Fairfax, VA. From there, we figured we'd up the ante -- Choices premiered at nothing else but the E St. Cinema in downtown DC, and it was walking out of that premiere that the idea of making a web series out of the whole thing was born.

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

Too many to count. A large influence on the tone of the original script was Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, mix in a little Shaun of the Dead, a lot of Brick, maybe some Frank Miller. You can't discount the influence of The Thin Man, The Marx Brothers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the original live action film) (yes I know that didn't come first) ("Bossa Nova!" "Bossa Nova?" "Chevy Nova" *pregnant pause* "Excelleeeeeent!").

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

Cameras: Canon 5D Mk II, Canon Rebel T2i
Editing: iMac Pro, FinalCut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, a little Maestro
Visual Effects: Adobe Aftereffects

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

During the filming of one of the ninja scenes, as they surround and circle Hamilton and Harry, one of the punches went off target, and Ben Cunis' (Hamilton) nose was broken. It was subsequently replaced and the shoot finished. Ben's nose got broken by ninjas. The end.

The entirety of the dialogue is ADR.

During the shooting of the series, we smoked seventeen pounds of cigarettes. Or it felt like that. It wasn't the best idea, in retrospect, but man...that atmosphere.

Our fog machine was in such heavy use that we would put a shoe on top of the button so that as it warmed up and cooled down it would immediately spit more fog. Auto-fog!

Hamilton Carver: Zombie, PI can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Hamilton Carver: Zombie, PI - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from Hamilton Carver: Zombie, PI below:

Ryan Sellers, Clint Herring, Kelsey Grouge, and Ben Cunis

Clint Herring and some kid on location for

Clint Herring is the Devil

Clint Herring, Sam Slater, Travis Graves, and Ben Cunis in action on location.

Nick Vienna as Punny Jack

More action with Clint Herring, Rob Wolcheski, Sam Slater, Ryan Sellers, Ben Cunis, and Vato Tsikurishvili.

Star Trek: Excelsior - James Heaney

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 11:11:00 -0500

Tell us about your show.

Star Trek: Excelsior is a full-cast audio drama set in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek universe. That's the official description, at least, and as far as it goes it's not a bad summary of the show. Personally, though, I prefer Commander Alcar Dovan's opening narration: Space... The final frontier. These are the voyages of the-- Oh, who am I kidding? This is the Starship Excelsior. We use an ancient Gateway to explore the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Our assignment is to find out what we can and come back alive. The rest is rhetoric.

And, indeed, the rest is rhetoric. I might add that we release episodes roughly every two months, that our stories are long and complicated (but do find definite endings at each season finale), or I could start rambling about the persistent character conflicts that drive our stories... but it really boils down to a bunch of people exploring the galaxy and trying not to get killed on the way. So instead I'll just plug the site, which is www.starshipexcelsior.com.

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

Funny story, actually. I had recently gotten into audio drama - especially Darker Projects' The Section 31 Files, Alive Inside, and anything else I could find with Mark Kalita and/or Karl Puder in it. At the same time, I had just (unwillingly) inherited command of a play-by-forum roleplaying game set on the U.S.S. Excelsior-C. The RPG was very low on membership at the time, and one night Alex and I were brainstorming new recruitment strategies. I said something like, Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we made a show about Excelsior? We don't have the budget for film, but how about audio? We thought it would be the greatest recruitment tool ever in the history of roleplaying, and ST:E sort of snowballed from there.

Three years later, the audio drama has had tens and tens of thousands of downloads - and has led to the recruitment of exactly two members. It's been a success in every other way, the fans love it, and I love it, but as an RPG recruitment tool Star Trek: Excelsior was a total failure.

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

Wow. I could easily write on this question all day. But that would be intensely boring, so I'll limit myself. Obviously, the biggest inspiration comes from Star Trek, a universe whose minutiae I know to such an unhealthy extent that I use expressions like cold as a Breen winter in conversation with normal people. The other audio dramas in my life definitely have an influence - Star Trek: Outpost and The Leviathan Chronicles in particular - although I've gotten behind on them thanks to Excelsior.

Excelsior also owes a lot to Lost - I like to complain that Damon Lindelof must have listened to the first season of Excelsior before he wrote The Constant (note: as far as I know, he didn't). Like on Lost, Excelsior throws a lot of hapless people into an incredibly dangerous situation with enormous dimensions and history, and then lets them (and the audience) discover what's going on over a long period of time. With Lost, it was the Island. With Excelsior, it's the Sword of Damocles.

