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

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

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.

Next up:  budgeting.  Good times…

- Kat

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.

 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.

 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!

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.