The Scarlet Avenger Blog

Back to Film School!

2010-04-07T18:26:00.035-05:00

Great promo for the UK's world-famous National Film and Television School. I'd known about it my whole life. Never imagined I'd actually end up going there!

It's been another huge stretch of time since my last post. A lot has happened since December, but I've been weary of mentioning it on my blog until now. Call me superstitious, but I didn't want to "jinx things". The huge news is that I'm going back to school! I know it sounds crazy at 30-something, but it's one of the best decisions I've ever made.

As regular readers know, I've been living in England for the past year. In fact, tomorrow will be my one year anniversary here! I started off in Bristol, a medium-sized city in the southwest, but I found it a bit lacking in opportunity, so I moved to London in August. During my time there, I was working as an editor for a small corporate video production company where many new technical skills were expected of me, primarily in the areas of motion graphics and colour grading (This is a growing trend in low budget filmmaking - for editors to be a one-stop shop, dealing with all aspects of digital post-production). I was often frustrated by my lack of expertise in these new areas and soon realized I'd need to improve my skills if I was going to find fulfillment as an editor.

Most film students graduating in the past ten years have been trained in all aspects of digital post-production. I graduated in 1998, a year before the digital video revolution really took off, so I received almost no schooling in this area. I learned to edit on a 16mm flatbed editor (with a razor blade and tape) and only taught myself to cut on Final Cut Pro after graduation, when I was working on the completion of my short films. I've made many attempts to learn more advanced skills on my own, with books and online tutorials, but have always felt I was learning just enough to scrape by. The problem has been that I've never quite known what I've wanted to do with the technology, especially in the area of motion graphics, which is more abstract in nature than visual effects. I need to learn these skills from the ground up and be around fellow learners to be inspired. I eventually realized it would be beneficial for me to go back to school.

I looked at programs all over the world. Because I wanted to stay in the United Kingdom, the most obvious choice was The National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England. It is routinely cited as being one of the best film schools in the world. Its long list of noteable alumni includes directors Michael Caton-Jones (Memphis Belle, This Boy's Life), Michael Radford (Il Postino, The Merchant of Venice), David Yates (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), animator Nick Park (Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit), and cinematographers Roger Deakins (Jarhead, A Beautiful Mind, Fargo), David Tattersall (Die Another Day, Star Wars - Episodes I, II and III), Andrzej Sekuła (Pulp Fiction, American Psycho, Reservoir Dogs). I applied for the program I thought best suited my interests: a two year Masters degree in Digital Post Production. The course is designed to train students to be VFX artists/compositors, online editors, digital film colourists and post production supervisors/producers. Some of the advanced computer programs/systems taught in the course are Flame, Nuke, Fusion, AVID DS, Smoke, NuCoda and Scratch.

I applied to the program in October and was accepted in December. While my course doesn't begin until April 12th, I was invited to attend an introductory week in January, where I was able to meet fellow students from all the different specializations, including directing (fiction, television & documentary), producing, screenwriting, cinematography, editing, sound design, composing, SFX/VFX and animation. World-renowned director, Terry Gilliam (Time Bandits, Brazil, Twelve Monkeys) came to speak to us, which was incredible.

On April 1st, I moved to Beaconsfield, and have been prepping for the start of the course since then. I'm very excited. This course will teach me skills that will allow me to be far more creative, both at work and in the making of my own films.

I'd be lying if I said my directing ambitions were out the window, but I'm willing to put them on the back burner for now, in order to become the best digital artist I can. That is my focus right now. I've been heavily inspired by the recent success of filmmaker Neill Blomkamp, the director of the academy award-nominated sci-fi flick, 'District 9'. Blomkamp trained as an animator at the Vancouver Film School before working in music videos and commercials. His knowledge of digital technology enabled him to carve out a niche in the industry for himself, as well as to create his impressive short, 'Alive in Joburg', upon which 'District 9' is based. Perhaps once I have acquired enough VFX knowledge, I can make my own short, showcasing innovative effects for the Scarlet Avenger feature! I can't give up the dream, folks!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T01:08:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

I am alive and well and surviving in England (actually I'm currently back in Toronto for the holidays - burrrrrrrrr!). For those of you curious about the Avenger storyboards that were produced before I left, I put together this rough montage with some added mood music. Hope you enjoy it. Have a terrific New Year!

My new life in the United Kingdom

2009-08-23T21:01:00.010-05:00

My creation, 'The Scarlet Avenger', standing before the union jack. It was one of the flags used by Canada, during WW II, but now this picture has a different meaning for me.

Okay, so as one reader has pointed out, I haven't made an update in 8 months! Basically, I've been too busy getting the ball rolling on my new life in the United Kingdom to devote any attention to the 'Scarlet Avenger' feature project (for those of you not in the know, I made a permanent move to England in April of this year). It was too expensive and time consuming to continue with storyboarding and creating production paintings and animatics, so development, for all intents and purposes, has ceased for the time being. The Avenger script winning the WILDsound screenplay contest this past fall was a nice going away present, but it didn't generate any producer or financing interest. I knew it wouldn't, because Canada isn't a filmmaking country (hence why I decided to leave). Truth is I may never get the opportunity to make a film the scale of 'The Scarlet Avenger' feature, but at least there's a fighting chance in the UK, where people do invest in movies of this type. I just have to get my life up and running here, and then, hopefully, with a little luck, I'll meet people who'll be able to help me get it made.

While development has ceased on the feature film, you might get a taste of the Avenger's exploits via internet radio. Steve McKay (one of my co-writers on the feature screenplay) has written an old-style radio play adaptation of the feature script that he'd like to produce and post on the net as a 12-part podcast. While I can't be involved with that project too much at present, I've given him my full blessing to go ahead with it. He's sent me the first couple drafts of the adaptation, which are pretty darned good, so I look forward to seeing how it all turns out.

The past 4 months have been quite a whirlwind for me. In April I touched down in Bristol, England. I stayed there until just a few days ago, when I up and moved to London. Bristol was a relatively large city in the South West, known for having influential film and music industries. One of my favourite bands, Portishead, hails from there. The most successful film studio in the city is Aardman Animations, responsible for the Wallace & Grommit stop motion animation movies. I chose to move to Bristol for a couple reasons. A. It didn't seem like the best idea in the world to move to London in a recession (with no job!). Bristol's far cheaper than London. B. The city's film industry (apparently the largest in the UK, outside of London).

Now it may be true Bristol's film industry is 2nd in size to London's, but that doesn't mean it isn't pathetically small. I was lucky enough to get some interesting freelance editing work there, which I'm very grateful for, but the work dried up far too quickly. There just wasn't enough of an infrastructure there to support my career, plus I knew I'd never meet anyone there who'd be able to help me make films one day. While it was only a 2 hour train ride west of London, it felt like it was a million miles away. There's very little between London and Bristol, aside from farmland, so one can feel really isolated out there. In the end, Bristol was just too sleepy for me. All the movers and shakers really are in London, which is the Hollywood of the UK. If you wanna be taken seriously in Hollywood, you gotta move to Hollywood! Just a quick aside here - if I could move to the real Hollywood I would, but I don't have the right to work in America, so I can't. So anyways, I decided to ship off to London. Luckily, my sister moved there a couple years ago, so I was able to crash at her apartment for a weekend so I could find a place of my own more easily.

So, I moved into a tiny flat share, with two other fellows, in a rather grungy-looking part of East London (Shoreditch, to be precise), and I'm paying almost as much as I was to live on my own in the swankiest part of Toronto! London is soooooo expensive. However, I can see why. It's simply one of the most vibrant and exciting cities on earth. Everyone wants to live here - it's supply and demand. I am much more creatively stimulated walking down the streets of London than I ever was in Bristol, or Toronto for that matter. My first night here, I went to catch a showing of Quentin Tartantino's 'Inglourious Basterds' at the Odeon theatre in Leicester Square (where I payed the OUTRAGEOUS price of $27.00 CDN for one ticket!) After the movie, I walked down to the River Thames and sat on a bench, looking up at Big Ben, glowing in the darkness. It was such an exciting feeling, looking up at that icon that I'd seen in countless movies. I was living in a city that people made movies about!

Here I am with a cup of Canadian Tim Hortons coffee, standing in Trafalgar Square, celebrating Canada Day in London, July 1, 2009.

Now, it's reality time. Tomorrow, I begin the always massive task of getting a job, with no contacts and on the strength of my résumé alone! I'm not looking forward to countless mind-numbing hours in front of the computer, writing hundreds of cover letters, of which 99% will go unread, but that is the nature of the game. Once my life gets rolling in London, I can focus on my true passion - developing my own feature films.

Happy 2009, Avenger Fans!

2009-01-09T16:20:00.029-05:00

Cast members reading the Scarlet Avenger feature script at the WILDsound Screenplay Festival, December 19, 2008.

Happy New Year, everyone! I've finally found the time to do an update! But, there's a very good reason it took me so long to get around to this first post of 2009. You see, a little over a month ago I purchased a new laptop...the idea being that it would make me 100% mobile for my move to England later this year. And with the new computer, I decided to go completely wireless, getting rid of my home desktop system and cable Internet in the process. At first, it was working great. However, I soon discovered that the new mobile connection prevented me from logging on to blogger.com! Go figure. So, while I'm working with my Internet service provider to resolve the issue, I've had to steal time on another computer to make this quick update. And it's an update that needs to be made, I tell ya.

From left to right, Briana Buckmaster as Martine Lafontaine, Barrett Morrison as Spencer Whitney/The Scarlet Avenger, and Phillip Mackenzie as The Skull.

I must say that the full reading of The Scarlet Avenger feature screenplay went swimmingly! It was performed by a wonderful cast of professional actors at the National Film Board of Canada on December 19th, 2008, which unfortunately fell on the night of Toronto's first snow storm of the season. There were hundreds of car accidents across the city, causing the authorities and media to advise everyone to stay off the roads and out of the downtown core. After that announcement, I knew most of the people we invited wouldn't be able to attend and, quite frankly, I was very worried about whether or not the actors would even be able to make it out. But, they all arrived, and in very high spirits. After that, I knew the audience that did brave the storm would be in for a real treat, as I'd already seen the rehearsal a few nights prior.

A few of the cast members from the October reading of the script's 1st Act reprised their roles for the December event, including Barrett Morrison as Spencer Whitney/The Scarlet Avenger, Jeff Lefebvre as Mackenzie King & Valgar Wikstrom, David Occhipinti as King George VI, Dr. Harold Quan & Horst Vogel, and Francois Lemay as Captain Gaston Dupuis & Javier Quasim. New to the cast were Briana Buckmaster as Martine Lafontaine, Phillip Mackenzie as The Skull, Steven Puchalski as Smitty & Daniel Doyle, Rod Campbell as Raymond Whitney & General Garrett Scrimshaw, Richard Beaune as Emrich Schuler & Superintendent Kenneth Huntington, Bjanka Murgel as Queen Elizabeth & Sabirah Khoury, and Haley McGee as The Narrator.

The whole evening exceeded my expectations. The actors did a fantastic interpretation of the material. Also, the event's moderator, Mark Sanders, was the perfect person to give us constructive feedback. Mark is a successful writer, director and editor, who has a genuine love of adventure films and comic book characters. I knew he was the right man for the role when he mentioned his love of the old Republic Pictures adventure serials, upon which much of our script is based. Mark even made his own very well recieved superhero short film, called Split City.

Event moderator,Mark Sanders, director, screenwriter and editor, and, most importantly, a die hard superhero fan.

Luckily, I'm gonna be getting a DVD copy of the entire video taped event, which will really help me in future rewrites of the Avenger script. That's the reason I entered the WILDsound screenplay contest to begin with. Thanks to the event's organizers, especially Matthew Toffolo and Jen Frankel. It's a little chaotic, as screenplay festivals go, but its genuine uniqueness more than makes up for it. The organizers have posted some highlights of the Avenger reading on YouTube, which you can check out below. Until next time, have a fantastic 2009!

"Revenge is a Dish Best Served...Canadian!"

2008-12-16T01:36:00.007-05:00

My co-writer, Steve McKay, came up with that appropriately silly tagline for this Friday's main event...the reading of the entire 'Scarlet Avenger' screenplay by a cast of professional actors at the National Film Board!

For those of you not in the know, THE SCARLET AVENGER is the story of a 1940's era masked "super-mountie" who battles nazis, homeland spies, and viking cults in his quest to find his father's killer - the mysterious and diabolical villain THE SKULL!

To tide you over till then, here are highlights from October's reading of the script's first act.

For event location and ticket info, click here.

November Reading Cancelled

2008-11-21T00:43:00.005-05:00

Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, due to a double booking by the National Film Board of Canada, our screenplay reading on Friday, November 21 has been cancelled. It has been rescheduled for Friday, December 19, 2008. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

And the Winner Is...

2008-10-26T14:51:00.008-05:00

From left to right, Me, Steve McKay and Chris Laskowski, writers of the winning screenplay, 'The Scarlet Avenger', at this year's WILDsound 1st ACT to ACT to ACT Screenplay Event.

Dear Avenger Fans,

The winner of the 2008 WILDsound FALL Feature Screenplay Contest is 'The Scarlet Avenger'! This past Friday, my co-writers, Steve McKay and Chris Laskowski, and I attended the WILDsound 1st ACT to ACT to ACT Screenplay Event, in which the top 3 winning scripts were read out by a cast of professional actors.

The competition was fierce, as we were going head to head with two excellent scripts, 'The Salesman' by Thomas J. Chavez of Denver, Colorado, and 'Millie and Tilly's Gay Porn Adventure', by Randy Gillis of Sophia, North Carolina. It was great that both Thomas and Randy could fly up for the event. They were both very talented writers and super nice guys. After the readings, we all participated in Q & A sessions with moderator, David Weaver, which were followed by the audience vote for the winning script.

The cast of actors, who read out our first act, did a bang up job. A big 'thank you' to all the actors for coming out and putting their all into the project, including Barrett Morrison (Spencer Whitney/The Scarlet Avenger), Hugh Lamb (Raymond Whitney & Emrich Schuler), Jeff Lefebvre (William Lyon Mackenzie King), Sarah Mennell (Martine Lafontaine & Beatrice), Trevor Blumas (Smitty & Daniel Doyle), David Occhipinti (King George VI & Professor Harold Quan), Voytek Skrzeta (The Skull & Warner Von Orff), Francois Lemay (Gaston Dupuis & General Scrimshaw) and Naomi Abraham (The Narrator). You could tell they were really enjoying themselves. And I was so happy that Barrett Morrison came equipped with our hero's trademark eye mask!

And finally, another big 'thank you' to all our friends and family, who came out on a Friday night to support us! We all really appreciate it!

Now that our script has won, it will be read out in its entirety on Friday, November 21st at the National Film Board Cinema, 150 John Street, in the Entertainment District in downtown Toronto. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The event starts at 7:00pm SHARP. Anyone interested in a night of thrills and laughter is more than welcome to attend.

'WILDsound Screenplay Contest' Radio Interview

2008-10-09T22:12:00.020-05:00

"A swashbuckler mixed with a cowboy". That's how I described the Scarlet Avenger in my internet radio interview with WILDsound film & screenplay festival creator & organizer, Matthew Toffolo.