I owe quite a bit to Walker Percy's science fiction (Love in the Ruins, Lost in the Cosmos). Percy did a marvelous job revealing his characters without ever coming out and just saying anything in dialogue. And he had one of the best noses for juxtaposition in American literature, period.

I am also a huge fan of Doctor Who and Firefly and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but who isn't? So that's boring. Plus, I'm not nearly a good a writer as Moffat, Whedon, or Adams, so comparing Excelsior to them only makes me look bad.

Oh, and Death Note. The vendetta between Light and L is the ideal which all subsequent fictional vendettas can only emulate.

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

Excelsior is totally decentralized. We have cast and crew in five or six countries (at last count) and at least nine states. Actors and actresses record their lines in isolation or (occasionally) in simultaneous recording sessions with other cast members, using Skype. Those recordings end up on our online server. Then our heroically committed four-man post-production team divvys up the scenes, splices the lines together in Adobe Audition, adds a few jillion sound effects plus a musical track, and, finally, after peer review, the final drafts are polished one more time and assembled into the final episode you hear on release day.

Everyone is using different equipment, different software, and often have access to different sound effects libraries. The fact that the team is able to cope with the enormous logistic problems and frequent technical failures that arise from so much diversity is really a testament to them. The fact that they are able to fix all these problems without ever meeting each other in the real world is a downright miracle. We have a fantastic team.

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

Last year, we did a musical episode. Fifty minutes, serious drama, high-quality Star Trek, just like normal... but with the added complication of having eight original songs! On a deadline! At one point, we had four people writing lyrics, six people doing orchestration, three people doing transcriptions, and the cast working ‘round the clock to keep up, and the crew mailing me at all hours saying how am I supposed to make two people recording on different sides of the world sound like they're singing a duet? On virtual instruments? It was totally mad. Missed the deadline by a long way. The episode was great, though. It's called "The Line," and it's still on the website.

Star Trek: Excelsior can be found online, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

Star Trek: Excelsior - SciFinal Page

Alpha Planet - Mike Darling

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:25:00 -0500

Tell us about your show.

Alpha Planet is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi that takes place 250 years in the future. Earth was decimated by World War 3 and 4, and the newly formed "Unified Government" has deemed Earth inhospitable. The entire human population now live on the A.R.C. space ship, exploring the galaxy for a new home. When the search does not yield an "alpha planet", (a planet capable of hosting a human civilization) the Unified Space Exploration Commission sends a team back to Earth to see if there's been any improvement. When the team reaches Earth, they don't find it in the condition they were expecting. Were they wrong or is there something else going on?

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

When we were first conceptualizing Alpha Planet we wanted to create a show that had the post-apocalyptic feel, but with a new approach. Living in southern California, we have a lot of barren and abandoned areas around, so it wasn't hard to develop the story based on Earth being a scorched and desolate place. The idea of there being other planets like Earth in the universe has always intrigued me, so I wondered what it would be like to explore these new worlds, and what would it be like to discover Earth for the first time.

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

Some of the influences for Alpha Planet are Lost, Star Trek, Water World, the Mad Max series, Earth 2, the web series Apocalyptic Playground, and so many others. We try to incorporate as much conceptual technology as possible, while still stripping away what we can to give Alpha Planet a feel of solitude and emptiness.

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

When we started on this project we had no equipment available to us. We slowly collected our gear from every resource we could find. Most of it we bought used from sites like ebay and craigslist, which helped save a lot of costs. Some was bought new from indie-budget companies like Cowboy Studio.

We shoot on a Sony Fx1 HDR camera, and edit with Sony Vegas Pro. Some effects are tweaked with Adobe After Effects, and sound is worked on in Adobe Audition.

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

We shot the first three episodes a couple weeks after a forest fire swept through the area. It really helped sell the idea of a scorched surface. When we did reshoots in the same area five months later, the plants and trees has sprung back to life and a river was flowing right through the trail to the location. It took a bit of editing to match the shots.

We used both miniatures and CGI to create the two space ships in the series. And Megan Franich, who plays the news reporter in the prelude, played Iris in 30 Days of Night.

Alpha Planet can be found online, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

Alpha Planet - SciFinal Page

Additional behind the scenes from Alpha Planet below:

Arron Marie Fenton- Co-producer, Co-writer, playing Kira, and set photographer. We all take on many jobs!

From l to r: Benn Bluml, sound man; JD Mendonca playing Ian Scott; Mike Darling, director;
Mike Sweeney playing Adam Landrey; Jen Sweeney playing Karin Dawson; Don Jeanes playing Luke Brodie.

