Summerlands

Hey all!
So, now that we’ve got a finished script and the design work is almost completed, we’re heading into real production. Whoohoo! It looks like we’ll be starting production at the end of September. After much discussion and pondering, we’ve decided to film the first act of our pilot - it will give us a taste of production at that level, help us stay within our budget (which is extremely limited) and be feasible to shoot in 5 days. This last one is important, as none of us have the luxury of doing this as our day-job just yet, so we’ll be working on the weekends. We’re planning to wrap principle photography by mid-November (before the real New England winter sets in) and work on post over the winter.

We are currently crewing up, so if you’re interested in being a part of the crew, please drop me a line at producer@sneakycamel.net - a resume or letter of interest works fine, though some high-level roles (like DP and Editor) will require a reel.

I’m really looking forward to casting and shooting this baby!
-Kat

Recently, we submitted the Pilot script for Summerlands to the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards competition. We were extremely honored and thrilled when we read the letter that we had made it to the Quarter Finals!  This means that, of the 3,800 submissions, ours was found to be in the top 25%.  A huge shout-out to the writing team, whose countless hours, amazing talent and not a few drops of blood and sweat went into the writing of that script.  Hooray! 

Though we haven’t cast the pilot yet, some of our very good friends were kind enough to do a table read of the pilot script with us.  It was a great evening and the writing team learned a lot.  Thanks to all those who showed up and showed off your acting chops!

After the table read, the writing team took another pass at the pilot and I think we’ve improved it about 465%.  Give or take.

More soon…

Kat

I brought a handful of sketches to last weekend’s production design meeting, all of which I did on my TabletPC.  The joy of this was how easy it was to edit, update, and share the images.  The dark side was that one catastrophic data loss was all it took to remind me how important it is to back up these pieces of art.

So, while many of the images survive now only as scans of printouts, one of them still struck a chord with the design team, and ended up being selected as the prototype for our “Episode One Goblin.”

This fellow was inspired by an attempt to create goblins with some sort of animalistic aspect.  Having played D&D for years, watched the Lord of the Rings a dozen times, and being an avid fan of fantasy, I wasn’t sure how to make the Summerlands goblins unique.  My solution was to find the ugliest batch of animals I possibly could and them morph them into humanoids.  I had simian goblins, primate goblins, toad goblins, even naked mole rat goblins.  The one that captured our producer’s attention most acutely, however, was the bat goblin.

These are just the prototype images, and have to be revised based upon feedback from the design team.  In general, Kat preferred something less quadrupedal and more bipedal, which I think will be a real boon for costuming and acting.  Have you ever look really closely at a bat?  Man, those things are UGLY.

Over the last month, as the design team takes all our crazy ideas and gives them real form and shape, K and I have been fairly busy on the production end.  We’ve finished with script breakdowns, production boards and have nearly nailed down our production schedule.  I’ve also been chatting with some wonderful and talented folks about joining this crazy ride.  Once there’s a real production schedule, we’ll do a general crew call, but if you’re curious about those joining the Summerlands team, please check out our casts and crew page. 

Next up:  budgeting.  Good times…

- Kat

On November 21st, we had our first pre-production meeting.  This meeting was focused primarily on design, although some high-level logistical matters were tackled, as well.  In attendance were Allison, Kat, Roger, Kara, Ben, Kim, Kit (aka Catriona), K, and myself.  This was a great meeting, not just because it marked the official kick-off of turning the script into a reality, but it was also only the second time anyone outside the writer’s circle had laid eyes on the screenplay, so it was really neat to get people’s take on how they saw things.  Not to mention have some fresh eyes point out where some holes existed or some future difficulties might present themselves.

We broke into two groups, with Kat, K, and Allison cataloging assets that exist in the script and the rest of us discussing the look of the production. (Ben later moved into an advisoiry role)  Not surprisingly, we spent a great deal of time discussing how to represent the troll and the high speed train that he attacks.  As you can imagine, there aren’t a lot of empty train cars sitting around the Boston suburbs waiting to have scenes from a television pilot shot inside them.  We weren’t going to settle that difficult issue in a single meeting, though, so we moved on to the look of the elves and some of the monsters that appear in the episode.

