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Your upcoming webseries The Retcon Chronicles - in a few
words, what is it about?
The Retcon Chronicles
is a superhero, sci-fi webseries that basically
creates an expanded universe, linking all my previous original content
together into one neatly packaged time line. It's pretty cool actually.
Everything from The Protector to American Lawless is all part of the same
universe. It's kind of what Quentin Tarantino did with his movies. As far as I know, The
Retcon Chronicles will serve as a link between quite a few shorts and
features of yours, right? Care to elaborate, and were these movies all
originally intended to be part of one single universe? No,
prior to Retcon, I never had any intentions of linking ALL of them
together. I had references in between films. For example, I reference the
events of Methodic and even use one of the characters in
Stand Off. And I
reference American Lawless in Perfect (Android Rising). But prior to that,
everything was kind of just there. It was with
The Retcon Chronicles that
I made the decision to ACTUALLY create a linkage with everything. It's as
fun as it is tedious. What were
your inspirations when writing
The Retcon Chronicles?
Not
many people know this, but The Retcon Chronicles actually began as a
Teen
Titans fan film. I had every intention of making it my next fan film. I
even went as far as casting certain roles. But as time progressed, I
realized I needed to make a change. Fan films are and will always be a
passion of mine, but I needed to start branding myself and my work more.
Also, I really wanted to try my hand at marketing and distribution and you
CANNOT do that with a fan film. It's illegal. So I took the core story and
dissected it. I looked at the archetypes that I put into my Titans story
and deconstructed them till I found common ground with my original
characters. As a kid, I spent many years creating dozens of original
superheroes, complete with costumes and back stories. So all I had to do
was figure out which of my original heroes were most like the
personalities written in my Titans script. Once I made my cast selections,
I modified the dialog to fit the new characters as well as the story and
that's it - The Retcon Chronicles were born.
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With
The Retcon Chronicles being a superhero tale, is that a
genre at all dear to you, and why (not)? Oh totally. I love
comic books. I was raised on them. Superheroes are as important to me as
horror films. They symbolize everything we as a people should strive to
be. They're role models... most of them anyway. But yeah, I've always
been big on superheroes. So it was nice to be able to do something
original in that genre. I really haven't since my short film Superhero in
2012 and prior to that, The Protector in 2006. How would you
describe your directorial approach to your subject at hand? Epic,
but not pompous. Everything I do has the underlining intention of being
EPIC. But I don't ever want my work to seem full of itself. The best
example I can give is when you are watching something and you feel like
the director is cramming the idea of "THIS IS AMAZING" down your
throat. I want people to come to that conclusion on their own. But I still
make sure that my shots, my angles and my music selections (if any) still
maintain the necessary ingredients of epicness. Does that make sense? Superhero
stories demand quite a few special effects almost by definition - so what
have you planned for The Retcon Chronicles? I
really want to see Kayla the Centurion and Subject - 0 fly. I want to see
more of Phantom Faye's powers, as well as take a glimpse into her world. I
also want to give viewers an inside tour of Retcon Labs. You cannot do a
proper sci-fi story about a nefarious research facility without showing
some cool tech. Think Encon Tower in Tron Legacy meets Tony Stark's
basement lab. Do
talk about your key cast for a bit, and why exactly these people?
Let's start with our main protagonist - Kayla the Centurion, played by
Dominique Storelli. Kayla is basically a female Captain America with the
basic powers of Superman. She is strong, militant but at the same time a
humanitarian. Dominique originally auditioned for the Titans project and
was cast. When I modified the script and changed her character into
Kayla, I basically already knew how I was going to handle the dialog.
She may be a tiny girl, but she has a strong presence both in and out of
costume. She is very angular and it lends itself to the super soldier
archetype. What I like about Dominique as Kayla is that I did not in any
way attempt to overly feminize this character and it works.
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With every Yin, there is a Yang. I of course am talking about Madaline
Hess, played by Andrea-Nichole Olivas. Madaline for lack of a better
description suffers from a Messiah complex, which I will be delving into
in future episodes. What you saw of her at the end of the Retcon
pilot
is unfortunately not the full spectrum of the character. You may have
also remembered seeing some freaky mime chick that looked similar to
Phantom Faye, lurking over Madaline's shoulder. This character is named
Celesta and she plays a big part in why Madaline acting the way she
does. When I cast Andrea in the part of Madaline, I did it knowing that
she would have big shoes to fill. This sort of role is usually reserved
for the older wealthy MALE business tycoon character. Think Lex Luthor.
It's rare that you see a younger actor, much less a female in this sort
of part. With Andrea, we basically came to terms that she is simply an
aristocratic heiress of the highest caliber and should be played as
such.
Phantom Faye is an interesting character because she is basically
directly related to the character Choice, from my 2011 film of the same
title. So for her, there was already a predetermined look and set of
mannerisms that the character and our actress, Kylie Contreary had to
adhere to. Faye is basically a spirit from the Other Realm. A world in
between worlds. So it was really fun to explore that. With Kylie in the
part, it was simply a matter of observing the Choice film and creating
similar characteristics and mannerisms for Faye.