Dear Readers,

Awesome news! We won! Those of you who read my last post know that 'The Scarlet Avenger' feature screenplay, written by Steve McKay, Chris Laskowski and myself, was one of the top 25 finalists in this year's WILDsound FALL Feature Screenplay Contest. Well, we're now one of the 3 winning scripts, out of over 300 international submissions!

The first act of each of the 3 winning scripts will be read by a cast of professional actors at the WILDsound 1st ACT to ACT to ACT Screenplay Event on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 7:00 PM at the National Film Board (150 John Street in the Entertainment District in downtown Toronto). The moderator is filmmaker, David Weaver ('Century Hotel', 'Siblings').

After the 1st acts are read, the audience will vote on what script they want to hear in its entirety at the next screenplay event. It would be terrific if you could attend, as your audience vote could help get our script read from beginning to end, and that would really help us with its development. So, if you'd like to see the Avenger on the big screen one day, or would just like to hang out with Steve, Chris and I, we'd love to see you at the event.

We're very excited about this win. It's a relatively new festival, but it has already become quite prestigious. Some very successful Hollywood professionals have entered and won the same contest we did, including veteran television writer Rogers Turrentine (The Rockford Files, Magnum P.I.), and actors-turned-writers, Rae Dawn Chong (Quest for Fire, Commando) and Frederick Weller (Neil LaBute's 'The Shape of Things').

Tickets for the script reading are $6 at the door. You're encouraged to come early, as seating at the event is limited. You can also purchase a pass to WILDsound's complete 3 day film and screenplay festival for $15 in advance online (that will get you into our reading as well). For more details click here: Wildsound Tickets.

Also of note is my recent internet radio interview with WILDsound creator, Matthew Toffolo, which you can listen to here. At 50 minutes, it's an epic, but it's hilarious and inspiring. I got myself pumped just listening to it!

And finally, a note about the short film version of The Scarlet Avenger...for some reason it is no longer available for viewing on Google Video. It's quite a shame, because that was the best place to see it. I've written Google to inquire about why it is no longer available, but I haven't received any word back. In the meantime, here's an embeded version of the short on an alternate video hosting site, Veoh.com. I found it a bit 'herky jerky' on occasion. Please let me know if you have any problems viewing it.

Until next time...

Watch The Scarlet Avenger in Entertainment Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Avenger script a finalist in the 'WILDsound FALL Feature Screenplay Contest'!

2008-09-18T17:30:00.024-05:00

Dear Avenger Fans,

Earlier this month I got some great news! 'The Scarlet Avenger' feature screenplay was announced as one of the top 25 finalists in the 'WILDsound FALL Feature Screenplay Contest'! Apparently there were over 300 submissions from all over the world, so we did quite well. There are also some very experienced television writers in competition with us, which makes it an even greater honour.

I don't normally enter film-related contests of any sort (as readers of my last post will recall). However, this one seemed really appealing, because the winning script is read aloud by a group of professional actors, before an audience of industry professionals and film fans. The reading is also videotaped for the screenwriters' benefit. To me this prize far outweighs any cash award. It would give me and my co-writers far greater insight into how the dialogue would work, when spoken by trained actors. I'm sure the experience would also spark all sorts of new ideas, with regards to plot, characterization, pace and tone.

My fellow screenwriters, Chris M. Laskowski and Steve McKay, are also really excited by the news, and have agreed to appear on the contest's radio program if we win. That would be pretty fun. So, please cross your fingers for us. We find out later this month how we did. I'll be sure to update you all on that front.

When we were listed as finalists, we were asked to answer a short questionaire that would be posted on the contest's website. For posterity's sake, here it is...

1. What is your screenplay about?

On the eve of World War II, young Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer, Spencer Whitney, saves the King of England from an assassination attempt, but only after his Mountie father is killed at the hands of a mysterious masked villain, known only as 'The Skull'. Spencer is given a handsome reward for his family's ultimate sacrifice, which he uses to transform himself into the masked superhero, 'The Scarlet Avenger'. When war finally comes, the Avenger joins Canada's fight against the Skull and the Nazis, who plot to destroy the free world with a powerful doomsday weapon.

2. Why did you decide to write this screenplay?

'Scarlet Avenger' creator, Scott C. Clements, has been a life-long fan of 1930s and 40s action/adventure films. He wrote a prototype for the Avenger script when he was just 12 years old. At York University he penned a 20-minute film version and co-directed it with fellow classmate, Chris M. Laskowski. When Scott was accepted into the Directors' Lab at The Canadian Film Centre, he was encouraged to develop it as a feature there. He again teamed up with Chris, as well as fellow York classmate (and Film Centre alumnus), Steve McKay, to write it.

3. How long have you been writing screenplays?

Scott's been writing screenplays since he was 12 years old. Chris and Steve began working on scripts in mid high school. While still a student at York University, Steve was co-writer of the 1997 independent film, Hayseed, featuring 'Kids in the Hall' star, Scott Thompson.

4. What is your all-time favorite film? (name only one)

Scott: Star Wars
Chris: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Steve: Do The Right Thing

5. What artist in the film industry would you love to work with?

Scott: David Wu (editor)
Chris: Guillermo Navarro (director of photography)
Steve: David Mitchell and Robert Webb (from the T.V. show 'Peep Show') or Steve Coogan (from 'Hamlet 2')

6. How many screenplays have you written?

Scott's written five feature screenplays. Chris has written six. Steve's written six and has had one produced.

7. Ideally, where would you like to be in 5 years?

Scott would like to be writing and directing entertaining genre films in the United Kingdom. Steve hopes to be living in New York and writing for animated/comedic films/TV shows. Chris doesn't give a crap where he's living, just so long as he's making films!

8. Describe your process; do you have a set routine, method for writing?

Each member of the team has his own writing process. When they teamed up to write Avenger, Scott came up with the raw concepts, Steve researched and developed those further, and Chris helped knit the whole thing together structurally. The screenplay was completed after about a month of intense three-way conversations about story and structure, about two months of concentrated solo writing, and a month of concentrated collaborative polishing.

9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

All three writers are music freaks. Scott loves history. Chris is a karaoke-aholic. Steve is obsessed with bocce ball and being generally gregarious.

10. What influenced you to enter the WILDsound Script Contest?

Scott had seen the site while surfing the net and was told about how great the contest was by a writer friend from L.A., who had won it and had her script read by a cast of professional actors.

11. Any advice or tips you'd like to pass on to other writers?

It's rare for a group of co-writers to get along as well as Scott, Chris and Steve did, but if you're able to find that type of connection, do yourself a major favour and team up. It makes the writing process so much more fun!

Aside from the contest, I've mostly been focusing on planning my move to the UK. It's still quite a ways off, but it's a huge step, so I gotta be prepared. As the reality of becoming an expat draws nearer, I'm starting to think that this could be one of the best things I could ever do for my career as a feature film director. In fact, when I was strolling through the Yorkville area, during the Toronto International Film Festival, I bumped into a movie producer whom I'd worked with a few years ago. He's been very successful in Hollywood, so his opinion means a lot to me. Coincidentally, I'd sent him an email about my plans a few weeks prior, and when he saw me in person, he told me he thought it was a great idea. He said he could totally see why I was so frustrated trying to make films in Canada and that he did see a lot more opportunity overseas. I also met with other successful filmmaker friends later that same day (who were passing through town for the festival) and they shared the same sentiments. So, I think this'll be, if nothing more than a great adventure, a big step in the right direction towards the director's chair.

While planning the move occupies most of my free time, I keep dreaming about the Avenger feature. I'm quite prepared for the very real possibility that this project could take years to come to fruition. A few readers of my last post expressed concern over my shifting focus. One anonymous person posted comments on my blog, which seemed to indicate he felt I'd abandoned my filmmaking plans. "No Avenger movie? What about the storyboards?", he asked. Well, again, I simply have to shift focus for the time being. I'll come back to the film soon enough. Regarding the boards, I'm so glad I spent the time and money to have them done. They're something concrete I can bring to England with me. Trying to get them done over there would have been incredibly difficult. For the first year or so, I'll probably just be struggling to keep my head above water. When I finally get settled and connected, I can revisit them. And, as promised a few posts ago, here are some more examples...

As promised, more Avenger storyboards by artist Sam Agro.

As you can see, the boards truly bring the script to life. I'm so happy I have them as back-up ammunition. They're an essential part of getting this film made. But sometimes, to move forward, you've got to tackle other obstacles first. The roadblocks I've faced here in Canada have been a real problem, not only with regards to getting the film made, but also with my creative spirit in general. I'm not only looking for better career oportunities overseas, but also a fresh new outlook on the world...new inspiration that will breathe life into this and future projects of mine. I'll keep you posted on any major new developments. Until then, best wishes and thanks for reading.

Summer Wrap Up 2008

2008-08-13T13:58:00.025-05:00

Attendees of 'Serial Fest 2008'. Can you spot 'yours truly'?

Dear Readers,

Summer's almost over, and it donned on me that I never told you how 'Serial Fest 2008' went! Well, I'll get to that in a moment. But, firstly, I'd like to share with you one of my greatest victories in recent times. I finally got 'The Scarlet Avenger' short film listed on The Internet Movie Database, where it so rightfully belongs! But, it was no small feat, I tell ya.

I'd tried registering the Avenger student short a few times in the past, but met with so much red tape that I simply gave up in frustration. You see, while film information is generated by the users of the IMDB, its editors feel the need to prove the "legitimacy" of each new entry, so as not to include every piece of junk someone shoots on their cell phone.

To be a "legitimate" film, IMDB needs for it to have played at a festival they deem to be of "interest to the general public". The problem I faced with this stipulation was that, at the time of The Scarlet Avenger's completion in 2000, I didn't see it as a worthwhile endeavor to enter it into festivals. I viewed the festival circuit as a con game, in which festival organizers would simply pocket your money and either reject your film for completely random reasons, or play it to a non-existent audience. The sad truth is that unless you get into a very high profile festival (like The Toronto International Film Festival or Sundance), chances are that the exposure won't help your career in the slightest. And, perhaps wrongly, I felt entering Sundance or Toronto was pointless, because those festivals would think Avenger wasn't 'high brow' enough for them. Who knows? Perhaps they would have liked it. Either way, after completing Avenger, I was too emotionally drained and financially tapped out to go after such prizes. But regardless of what I thought of festivals in the past, I now realize that most festivals will serve to at least legitimize your film in the eyes of the editors at IMDB. Fortunately, my co-director, Chris Laskowski, did want to see if we could win at least one award. He'd had some luck in high school, screening his shorts at a tiny festival called The Canadian International Annual Film Festival. I'd never heard of it, but we entered and won '3rd Best Student Film'. Not bad, but at the time, I wasn't very impressed with a third place win at such a 'rinky dink' festival. I hadn't even seen the other films, but knew that what we had created with Avenger was so special that only politics prevented us from getting a higher award. It turned me off festivals even more, and we never entered another one after that. However, being a part of that festival would come back to save our butts, when trying to get Avenger on IMDB.

As mentioned in my previous post, this summer I was invited to screen the Avenger short at 'Serial Fest 2008' in Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA (key word being "invited"). After the incredible reaction the film got there (which I'll discuss soon), I decided I simply had to get the film listed on IMDB. It was a real film and deserved to be entered into the database as such. After I got back home to Toronto, I submitted all the data to IMDB, including the dates of the festival screenings at CIAFF and Serial Fest. Serial Fest didn't have any listing on IMDB, so it was only the CIAFF that was recognized and could thus legitimize my film. However, IMDB wrote me back and requested a link to a place on the CIAFF site that stated 'The Scarlet Avenger' had screened there. Well, CIAFF's website was frankly a mess. It took me forever to find the spot where they posted their award winners. And to further complicate things, even though the festival had supposedly been in existence since 1967, they didn't start posting their award winners until 2002 - one year after Avenger screened there! So, there was no online proof! However, after sifting through IMDB's help pages, I discovered that they would accept scanned festival documents as evidence. So, I sifted through my drawers and uncovered the award for '3rd Best Student Film'. I scanned it, put it up on the net and sent IMDB the link. That finally did the trick. You may now see Avenger's IMDB listing here. Rate and review it if you'd like.

The scan of our award for the Scarlet Avenger short that I had to post on the web for the Internet Movie Database, to prove the "legitimacy" of our film.

Okay. Now on to 'Serial Fest 2008'. Well, it was a total blast! Most of the guys there were about 50-80 years old, but they were truly all kids at heart. The older guys had actually seen the serials in the theater in their heyday and the younger guys discovered them on television in the 1950s and 60s. I was completely blown away when I spoke to one fellow who told me he'd actually seen 'Spy Smasher' in the theater in 1942, when he was 8 years old! Amazing!

Most of the people in attendance were there to see the long-lost serial 'Daredevils of the West', not seen in its entirety for over 50 years. The screening was made possible through the hard work of festival organizer, Eric Steadman, and Republic Pictures archivist, James D'Arc. I was very excited to hear that the person responsible for archiving the Republic Pictures library of serials was going to see 'The Scarlet Avenger'. What a dream come true!

Local, Newtown newspaper coverage of 'Serial Fest 2008'.

On Wednesday, May 14th, I flew into Philadelphia and took an hour-long cab ride out to the quaint little town of Newtown, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It seemed to be completely in the middle of nowhere, but it was very upscale. Someone said to me "They called it 'Bucks' County for a reason".

The following day, all the festival attendees drifted in from all across the US and Canada, and met in the lobby of our hotel. We yakked on about serials, non-stop for hours, until everyone had arrived. Most of the fellows in attendance were regular posters on the message boards at serialsquardon.com, and all called each other by their nicknames on the boards (the names lifted from their favorite serial characters). These guys were hard-core geeks, but they were my kind of geeks - "cliffhanger serial geeks" - a rare breed indeed!

My name tag for 'Serial Fest 2008'. Notice the nickname...'The Scarlet Avenger'!

On Friday, May 16th, we drove into downtown Newtown, to the theater where we would spend the next two days straight watching serials. Newtown was gorgeous - like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. And the theater was so charming. I was told it was a live theater in the 19th century. During the festival, the main attraction of 'Daredevils of the West' was interspersed with chapters from other serials, including the three 'chapters' of the Scarlet Avenger student film. Daredevils was pretty good, but I must admit I'm not the biggest fan of western serials, preferring those actually set in the 1930s and 40s. A lot of the other chapters, from such serials as 'Flash Gordon', 'The Phantom Empire' and 'The Green Hornet', I'd already seen before, but it was still great seeing them up on the big screen, in that quaint little theater in Newtown. A couple other modern filmmakers were screening their serial-inspired projects as well, including a quirky fellow named Todd Moore, who made a 12 chapter serial, entitled 'The Dangers of Deborah', which was a cross between 'The Perils of Pauline' and 'The Crimson Ghost'. It was pretty funny. Todd kept trying to force me to buy a copy after the screening. I didn't go for it, but I did buy a copy of his first serial, 'King of the Park Rangers', which apparently stars one of the descendants of the canine movie celeb, Rin Tin Tin. Anyways, finally 'The Scarlet Avenger' screened. It played pretty well, broken up into chapters (at the request of the festival organizers), even though it was originally meant to be seen as one short. I actually got the sense that the audience was looking forward to seeing the continuation of the story after each chapter break.