For elves, we all threw out a lot of ideas about how they might look and what might influence their fashion and technology.  Coming back together, we hit upon this notion of their style being derivative of one of the great empires of their time.  Since many of the elves in the Summerlands left Earth hundreds of years ago, we chose a Persian bent as the prototype style for one of our elven classes.  Since the weather is predominantly agreeable in the Summerlands, it seemed reasonable that their garb would be looser-fitting, more flowing, and generally lighter and more airy.  Here’s a sneak peek (click to enlarge):

After that, we talked about the look of the troll and what he would need in order to so boldly and powerfully attack a mass transit train.  Big arms were definitely in, and the group also hit upon the neat idea of having them possessed of a pebbly, almost alligator-like skin.  The combination was quite menacing.  Here’s an early concept piece without the skin application (click to enlarge):

The last critter to appear in the pilot episode is a goblin, but we haven’t quite nailed down his look yet.  The group agreed that while the troll was brutish, big, and strong, the goblin should be smaller, faster, maybe even pot-bellied and off-putting.  One of our latest assignments has been to try to focus on the look of the goblin so that he is appropriately menacing.

To give you an idea of just how much time and attention went into creating the pilot episode for Summerlands, consider that our first meeting was in August 2006, when Kat, Roger, Gene, Shell, Derek, Scotty, John Till, and myself all crowded into 32 Westland and tossed around ideas for a modern fantasy story.  Back then, the project was simply called Trolls on a Train, homage to Samuel Jackson’s attempts to rid his domestic passenger liner of a certain reptilian nuisance, and a hint about what to expect with this series.  Today, both troll and train are still in the opening scene and the ToT nickname survives as the title of our YahooGroup.

 We went on to hold numerous discussions regarding cosmology, archetypes, and storylines that we wanted to play with.  Tossing these ideas around took us into the first part of 2007, when we finally nailed down a strong cast of characters.  Then it was time to put together the first episode.  Just coming up with the framework for this pilot was a ton of work.  In fact, it wasn’t until April or May of 2007 that we finally nailed down the outline.  Once that was done, there was nothing left to do but write the damn thing.

The writing team divided all the scenes from the outline and we got together once or twice a month to review what each of us had written.  It was a lot of fun reviewing what everyone brought to the meetings.  So many of the writers had amazing flashes of insight or introduced really nice touches or surprisingly vivid characters.  From May to September, a number of minor characters were upgraded, certain plot elements were shifted to the second episode, and a readable script had finally been developed.  That script spent most of October being reviewed by gracious critics who gave us some fantastic feedback.

 And what a script it is!  I think the writing team has succeeded in creating a story that is not just a fun tale of modern fantasy, but also an engaging and interesting take on how ordinary people deal with extraordinary situations.  We’ve worked hard to make this a story about individuals struggling with new concepts, and I think that’s going to strike a chord with you.

So, almost a year and a half after that first meeting at 32 Westland, we’re moving on to pre-production.  When we started this, I don’t know how convinced I was that we would make it this far, but I was determined to give it a hundred percent.  I’m really glad I did.

The Summerlands writing team has created a truly fantastic pilot script!  We’re putting finishing touches on this month and beginning pre-production next month (Nov 2007).  We’ll also begin writing episodes 2 & 3, getting those in the queue while we’re filming the pilot.  This is definately Sneaky Camel’s biggest project to-date, so we’ll need all the support we can get.  Stay tuned!  - Kat

Hey Everyone!

 Don, thanks for your question.  We plan to start casting in the Fall of this year, and we are seriously looking into getting a waiver for SAG and AFTRA.  We may also use a casting agency in Boston, to make our lives a little easier.  Once we figure it all out, we’ll be posting to this board as well as to the Notices Page of the main website with all the details.  Keep checking back!

 Also, the writers are going full speed ahead and we’ve got a full rough draft of our pilot completed!  Roger, John, Derek, Scotty and I are very proud and jazzed about the editing process, which we’ve already begun.  We hope to have a working script by September 2007!

Sneaky Camel’s first TV show, this is a tale of a group of ordinary people who discover that elves, trolls and other fairy tale creatures are not tales at all.

The writing team for this project is currently developing the pilot - building the world, characters, cosmology and first-year story line. We will begin writing the first episode in March 2007 and hope to begin pre-production on the pilot in June 2007.