The Stunts of "Citizen"

Yesterday, we finally had a chance to get over to Gibsons, BC with our stunts team to see how feasible some of our ambitious stunts were going to work.

 Leif Havdale (IMDB is back as our stunts co-ordinator once again after having a good experience working on "To Save One's Self" (IMDB) together. With a truckload of stunt pads, boxes, and an experienced stunt performer Curtis Braconnier (IMDB), we caught an early morning ferry to jam as much in the 4 hour window of opportunity we had. First off, Leif and Curtis run through the pieces of the fight scene we are doing at one of our largest set pieces, a staircase leading up to a 2nd story patio.

 The scene starts with Agent Travis being pursued by the dark agents. Forced up these tight stairs, he takes out the agent right behind him and tosses him over the railing. With some tight choreography and critical timing, we want to show the agent going over the railing and have our camera follow our actor as he peeks over the railing, revealing the bare ground the agent has landed on.

Here's where it get's complicated. We can't actually make our poor agent fall 10 feet onto the hard ground, so to do this he needs to land on a stuntpad, giving us MAYBE a 3 second window to pull the stunt pads out before the camera peers over the ledge. We have talked about just using an insert of him landing and one of him coming over towards camera, but if we can get him going over in one-shot, pull the stunt pad out in time and then show him on the ground, I think it's going to add a certain element to the fight scene that people aren't expecting.

We filmed the fight scene as the stunt performers go through it so we could see how it cuts. I think it works pretty darn good for a rehearsal.

The next stunt is where it gets a bit more difficult. Agent Travis does a 16 foot drop over the diner patio...and we follow it with the camera. Our problem here isn't the fact that were doing it without a crane or wires. It's trying to hide the stunt pads when we actually shoot. We believe we have a solution by building a garden on the pads bed to hide the shifting perspective, or use some fake turf and blend it in to the backyard with grass clippings. Honestly, both of them work. We actually have a video of our test jump from the weekend, but we're holding off on showing it to people.

Here's some photos in the meantime. Please enjoy, and be sure to share the link!

Leif Havdale setting up the mats.	Our 1st AD (Neil Allan) helping Curtis and Leif out.
Jumping with the camera.	More jumping.

On that note, the stunt rehearsal was a blast. We have a couple more stunts and sequences we didn't have time to rehearse but these two being the more complex we all walked away extremely happy with how well it all went.

A web-series eh?

I think that's the biggest response I get when I'm telling people that I'm trying to make a kick-ass web-series unlike anything out there. Not everybody gets it, but there's no denying that digital web-based media is the wave of the future. Web-series like Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca3Y8Ws3plI) and Mortal Kombat:Legacy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s6UiEuCYXA) are just small steps towards the future. It's not as easy for people to sit down and dedicate the time to watch TV and movies as much as they used to. Everything moves so quickly that entertaining yourself in short time spans is the norm. Look at YouTube, look at shows like Robot Chicken. 45 minutes is a lot of time when you don't have a lot, and 2 and a half hours is even longer. 10 minutes is a good length of time to sit down and tell a part of a story. Web series have been on the rise for years, but when you have Joel Silver producing a web-series , you know it's the right time for them to explode. I want a piece of that.

A web-series is a new venture for me. It's a bit of a risk considering the costs associated with producing something like "Citizen" to Hollywood standards. Without risks there aren't any chances of reward. I'm fortunate to have film professionals on board that believe in my concept and artistic abilities. The pressure is definitely on to make this series a success, and hopefully reward these talented people for all of the time and energy they've donated to making successful products with me.
We have a fantastic pilot episode that is going to blow people away, I have no doubt about that. Some of our stunts are top-notch, and what were going to do with them cinematically will be a step beyond what viewers could ever have expected from us. Once we shoot the pilot episode, we are hoping to apply for grants, and raise funds from fans to continue to shoot. The concept is definitely marketable, and I have no doubt people are going to be very interested in the series once they see the pilot.

So why not a TV show? 42 minutes is a LOT of time and money to invest with no financial backing or producers on board. It's a huge risk. Our concept could easily be turned into a TV show if someone picks up the idea. If I can't hook viewers within the 10 minute pilot episode, then I definitely wouldn't hook them with a 42 minute pilot episode. Shooting in smaller blocks allows us to release episodes on a smaller time-line compared to full TV length episodes and budget. Fingers crossed the first episode will knock all your socks off and we will continue to develop the scripts and finish off the 8 episode season.

Finally, thanks for taking the time to check out this blog. I'm hoping to update it every couple days and go through various elements of "Citizen", the crowd-funding campaign, and problems and issues I will be dealing with as we near our shoot in late August. Hopefully we can get our crew on-board as well and get thoughts and ideas from various team members. Please Tweet, Share, and Facebook this blog and our on-going campaign. Let's spread the word.

For more information and to check out our campaign, please visit http://www.savethecitizens.com