Making of 'The Scarlet Avenger' Short

Hi, Avenger Fans!

Apologies for the delay in updating the blog, but I’ve definitely made up for it with lots of neat new info and footage. For those who have yet to see ‘The Scarlet Avenger’ student short, you’re in for a special treat, because I’ve just uploaded the full 22-minute version to Google Video. You can watch it in real time with Flash player, but please don’t… take the time to download the Google Video player and the film… it looks soooooo much nicer that way. Get it here.

New videos you can download include rare behind-the-scenes footage and outtakes from the short (latest QuickTime Player required).

New audio clips include reviews of the short on ‘The Comic News Insider’ podcast (www.comicnewsinsider.com) and the ‘Those Movie Guys’ podcast (feeds.feedburner.com/ThoseMovieGuysPodcast). Special thanks to CNI’s Jimmy & Joe and ‘those movie guys’, Doug and Galen.

Lately, I’ve been talking a lot about the planned feature-length Avenger film on various Internet forums. Before I get too much into that on the blog, I want to revisit the past and provide you with a definitive document on the making of the short.

As for how the project came about...well, it’s quite an epic story, which began in my hometown of Toronto, Canada, in the late 1970s. My parents had a lot to do with all this. You see, they always took me to see the right movies when I was a kid. I saw ‘Star Wars’ when I was two years old (if you can believe it), and was hooked on the cinema ever since. I remember begging my Dad, even at that young age, to take me back to see it the very next day. Back then, I had no idea that George Lucas had based his space opera on the classic ‘Flash Gordon’ cliffhanger serials, and that much of what I was thrilling to in ‘Star Wars’ had already been experienced by millions of kids, some 40 years earlier.



While ‘Star Wars’ was the genesis of it all, it was ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ that brought me closest to my life-long obsession with the 1930s & 40s action/adventure serials. I was five when ‘Raiders’ came out. Can you believe that, back then, I actually didn’t want to see it?! I took one look at the poster and all I saw was “some scruffy guy in a ‘cowboy hat’, on a horse, riding up to a 'stage coach’” (I misinterpreted the German supply truck as a covered wagon). The only cowboy movies I’d seen were in black and white and boring as heck! What I really wanted to see was ‘Superman II’, which was flashy, colorful and exciting. However, that summer my teenage cousin, Andrew, visited my family from the Maritimes, and he really wanted to see ‘Raiders’. Because he was our guest, my parents took us to see that instead of ‘Superman’. I think I was crying all the way to the theatre. But, I shut up real quick, when I saw ‘Han Solo’ running from that ‘big ball’. I was mesmerized. And even though I had to cover my eyes when the Nazis’ faces started melting, I loved it! I came out of the theatre, humming the Indy theme, and my life was forever altered.



As I grew up, I salivated over anything that even remotely resembled ‘Indiana Jones’. I remember being thrilled by the first season of the ‘Wonder Woman’ TV series, which was set during WW II. I also tried to catch ‘Tales of the Gold Monkey’ whenever I could, even though most people thought it was a cheap knock-off of ‘Raiders’. When I was about eleven, my best friend Mike told me that his dad had bought a 16mm projector and that we could watch old movies on it! This opened up a whole new world. I would go to the library every weekend and borrow the 1930s 'Flash Gordon' serials, because I’d heard they influenced George Lucas. Years later, I realized those prints were worth tens of thousands of dollars! It boggles my mind that they loaned them out to a kid, but thank goodness they did! Mike and I would camp out in the backyard and project all of these movies against the side of the house. We’d stay up all night watching, not only the serials, but all the black and white classics, like ‘King Kong’ and ‘Metropolis’.

When I was 12, I went to a ‘Star Trek’ convention (yeah, I’m a geek) and stumbled upon a vendor’s table that was run buy a guy who specialized in selling old movies. The table was littered with serials! I asked the gentleman what the best serial ever made was and he showed me ‘Spy Smasher’ on VHS. I bought it and loved it! That was another life-altering moment. After seeing that movie, I realized what a tremendous amount of thievery my hero, George Lucas, had done, and saw how much of ‘Raiders’ was influenced by this and other serials (especially 'Secret Service In Darkest Africa'). Now, don’t get me wrong…all great artists steal from the best, and Lucas did it so very well. After ‘Spy Smasher’, I gobbled up any other serials I could find from video stores all around the city.