Me looking happy outside the Newtown Theater

Very fitting that 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' was to play at that same theater, starting a few days after our festival. Too bad it sucked sooo badly (Indy, not Serial Fest!)

The gorgeous 19th century interior of the Newtown Theater.

The balcony. James D'Arc, the Republic Pictures archivist, sat up there and saw 'The Scarlet Avenger'! Wow!

The crowd really seemed to appreciate the Avenger, laughing and applauding in all the right places. Afterwards, many of the festival attendees came up to me and told me how much they enjoyed the film. They told me how smart it was, how much I nailed the spirit of the serials, and how they felt like a kid again watching it. That meant a lot coming from them, because, contrary to what you might think, they're actually way harsher critics of serial-related movies than mainstream audiences. If things aren't 'just right' these guys will spot it. Their knowledge of the genre was surreal, as proven in the bizarre 'Serial Jeopardy' they held that weekend.

Even though it was a relatively small festival, I felt a real sense of closure having screened Avenger there. That was the ultimate audience to see the film. If no one else saw the short but them that would be okay.

Saturday night closing dinner. So sad!

Since the festival, I've been doing a lot of soul searching, trying to come up with a game plan for the future, with regards to the making of the Avenger feature, as well as my filmmaking career as a whole. The biggest decision I've made is to leave Canada. I had always wanted to leave, not because Canada's not a great place to live, but because it's a bad place for many artists to thrive. Canadians simply do not support their artists. There is very little private investment in the arts and many artists often have to find success outside of Canada before they're supported at home. I believe I will have a much greater chance for success outside Canada. I had always hoped to settle in Los Angeles, but that option has seemed less and less realistic over the years. U.S. immigration laws are incredibly tough and geared towards keeping people from Canada and other well-to-do countries out, so as to protect Americans from losing higher paying jobs to immigrants. But even aside from this, the U.S. has become less and less appealing to me over the years. Its corrupt politicians have made America the most hated country in the world in recent years. Also, the country's lack of proper health care is terrifying. I'm just not interested in settling there anymore. So, while the U.S. is no longer a realistic option, I do have an escape route - the United Kingdom. I knew that my father was born in the UK, but he never established his citizenship there, because he simply didn't think he was entitled to it. But a few years ago, I started researching the matter and discovered that my Dad, my sister and I were all citizens. We just needed to get our passports.

Even after getting my passport a couple years ago, I've stayed on in Canada, making as much progress as I felt I could here. However, most paths have dried up. I have to take the plunge and jump across the pond to the UK. While the UK doesn't have the film industry the U.S. has, it's still light years ahead of the nearly non-existent Canadian one. There is private investment in the arts in the UK. The British are highly supportive of their artists and they have a real culture and sense of identity there. That's what I'm looking for...a better place to thrive as an artist. I am so grateful that I have this option available to me. I am planning for a move next year. Wish me luck!

What does the future hold for 'The Scarlet Avenger'? Well his creator is moving to the UK and seeing where the wind takes him, for starters.

'Serial Fest 2008' and William Witney's Autobiography

2008-05-10T00:00:00.036-05:00

The 'little student film that could' is screening at this year's 'Serial Fest', the only all-serial film festival in the world.

Hi there, Avenger Fans!

Wow! This is quite an exciting week for me, as I'm gearing up to hop on a plane to Pennsylvania to attend 'Serial Fest 2008'. A few months ago I was invited to screen 'The Scarlet Avenger' short at the one-of-a-kind, all-serial film festival, put on by the fellows at serialsquadron.com. The event has been running for seven years, presenting newly restored serials. This year the main attraction is the western adventure, 'Daredevils of the West', not seen in its entirety for over 50 years! I'm very honored to have Avenger presented as a side attraction. I hear that this is the first year in the festival's history that serial-inspired movies, by modern filmmakers, are being screened.

As I've mentioned before, 'The Scarlet Avenger' student short never really saw the light of day at the time of its completion in 2000. It did make some pretty big waves when released on the Internet a little over a year ago, but it never really made the festival rounds. While Serial Fest is being held pretty far away, in Newtown, Pennsylvania (a small town near Philadelphia), I just had to attend. I bought my plane ticket last week.

What's really unique about the event is the way the films are presented, in serialized format. Each movie is screened chapter by chapter, and when the cliffhanger ending comes, you're treated to a few other chapters from other serials, before seeing the conclusion. It works to give you that old feeling the kids had at the Saturday matinee screenings, back in the golden age of serials, when they had to wait an entire week before seeing how the hero escaped certain death. I was a little nervous about presenting Avenger in serialized format at first, because it was originally meant to be seen as one short. However, most people who viewed the film on the Net saw it this way. As a result of You Tube’s 10-minute video length restriction, I had to break the short up into three chapters to screen it there. While the chapter stops weren't originally planned, there were enough cliffhanger-like moments in the film that I could get away with a simple "To Be Continued Next Week" slug at the end of each segment. So, it'll be really interesting to see how the picture plays when interspersed with chapters from other films.

A picture taken of the cast from the 'SerialFest 2002 Stunt Show'. Looks like soooooo much fun!

What's even more exciting than the screenings is the opportunity to meet other serial enthusiasts face to face. I've chatted with many of them on the Net over the past year, but all of us under one roof for three days will be something else!

Attendees of Serial Fest 2006, outside the Newtown Theatre, where this year's screenings are taking place.

Another thing I've been itching to talk about is a book I recently finished reading, titled 'In a Door, Into a Fight, Out a Door, Into a Chase: Moviemaking Remembered by the Guy at the Door' by William Witney. For those of you who don't know, William Witney (who passed away in 2002) was the greatest serial director who ever lived. This book describes his pre-WW II service glory years, in which he was not only a master of the genre, but also, at 21 years old, the youngest director in the Hollywood studio system. I'd wanted to read this book for years to have a better understanding of the process of shooting action/adventure films on a shoestring budget.

Master serial director, William Witney's incredible autobiography. I'd been meaning to read this for years and am so glad I finally did!

What I found amazing about Witney's story was how he seemingly fell into the picture business. While visiting his sister and movie director brother-in-law, Colbert Clark, in Los Angeles, while preparing for his entrance exams for the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, he took a random job offer as cowboy extra in a serial called 'Fighting with Kit Carson'. He quickly fell in love with the movie-making process and started working as an assistant behind-the-scenes, eventually becoming a highly skilled editor. All of this in his teens! Then, in 1937 he went on-location for the filming of Republic Pictures' 'The Painted Stallion' and became an emergency replacement for the film's failing director. And so began the career of William Witney, who went on to direct or co direct 23 Republic serials. The book ends just before the young visionary left for service in World War II. While Witney went on to direct serials, television and features after the war, it was his pre-war work that is his legacy. Some of his most fondly remembered serials include 'SOS Coast Guard', 'Zorro Rides Again', 'The Lone Ranger', 'The Fighting Devil Dogs', 'Daredevils of the Red Circle', 'Drums of Fu Manchu', 'Adventures of Captain Marvel', 'Jungle Girl', 'Spy Smasher', 'Perils of Nyoka', 'King of the Royal Mounted' and 'G-Men Vs. The Black Dragon'.

Witney, who was just 21 years old when he directed his first chapter play, still holds the record for being the youngest director ever to work on a Hollywood studio picture.

The book isn't just a history of the serial industry. It's a loving memoir, recounting not just Witney's professional successes, but also his personal ones. The story of the courtship of his wife, Maxine Doyle (his leading lady from 'SOS Coastguard') was especially touching. What impressed me the most was how good this man was at dealing with the people he worked with. He achieved superior results by not only being innovative, but also treating those around him with patience, fairness and respect. And he was loved by nearly all who worked with him as a result.

If I have any complaint about the book, it's Witney's intense focus on the films he made in the western genre. I consider myself a western fan, but am much more in love with the movies set in the serial era. I was rather shocked to learn that he wasn't as fond of his non-western output as I thought he would be, often making disparaging comments about such classics as 'Spy Smasher', 'King of the Royal Mounted' and 'G-Men Vs. the Black Dragon'. To me, these films are far more representative of the serial genre than westerns, which had a much larger life outside that format.

Witney directing Kay Aldridge in a deathtrap scene from 'Perils of Nyoka' (also known as 'Nyoka and The Tigermen').

William Witney with his loving wife, Maxine Doyle, his leading lady from 'SOS Coastguard'.

It was truly amazing hearing how Witney learned how to stage fight scenes, as his were some of the most exhilarating ever put on film. He is often credited as being the first director to 'choreograph' fights. In earlier days, directors would just let the stunt men 'go at it' and capture the proceedings. Not only did Witney stage dazzling fight scenes with some of the best stunt men in the business, but he also chose camera angles that heightened the energy immensely. I was also amazed to learn that he often filmed the actors fighting in slow motion, while he undercranked the camera at the same time, to make the scenes ferociously fast and dangerous-looking. He could have the actual actors appear to be punched smack dab in the face using this technique. I'd definitely like to try a variation of this for the Avenger feature.

Witney in action, directing 'The Lone Ranger'

I also loved reading about Witney's fantastic relationship with his long time co-director, John English. English, like Witney, started out as a film editor, but always had an itch to direct. He first teamed up with Witney on 'Zorro Rides Again' in 1937. It was a match made in heaven. Not only did the duo produce some of the most memorable serials ever made, but they were also very close friends. English would mainly focus on the story and character aspects of each picture and Witney would tackle the action. I'm very proud to know that English was Canadian too!:-)

John 'Jack' English, Witney's long-time collaborator, was his strongest ally. And he was Canadian too!:-)

There's no question Witney was the best of the serial directors, as evidenced by his consistently strong films. Many of my favorite serials were directed by this man. I'd like to briefly discuss my personal favorites: 'Spy Smasher', 'King of the Royal Mounted', 'Drums of Fu Manchu', 'Perils of Nyoka', 'Jungle Girl', 'G-Men Vs. the Black Dragon' and 'Adventures of Captain Marvel'.

SPY SMASHER (1942)

'Spy Smasher' was the first serial I ever bought, so it holds a special place in my heart. Witney thought of it as simply WW II propaganda, which of course it was, but is that necessarily a bad thing? Nazi Germany was just plain evil, and it's great to see the hero repeatedly smash the baddies. The storyline revolves around a plot by German saboteurs to flood the United States with counterfeit money. It's up to superhero, Spy Smasher, to stop them. What really stands out in this serial is the globe-trotting feel of the first few acts, beginning in occupied France and continuing on to the fictional exotic island of 'Martinidad'. This allowed for the inclusion of French Vichy sidekick, Captain Durand, who was a primary influence on the character of 'Captain Dupuis' in the Avenger short. If anyone were considering getting into the serials, I'd recommend this as the best possible starting point.

'Spysmasher', my favorite serial of all time. They certainly don't get much more action-packed than this!

KING of the ROYAL MOUNTED (1940)

Again, Witney thought of this WW II serial, about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police fighting Nazi saboteurs, as propaganda fluff. I was also disappointed to hear that the very charismatic lead Allan 'Rocky' Lane, who played Mountie Sergeant Dave King, was a pain in the ass to work with. Perhaps it's my Canadian bias, but I adored this serial. It was so refreshing to see such an epic adventure set in my home country. This serial, as I've mentioned in previous posts, has been an enormous influence on the development of the Avenger feature, which is largely set in Canada as well.

Maybe it's my Canadian bias, but this is my second favorite cliffhanger of all time. I was shocked to hear how little Witney liked it.

DRUMS of FU MANCHU (1940)

I had always been a little weary of seeing this serial, because of the racist overtones of the 'Fu Manchu' character, created by British pulp novelist Sax Rohmer. While the character is an example of the 'yellow menace' racism of the western world, this serial does its best to steer clear of that ugliness. In this film Fu Manchu appears simply to be a villain who happens to be Chinese. He is played with surprising respect by the very talented actor, Henry Brandon. This film was a huge hit with audiences. A sequel was planned, but scrapped at the request of the Chinese government, who had become allies with the U.S. in the fight against Japan at the outbreak of WW II. This serial is incredibly action-packed and filled with all sorts of inventive deathtrap cliffhangers. While politically incorrect by today's standards, it is an adventure masterpiece, when looked at in the proper historical context.

I was very relieved to see that what could have been a piece of racist filth was actually one of the best adventure films ever made. While politically incorrect by today's standards, this film made a huge impression on the movie-going public.

PERILS of NYOKA (1942)

'Perils of Nyoka', also known as 'Nyoka and the Tigermen', was an unofficial sequel to 'Jungle Girl'. This is fantastically campy fun, in which 'Jungle Girl', Nyoka Gordon, battles the incredibly sexy villainess, Vultura, 'Ruler of the Arabs', for the 'Golden Tablets of Hippocrates'. The action scenes are first rate. And remember the spike room deathtrap from 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'? Well, it was lifted directly from this movie. The little monkey spy from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'also had its origins in this picture.

Oh my, does 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' owe a huge debt to 'Perils of Nyoka'. This is where Temple's spike room sequence came from

JUNGLE GIRL (1941)

While I didn't enjoy 'Jungle Girl' quite as much as its sequel, 'Perils of Nyoka', it is still hugely entertaining. Again, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg lifted many set pieces from this for 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'. Remember the torrent of water that chases Indy, Willie and Short Round through the mineshaft? It was plucked directly from here, almost shot for shot. Also, this picture's main villain Shamba, the Witch Doctor of the Masamba tribe, was a clear influence on 'Temple of Doom''s Mola Ram.

Again, a huge Indiana Jones inspiration. George Lucas just loved 'Jungle Girl', plain as day!

G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON (1943)

This was Witney's last production before leaving to serve in World War II. It's American propaganda about Japanese saboteurs in America, but who cares? Again, not politically correct by today's standards, mainly due to the fact that all the Japanese agents are played by white actors. However, I was surprised to see Asian American actor, Roland Got play the hero's super cool sidekick, Chang Sing of the Chinese secret service. This film has some of the best-choreographed fight scenes ever put on film. The picture was a huge success and was followed by an even more action packed sequel, called 'Secret Service in Darkest Africa', directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet.

G-Men Vs. The Black Dragon had some of the best fist fights ever put on film.

ADVENTURES of CAPTAIN MARVEL (1941)

'Adventures of Captain Marvel' was a fantastic adaptation of the Fawcett Comics superhero, in which the title character fought a masked villain known as The Scorpion, who was determined to capture a magical gold scorpion, which had the power to destroy the world. This serial has an unusually good story, exotic locations and fantastic superhero flying effects. It's a little lacking in the 'smack around' fighting of Witney's other efforts, but what it lacks in that department, it makes up for in plot and atmosphere. Republic Pictures and William Witney lost the rights for 'Superman' a little while before making this picture, but this 'Man of Steel' rip-off was a huge hit for them. It is often cited as being the best chapter play ever made.