Contagion - Ray Holycross

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:09:00 -0500

Tell us about your show.

"Mash-ups" on YouTube. We have all seen various fake movie trailers (Brokeback to the Future) that have taken a movie or two and joined them together for a few laughs but Contagion is different. Combining existing footage from multiple shows and movies (with the aid of some CGI trickery) to form a completely new storyline. Dialogue has been remastered from all seasons of each show, picked up and spliced to form a completely new story. You have seen mash-up trailers before but this is different. All characters will retain their personalities and traits. Music and even the visual styles have been combined to form something new, from the visual style of Supernatural, to the ticking clock of 24 and locations and darkness of the X-files. The series when it is finally all online will run around 47 minutes, about the length of an episode of television.

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

Watching Twilight one night I was so bored with the movie I was browsing Facebook on my iPhone. Someone had posted a Photoshop altered image of Blade standing behind the two Twilight characters. I had a laugh and then watched a link on YouTube that was a trailer mash up of Terminator and Batman. It just popped in my head at that time that this was something I could try and pull off. Originally it was only going to be about 15 seconds long, but I had a break in-between shows so the plot just came together and grew over the course of a few days.

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

Besides the obvious group of 24, X-files and Supernatural, I have quite a bit of love for any sci-fi from Ridley Scott (Alien and Blade Runner) and the look and feel of the video game Mass Effect. Anything with zombies or destroyed cities gets an automatic pass from me as well.

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

The entire show was put together by myself in my spare time in between production. I took nine seasons of the X-Files, four seasons of Supernatural, four seasons of House, seven seasons of 24, three Resident Evil movies, Dawn of the Dead, Zombieland, two Twilight movies and finally the Blade trilogy as well as the show that used to run on Spike TV, and sat down and watched a little of each. After deciding what clips and angles to use to fit my draft of the story, I digitized all the footage onto my computer and cut a rough version of each episode with Sony Vegas. After I have the timing down, I'll do any and all visual effects in Adobe After Effects and Photoshop. This can range from some minor light and color correction to rotoscoping out an actor and pasting into existing shots with other characters. Color Correction is completed using After Effects and Magic Bullet.

After all of the visual FX are completed a new cut is assembled in Avid. The music is a custom remixed (In FL Studio) combination of the various themes of the shows along with about 27 minutes of new music composed by me and conducted by my piano, a guitar and the magic of MIDI and FL studio. The dialogue is taken from various episodes and shows that feature some of the actors, extracted and spliced together then altered in post to sound slightly more fluid. Fortunately for the last few episodes I was lucky enough to record brand new dialogue with about half of the cast.

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

Since the show is done completely on the computer, there are no bloopers or goofups on set. However there have a been a few directions that I took the story and decided to change it later, or sometimes a scene just wouldn't fit (problem with dealing with existing footage only). Most of these will eventually end up online as deleted scenes.

Contagion can be found online here.

Contagion - SciFinal Page

Soul Fire Rising - Kurt Patino

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:49:00 -0500

Tell us about your show.

Soul Fire Rising tells the story of a Demon Girl (Lilith) who must suppress all of her evil instincts and save her most hated Angelic rival (Eve) from the clutches of her fellow Demons, whom want to steal Eve's soul. Eve has chosen to become human, and Hell now has an opportunity to tip the soul scale numbers and battle heaven for control of the universe, because Eve was a former Angel and her soul holds the key to starting another celestial war.

The irony is that the Angel Gabriel has asked Lilith to take this mission for Heaven, and because Lilith is deeply in love with Gabriel, she accepts, in order to be favored by him once again. Lilith used to be an Angel, which we call Wingers in the series, before she was banished from Heaven for worshipping Gabriel instead of God, who we call the Starter. Gabriel offers her a chance to become a Winger once again, if she can protect Eve from the predatory Devils and return Eve safely back to Gabriel. The Devils are led by a Master Demon named Raum who took a banished Lilith under his black wing and taught her how to steal souls for Hell.

When he learns that Lilith has switched sides, he comes after Lilith with a vengeance. Lilith, however, is a complicated character, because even though she does still have good intentions deep down inside of her, she enjoys the freedom and decadence of her demonic actions. In that vein, audiences will wonder if she really will protect Eve as she says, or will she give in to her evil nature and rob Eve's soul for Hell.