A little while later, Mike’s dad bought an Amiga computer, which was pretty state-of-the-art for its day. One of the games he purchased was ‘Rocket Ranger’. That game also changed my life. The basic plot of the game was this… “Futuristic artifacts, including a rocket pack and ray gun, are amazingly teleported to a 1940s US Army scientist—along with a note. The note says the artifacts are from the future, a future in which the Nazis won World War II and subsequently were able to enslave the entire world. The scientists who sent the artifacts did so in a hope that this man could reverse the outcome of the war, a war Nazi Germany should have rightfully lost…” (paraphrased from Wikipedia) So, basically, The Rocket Ranger flew around on his rocket pack, blasting Nazis with his laser gun! Wow…it was a combination of two of my favourite movies…‘Star Wars’ and ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’. I was so inspired by this game that I started writing a feature script based on it. It was filled with all sorts of neat action sequences and set pieces, many of which wound up in the feature script for ‘The Scarlet Avenger’. I worked on the ‘Rocket Ranger’ script for about three years, but then 'The Rocketeer' (another serial-inspired rocket man film) came out. I was a little bummed, but after seeing and loving ‘The Rocketeer’, I turned my script into a sequel to it. However, after another year of tinkering with it, I finally decided to let it go, because, well... 'The Rocketeer' was a flop and Hollywood doesn't let 16-year-olds write sequels to their movies. So, I shelved the project. I had to wait till I was a little older before I could play in the serial universe again.



As I mentioned before, I’d decided at a really young age that I was going to make movies for a living. At first, my parents tried to dissuade me from this. I think my dad wanted me to be a doctor. However, by age 17, he realized my obsession wasn’t going away and wanted to see if I could hack it as a filmmaker. So, in the summer of 1993, before my last year of high school, he sent me to the summer production workshop at The University of Southern California’s world famous School of Cinema and Television. It was there that my hero, George Lucas, had studied, way back in the 1960s. My summer at USC was one of the best times of my life. I was thrilled to be taking classes in the ‘George Lucas Building’, right across from the ‘Steven Spielberg Scoring Stage’! I did pretty well in the course, to the amazement of my parents. I came back excited and confident about my filmmaking abilities. Although I would have loved to have gone to USC for my degree, it was ridiculously expensive. Therefore, I applied to Toronto’s York University film program.

They say everything happens for a reason, so perhaps it was best that I wound up at York. It was a very free learning environment. Students could pretty much do whatever they wanted, as long as they paid for it. Other film schools may fund the students’ projects, but then they have their iron grip on the material. Even though we were free, there was still a lot of artistic snobbery in the school, and I struggled with how to make an action film that would be deemed socially and artistically relevant. In the summer before my third year, I wrote a muddled script about a Jewish comic book writer in 1940s New York, who winds up falling for the girlfriend of an abusive, Aryan-looking prizefighter. The script was called ‘Gangland’ and it was about 40 pages long and was going to be shot in black and white (to save costs), with the exception of one fantasy sequence that would be shot in colour. In this fantasy sequence the comic book writer takes on the persona of his superhero character, ‘The Scarlet Avenger’, and fights the masked ‘Skull’ (later revealed to be the evil boxer) to rescue his French Spy girlfriend (the boxer’s girlfriend). Before the school year even started, I drove up to York and basically told my prof (whom I hadn’t even met yet) that I was making ‘Gangland’ in his class that coming school year. He was a little startled by my aggressiveness, but basically said, “We’ll see”. The meeting left me a little unsettled and I decided that I needed an ally. I felt I had this great script, but no idea how to pull it off, or how to make people trust that I could.

At the end of second year, I had become friends with one of the most talented filmmakers in the class, Chris Laskowski. His favorite film was ‘Raiders’ and all of his projects were so visually dynamic. He had virtually all the same influences as me: Steven Spielberg, Sam Raimi and Robert Rodriguez. Everyone else in the class seemed to be on the Tarantino bandwagon, which I was so not interested in at the time. Before the summer, Chris had shown me the most amazing action films that he’d made in high school. Two of them stood out especially: ‘The Talisman’ and ‘Reel Crisis’. They had stunts, explosions, gun battles and a car flipping over! Wow! The stunts and FX were done, at cost, by his friend Dave Fulton, whom he’d met at his hometown video club. These films were proof that students could pull off Hollywood-style movies. I had to get Chris aboard the ‘Gangland’ project. So, over the course of the summer, I drove to Chris’ home in Hamilton, several times, to convince him that we should pool our resources together to make our very own ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’. It took a lot of discussion, but eventually we agreed to co-direct the picture. I then went back to York with Chris and visited the same prof, telling him that the two of us were going to make the picture together! Again, we got the same response…“We’ll see”.



