PROBED:signals - Joel Cranson

Posted by Steve on 29 March 2010 | 0 Comments

Tell us about your sci-fi web series.

PROBED:signals is a sci-fi web series about Carter Fox, a college freshman who had a close encounter during his senior year of high school. Carter continues to relive the experience in his dreams and wonders what it all means. Now, a strange, unearthly signal is beginning to reveal itself and Carter begins to wonder if his paranormal experience is really over, or if more is on the way.

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

In 2008, director Joel Cranson wanted to create an homage to one of his favorite shows, The X-Files. So, he wrote a short script and created the short film PROBED. At the time it was meant to be a standalone project for just the film festival circuit, but with the positive reaction from fans it prompted the creative team behind the film to think more about expanding the story, and we settled on continuing with an episodic format. Joel handed the task of writing the series to Kevin Herrmann, the accomplished actor who played Carter Fox. Although the short film (now known as our pilot episode) was inspired by The X-Files, Kevin wanted take PROBED:signals on it's own path so that he wasn't bound to the archetypes that the short film had been constricted by. This gave gave him the freedom he needed to explore the paranormal the way his creativity wanted to.

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

Heroes was especially influential with its characters and suspenseful cliffhangers. The original The Day the Earth Stood Still also gave an interesting perspective on how humans and extraterrestrials might view each other. The first season of the new Doctor Who was also very useful with its humor, and larger-than-life stories happening in ordinary places.

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

Webb Pickersgill, 2009 Rocky Mountain Emmy award winner and 2009 Arizona Filmmaker of the Year, is both the cinematographer and editor for PROBED:signals. The series was shot using the Sony XDCam F330 camera in 1080p/24p. Most lighting was accomplished using a single Arri lighting kit, some china balls, a few Home Depot tin-hats, and a few bounce boards for exterior shots. Audio was captured directly to camera using Sennheiser G2 wireless lav mics and a Sennheiser ME66 shotgun mic. The show is being edited in Final Cut Pro 7, with the visual effects being completed in After Effects CS4, and the final audio mix being done in Sound Track Pro.

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

Originally the character of Fizzy was written as a male character, but was switched to a female character during the casting process. Our script was not updated before we started shooting, so we had to make the gender reference changes on the fly, which made for some fun on-set bloopers. The Interceptor was created from circuits and wiring ripped out of TVs, VCRs, and radios, as well as random junk thrown out by local warehouses. In a scene from Episode 4 THE INTERCEPTOR, Mondo hands the cell phone to Carter. When we filmed the scene, there wasn't enough room on the floor for actor Kevin Herrmann to grab the phone because the cinematographer Webb Pickersgill was in the way, so actor Owen Virgin was able to reach around with his other hand to simulate Carter grabbing the phone. In editing, we had to cut away from that shot quickly because Owen and Nichole couldn't keep from laughing no matter how many takes we did.

You can find PROBED:signals on Twitter @probedsignals or visit www.probedsignals.com.

PROBED:signals: SciFinal Page

Additional photos below show cast & crew at work on PROBED:signals:

Hot day on location for PROBED:signals

Eerie smoky PROBED:signals set.

Night shoot on location for PROBED:signals.

Cast and crew on set of PROBED:signals.