The Avenger is the final character I will discuss. He is quite
interesting as well since he is a legacy character. The first Avenger is
featured in my comic The Protector. In The Retcon Chronicles, we are
meeting his grandson. So there was liberty when it came to the modern
design of the costume as well as the personification. The Avenger, no
matter who is under mask, will always be ruff and tumble guy as well as
a man of the law. Robert Tovani, who plays The Avenger, did a pretty good
job of finding a balance between a stoic vigilante and jerk with a knack
for understatement.
As
far as I know, while the pilot is shot, the series is still in its
fundraising stages - so what can you tell us about your fundraising
campaign? Well, I created a page on IndieGoGo. If you visit
the page http://igg.me/at/retcon/x/18731,
you can see the pilot in full. It is featured right at the top. We have a
number of cool perks you will receive if you choose to contribute.
Donations begin at $1.00. We also have a bunch of cool images in our
gallery and I will be adding a few more things over the course of this
campaign. Ideally, if we can reach our goal and raise our budget, we will
be able to bring you a full season of original superhero action. But we
can't do that without the help and support of our wonderful fans, so
please, if you can, visit the link above and donate. Once the funds are raised, what's the
schedule, and any idea when and where the series might go live? The
series will go live this summer with a new episode premiering every
Tuesday night on YouTube. Any
future projects beyond The Retcon Chronicles you'd like to
share? I am also working on a short horror thriller
entitled Pretty Little Killers, starring Bree Olson and Andrea-Nichole
Olivas, as well as making my 4th Krueger short and final fan
film Krueger
(The Slasher from Elm Street). Yes, as much as I love fan films, I'm going
have to close the book on them for a very long while. What got you into filmmaking in the first place,
and did you receive any formal training on the subject?
I
always had an affinity for storytelling. It began with trying to draw
comics as a kid, then it evolved into writing short stories and scripts in
high school, followed by experimenting with video, which subsequently led
me to studying animation in college. But it wasn't until I was halfway
through with college that I decided to make my first live action movie. It
was a modest effort and is still pretty good. But once I began working on
that first short film, I was officially hooked. I finished college with a
degree in animation and simply set out to make live action movies. I've
had little to no formal training. I've just been using my skills as an
animator and whatever I've picked up along the way. Over
the years, you have made an amazing number of "fan films" - so
do talk about those for a bit, and how much fun is it to play around with
some of your favourite movie and comicbook characters? And which
characters do you actually like to work with the most? Oh
it's been a blast being able to make my favorite characters come to life.
Everything from Michael Myers and
Freddy to
Batman and
Deadpool. It's very
hard to pick a favorite as most of them are all on my favorite list. I
rarely ever make a movie about something I am not fond of or haven't loved
since childhood. Having
talked about your fan films, one mustn't forget that you have also done
quite a few movies with your own original stories and characters. Do talk
about some of those for a bit!
Well some of my favorite
original films include The Protector, Choice, Roses,
Host, Superhero,
Stand Off, American Lawless, Perfect (Android Rising) and
Methodic. Each
of those films have something special inside them that makes me feel proud
to be a filmmaker. And they all have a message of sorts that if you were
to pick up on them, you would feel something more than entertained. How would
you describe yourself as a director? Intense. I know I am.
I'm a fun guy, but I am also incredibly intense. I have the movie shot and
edited with music inside my head long before I ever set foot on set. So
when I am behind the camera, I know what I want and I will do almost
anything to get it. Filmmakers who
inspire you? John Carpenter is without a doubt one of my
first and biggest inspirations. The late and amazing Tony Scott has been a
massive influence on my style and pacing. Robert Rodriguez's crisp way of
filming and editing has totally rubbed off on me. And finally Michael
Bay's ability to make everything EPIC, AWESOME and SEXY is something to be
recognized. The man sure knows how to film. Your favourite movies?
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Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
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The links below
will take you
just there!!!
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Halloween,
Man on Fire, Smokin' Aces, Collateral, The Avengers,
The Dark Knight,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Crank and last but not least Die
Hard, just
to name a few. ...
and of course, films you really deplore? Hrmm..... I guess
it goes without saying, but put me down for the Twilight
Saga. Your/your
series' website, Facebook, IndieGoGo, whatever else? Be
sure to visit my website www.blinky-productions.com,
follow me on Twitter @blinky500 or like me on Facebook @blinkyproductions
and subscribe to my Youtube channel @blinky500. IndieGoGo: http://igg.me/at/retcon/x/18731 Anything
else you are dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Yes,
be sure to check out my comic books, The Protector #1 and Dangerman #1 on
sale NOW at www.houndcomics.com
- they are awesome! Thanks
for the interview!
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find Chris R. Notarile at adultvideouniverse.com