Third year was incredibly stressful, because we had to wait till the end of the first semester to pitch the scripts for our big projects. When the time came, Chris and I went to our prof, who told us that the ‘Gangland’ script was too long, confusing and pretentious. “Well”, I said, “I really just wanted to make an action film, but felt I had to write this more artistic thing, with an action sequence buried in it, so you’d let me make it”. The prof paused and said, “Well, why don’t you just make the action film you want to make…just do the fantasy sequence”? Oh my God! This was fantastic! We’d just been given the go-ahead to make a straight action flick! That’s what I wanted to do in the first place! So, I went back to the drawing board and dropped the ‘Gangland’ characters. I beefed up the ‘Scarlet Avenger’ fantasy sequence and added in as much action as I thought Chris and I could pull off with our combined resources. I revisited the old ‘Rocket Ranger’ script, lifted the best parts from it, and fused them with influences from other serials to create 'The Scarlet Avenger'.

Once we had the script, we had to figure out how we were going to pull off the film! It was crazy ambitious. Who were our actors going to be?! Unfortunately, most student films are stuck using upstart actors in their early 20s. For our film that would look plain ridiculous. We needed full-fledged ‘grown-ups’. It had come to my attention that York University had an agreement with ACTRA (the Canadian actor’s union), in which ACTRA performers could volunteer to work on student projects, purely for the experience. So, we decided to take full advantage of this agreement. I had to talk to a lot of actors, before I found those willing to work for free, but it was well worth the effort. We couldn't have asked for a better cast.

In the short Anthony Paton pulls a Peter Sellers trip by playing both Captain Dupuis and Adenauer (the bald-headed Nazi). No one ever seems to notice this, which is a testament to Tony's acting skills.

Christopher Shyer plays both Schuler (the younger Nazi) and The Skull. Finding Chris was a dream come true. I met him when I was casting the part of 'Bucky'. After giving Robin Blake the role of the Avenger's sidekick, I went over to his house to discuss details. There I met Chris, who was his roommate! After I left, I got a call from Robin saying, “Chris wants to know why you didn't ask him to be in the movie”. Score! I was totally blown away by the voice he came up with for 'The Skull'. I'll have to convince him to do it for the feature! He's gone on to have quite a good career. You can see him as a villain at the start of the Morgan Freeman movie, 'Along Came A Spider'.

I discussed the nightmare of casting the part of the beautiful French spy in my previous post, as well as how lucky we were to get Martine Rochon for the role. Not only was she a fantastic actor, but stunning-looking as well. She also did a fantastic job of turning her French Canadian accent into a Parisian one.

Richard Hardacre (The Avenger) was a delight to work with. He totally looked the part of the Dudley-Do-Right, square-jawed hero-type.

Stan Channing (who played Geert 'Sexy Sir' Kruger) also looked very true to the period and was such a fun, quirky character. Apparently, he was also a martial arts expert!

Principle photography on 'The Scarlet Avenger' began in early February 1997. The 22-minute short was designed to feel like the final chapter of a serial. Most of the film was shot in about a week and a half, with small pick-ups continuing on for another 6 months afterwards. The sets were built on the two main soundstages at York’s film and theatre building. (side note: this is where famous actress, Rachel McAdams started her theatre training, the following year) The Skull’s chamber was basically our classroom’s generic interior house set, painted to look like a rocky dungeon. We also added some papier-mâché rocks and set dressing from the theatre department. At the other end of the film building, we’d set up the French Embassy, furnished with dirt-cheap rentals from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). When we’d done with the Skull’s chamber, we had assistants paint it back to its previous colour, while we moved on to the next set. After we finished with the Embassy, we turned it into the German interrogation chamber by stripping the set dressing and changing the lighting. We also created the Swaying Palm Hotel office (with secret sliding fireplace) on the same soundstage. I’m most proud of this set. Basically, the wall where the fireplace sat was a 10 ft. high archway set piece. We put the actors on risers, so that the top of the arch would be at their waist level. The rolling fireplace was just a generic set piece, used for our class exercises. We put that in front of the arch and, on cue, rolled it away, so that it revealed what appeared to be an entrance to a secret underground passage. We placed a set of stairs behind the arch, leading down to the main level, so the Nazis would appear to be descending into a tunnel. It was pretty ingenious, when I think back on it. Finally, we went back to the soundstage where we had filmed the Skull’s chamber, now painted its original tan colour, to capture the Swaying Palm Hotel Lobby. The rest of the sets were made up of simple bits of dressing from the CBC and the York theatre department.