Republic Pictures lost the chance to make 'Superman', but William Witney did a bang up job with this 'Man of Steel' rip-off, 'Adventures of Captain Marvel', one of the most highly praised serials ever made.

The contributions of William Witney will never be forgotten. It amazes me how the two directors, who owe so much of their success to this man, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, have all but swept him under the rug. What's even more amazing is how underappreciated and underpaid Witney was. Reading this book made me understand the countless struggles that cliffhanger directors faced with budget, actor, story, and filming logistics. I feel this story has really helped prepare me better for my own future filmmaking endeavours.

An older Witney at the Houstoncon film festival in 1973.

'Rocketeer' Creator, Dave Stevens Passes Away

2008-03-13T16:37:00.030-05:00

Comic book artist,Dave Stevens, best known as the creator of 'The Rocketeer', dead at age 52.

Dear Readers,

I was very saddened to hear that 'Rocketeer' creator, Dave Stevens, passed away Monday from complications related to treatment for leukemia. He was only 52. While he drew for many publications, his greatest success came with 'The Rocketeer', a sporadically-produced comic book series, which first saw print in 1982 -- in which a 1930s-era stunt pilot fights evil after finding a rocket-powered backpack. The nostalgic adventure tales found a loyal cult following and were eventually turned into a major movie by Walt Disney Pictures in 1991. In the words of David Hoberman, former president of Walt Disney Pictures, "Disney was attracted to the story because it had "a clear heroic structure...an innocent guy stumbles on something and ends up saving the world ...and it was a world we hadn't seen before".

'The Rocketeer was just an 'average joe', who stumbled upon a high tech jet pack, that turned him into a superhero overnight.

Dave Stevens' love for the past is meticulously depicted in the period details present in every frame of the comic. The Rocketeer's aviator hero, Cliff Secord, also bears more than a passing resemblance to Stevens himself. And the character's girlfriend, Bettie, is drawn as a tribute to the woman he fantasized about all throughout his childhood, the notorious 1950s pin-up model, Bettie Page. "Bettie was a look, a standard of beauty that I spotted as an adolescent," Stevens is quoted as saying. The attention the retired Page received because of the comic helped revive interest in her. Stevens paid Page to use her likeness and helped her get paid by publishers who used her image. Stevens and Page even became close friends. "After years of fantasizing about this woman, I'm now driving her to cash her Social Security checks.", he once said.

Dave Stevens based Cliff Secord/The Rocketeer on his own stylish image, and Secord's girl, 'Bettie', was drawn in the likeness of 1950s pin-up queen, Bettie Page.

The Rocketeer and his girl in an awkward moment

Dave Stevens was born July 29, 1955 and, from early childhood, was obsessed with vintage design, primarily art deco of the 1930s. He also had an intense fascination with old adventure movie serials (The Rocketeer is clearly influenced by Republic Pictures' 1949 'rocketman' serial, King of the Rocketmen'). In 1975, Stevens was hired to help Russ Manning draw his 'Tarzan' newspaper comic strip and soon became a popular freelance illustrator, working to create advertisements for such movies as 'Superman II'. He also drew storyboards for the 1981 film 'Raiders of the
Lost Ark'.

The Rocketeer first appeared in Starslayer #1 (February, 1982), but only for one page. The actual story began in the following April issue. After that, the character had spotty appearances in a few other books, before getting his own title. Three issues of the 'Rocketeer Adventure Magazine' were released, but over the span of seven years! Yet, even with such limited appearances, the character's appeal was enough to warrant the 1991 Disney film, starring Bill Campbell as the Rocketeer, and Jennifer Connelly as Bettie (her name was changed to Jenny in the film, to avoid legal issues). The picture was considered a box office flop at the time of its release, but it is fondly remembered by countless fans.

The reason I've devoted an entire blog post to Stevens is that I have been a life long admirer, not only of Stevens' jetpack-wearing comic character, 'The Rocketeer', but also of all his artwork in general, especially the way he drew women. Anyone familiar with Stevens' art knows that he could draw the female form like no one else! My great affection for Dave Stevens also comes from the fact that both the comic and movie versions of The Rocketeer have inspired my own filmmaking in countless ways, and were a primary influence on my acclaimed student short, 'The Scarlet Avenger'.

The very first piece of Dave Stevens artwork I came across was a cover he did for the children's adventure novel, 'Time Machine 4: Sail with Pirates'. This was 1984, and I was only 8 years old. While I was a big Indiana Jones fan at that time, I was completely unaware of Stevens' work as a storyboard artist on 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', or his 1982 comic book, 'The Rocketeer'. But, man, that 'Sail With Pirates' cover made a huge impression on me. I held onto that book for years, just because I liked the artwork so much!

The very first piece of Dave Stevens artwork I ever saw was the cover of the 'Choose Your Own Adventure'-like children's book, 'Time Machine 4: Sail With Pirates'

Some of you have perhaps read my earlier post on the making of 'The Scarlet Avenger', and might recall that one of the short's biggest influences was a 1988 video game, called 'Rocket Ranger'. It's about a scientist who finds a rocket pack and uses it to fight the Nazis during World War II. I'm sure this game was heavily inspired by Stevens' comic. At age 12, I started writing a feature-length screenplay, based on the Rocket Ranger game and worked on it for about 3 years...until the spring of 1991. I was 15 and on vacation in the Caribbean with my folks. My rest and relaxation turned to high anxiety, when I walked into a shop and saw, on the cover of a movie magazine, a still from 'The Rocketeer'! "Oh no, my rocket man movie is destroyed!", I thought. Well, even though I was very upset at the time, I saw 'The Rocketeer' in the theater that summer and loved it! I even wrote my own sequel for it. When it came out on video, I bought it right away and watched it repeatedly, committing almost all the movie's dialogue to memory. While I knew the film was based on a comic book, I had yet to read it. I wanted to check it out, but it was pretty obscure. Remember, this was in the early 1990s, in the days before the Internet really took off, before you could track down rare treasures with such tools as Amazon.com and Ebay.

Poster for Disney's big budget film version of 'The Rocketeer'.

In 1993, during the summer before my final year of high school, I got the incredible chance to study filmmaking at the University of Southern California. It was while I was strolling through the USC book store that I came across the trade paperback edition of 'The Rocketeer'. I snatched it up as quickly as I could and raced back to my dorm room to read it. It was awesome! I wasn't even that much of a comic book fan, but I fell in love with it immediately. I'd never seen comic characters that were so realistically and beautifully rendered. And I was surprised to see how much sexier the Rocketeer's girlfriend was in the comic than in the movie (Jennifer Connelly, forgive me!). I had no idea that his gal, Bettie (Jenny in the film) was based on notorious 50s pin-up queen, Bettie Paige.

Cover of the trade paperback edition of 'The Rocketeer'.

Also that summer, I took a trip to L.A.'s famous Tower Records store and found the score for the movie, which I made quick use of in one of my USC Super 8 shorts, which I shot at L.A.'s Griffith Observatory, where the climax of the Rocketeer movie takes place. Let's just say, that by 1993, 'The Rocketeer' was absorbed into my soul. It was a film that needed to be loved and spoken about, because it was such an underappreciated gem. I always knew I wanted to make a film like the Rocketeer and finally got my chance in 1997, when I shot 'The Scarlet Avenger', in my third year at York University film school. The spirit of the Rocketeer was a great influence on the tone of my film. Also, The Scarlet Avenger's nemesis, 'The Skull', was based on a villain depicted on the cover of 'Rocketeer Adventure Magazine #3'. While the grim reaper-esque villain was inspired by countless other 1930s & 40s pulp villains, as well as the serial character, 'The Crimson Ghost', Dave Stevens' depiction was my first taste of how cool a simple "skeleton in a cloak" could be!

This was the picture that inspired the character of 'The Skull' in my 'Scarlet Avenger' student film.

While 'The Rocketeer' remains one of the more obscure heroes of comics and film, as I mentioned earlier, he's got a very loyal fan base. A few years ago, a friend of mine, who was working at a video store in Sydney, Australia, said that George Lucas walked in one day with his kids and bought a few DVDs. "Which ones"?!, I asked eagerly. My friend laughed and said, "I knew you'd like to hear this...one of them was 'The Rocketeer'.

Stevens had dropped out of sight for the most part in recent years, due in large part to his battle with leukemia, which he was very private about. "What ever happened to Dave Stevens?” had become a frequent Internet message board topic. I, myself, was one of the countless fans wondering why he had basically vanished. But, it wasn't only his illness that kept him from the spotlight. He had always been a notoriously slow artist, a result of his extreme perfectionism. It is reported that he spent the last years of his life living off of commissions for the pin-up art he was so skilled at.

Stevens was very reclusive in his later years, and his perfectionism caused there to be great lag times between releases of his work. His obsession with Bettie Page became central to his art as well, as is seen in this cover for 'Bettie Page Comics'.

Dave Stevens (1955-2008)

Dave Stevens will be sorely missed. Memorial donations may be made to the Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Foundation.

Avenger Storyboards and an Expanding Filmography

2008-02-17T02:10:00.023-05:00

The very first couple of Scarlet Avenger storyboards, drawn by artist Sam Agro, for the feature film's opening origin sequence

Hi there, Avenger Fans.

Man, maintaining a blog is a lot harder than I thought it'd be. I assure you all though, I'm still plugging away at developing the 'Scarlet Avenger' feature, mostly in the storyboard department. And, as promised, I'm gonna share with you some of artist Sam Agro's fantastically rendered action scenes from the film's opening fifteen minutes. But, firstly, I have to share with you my feelings on the latest film I've been involved with, the sci-fi epic, 'Jumper', starring Hayden Christiansen, Samuel L. Jackson, Rachel Bilson and Jamie Bell , and directed by Doug Liman.

Earlier this week, I checked on the Internet to see what my official credit on the film would be and was blown away. Get this... Scott Clements...Visual Effects Image Manager! Woohoo! Even though I busted my ass on the film, the credit was still a pleasant surprise. Very official/important-sounding:-) Even more surprising was that I actually saw much of my own handywork in the film's official trailer. You see, during shooting, I meticulously stitched together many of the film's 'jumps' or teleports, frame by frame. While they were digitally enhanced in further post work, I was very happy to see how little they had changed from their initial conception. I'm also very proud of the visionary work of my VFX co-workers... A big 'congrats' to Joel, Kevin, Joe, Leann, Dave, Cathy, Sandor and the rest of the gang! We all deserve a huge pat on the back.

Action sequence from Doug Liman's sci-fi epic, 'Jumper'. Very proud of my super cool-sounding credit on the picture: 'Visual Effects Image Manager'! Woohoo!

I finally saw 'Jumper' tonight and was both pleasantly surprised and completely blown away. The surprise comes from the fact that the film has been horrendously attacked by the critics, receiving some of the worst reviews I've ever seen. Okay, what kind of crack have they all been smoking?! 'Jumper' was a rip-roaring roller coaster ride of an adventure. The action scenes were creatively delivered, the story was economically and interestingly presented, and the cast was very charismatic. Hayden Christiansen was far more charming than he was in the Star Wars prequels (he'd make a terrific Scarlet Avenger:-)), Samuel L. Jackson was his usual intense self, Rachel Bilson was adorable as ever, and Jamie Bell was absolutely hilarious! And to top it off, this film proved to me that Doug Liman has a distinct vision. Why? Well, it just felt like a Doug Liman picture...same visual style, pacing and quirky sense of humor as all his earlier films, 'Swingers', 'Go', 'The Bourne Identity' and 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith'. I just don't understand what the critics are complaining about. It's just a fun ride. If you're a serious sci-fi or action fan, you really shouldn't miss this one. Plus, it would only get better, if the studio carried out its initial plan of turning 'Jumper' into a trilogy.

So, what does this have to do with 'The Scarlet Avenger'? Well, it has really helped give me some very important experience, especially with regards to understanding the visual effects process. And believe me, it will all help with the development of the Scarlet Avenger's multitude of visual effects sequences. I've been very lucky in landing some truly unique jobs after my time in the directors' lab at the Canadian Film Centre. Filming the behind-the-scenes documentaries for the action and effects heavy films, 'Silent Hill' and 'Skinwalkers', really opened my eyes to all the work that goes into movies of this type. And I've gotten to witness, first hand, the wildly different directing styles of the three films' directors, Christophe Gans, Jim Isaac and now, Doug Liman. All of this insight is helping in the development of the Avenger's boards and will definitely help in its execution, both on set and in post. Plus, all of this will give me at least some small level of clout when looking for producers and financing. I am 100% confidant that, armed with my talents, training and practical experience, I can deliver a film, capable of capturing the imaginations and hearts of the masses.

So happy with the way the action scenes are turning out. A lifetime of obsessing over cinematic action is finally paying off!

The storyboarding process is slow going, due to my lack of development funds, but the results have been phenomenal. Storyboard artist, Sam Agro and I have been meeting for the past several months and hashing out some fantastic visuals for the opening 15 minutes of the feature, which, as I've mentioned before, present the Avenger's origin tale; the transformation of young Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, Spencer Whitney, into the swashbuckling, masked superhero, the Scarlet Avenger. All I can do is just keep pushing along, and planning the execution of the film, down to the smallest detail. Eventually, when all this hard work lands in the hands of a producer who's equally passionate about the material, the show'll get on the road. And, because I've decided that my film making career will either start with this film or nothing at all, I'm positive it will get made sometime before I die. To quote Back to the Future's father and son duo, George and Marty McFly, "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything". Good words of advice, because it's simply the only way to approach any ambitious project that you feel this passionately about.

Mounties fighting machine gun-totting villains. Doesn't get much cooler than this! Well, actually it does...you'll just have to wait for the finished film.

Stay tuned for more boards in future posts!

Who Knows What Evil Lurks In The Hearts of Men?...

2007-11-10T20:10:00.000-05:00

'The Shadow', the most popular of all 1930s pulp heroes, and the grandfather of the modern superhero, was as equally influential on the creation of 'The Scarlet Avenger' as 'Indiana Jones'

...The Shadow knows. MWA-HA-HA-HA-HAAA-aaaah! Well, at least The Shadow did know, for several decades, until this icon of 1930s pulp fiction faded into relative obscurity. However, The Shadow was a huge influence on my Scarlet Avenger short film and upcoming feature.

Pulp magazine covers often featured 'living skeleton' characters. Perhaps their imagery helped grab the attention of readers, the publishers catering to the public's morbid fascination with death. The Scarlet Avenger's nemesis, 'The Skull', is a tribute to this pulp staple.

On the surface, The Scarlet Avenger appears, to most modern viewers, to borrow most heavily from the Indiana Jones series. But, what makes my film stand out from other Indy-inspired works is its exploration of the entire spectrum of 30s and 40s pulp heroes, the most important of all being The Shadow, the mysterious dark avenger, who donned a black cloak, wide-brimmed fedora and scarlet scarf, and enforced his own violent brand of justice with his two blazing automatic hand guns (long before countless Hong Kong action stars made 'two-gun action' famous in the 'heroic bloodshed' genre, invented by director John Woo).