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

An intriguing visual was proposed to me by an independent producer who said that he'd love to see a story about a Demon Girl and an Angel Girl. The concept gave me a flash of inspiration, so I wrote Episode 1 and showed it to him, and when he passed, I decided to expand on the idea and produce it myself. This was my first time writing for the horror genre as I had just focused on comedy before with a couple of web series called Adventures With Sarah and Cup O' Joe. However, it's been so fun writing all of this action that includes makeup and visual fx, and watching it come to life. It amazes me how Dale Fabrigar (Director) and Liz Mendoza (Makeup FX) so perfectly actualize what's in my head!

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

Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and all of the Star Trek movies with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy blew me away when I was little. Now, in my adult years, Lord of the Rings, the Spider-Man movies, and the Iron Man movies excite me even more. Iron Man was my favorite comic book as a kid, and who could forget the Spider-Man cartoon series, as well as the Lord of the Rings animated TV movie. In television land, Dexter and True Blood is jaw-droppingly terrific every season. My favorite fantasy novel of all time is The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe, and I loved the cartoon and the feature film.

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

CAMERA EQUIPMENT:
Although we utilized a number of different cameras during the span of the series, Soul Fire Rising is shot entirely on digital. For our first two episodes, we used the Panasonic HPX Camcorder as well as the smaller HVX-200. But now our series is primarily shot using the RED ONE camera (with the Canon 7D thrown into the mix).

POST PRODUCTION:
SFR is edited on a Mac using Final Cut Pro and our low-budget visual effects are achieved by a creative blend of digital (compositing) and on-set practical effects (rigging, makeup and lighting). Thanks to effects stock footage companies like DigitalJuice.com and DetonationFilms.com, we were able to create a number of high-end looking visual effects and work within our modest budget. Many props go to Michael Morrealle at Amalgamated Pixels and Brian Beardsley for their work and guidance through our ambitious, effects laden episodes.

Regardless of which camera we use or visual effect we're trying to pull off, we're very lucky to have a passionate and creative team of professionals to help use the tools we have to tell our story - It's really their expertise and involvement that makes SFR look as good as it does.

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

- The one question that will immediately be asked by audiences is why are there two different actresses playing Lilith in Season One? Actress Aimee Lynn Chadwick plays Lilith in Episodes 1 & 2. Jodi Lyn O'Keefe assumes the role in Episodes 5, 7, & 8. Story-wise, Lilith can assume different human forms for each victim she seduces and then kills. Aimee played one of Lilith's human personas. Episode 5, starring Jodi Lyn, was always meant to present Lilith in her one true human form in addition to her Monster Demon form, which is definitely a treat. In terms of what we wanted to do to raise the profile of the series, we always intended to add a name actress of Jodi Lyn O'Keefe's stature to the project, as we did by adding well-known actress Kelly Stables as Eve.
- Filming the end of Episode 2 was stolen on the streets of Los Angeles - Lit only by the largest flashlights we could find.
- Actress Kacey Poteet endured seven hours in the makeup chair to get into the full body, demon creature makeup in Episode 5. (Applied by Liz Mendoza & team.)

Soul Fire Rising can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Soul Fire Rising - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes photos from Soul Fire Rising below:

Daz Crawford as RAUM

Dale Jodi and Mitchell

The evil trio

Producer Kelly Stables and Actor Mitchell Fink

Directors Dale Fabrigar and John Aguirre

Kip Perry: Adventures in the Unknown - Michael Robert Kelly

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:43:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Our show, Kip Perry: Adventures in the Unknown, is about a hapless paranormal expert attempting to document his search for unusual creatures. With help from friends such as Francis and Kate, he has managed to avoid any success whatsoever.

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

It was based on an idea by Chris Kelly, our special effects artist, and then adapted and fine-tuned by Michael Robert Kelly. The original idea was for a single short film about a lone survivor on a foreboding island.

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

We get inspiration from many sources. Shows such as Destination Truth, movies such as Jurassic Park and Jaws. We're also big fans of Sci-Fi B movies.

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

We started at the very bottom rung of technology, using a Sony Handicam and iMovie. We've since improved and use a Canon Vixia and Final Cut Pro. The special effects are done using Blender and Adobe After Effects.

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

Most of our episodes are filmed over one or two days, which leaves a lot to go wrong. A large plot point of our third episode, "Kip vs. The Werewolf," involved a lake. But when we arrived on site, the lake was frozen over and we had to quickly improvise a new scene entirely. Fortunately, it worked out.

Kip Perry: Adventures in the Unknown can be found online here and here.

Kip Perry: Adventures in the Unknown - SciFinal Page

7 Shades of Lenity - Val Gameiro

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:21:00 -0500

Tell us about your show.