After principle photography, we captured the explosion stunt at Dave Fulton’s warehouse. Then, we shot close-up cutaways in my family’s garage, with both Chris and I wearing the various characters’ costumes. We shot the exterior of the French embassy outside an upscale housing complex in downtown Toronto, with a rented fake palm tree and French flag (held in place by Chris). And everyone asks about the old car… I had made a documentary earlier in the school year about antique cars, just so I could meet people who had them! However, when the time came to shoot that scene, I couldn't get access to the cars I had seen while making the doc. Luckily, my cameraman had just finished working on a feature film that had a WW II flashback scene, in which they used an old Citroen. However, the car didn't have an engine, or headlights, or brakes! We had to push it into frame and stop it from rolling too far with sandbags placed in front of the tires. The headlights were powered by an extension cord. And thank goodness for sound effects!

Also, everyone asks about the costumes. Most of them were rented for next to nothing from the Stratford Theatre Festival (which runs every summer in Stratford, Ontario). Since most of the costumes were just sitting around, collecting dust, it was okay for us to borrow them. All in all, people really bent over backwards to cut us deals when they heard we were students. We really could get away with murder by playing the student card.

In the end, the project had a budget of $10,000.00 Canadian, which was probably $7,500.00 US, at the time we shot it. We got all the equipment from the school for free and, as I mentioned, the props, set dressing and costumes were rented for dirt-cheap student rates. All of the FX and stunt work were done at cost, because of Chris' connection with Dave. We did have to pay an officer from the Toronto Police Department's Emergency Task Force to supervise us during gunfire scenes though. Our biggest expenses were film stock (we shot on Kodak’s Vision 250 16mm stock) and catering (well fed actors are cooperative actors). The shoot went very smoothly... It was the postproduction that was a three-year nightmare.

A lot of people ask how we edited the film. Because we made the movie in 1997 (before the home computer editing revolution) and couldn't afford an Avid system, we had to start cutting on an old Steenbeck flatbed editor. All of those cuts you see were meticulously hand spliced. Since we were novice editors and cutting the film with razor blades and tape, it took us forever to lock the picture. Eventually, we got kicked out of the school, with our film incomplete. It was more important to us to finish the picture right than to rush things to simply get a good grade. So, this was around 1998 and we had no idea how we were going to finish the cut and do the ridiculously complex sound design that was required. Also, I had another project on the go that I started in fourth year, called 'Maggie Kwan Vs. Dark Master' (a Kung Fu/Vampire flick) that ate up most of my time. You can check out the trailer for that project here.

After graduation, and for most of 1999, I had to worm my way into postproduction houses to borrow sound effects, cut my Kung Fu movie VCR to VCR, and get the complex sound mix done on ‘The Scarlet Avenger’. This period was pure hell, as working on the movies was really a full time job. I worked part time as a video store clerk and security guard during this era, but made hardly any money at all. Thank God my parents let me live with them, or I might never have finished these films when I did. Luckily though, in late 1999, Final Cut Pro came out. This sped up the process considerably. If you're not familiar with it, it's a non-linear, home editing system that cost over $100,000.00 less than its predecessor, 'The Avid'. One of the guys at the post house told me to learn it and, after I did, I was able to buy my own system and finish the editing and sound design on the films. Between 'The Scarlet Avenger' and 'Maggie Kwan', I spent three years getting to the point where 'Avenger' was finally finished in spring 2000.

As the years passed, I was always frustrated that I really couldn't get the exposure I wanted for the film. Entering it into festivals was cost prohibitive and many of them were too snobby to appreciate a simple, fun action film. Movies were starting to pop up on the Internet, but download times were frustrating to most people, especially the high number who were still on dial-up. When I did submit the Avenger to a short film website, they butchered it with their horrible compression. I just threw in the towel on the whole Internet thing and sent out VHS copies to anyone who would watch them.

While hardly anyone saw the Avenger, at least it did get me into the film industry. I showed it (along with 'Maggie Kwan') to some important people and that led to me being accepted into the Directors' Lab at Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre. From there I got my first gig in the industry, filming all the behind-the-scenes material for the horror movie 'Silent Hill'. Then, I shot the making of a yet-to-be released werewolf movie, called 'Skinwalkers', before working as a visual effects assistant on Doug Liman's new sci-fi film, 'Jumper'. Now, I've finally decided to do what I always wanted to: show the world 'The Scarlet Avenger'. Thank God for YouTube, Google Video and high speed Internet!

It's my dream to turn 'The Scarlet Avenger' into a feature-length motion picture. Chris, another writer named Steve McKay, and I have written a screenplay that's fantastic. Now, the trick is getting the money to make it. That's the next great adventure. I will be discussing this exciting new project in my next post.

Anyways, thanks for watching...and reading. It's been awesome to hear from you all. Until next time...

-Scott