The Shadow had simply vanished from the pop culture radar by the time I was born in 1975. He'd been largely replaced by spandex-clad superheroes, like 'Superman', 'Batman' and 'Spider-Man'. But, The Shadow was the grandfather of the modern superhero, and a direct influence on the ever-popular Batman. In fact, Batman creator Bob Kane considered giving his hero a gun, but thought it would make him too similar to The Shadow.
I can't remember when I saw my very first glimpse of the character, but I distinctly remember being attracted by a discussion of him on the Canadian sci-fi/ fantasy interview TV series, 'Prisoners of Gravity' (1989-1994). 'Who was this guy’? I thought. He both looked and sounded so cool! It was so thrilling to discover a character from a long-forgotten era. I started to read up on him in any publication I could get my hands on, most often in the handful of Shadow comic books I found at the local comic store. Then, in 1994, a Shadow feature film was released, starring Alec Baldwin, one of my favorite actors at the time. While I wasn't overly impressed with the film's story, the visuals really captured my imagination. Around the same time, I was discovering 1930s and 40s action adventure serials on home video, and the Shadow fit in perfectly with that universe, which was so much more than just Indiana Jones.

The Shadow was as sexy a character as Dracula. He fought against evil, but possessed many characteristics of a classic villain. This flirtation with the dark side of humanity appealed immensley to depression-era audiences

Did The Shadow's ever present twin .45s influence the two-gun action of Hong Kong cinema of the 80s and 90s? I wonder...

Since creating this site, I've really wanted to celebrate The Shadow. The Internet has put me in contact with many other 30s and 40s pulp and serial enthusiasts, one of the biggest being David Bird, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, whom I discovered through his blog: 'The Dork Dungeon'. So, why not have him share his love of the character?, I thought. Here's David's excellent article. Hope you enjoy it!

Blogger and Shadow fan, David Bird, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, who wrote the fantastic overview of the character for this site

About three weeks ago or so Scott asked me if I would be interested in drumming up a few new articles for you sheiks and shebas. It was an honor to be able to write up a new article for this site. Now 40 gigs of gaming resources and various written projects rescued to a back up drive, a broken master drive on my primary system (with no hope of recovery) and the transfer to another (lesser but adequate) machine and I'm on this article thing, on it! I'm a huge fan of The Scarlet Avenger and an equally huge fan of pulp fiction and movie serials and no amount of malfunctioning hardware was gonna keep me from getting some new material written to support the site.

I met Scott after I had posted a review over on my Myspace site. Like any good little unknown blogger I made him aware that I had written the piece and congratulated him on a most entertaining and fantastic short. Well since then we have kept tabs on each other when the time permits (which from the current state of both of our blogs has not been much) and when he asked me if I would like to come up with something for this blog I snatched up the opportunity immediately.

I know he is working hard to put together all of the things that need to be done to get a shot at making the Scarlet Avenger into a feature length flick and I know that it must be time consuming as well. So, I'm going to do my best to crank out some fairly regular pieces for fans of pulp fiction and movie house serials, and maybe in the process learn even more about a genre that I hold dear to my heart.

Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men...

The Shadow is one of pulp fiction's most famous and popular heroes and a personal favorite of mine as well. A dark clad vigilante with blazing .45s, the ability to cloud men's minds (though not till later) and a black and red flowing cloak that reminds one of Dracula’s ominous presence, The Shadow took justice to the criminals and prowled the night eight full years before Batman ever hit the streets of Gotham.

That's right, The Shadow was created by Street & Smith, a publisher of pulp magazines in 1931, at least that's when The Shadow saw creation in print. Initially Street & Smith had used The Shadow as the name of the narrator that read for their Detective Story radio show, but the character's popularity proved so noteworthy that they decided to give him his own magazine. So they commissioned Walter B. Gibson to write stories for this new pulp.

A collection of covers from Street & Smith's Shadow pulp magazine

Like many other pulp authors of the time, Gibson used a pen name, calling himself Maxwell Grant. It is possible that he was forced to use this pen name, as many other authors that were writing for the pulps during the late 20s through to the late 40s, were made to do. Publishers of the time believed that it was in their best interest to keep one name on every story that involved a given character, so that even when "ghost writers" were used, fans of the series would not be turned off by an unknown name. Of course there were exceptions to this rule and occasionally there was a guest writer who was credited, but the norm kept most of these "other" writers hidden from the public and some of them are even unknown today.

The Shadow saw immediate success and flew off of the shelves as quickly as they could be stocked, a feat that would not be emulated by another serial character until Superman's first appearance in Action Comics#1, during June of 1938. From his first appearance in 1931 until 1949 The Shadow was loved by tens of thousands (probably hundreds of thousands) of loyal readers, from kids to adults all throughout the nation. Gibson was credited with writing 282 of the 325 Shadow novels and very likely it was his attention to keeping every detail the same from month to month that helped in maintaining an audience that loved and revered the original dark avenger of the night.

In an attempt to capitalize on the character's ever growing success, Street and Smith pushed The Shadow into every medium possible, with yet again an astonishing rate of success. In 1932 The Shadow returned to radio, but this time as the title character of his own half hour show, sponsored by Blue Coal. The radio series would move about over the next few years, changing stations and sponsors, and at the end of its run The Shadow radio series had aired for 22 years as one of the most popular and endearing action adventure radio shows of all time. If not for the advent of television, perhaps the show would still be running today. However, television's stranglehold on America did not hinder The Shadow's adventures, at least not at first.

Orson Welles as the voice of the Shadow on the radio

The Shadow had already made appearances in the film entitled "The Shadow Strikes" in 1937 and an excellent serial from Columbia called "The Shadow", composed of 15 chapters, of which the titles included "Chapter One: The Doomed City, Chapter Nine: Devil in White and Chapter Thirteen: Wheels of Death." The serial starred Victor Jory as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow, Veda Ann Borg as Margo Lane and was directed by James W. Horne, who directed other serials as well, including "The Spider's Web" 1938, "The Green Archer" 1940 and "The Iron Claw" 1941. In addition The Shadow had been featured in a comic strip by Vernon Greene and Street and Smith had placed their gun toting pulp noir hero in a comic book of his very own, which incidentally ran from 1940-1948 for a total of 101 issues.

Victor Jory as 'The Shadow' in Columbia Pictures' 15-part movie serial

As the Shadow's popularity eventually began to fade and the crime buster and western genres began to take a hold on the minds of America's young viewing audience, fans slowly distressed as one publication form of media after another left "the bad ass in black" in the pages of yesteryear, to fight off the ravages of time and fade into the collective memory of pulp fan boys everywhere. With the demise of Street and Smith publishing and their eventual selling to Conde Nast of all of their pulp properties, the future did indeed look bleak for The Shadow. And with a final film "The Shadow Returns", released in 1946, The Shadow slipped back into the shadows for a number of decades.

Then, in 1973, writer Dennis O'Neil (of Marvel and DC fame) and critically acclaimed artist Michael Kaluta brought The Shadow back to life in comic form, published by DC Comics. Though true to the feel of the character, with O'Neil's brilliant writing style and Kaluta's amazing art (though Kaluta did not draw the entire series), the comic came to an end after only 12 issues. However, this resurgence of the character brought him to light in the eyes of many writers and artists that had once been readers and fans, and The Shadow once again began to make headway in the entertainment scene. Even if he was not enjoying the same popularity as he once had, The Shadow was back and, to fans everywhere, that was all that mattered.

DC Comics' 1973 revival of The Shadow

A Marvel Comics Shadow story, written by Dennis O'Neil and illustrated by Michael Kaluta

Despite a poorly received short running second series, produced by DC, in which The Shadow was placed in the modern era, the character's popularity as an iconic dark avenger continued to grow and DC eventually launched yet another series called, "The Shadow Strikes". This series, written by Gerard Jones, with art by Eduardo Barreto, returned The Shadow to his pulp 30's roots and included appearances by many famous and well know real life personalities of the time. But perhaps the most endearing facet of this particular incarnation of the character was that that The Shadow finally teamed up with another pulp great, Doc Savage, in issue number 5. This was perhaps one of the most asked for team ups in pulp history and DC made it happen, thank you DC. Coincidentally this was the series that first introduced me to pulp fiction in an easily accessible format and it is primarily because of the energy that was written into this series that I became so enamored with pulp fiction and life in the 30's and 40's.

DC Comics' third Shadow series, 'The Shadow Strikes'

Following the disappointing cancellation of "The Shadow Strikes," Dark Horse Comics would pick up the line and continue to tell the tales of mystery and suspense that so many had come to love. Of course the greatest event took place during that same time in 1994 when a new Shadow feature film was released by Universal Pictures on July 1 of that year. Directed by Russell Mulcahy and starring Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow, the film was filled with excellent pulp references and campy jokes, but it was not well received by theater audiences and is considered to have been a box office bomb. Though the film had its moments, the director often strayed away from the darker side of the character, opting instead for humor or comedic situations. Still, for those who love The Shadow, it was at the least a worthy attempt to capture the character and I for one am still a fan of the film today. Besides, Margo Lane was portrayed by a very sexy Penelope Ann Miller, and it's not every gal that can wear her hair like that and remain gorgeous.

Universal Studios had high hopes for their big budget Shadow feature film, starring Alec Baldwin, but the film was a financial and critical failure

Alec Baldwin as 'The Shadow'

But, once again The Shadow has slipped away, hidden in the darkness, waiting for the next wave of talent to bring him back into the vie of the general public. It has been 13 years since Alec Baldwin donned the red scarf and black hat of justice and 12 since Dark Horse has printed a comic with "The Case of the Shrieking Skeletons". Now though, it seems that there is once again hope, as director Sam Raimi of Spider-Man film fame has shown an interest in returning The Shadow to film. Given Raimi's portrayal of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, he seems to be the best choice for the job. Though nothing is yet written in stone, Raimi has been a long time fan of the character and his Darkman movie was a homage to pulp heroes and a damned good film to boot. In addition to a film on the horizon, both The Shadow and Doc Savage have had their reprinting rights licensed from Conde Nast and are now being reprinted with two stories to a magazine. Many of the stories haven't been reprinted since they originally hit the stands over nearly 70 years ago, and now you can own them for a very reasonable price. Check out Nostalgia Ventures to pick up a few issues. Also, I have seen them listed in Previews, which is an order magazine you can pick up from your local comic shop. So it looks like the rise of The Shadow is coming once again, and I would say who knew, but I think we all know the answer to that one don't we?

Dark Horse Comics's final Shadow story, 'The Case of the Shrieking Skeletons', in which The Shadow teamed up with equally popular 1930s pulp hero, Doc Savage. The cover art is by Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens.

Thanks Dave for this incredibly well-thought-out article. If you're hungry to learn more about The Shadow, please do yourself a favor and watch the incredible online documentary 'The Shadow Knows', which can be downloaded from dialbforburbank.com.

Poster for the fantastic documentary 'The Shadow Knows', which can be downloaded for free from dialbforburbank.com

Scarlet Avenger Invades MySpace.com and Spreads Pulp Goodness

2007-10-01T21:33:00.001-05:00

Oh my, Avenger Fans,

I've been bad. I let nearly two whole months slip by without an update! However, I've been super busy, not only with life/work, but also with further Internet promotion of the short and (drum roll, please)...STORYBOARDING OF THE FEATURE!!! FINALLY! A few weeks ago, I met with Toronto artist, Sam Agro, and we began churning out boards for the Scarlet Avenger's origin sequence, that will kick off the feature film. It's a pretty visually dense part of the picture, so it'll be a little while before it's locked down, but I am totally blown away by the work Sam's done so far. I'll be posting samples of it sometime in the very near future.

Another important part of my journey to get the feature made still involves promotion of the short, which will in turn promote the character and create anticipation for the feature. It does feel a little strange knocking on doors to get people to watch my ten-year-old student flick, but the buzz is steadily building. The entire online serial/pulp fan community has seen it, as well as countless fellow filmmakers and general movie enthusiasts. The kind letters I've received from people all around the world have really inspired the heck out of me. I just updated the Avenger's Mailbag section with a whole new batch of letters to browse through.

The great thing about this picture is that it has aged very well. People who saw it back in the day, and then re-watched it recently, have commented on how well it has held up. Part of this is because it's a period piece, in which every prop, piece of set dressing and article of clothing is iconic, rather than part of a dead fashion trend of the past decade. But, more importantly, it's just a well-told, classically styled adventure tale. Getting the world to see it though hasn't been the easiest thing to do, especially when I have absolutely no advertising budget.

The student short has really become a classic! It's just an old-fashioned adventure tale done right!

Anyone who's ever tried to promote a short film on the Internet will tell you that it's like pulling teeth to get people to watch your work. They'll also tell you that unless you've got that 'one in a million' viral video, you can't simply put your movie on YouTube or Google Video and expect people to watch it. For the most part, folks have to be directed to it by Internet postings of some sort. Okay, sounds easy, right? Wrong! You'd think people would be more eager to see a good little movie...for FREE! But, unfortunately, the glut of horribly produced shorts, that has flooded the net in the past few years, has made people very reluctant to waste even a nanosecond of their time on what they believe will, most-likely, be garbage. Even well crafted shorts are often met with total indifference, or the filmmakers are flamed for simply trying to promote them. This is because the shorts were not presented to their target audiences. You don't show Lars Von Trier's latest art film to a bunch of Sly Stallone fans, and vice versa. So, sending out spam e-mail telling people to watch your film is generally not a good idea. Finding your target audience is a very difficult task...knock on the wrong doors and people will set out to destroy you with negative reviews, but hit the right people and, if your film is good, they'll thank you for it, and maybe even tell their friends or blog about it.

There are only so many places you can advertise your film on the net though, and you can usually only do it once per site. Any further posts on the site will be seen as spam and the administrator will ban you from participating in it any further. To make matters worse, most forum administrators see it as their god given mission to destroy all filmmakers' promotional attempts. Now, while some people are truly annoying in their advertising, I think these administrators should cut the more subtle promoters a little slack. To be honest, I think it's often a case of jealousy...the 'fanboy forum administrator' simply being jealous of the person who actually got up off their butt and did something with their artistic passion. I got booted off a few forums (generally those of the more 'commercial' film sites, like AintItCool.com and FilmThreat.com) for the most innocuous posts about my film. However, other sites have been much more kind and the administrators have even praised my efforts. SerialSquadron.com and TheFedoraChronicles.com have been great supporters. But, I eventually hit a brick wall with the forum posting. Since you can only really post about your film once per site, you'll miss most of its casual visitors, and only get a quick glimpse from the regulars, of which there aren't really that many to begin with. I also tried posting on serial/pulp fan sites, nostalgia sites, filmmaker sites and even the occasional blog. While the initial number of hits the short received skyrocketed for a while, it eventually petered off. What next?