7 Shades of Lenity is a cautionary tale taking place in a not too distant dark future where 12 bankers who own or control the major corporations of the world have transformed the US, Mexico and Canada into the North American Union, and have instated martial law, so they may exert full control over the population and any dissent. The US has become a police state. Everything in daily life is controlled by the corporations: from food to justice and the news, everything is corporate controlled. People are injected with RFID chips subcutaneously so they can be tracked, and surveillance cameras dot the landscape to keep an eye on those who are outside the system. Anyone who opposes the system is labeled a terrorist and is sent to concentration camps. The show follows 9 heroes, and how they struggle to free Texas from the oppressive system. On the other side, the bankers and their minion, Dr. Helgesson, strive to eliminate those resistance fighters, by staging false flag operations, blaming them for anything that happens, and other unspeakable deeds.

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

The idea was born out of a combination of things-from reading 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and other dystopian novels, and watching Red Dawn, and asking "What if it those were our troops invading?" Also, having lived through communist and socialist takeovers in Africa and in Europe, and now seeing those same tactics being used in the US.

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

Gosh, so many. I've always been partial to alien invasions (V, Independence Day) and anything to do with space (Star Wars 4-6, Galactica, Buck Rogers, ET), and of course dystopian fiction (1984, Fahrenheit 451, V for Vendetta, etc.). Anything Steampunk is always near and dear to my heart (Michael Moorcock, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Mars series), and Cyberpunk too. Anything where the heroes are fighting for Freedom against oppression (Dune, Johnny Mnemonic - cheesy, but it's William Gibson).

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 the HVX200 at 720p. I own one, and absolutely love it. We shot 720p instead of 1080i because of storage concerns, and since it was intended for the web, that resolution is plenty. When I edit, I use Premiere, and After Effects to do special effects (I'm a Windows guy). I also use Ableton Live to compose the score. I've used other editors and they've worked on Premiere and After FX too. No special hardware, just a Core 2 Duo 2GHz 3GB RAM laptop.

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

Hm... Well, the guy who plays one of the leads, Lexan, is actually related in real life to the guy who plays his dad in the series (Col. Briggs). The title of the series is actually an anagram (but I won't reveal what it is until people guess it). Actually some of the names in the show (corporations, people) are also anagrams. The guy who plays the Voice of Freedom, is actually a local radio talk-show host with an extensive background as a punk rock singer (Jack Blood). Lastly, the site www.ProjectLenity.com is an in-story knowledge base for Dr. Helgesson, the main antagonist, and is written from his viewpoint. There's a single location that we used to film several different story locations: a torture room, a hallway at the Blackhand Headquarters, Chief Aziz's office, a waiting room, the Free Runner HQ -- and 3 of those locations were done in the very same room. Gotta love the movies. The tasers we use are for real, and are live... and the only person who accidentally shocked himself with them was me... LOL

7 Shades of Lenity can be found online and on Twitter.

7 Shades of Lenity - SciFinal Page

More behind the scenes from 7 Shades of Lenity below:

Val Gameiro on location.

DP Terrel Melton and actress Pamela Weaver.

Choreographing a fight scene.

7 Shades of Lenity on location.

Cast of 7 Seven Shades of Lenity on location

DP Terrel Melton and robot friend.

Val on set.

7 Shades on location.

7 Shades on set.

The Adventures of Humphrey and Spud - Carl Vogler

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:50:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

The Adventures of Humphrey and Spud is the disjointed saga of a rock and a potato. It is also an excuse to have way too much fun with my friends, while secretly hoping our crazy ideas will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams... or at least rich enough to buy go-karts. The Adventures of Humphrey and Spud is comprised of 2 to 3 minute shorts, released on a monthly basis.

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

While my company, Protonic Reversal, was developing ideas for another show of ours called Zurvival, we realized that production of that show was a ways off. At the time, I wanted to start thinking about other potential shows that would be easier to produce while we further developed Zurvival.

The Adventures of Humphrey and Spud blossomed out of a single drawing that my girlfriend did on her work notepad of a rock and a potato that she named Humphrey and Spud. Over the next few days the idea of these two characters, and all the ridiculous things we could do with them stuck in my head. Soon after I redesigned those characters in Photoshop and later rigged them in After Effects to see how the characters would animate. The test was well received, and I started writing several scripts. The rest is history.

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

Film: I am a big fan of any zombie flicks, no matter how awful they may be. Zombieland is most certainly one of my favorite films in most recent memory. Others include: Ghostbusters, Evil Dead Trilogy, 28 Days/Weeks Later, Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Star Wars, A Scanner Darkly, The Shining, and so many more.

Television: X-Files, Futurama, Metalocalypse, American Dad (mainly because of Roger the Alien), and South Park.

Books: A lot of Stephen King, most notably of The Shining. John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let the Right One In. Brian Keene's The Rising, City of the Dead, and Dead Sea. I'm also a big fan of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead series.

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

We record audio in a blanket lined closet using a Blue USB microphone. Audio gets edited in Premiere to storyboards. Any new assets or characters that are needed get developed in Photoshop, and the show is animated in After Effects.

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

As mentioned, the design of Humphrey and Spud is based on a drawing my girlfriend created.

The Party Eel that swims through the credits was a character I had designed and animated in a stop motion piece I made in college. Coincidentally, he swims through the credits in that short too. I knew even then he was destined for greatness. He makes his first real appearance in the show during episode 4, that is in production and coming out soon.

The four people on Humphrey's concept for the second Mt. Rushmore are: Bruce Campbell, Leslie Nielsen, Batman, and Bill Murray.

So far all of the backgrounds come from my own apartment.

3/4 of the founding members lend their voices to characters on the show. I voice Humphrey, Brian is the voice of Spud, and Alex is the voice of the Party Eel. Tim is the only one left out... one day he'll have a voice.

Protonic Reversal's logo features my dog Cody who passed away this last December. He was a little champion, and I'm sure that even though he didn't understand why I put those headphones on him for the picture, he would be proud to be a part of Protonic.

The Adventures of Humphrey and Spud can be found online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

The Adventures of Humphrey and Spud - SciFinal Page

More from The Adventures of Humphrey and Spud below:

The founding members of Protonic Reversal, and the crew for The Adventures of Humphrey and Spud
From l to r: Tim Kafantaris, Carl Vogler, Alex Johns, and Brian Goldstein.

The origin of the Party Eel. Still taken from "Obey Your Parents,"
a claymation short I did with a buddy of mine, Jon Bowling in college.

Still from Episode 1

Still from Episode 2

Still from Episode 3

Bunkerdown - Jason Rogerson

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:40:00 -0500

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

Bunkerdown is a 10- episode sci-fi comedy web series about the last seven people on earth who take shelter in an underground bunker. They survived the bomb, but now they face their most difficult challenge - each other. It's produced by sketch comedy troupe, Sketch-22, from Prince Edward Island, Canada.

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

The idea sprung from a script I had written for our summer theatre production, Sketch-22, which has played in Charlottetown, PEI every summer for the past seven years (if you're in Charlottetown this summer, check us out!) The original script concerned a talk show on the moon. When we decided to try our hands at a web series, we revisited it. It changed quite a bit, but the original germ of the idea remains.

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

I've always been a big fan of sci-fi, as have most of our group's members. Influences include Star Trek, the Back To The Future trilogy, the original Twilight Zone, 1960's Batman, Terry Gilliam, and BSG. Favorite sci-fi novelists include H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Richard Matheson, Jack Finney, John Wyndham. H.F. Saint. Whatever happened to him?!

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

The show was shot on a Sony EX-1 HD camera and was edited on Final Cut Pro.

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

Well, I don't want to give away all the secrets! The giant tanks that surround Solaris Joe are actually tanks that belonged to a public swimming pool that has since been filled in with concrete. The slope of the floor can be seen when Allison takes a plate of poop to Joe in episode 2. The poop was edible, but actually tasted worse than the real thing. At least, I assume. The blue chairs around the orange table belonged to the bowling alley that used to be on the premises. The idea to have master thereminist Thomas Grillo introduce the episodes (a la Rod Serling or Ed Woods' Criswell) wasn't added until the last minute when he mentioned he had a green screen and suggested it might be a fun idea.

Bunkerdown can be found online and on Facebook.

Bunkerdown - SciFinal Page

Additional behind the scenes photos from Bunkerdown below:

Camera person Joey Weale between takes with Jason, Graham, and Lennie.

Fenner food can painting

Rob MacDonald as Allison Flowers.

Whisk-E-Do-Dah

Lennie MacPherson as Fenner Jennings

Kinza Mae Baker as Gwen Dolan

Over Joey Weale's shoulder into the viewfinder.

Graham Putnam as Kranson

Jason Rogerson as Larry Rogerman

Dennis Trainor as Solaris Joe

Andrew Sprague as Sterling Silverman