Finally, I came up with the idea of creating a MySpace.com page, not for my short or myself as a filmmaker, but rather for the character of The Scarlet Avenger. Nearly every fictional character in the universe has a MySpace page (Luke Skywalker, Homer Simpson, Donald Duck, etc.), so why shouldn't 'The Scarlet Avenger'? So, I made a simple page for the character (myspace.com/thescarletavenger), listing his interests and advertising the movie he 'stars in' and...success! I've been amazed by the response I've gotten. 'The Scarlet Avenger' has befriended nearly every other pulp/serial character on MySpace, as well as hundreds of 1930s and 40s movie stars, musicians and historical figures, as well as legions of retro fans...everyone from modern swing dancers and burlesque performers to World War II re-enactors. The Avenger's presence on MySpace seems to appeal to the role-player in everyone. So, this is a very important lesson I've learned about marketing..."SELL YOUR FANTASY AS REALITY". It works! Now, for those of you wanting to 'befriend' the Avenger on MySpace, be warned that he has a mind of his own and only seems to recognize people from his own era. Therefore, you'd better come in costume if you want to get into his party:-)

The Scarlet Avenger's MySpace 'friends'. They all share a lot in common.

This fellow deserves some sort of award for his truly amazing Blackhawk costume!

Aside from storyboarding and promotion, I've also been exploring my love of 1930s & 40s pulp and serial characters in great detail. For those who've looked carefully, a new feature popped up on my site a little while ago, called Pulp/Serial Links. It's still in development, but I've been collecting links related to the world of 'The Scarlet Avenger' like crazy! The page is broken up into a few rough sections, including serial links, pulp links, radio play links, general retro links, links for music from the era, etc. I'll most likely be discussing this new page in more detail in further posts, but if you're a fan of the pulps and serials, or just of the 30s & 40s era, my hope is that you'll be in retro heaven, browsing through some of these truly amazing sites. I'd love to hear from you all about what you think of it. So, until the next episode...adios!

Hell Has Frozen Over...The Return of Indiana Jones!

2007-08-02T21:49:00.001-05:00

Mr. Harrison Ford is back and, at 65 years old, he looks fantastic!

Hi there, Avenger fans!

Again, it's been a while since my last post. I assure you I'm still plugging away at planning the Scarlet Avenger feature. However, I've recently taken on a new job, shooting and editing a documentary, which has been eating up a lot of my spare time. I just got back from a two week shoot in Munich,Germany, and between long sessions of editing the material shot over there, I've been trying to find the time to jump back on my home computer and continue with my Avenger previs work.

I try not to veer off topic too much on this blog, but a very important event has occured in the history of retro pulp/serial fandom. Several photos have finally been released from the set of the long anticipated, final installment of the 'Indiana Jones' series! I felt I just had to throw in my two cents on the matter. You see, there really would be no 'Scarlet Avenger' if it weren't for 'Indiana Jones'. As I've said before, 1981's 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' was the film that really kicked off my lifelong love affair with the 1930s & 40s cliffhanger serial genre.

So, I've checked out the pictures and am really liking what I'm seeing! I'm thinking I'm going to have to put my foot in my mouth for trash-talking the picture so badly, during my interview on 'The Paunch Stevenson Show' podcast a few months back. The hosts of that show, who were questioning me about the Indy series and its relation to the Scarlet Avenger, wanted to know if I thought the picture was going to be any good. Boy, did I go off on a real rant!:-) You see, the 'Indiana Jones' series is the baby of its creator and producer, 'George Lucas', who has in recent years so horrendously destroyed his 'Star Wars' series with the godawful special editions of the original trilogy and the even worse prequel series. However, what I completely forgot was that Indy is also the baby of the greatest filmmaker the world has ever known, Mr. Steven Spielberg, who has consistently churned out quality films year after year. My hope is that Spielberg will keep the ever-increasing miscalculations of Lucas in check, to deliver us a marvelous new Indy adventure.

A few key cast members from 'Indy 4', including Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone, Karen Allen, and Mr. Ford, along with the greatest film director in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg!

In my interview, I also expressed concern over Ford's age. However, at 65, he looks fabulous! He's really whipped himself into tip-top shape. In many respects, he looks even better than he did in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade', which was released 18 years ago! And my fears of Karen Allen returning as Marion Ravenwood (Indy's love interest from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark') have been eased as well. Damn, at 55, she's sexy as ever! I'm really starting to look forward to old age!

Who would have thought Karen Allen would look so ravishing at age 55?! Amazing!

Another concern I expressed in my interview was about the new era in which the fourth film would have to be set, to accomodate Ford's age. While I still believe there's a unique sense of magic to the 1930s and 40s adventure film era (the golden age of the serials), I'm starting to warm to the idea of the new film's rumored late 1950s setting. When I really stop to think about it, it's fitting that the last Indy flick be set during this time. You see, the 1950s were the end of the serial era as well. During the 50s, the most important serial production company, Republic Pictures, was still making its films for theatrical release, but fighting a losing battle against the ever increasing popularity of television. Why would kids go to the theater every Saturday morning to see their favorite adventure tales, when they could simply flop down on the living room rug and watch them on T.V.? Some interesting chapter plays came out of this era (my favorite being 1952's Zombies of the Stratosphere) but the format was finally killed off by the decade's end. So, from this perspective, it's a great setting for Indy to have one last kick at the can...one final adventure. I've also realized how much fun could be had playing around with 1950s archetypes. Young actor, Shia LaBeouf (who may or may not be playing Indy's son) appears to be portraying a 1950s motorcycle-riding 'greaser'. Images of Marlon Brando from 'The Wild One' and James Dean from 'Rebel Without a Cause' spring to mind. It also makes me think how much fun George Lucas must be having, returning to the same era he so perfectly captured in one of his earliest films, 'American Graffiti'.

Word on the street is that 'Indy 4' is set in 1957. The period's ripe for a Marlon Brando-esque, bike-ridin' 'greaser', played by LaBeouf
.

It's shots like this that make me think of producer George Lucas' early film, 'American Graffiti'.

Shia LaBeouf and Ford. Does LaBeouf play Indy's son? They're keeping this a secret, but I'd bet good money he does.

The question on a lot of people's minds is "who are the villains going to be?" I've heard that the very lovely and talented actress, Cate Blanchett, will be playing a baddie, and that the Soviets will most likely be involved this time around. Using the Soviets as villains is tricky, because they weren't quite as horrible as the Nazis, who were used so effectively as the antagonists of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.

The bottom line is that I'm excited...not only to see a great film, but also at the thought that this final Indy flick could very well rekindle the public's love for classic-style adventure movies...like 'The Scarlet Avenger'!

This is a neat shot, but I pray LaBeouf doesn't steal the spotlight from Ford, as did Sean Connery in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'. And I really hope they're not setting up an 'Indy Jr.' spin-off series here. That's just the sort of thing I wouldn't put past Mr. Lucas!

Visualizing 'The Scarlet Avenger'

2007-06-12T21:40:00.002-05:00

Old style pulp pin-up of The Skull, The Scarlet Avenger and his French spy girlfriend, by Toronto artist, Sam Agro

Hi, Avenger Fans...

It's been a while since my last update, but I have a good reason!:-) I've been busy cutting together previs for the 'Scarlet Avenger' feature. For those who don't know what previs is, it's short for 'previsualization', meaning I'm creating a rough version of each and every single shot in the feature, planning composition and motion in meticulous detail. It's a powerful filmmaking tool I learned a great deal about, during my time working on the feature film, 'Jumper'. While 'Jumper' and other Hollywood movies create previs with sophisticated computer animations, I'm taking a different approach.

I've downloaded thousands of reference stills and hundreds of film clips from the Internet, which I'm editing together in Final Cut Pro into scenes from my film. I'm primarily focussing on the opening 12 minutes of the picture, because I will be storyboarding it very soon and using it as a selling tool. It's one of the most ambitious sequences in the piece, so it's a good choice to focus on first. Plus, it's basically a stand-alone story: the Avenger's origin tale.

Previsualization is helping me see what shots I will be able to shoot infront of a green screen and which ones I will have to shoot on a set. For example, the sequence involves several horses riding up to a train, but because I will not have access to a real train I will have to composite a model (filmed against green screen) into a shot with live horses. Compositions from similar scenes in other films are helping me see how I can most easily achieve this. I'm borrowing from numerous train sequences in other pictures, including 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade','The Legend of Zorro', 'Octopussy' and many others, including a thrilling scene from the Bollywood classic, 'Sholay', which contains probably the most fantastic railway chase I've ever seen.

The previs is also helping me see the pacing of the entire film. Ideas for improving the script are coming to me at a dizzying pace, because I can visualize what moments are lagging dramatically, and which moments are too action packed and headache-inducing.

After I've settled on all the compositions for the opening sequence, I will show my previs to a storyboard artist, who will translate it into shot sketches, specific to my film. It's all very exciting!

On a different note, enthusiastic worldwide reception of the student short continues. I've just updated the mailbag section, so you can read many more fan letters here. One of the most memorable letters I recieved, regarding the short, was from an American military serviceman stationed in the Middle East, who really wanted a copy on DVD. I found it really touching that someone who was in the middle of a war zone would be so interested in having a copy of my old student flick. I sent it out right away, and the gentleman promised me he'd show it to all his shipmates. I became really worried about this guy's safety, but he assured me he's in a relatively safe area and will be okay. It was really neat sending the DVD to a secret U.S. military base location and picturing a group of servicemen watching my hero in action.

I've been connecting with a lot of other independent filmmakers as well. Paul Bunnell, the director of the upcoming feature, 'The Ghastly Love of Johnny X', sent me a DVD of his accalimed short, 'That Little Monster', in the mail. Scrawled on the cover were the words "Scott, make that movie!". I was completely blown away by the short, about a teenage girl hired to babysit for a grotesque alien toddler. It was fabulously shot and very funny. My favourite line occured when the girl says to the little monster, 'Don't bite the bedbugs". It was hilarious! The late great Bob Hope even had a cameo in the end credits!

Independent Filmmaker, Paul Bunnell's feature debut, the 1950s sci-fi musical comedy, 'The Ghastly Love of Johnny X'

Director Paul Bunnell: "Scott, make that movie!"

Through the Avenger short, I also met a fabulous Toronto-area artist, named Sam Agro, who drew the Avenger sketch at the top of this post. I was thrilled to discover that he used to work as an animator on such childhood favourites of mine as the 'Droids' and 'Ewoks' cartoon series. He's also a professional storyboard artist.

Retro poster by David Bird, of Fredericksburg, Virginia

One of my new favourite pieces of Avenger artwork comes from blogger, David Bird, of 'The Dork Dungeon'. I love his retro poster (seen above). He was inspired to create it after my last post, discussing The Scarlet Avenger's Canadian origin tale. I'm amazed that someone from the southern U.S.A (of all places) would make a poster for a Canadian superhero movie! I think I'm really onto something here!:-)

Me and my old Power Mac G4, the computer I finished Avenger on. I've since upgraded to a G5 , but I'm still working on 'The Scarlet Avenger'!

So, I'm still working away on this monster project. I have no idea how long this journey will take me, but I'm making a little bit of progress each day and am having a blast doing it. For whatever reason, this was the film I was born to make. Until next time....

Best Wishes,

Scott

The Scarlet Avenger’s Canadian Makeover

2007-04-27T22:49:00.002-05:00

Cenceptual art of the Avenger's Canadian origin tale by Toronto artist, Gavin McCarthy (www.artbygavin.com)

“For Those Who Came in Late”…

Welcome to Scarlet Avenger HQ, where you can download our acclaimed short student film from Google Video, here.

Now that you’re all up to speed, let’s get beyond the short and move towards the future…'The Scarlet Avenger’ feature-length motion picture! Like I've said before, come hell or high water, I will make this film before I die.

Fitting that I’m writing this today, as last night I attended a special pre-release press screening of another superhero movie, ‘Spider Man 3’. I’ll spare you the in-depth critique, but let me just say it was pretty fantastic. Not only is that film’s director, Sam Raimi, one of the biggest influences on my directing style, but also my co-writers and I modeled key aspects of the Avenger feature screenplay on the amazing first installment of the ‘Spidey’ series. In addition, I was quite thrilled to see Bruce Campbell play a French Maître d' in the flick. I always thought he’d make a fantastic Captain Dupuis in the feature. I didn’t even know he could pull off a convincing French accent, but just had a hunch he’d be good. His comedic timing was amazing too. Please, Mr. Campbell, if you’re reading…you would make a fantastic Captain Gaston Dupuis!

Now, some of you might be shocked by the title of this post, ‘The Scarlet Avenger’s Canadian Makeover’. Well…while I truly love the U.S., I feel a lot more patriotic about my homeland than I did when we made the student short, in which the American ‘stars and stripes’ flew behind the man in scarlet. Now a proud Canuck, I must be true to my roots and turn the Avenger into a Canadian superhero. Strangely enough, more than a few American viewers have said, "He’s wearing a ‘Mountie uniform’, so why’s he standing in front of our flag”?! Notice, below, the little bit of Photoshop magic I did to transplant the Avenger from his American surroundings to his position before the Canadian Red Ensign (Canada’s flag of the era).

Truthfully, I had no visions at all of a Mountie, when I created the character. Same was true when I went to rent the Avenger’s uniform from the costume shop. In fact, getting a scarlet jacket wasn’t even a priority. I just wanted something that looked cool, and I didn’t feel the ‘scarlet’ of the hero’s name needed to be visually represented. Weird, huh? Well, when I saw the jacket, it made perfect sense, so I snatched it up. It was way too big for the actor though. I had to run in, between every take, to pull it down, because it kept riding up over his belt. I wanted to burn that coat by the end of shooting!

In the years since the short was finished, my friends would often say, 'Why’d you have to make the Avenger American’? I’d say repeatedly…"No one would ever believe in a Canadian superhero”. However, I eventually started to take these criticisms to heart and thought I should at least consider the idea for the feature.

Why this idea never occurred to me before is a mystery, because both my grandfathers proudly and courageously served this country during World War II. My Mom’s father was captured by the Germans in Italy and my Dad’s father was in the history books as "the first Canadian to fly over Germany during the war”. In fact, I remember he wouldn’t shut up about his days in the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force). He was on exchange with the RAF (Britain’s Royal Air Force), when war broke out in Europe, and that’s how he became the first of his countrymen to journey into enemy territory. My own father was born amidst the German bombing of London and would often be taken by my grandmother into the subway tunnels for cover. Eventually, fearing for his family’s safety, my grandfather sent them back to Canada, while he continued serving in Europe for the rest of the war. So, in my own family there were two Canadian heroes. Not costumed ‘superheroes’, but heroes nonetheless.

A World War II era Canadian propaganda poster

Many Canadians do not realize the enormous contribution their country made to the war effort. Even though it had only a population of 11.5 million, over 1.1 million served in the army, navy, and air force. 45,300 gave their lives and another 53,174 were wounded. Additionally, thousands of Canadians (including my grandfather) served in Britain’s Royal Air Force. Canada was also the primary location of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, still the largest air force training program in history; over 167,000 Commonwealth air force personnel, including more than 50,000 pilots, trained at airbases in Canada during the conflict. More than half of the BCAT graduates were Canadians who went on to serve with the RCAF and RAF. One out of the six RAF Bomber Command groups flying in Europe was Canadian. Also, Canada entered the fighting over two years before their neighbors, The United States.

So, what about Canadian superheroes? Well…I had always struggled, since completing the short in Spring 2000, with how to turn ‘The Scarlet Avenger’ into a feature. I truly loved the world we had created, but couldn’t think of a new angle we could bring to the genre. In early 2004 I really buckled down to focus on the issue. After starting my quest to create a serial-inspired feature in 1988, with my failed ‘Rocket Ranger’ script, several movies came out which covered the territory pretty well…‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’, ‘The Rocketeer’, ‘The Shadow’, 'The Phantom', 'The Mummy' and 'The Mummy Returns'. Even 'Star Trek: Voyager' tackled the genre in the episode, 'Bride of Chaotica', in which the ship’s crew participates in the 'Adventures of Captain Proton' holodeck program! And little did I know that 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow' was in the works. So, I was left scratching my head, asking myself, "What would make the Avenger fresh”? Could the answer indeed be making the Avenger Canadian? I started researching history to explore the idea.

The competition: Hollywood's serial-inspired major motion pictures

Star Trek: Voyager's serial tribute episode - 'Bride of Chaotica!'

The majority of Canadians today seem to suffer from a massive inferiority complex. Sitting right on the border of America, the most powerful country in the world, we can’t help but feel like the neglected 'baby brother’. We’re not enough like the U.S. to be considered part of their culture, yet we’re too similar to them to appear unique to the rest of the world. This is in drastic contrast to other former British possessions, like Australia, where geographic isolation has allowed them the space necessary to develop a unique cultural identity. This has in turn led to a need for their own cultural icons in film and other media. Because of English Canada’s cultural similarities to America, we relate so much to their media that we embrace it as being representative of our own lives. However, in Britain and Australia there is not the same connection, thus they require their own stories. The one exception to this lack of cultural identity in Canada is the province of Quebec, which has a unique French Canadian character. They see themselves as being vastly different from the rest of North America, as well as France, the home of their first language. Therefore, there’s a strong desire for media that represents them, hence the large number of quality films to come from that part of the country.

What does English Canada see as being uniquely Canadian? I’m sorry to say it really only amounts to hockey, the mediocre Canadian rock band: 'The Tragically Hip', and the 'Tim Hortons' Coffee & Donut store chain, which has twofold surpassed McDonald's as Canada's largest food service operator. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police even have an unofficial radio code just for Tim Hortons. It is known as 10-99 or "Tango Hotel". Coffee, donuts, a so-so rock band and hockey…pretty pathetic, huh? This country is in serious need of greater cultural icons…it desperately needs a mythology of its own. While the U.S. has Davy Crocket, Wyatt Earp, Mickey Mouse, and Superman (co-created by Torontonian Joe Shuster, ironically enough), Canada really doesn’t have any inspiring, world-renowned mythical characters to call its own. It’s this empty hole in the culture that started to get me really excited about the prospect of creating such a symbol.

The Canadian Mountie as a credible adventure hero, in a long-forgotten era of Hollywood history.

Always ready for action!

The prominence of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer (or ‘Mountie’) as a cultural icon has been tarnished somewhat in the past half century. In fact, the Mountie used to be so awe-inspiring that Hollywood once made countless films about these men in scarlet. Why no longer? The silly cartoon Mountie, 'Dudley-Do-Right' (from 'The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show') might’ve had something to do with it, turning the once respected icon into a laughing stock. There has been one notable exception to the Mountie’s increasing lack of popularity: the character of Benton Fraser, played by actor Paul Gross, on the T.V. series 'Due South' (created by two-time academy award-winning Canadian screenwriter, Paul Haggis). While I was never a fan of the show, it did have tremendous international success and obvious universal appeal. For example, I took a glance at the Myspace.com 'Due South Fan Group' and was floored to see that nearly all of its members were British kids, in their early to mid 20s. The girls all had crushes on the character and the guys all wanted to be him. This proved to me that the Mountie still had the power to be an internationally recognized symbol of truth and justice. But, what caused British kids to identify with such a character so much? I think I have the answer…Canada of the past was a unique cultural crossroads between the old and new worlds…'proper' Imperial Great Britain and the care-free American 'Wild West'. This was visually represented by the traditional Mountie uniform, with its American-style Stetson hat and the traditional scarlet-coloured British military coat. I feel people are sucked in by this unique duality of the character. However, the thing I liked least about 'Due South' was its silliness. Constable Fraser, in his scarlet dress uniform (today only warn for ceremonial occasions), seemed wildly out of place in the show’s modern day setting. If the series were set in the past I would have responded differently to it.

Paul Gross in 'Due South'

In my quest to make the Avenger a Canuck, I continued research on Canada during World War II. I read about our great contribution to freeing Europe from Nazi tyranny; strange tales of German submarines in the St. Lawrence River; our very eccentric Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King (who consulted psychics, used Ouija boards and crystal balls, and communed with spirits, including those of Leonardo da Vinci, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, his dead mother, and several of his dogs, all named Pat); and Hollywood’s exciting presentation of 'The Great White North’ in countless high profile films and serials, from the birth of cinema to the 1950s. For many years hundreds of U.S. films, set in Canada, were shot in California! Now there’s a real switcheroo for you, in this age where runaway American film productions come to Canada to benefit from the tax credits our government offers them. Today, Hollywood cares little for Canadian stories and locales, but back then the country was viewed as being very important and exotic.

Canada's eccentric leader: William Lyon Mackenzie King

Mackenzie King chatting up Shirley Temple

Atomic Invaders in Canada! Hollywood used to really trust us to save the day!

Some of the more notable Hollywood films made about Canada include… 'Rose-Marie' (1936), about an American female opera singer, who falls in love with a noble Mountie; 'King of the Royal Mounted', a fantastic Republic Pictures serial about RCMP Sgt. King, who foils the schemes of ‘enemy agents’ (thinly disguised Nazis) during WW II; 'Northern Pursuit’, in which Errol Flynn stars as a Canuck policeman who infiltrates a German spy ring; 'Dangers of the Canadian Mounted', another Republic serial about a Mountie battling crooks who are hell bent on capturing the lost treasure of Genghis Kahn; 'Captains of the Clouds' , starring James Cagney as a bush-pilot, who joins the Royal Canadian Air Force; and 'The Devil’s Brigade', starring William Holden as the leader of a special WW II fighting unit, formed from an ace Canadian outfit and a group of U.S. Army misfits. In addition, Britain made Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 'The 49th Parallel', about a German Uboat crew stranded in Canada, who must escape to the, then neutral, U.S. to avoid capture. This film was a direct attempt by the filmmakers to convince America to join the fight against the Nazis.

'Mountie Love'

One of the greatest action/adventure films ever made! My second favourite serial of all time

Famous swashbuckler, Errol Flynn turns Mountie

Genghis Kahn's gold on Canadian soil!

James Cagney joins the RCAF?!

Canucks teach the Yanks a thing or two in this exciting action yarn

Canadians race to capture Nazis, before they can escape across the border to neutral America!

So, after all this, the Avenger being Canadian seemed to work! The ideas were swirling around in my head. The first one that really excited me was that the Avenger could begin the film as a noble Mountie, before turning into a Nazi-smashing vigilante. The question of what drove him to be an ‘Avenger’ was fascinating to me. I began to envision the character as a hybrid hero, somewhere between a classic English swashbuckler and an American western gunslinger. Another great idea was to have the Avenger interact with key real-life figures from Canadian history, including Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and the then reigning monarchs of Great Britain (and Canada), King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. (I’d been a big fan of how the film version of ‘The Rocketeer’ incorporated real-life aviation pioneer, Howard Hughes, in its plot, by having him be the man who invented the hero’s jet pack) Also, I began to think about making the short film’s French characters, including Julianne Lafontaine and Captain Dupuis, French Canadians. And what if the Texan sidekick, Bucky, became a daring bush pilot from the wilds of British Columbia? With a colourful enough story and an appealing cast of characters, the film could be set mostly in Canada and still maintain a universal appeal…the setting would be as easily understood by international audiences as the fantasy land of 'Middle Earth' from the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. These ideas really sparked my imagination. However, I had no idea of how to tie them all together.

I’d already written two previous feature scripts that I was proud enough of to show producers. One was a script I’d done on my own, a feature adaptation of my fourth-year York University student short, 'Maggie Kwan Vs. Dark Master'. The other was co-written with my 'Avenger' collaborator, Chris Laskowski, and was about my coming-of-age experiences in early 1990s suburbia. It was titled 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', after the infamous Nirvana tune. (an admittedly tricky, but meaningful, working title) I convinced Chris to again team up with me to co-write the Avenger feature, but realized we would need some serious help with it.

In January 2004, as the seeds of the Avenger feature were starting to sprout, I had been suddenly laid off from my job editing corporate videos for BMW and Volvo. Perhaps this happened for a reason, because I had already applied to the Directors’ Lab at Norman Jewison’s prestigious Canadian Film Centre (similar to the American Film Institute in the U.S.) To my great surprise, after having seen my student shorts, they granted me an interview with the selection committee. However, I didn’t think my chances of getting in were too high, because the Canadian film industry tends not to appreciate lighter genre fair and favours dark subject matter, like necrophilia (‘Kissed')’, incest (‘The Sweet Hereafter’), pedophilia (‘Exotica’) and people who are sexually aroused by car crashes (David Cronenberg’s 'Crash'). I guess the government, which funds the majority of these projects, figures the only way to compete with the American market is to make films that it never would (and for good reason!) Regardless of these concerns, and inspired by such Canadian genre directors (and CFC alumni) as Vincenzo Natali ('Cube'), John Fawcett ('Ginger Snaps') and William Phillips ('Treed Murray'), I decided to give it a shot.

When you apply to the CFC’s Directors’ Lab, you must do so with a feature project you plan on making. Deciding I didn’t have a hope in hell with my kung fu/vampire flick, 'Maggie Kwan Vs. Dark Master’, and not yet having an Avenger feature script, I submitted 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. It was like a 'Dazed and Confused’ for the 90s generation, and that film's director,Richard Linklater, was considered a 'true artist’, right? Anyways, those in attendance for my interview included directors Brett Sullivan ('Ginger Snaps 2'), John Paizs ('Crime Wave'), and producer Greg Klymkiw (Guy Maddin’s 'Tales From the Gimli Hospital'). Surprisingly, it went really well! In fact, one of them said, "Canada needs a filmmaker like you”! However, the committee didn’t get my 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' script and told me to keep working on projects like 'The Scarlet Avenger'! Wow! They wanted me to develop an action film at the centre. Now, I had to write that script!

I immediately contacted Chris and told him that we really should pursue the Avenger script and that we needed to find another talented collaborator to help us pull it off. This was where Steve McKay came in. Steve had not only attended the Film Centre’s Television Writers’ Lab, but he was also in our graduating class at York University film school. He had an amazing reputation for being a gifted screenwriter and even had a feature credit under his belt before he graduated ('Hayseed', featuring 'Kids In The Hall' star, Scott Thompson). Chris and I had some classes with Steve, but we never really hung out socially, so it was a little awkward approaching him to work on a spec script.

After watching our short and listening to my pitch about the Canadian makeover of the Avenger, Steve agreed to jump on board. He did some great research on Canadian history and came up with the brilliant idea of setting the Avenger’s Mountie origin tale during King George VI and Queen Elizabeth’s 1939 Royal Tour of Canada. This was great for three primary reasons; the royals were indeed protected by Mountie guards, the tour sat right on the eve of World War II, and it was a key event in unifying the people of Canada and shaping their identity (well before Tim Hortons). The icing on the cake was that, during this visit, the royals were chaperoned by Prime Minister King! I don’t want to reveal any spoilers, but basically we created a story in which this event turns disastrous for young Mountie, Spencer Whitney, and causes his transformation into the masked Nazi-smashing superhero, ‘The Scarlet Avenger’.

In March 2004 I was told that I had been accepted into the Film Centre and that I would be expected to have a feature script ready by July. That didn't leave us much time, but Steve, Chris and I slaved away and got it in. It sure helped that the Centre was constantly breathing down my neck, demanding that we hand it over for evaluation. Once received, it was sent off to a reader. I was expecting it to come back, riddled with all sorts of inappropriate criticisms about lack of story, character development and themes, blah, blah, blah. However, what I got back was the most glowing critique I’ve ever enjoyed in my life! Here are some spoiler free quotes from that amazing coverage.

The "Scarlet Avenger" is a very spirited ode to the matinee serials of days gone by. It is designed as an action/adventure story with the slant of having a superhero protagonist, placing it in the realm of films like "The Shadow," "The Phantom" and to some extent "Indiana Jones" franchise. It is rife with the tropes of the cliffhanger/heroic genre but manages to avoid reading like a hackneyed retread thanks to a well-executed use of tone and humour. The writer takes the clichés and worn set pieces and has fun with them, pushing them into overtly comedic and stylized territory…

…The writing is so full of energy and enthusiasm (lots of exclamation marks) that one can't help but go along for the ride even if it is one we've been on before.

But to say we've been on this specific ride before is unfair, because the "Scarlet Avenger" does contain a new twist on the genre. The twist "Scarlet Avenger" brings is that the Avenger is an explicitly Canadian hero, something seldom (if ever) seen in a feature film of this type and scale. And the script works in this capacity too. See, far too often when writers attempt to graft a Canadian angle onto a big classic Hollywood genre the work comes off as being forced or plain ridiculous. The audience usually does not buy the premise because unfortunately, most people don't think Canada is the home of super-spies, super-criminals, super-heroes, or super-anything. But here, the writer has successfully avoided creating such a vibe. Firstly because of the chosen setting: Canada did have a serious presence in World War Two and it benefits the material here. Secondly, because the writer opens the script with some major historical players like Queen Elizabeth and King George on a trip grounded in true historical fact. A third and very strong element of the screenplay that lends credence to its grandness is the elevation of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. He is transformed into being a fantastical world leader…

….The handling of his character harkens to the historical/fantasy hybrid writing of Alan Moore or Michael Moorcock. The final element working in the script's favour in this whole regard is again tone. By handling this inflated version of King in a manner that's fun and irreverent, it never feels like some poor attempt to make Canadian political figures "matter." It's just good fun. It is a Canadian genre hybrid that is not trite or cringe inducing, instead it is exuberant, fantastic, and fun…

…This is a comic book world and the script is constantly reminding us to take it as such in its writing style. The punchy, cartoon-ish tone of the action description also works to this affect as well.

Structurally, "Scarlet Avenger" works very well. It plays out in 91 pages with a strong action sequence/faux cliffhanger happening every 10-15 pages and providing constant excitement and forward momentum. There were no scenes or sequences that felt long or unnecessary…

…The Avenger's various escapes from death etc. always felt inventive and unexpected, but without feeling like a cop out…

…(The) "Scarlet Avenger" is a thoroughly enjoyable read. It excels at providing an experience that is true to its genre roots while being aware that we've all been there before and compensating appropriately in tone and humour. It has a gleeful enjoyment to it that could be damaged through excessive (and unnecessary) re-writing…

Pretty fantastic words, huh? The reader just 'got' the tone. Tone has been a real issue of debate with this project. Some people feel we should make an Austin Powers-esque spoof, while others think that playing it straight is the only way to go. While the student short was not a spoof, it was a slightly campy homage to the serials of yesteryear. For many viewers on the Internet, the balance between faithful recreation and knowing nod to the camp aspects of the genre completely worked. However, a small minority didn’t 'get it' and thought that either the seriousness killed the comedic possibilities, or the camp ruined their ability to care about the characters. The tone I’m going for in the feature is quite different…a more developed middle ground between spoof and genuine drama. The style has been coined 'reconstructivist art' by writer and educator, Christopher Sunami. In his essay on this rare storytelling technique, he points to what he claims to be one of the very first artworks to utilize this style, William Goldman’s novel 'The Princess Bride', which was subsequently faithfully adapted into a film. 'The Princess Bride' was an enormous influence on the Avenger short, but after reading Sunami’s essay I had a greater understanding of how to approach the feature.

William Goldman's novel, 'The Princess Bride', a great influence on the Avenger feature script

Film version of 'The Princess Bride' was a source of inspiration for the short

According to Sunami, a reconstructivist artwork has four distinctive characteristics. (The following can be found on his site)

1. "A Nod to Artifice: As with deconstructionism, a reconstructivist artwork is aware of its own status as a creation, an illusion or a fiction. However, unlike a deconstructionist work, a reconstructivist is not ironic, or if so, it is not merely ironic. It compels you to believe in its own deeper reality, even as it acknowledges its superficial artificiality".

"Goldman appears frequently in the original novel of ‘The Princess Bride’, putatively as its "abridger." In the movie, Goldman's presence is replaced by a grandfather character, who reads the book to his grandson. In both cases the book is clearly presented as fiction, although Goldman deliberately blurs the line between the real and the imagined".

2. "A Classic Structure: Despite the inclusion of surprising or startling elements, a reconstructivist artwork is always based on a classic or conventional structure".

"Goldman's foundation in swashbuckling adventure comes to the surface in a plot that lovingly combines every possible trope of romance and action. In the end, the familiarity of the boy-meets-girl and quest-for-revenge storylines are a large part of what makes the movie so satisfying".

3. "Transcontextual and/or Iconic Elements: A reconstructivist artwork is literally a construct, generally made of decontextualized elements from many different sources. These elements are often exaggerated or made iconic and archetypal in a very conscious, self-aware fashion. Often an explicit reference is made to a prior work, which itself may be based on another yet-earlier work".

"Transcontextually speaking, the book and the movie are both laden with playful anachronisms, many of which are highlighted and deconstructed by "William Goldman" within the text. The film is also rich in icons, as all the characters are explicitly labeled with exaggeratedly archetypal descriptions: "The Greatest Swordsman in the World," "The Most Beautiful Woman," "The Best Hunter," and so forth".

4. "Moments of Genuine Emotion or Significance: No matter how theatrical, cynical or shallow it might appear, a reconstructivist artwork must portray real emotions or inspire a genuine emotional response.

"It is the core of heartfelt sentiment that makes "The Princess Bride" more than just an entertaining parody. When Inigo Montoya gets his long awaited revenge on the evil Count Rugen it never fails to evoke an emotional response from the movie's audience (see clips from YouTube.com), and the same is true when "Grandfather" repeats Wesley's catchphrase "As you wish" at the end (since the audience already knows the phrase means "I love you")".

According to Sunami, other examples of this movement include Art Spiegelman's 'Maus' graphic novel, The Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band', Michael Ende's novel, 'The Neverending Story', Julie Taymor's Broadway musical version of 'The Lion King', Alfonso Cuarón's film, 'Y Tu Mama Tambien', and even the hip hop album, 'The Score', by 'The Fugees'.

Eye masks are funny!

So, after explaining the tricky issue of tone, I will finish by telling you all that “retro is in the air”. In my efforts to promote the Avenger, I've stumbled upon numerous other serial-inspired projects by very talented 'retro centrics' all over the world. Please check out the works of these passionate individuals.

Retro adventure is in the air

In the pulp/serial filmmaking department, we have 'Monarch of the Moon', 'Max Neptune and the Menacing Squid', 'Captain Midnight and the Secret Squadron', 'Ace Derringer vs. The Shadow Men', and the amusing fan trailer for 'OXG: The Organization of Extraordinary Gentlemen'.

Canada's other great superhero: 'The Red Panda'

There’s also a fantastic old-school radio drama, called ‘The Red Panda Adventures', which is produced by fellow Torontonian Gregg Taylor and his 'Decoder Ring Theatre' troupe (www.decoderringtheatre.com). It’s top-notch period stuff.

Toronto's retro radio troupe: 'The Decoder Ring Theatre'

There are also many modern writers churning out old-school pulp adventure tales, like Wayne Skiver's Professor Stone adventures.

And there are a couple fantastic pulp/serial-friendly websites that you absolutely must check out, including SerialSquadron.com & TheFedoraChronicles.com.

In a very closely related genre, 'The 1950s Low Budget Sci-Fi Flick', there are a few interesting movies to check out. Destination Mars! (by the makers of 'Monarch of the Moon'), 'Trail of the Screaming Forehead' (from the director of the cult hit 'The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra'), and an exciting looking new film that's still in production, called 'The Ghastly Love of Johnny X' (the trailer is a blast!).

So, keep up the great work guys! It's good to know there are so many like-minded individuals out there…and who knows…perhaps the 30s and 40s pulp/serial genre will be to this era what the western was to the early half of the 20th Century? Until next time…

Best Wishes,

Scott

Making of 'The Scarlet Avenger' Short

2007-04-15T18:46:00.000-05:00

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

Worldwide Response to 'The Avenger'!

2007-03-20T13:21:00.000-05:00

Hi there, 'Avenger' Fans!

For those of you who are new here...greetings. There's much to see on the site, but most importantly, you can download the podcast of our short student film, 'The Scarlet Avenger' (QuickTime Player required). It's a rip-roaring tribute to all the 1940s action/adventure serials that inspired films like 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', 'The Rocketeer' and 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'. It's our goal to turn the short into a feature-length motion picture. For those who've already seen the film and shown your support, I can't thank you enough. Every ounce of it helps.

You can download the high-quality podcast version, directly from Archive.org, here (QuickTime Player required). Or, if you have a subscription to the Itunes Music Store, you can get it here. Note: It may take up to 30 minutes, on a high speed connection, but the superior picture quality makes it worth the wait. Looks great playing full-screen on a monitor and is excellent viewing material for those of you with a video iPod or Apple TV! If YouTube.com is your thing, and you absolutely must have it 'quick and dirty', you can find it on that site, in three separate chapters, starting here. Now, let's get down to business...

Wow! It's been a crazy week! I've received so much amazing feedback on the short and the blog. Thanks, guys:-) It really warms my heart to know the film is finally being seen by people all over the world...Canada, the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, The United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, South Africa, Bhutan and Japan!

I've even gotten a couple gifts in the mail! Thanks so much to Tim for sending me his old copies of the serial classics, 'The Green Hornet' and 'The Phantom'.

Lots of people have gotten a real kick out of my recent interview on 'The Paunch Stevenson Show'. It's a really cool Podcast from New York and New Jersey, USA. Thanks to Rob & Greg for having me on the show. I always dreaded the thought of doing an interview, but those guys made it really painless and super fun! Listen to the show and you'll hear me ramble on about the short, the planned feature, the old Republic Pictures serials (like 'Spy Smasher'), the 1980s serial-themed computer game, 'Rocket Ranger', the long-awaited 'Indiana Jones IV', George Lucas, Sam Raimi, 'Evil Dead 2' and the home computer editing program that saved my life and made all of this possible...Final Cut Pro. My friend, Lucas, would probably like me to thank Steve Jobs for that:-)

Something else that's been really fun for me is reading reviews of 'The Scarlet Avenger' on the blogs of some truly exceptional writers. Two stand out especially.

The first goes by the name of ‘AirBourne’ and maintains a site called ‘The Bajan Reporter’. This nice gentleman is from Strathclyde, St Michael, Barbados, and he has written a very well thought out critique of our short, which explains how it fits into the history of the cliffhanger serials. It’s very exciting for me to receive feedback from this part of the globe, as my mom grew up in Barbados and it’s her favorite place in the world! She'll be happy to see it, I'm sure. The writer kids that I’m “half-Bajan”, which suits me just fine!:-) His article can be found here.

The second excellent critique comes from a young writer in Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA. His blog is called 'The Dork Dungeon'. Love the name! He’s a really awesome dude and a killer journalist! Not sure if he wants me to give out his real name, so he’ll remain anonymous for now. This blog entry was a real high for me! Enjoy it here!

So, moving on...I also really want to express my great appreciation to two amazing YouTube.com users; 'Vox' (from The United Kingdom) and Matt Hawes (Evansville, Indiana, USA).

'Vox' gave our film a stupendous on camera review! My friends and family all commented on how intelligent and articulate this pleasant British gent was, and my dad thought he MUST be a professional movie critic! See his amazing review here.

For those of you wondering about the fantastic 'Scarlet Avenger' comic book drawing at the top of this post, it was inked by the immensely talented artist, Matt Hawes, on his 'Hawes Draws' YouTube program. This is the FIRST EVER comic book rendition of our hero! Hooray! Thanks, Matt, for giving us this gift and sending me the high quality scan! See Matt in action here.

Many people out there seem to have a favorite character from the short, but probably the quote I hear the most is:

"THE CHICK WAS HOT!"

For all you Martine Rochon fans out there, feast your eyes on this lovely screen capture! Doesn't she just look gorgeous?! Jennifer Connelly eat your heart out!

In the student short, Martine plays the super-smart/super-sexy French spy, 'Julianne Lafontaine'. However, I want the character in the feature-length version to be named...'Martine Lafontaine' of course! That's what we have in the script now. It's just a way cooler, more unique-sounding French name. I'll have to run it by Martine first though:-)

Since there are a seemingly endless number of you guys out there going ga-ga over this French Canadian beauty, I'll tell you all a little bit about how she came to be involved with our project.

We had been auditioning several actresses for the role, but none of them were working. It was a difficult process, exacerbated by the fact that one of my crew members told one of the candidates (before we had made up our mind) that she "definitely had the part"! Oh, boy. When she didn't get the role...well..."hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". I got a real blasting for that one. The actress was really talented and a great person, but she just wasn't the 'French spy' I was looking for. About a week later we met with three more actresses, one right after the other. The first two, again, were very talented and nice, but just not right. You see, we'd basically been auditioning a lot of 'girls' for the role and none of them seemed to fit our vision of who this character was, but when Martine walked in, I immediately said to myself, "Now there's a WOMAN!" You see, I was twenty-one years old at the time (still a kid in many respects) and I think Martine was in her late 20s. When you're that age, even a woman who's only a year or two older than you seems like they're from a whole other universe. She just looked so mature and sophisticated to me, even though she was 'dressed down' in old jeans and a baggy sweater. She blew us away in the 'audition', which was really more of an interview. I can't even remember how we found out she could act, but she was basically cast from the moment we saw her.

Fan Quote Of The Week:

"Stan Channing is a king among men. All hail!”
-jonathanbutcherUK, The United Kingdom

Now, onto the next fan craze of the week... Stan Channing, who plays Nazi agent, 'Geert ("Sexy? Sir") Kruger', didn't have that much screen time in 'The Scarlet Avenger', but he definitely seems to be a superstar in The United Kingdom! Fantastic! I was intrigued by the fan frenzy over the proclaimed 'king among men', but was truly amazed by the next 'Stan comment' I saw posted on YouTube.com by 'bertbirch' (also from the U.K.).

"For anyone who particularly enjoys Stan Channing in this please check out the movie 'Fearless Tiger' which he also cameos in, it's awesome.”

I decided to look into this further on The Internet Movie Database, and discovered that this martial arts film stars none other than Jalal Merhi, who also produced the picture. I was delighted to hear this, because I met Jalal about a year after we shot 'The Scarlet Avenger'. He was a friend of an actor from my kung fu/vampire project, 'Maggie Kwan Vs. Dark Master'. Jalal was incredibly nice and let me shoot my film in his studio for free. I'm amazed Stan was in one of Jalal's movies. Looking back, he did claim he knew karate, but I thought he was joking! I'll have to see this picture. Thanks, guys!

Finally, I've added a new page to this blog site, called 'The Avenger's Mailbag'. I made the decision, rather late in the game, that I wanted to share many of the letters I've received over the past month with fans of the film. I also thought it would be a good idea to let producers and potential investors see just how appreciated the short is by people all over the world. "If they love the short, they’ll definitely love the feature" is what I say. In fact, one of the biggest criticisms of the short is that, well...it's too short! Please check out the amazing show of support here. So, that's it for now. Thanks so much, everyone.

Sincerely,

Scott

P.S. Rest assured, everyone remains safely anonymous. If you'd like to be credited by name, please e-mail me at: s(mylastname)75 at hotmail.com. And don't forget to tell me where you're from.

'The Scarlet Avenger' Short Film Podcast Is Here!

2007-03-11T06:53:00.000-05:00

Hi, Everyone.

I finally got my blog up and running and am now making my very first post! This is really exciting, because it's something I've wanted to do for a long, long time. It's fitting that I've started this now, as I've recently made a life-altering decision. Come hell or high water, I will turn my student short, 'The Scarlet Avenger', into a feature film. It's someting I've been dreaming of my whole life, but I didn't realize how within my grasp it was until just this week, when I saw a similarly-themed film called 'Monarch of the Moon'. That picture was made for just $85,000.00, but looks huge!

See the 'Monarch of the Moon' Trailer
(note: you must now navigate to the film and the trailer from the producers' main page)

Right now $85,000.00 may as well be $85 Million, but I'm determined to convince producers and investors that this film has to be made. I will be discussing this grand adventure, as well as my long journey to this point, in future posts.

Today is also very exciting, because it's the day I've uploaded 'The Scarlet Avenger' to the Itunes Music Store! A few weeks ago I posted the short (in 3 separate chapters) on YouTube.com and have gotten a terrific response. I never thought I'd be getting fan mail, but it's been pouring in like crazy! I really want to thank everyone who's already watched the film and given me such amazing feedback. My co-director, Chris Laskowski, is really happy about it as well. It seems like all of our hard work has finally paid off.

So, what's the film about? Well... It's a loving tribute to all the 1940s adventure serials that inspired movies like 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', 'The Rocketeer', 'The Phantom', 'The Shadow' and 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'. The movie takes place in Casablanca during World War II. A dashing superhero, known as 'The Scarlet Avenger', battles the Nazis and his evil arch nemesis, 'The Skull', to rescue his kidnapped lady friend and save the world! It's pretty straight forward, but fun as heck. I hope you enjoy it and look forward to discussing the project in great detail.

-Scott C. Clements

P.S. I was interviewed on this week's episode of 'The Paunch Stevenson Show' podcast (Episode #63). I discuss the making of the short in great detail and also talk about the old serials, 'Indy IV' and my adventures in the film biz. It's pretty funny. The show can be downloaded here:

'The Paunch Stevenson Show' Episode #63

The 'Scarlet Avenger' short film podcast can be found here:

'The Scarlet Avenger' Podcast at Archive.org (no subscription needed)

And...

'The Scarlet Avenger' Podcast at the Itunes Music Store (need free subscription)