Ghosts, Devils, and Death - Halloween with Sine Fine Films

Once in a while I’ll be doing “special posts” about different things not covered under the other categories. These posts will usually be on the Monday or Tuesday of a month that has fives weeks instead of four.  I guess I don’t need to explain all that, but, you know…whatever.  

Although there has not yet been a specific Halloween themed short film or TV episode, there are a lot of the typical characters of Halloween that have appeared in SFF productions.

The Devil has appeared as a character in two productions – Twisted Tales: The Devil & Kitta Gray, and Eidolon.  In The Devil & Kitta Gray he is portrayed as the typical Devil trying to trick people into selling their souls – he’s almost a caricature in a way.  He’s played by Tanino Minneci, a fantastic actor who plays the Devil in a wonderfully wicked way.  In Eidolon, the Devil is a title more than a person. Lucifer (aka Luke) is the god of Evil and has several nicknames, but at the end of the day being the Devil is just a job.  He barters for souls to fill quotas and is very intelligent and suave.  He is played by the fabulous Russell Martin and although he is a side character, Russell portrays him as a smooth talker who gets easily annoyed by his plans being messed up by other people’s stupidity.

Death takes a physical form in Dream Chasers and in Eidolon as well.  The Grim Reaper, like The Devil, is more of a title and job description.  Atropos is the goddess of Death and is overworked and underpaid.  Syndi Eller does a magnificent job playing the stressed out and easily irritated Atropos.  She threw in her own adlibs that gave Death some interesting quirks, such as going bowling, shooting hoops, and having a desperate need for chocolate to keep her sane.   In Mind Games, written by Edward Stasheff, Death is not actually on board the spaceship, but one of the characters, a psychic named Talin DuFole, goes insane and honestly believes he is the spirit of Death reborn.  Chris Lamb played the part to perfection, starting out as a funny, kind of sweet-yet-serious guy who has a mental breakdown and emerges as a bad ass who kills, tortures, and maims everyone on the ship in his new found role as the Grim Reaper.

And then, there are the ghosts - lots and lots of ghosts.  I really like ghosts.  They’re my favorite of the supernatural entities out there.  So naturally there are a LOT of productions that feature ghosts or spirits of some kind – ten so far with an eleventh on the way.

Ghosts appear in Destiny (Tanino Minneci as Esteban) and Pandora’s Box (Chris Stasheff as Horace), and are a major plot point in Dream Chasers (Brittany Ann Whalen as Library Ghost and Zoey Zurrell).  Then there are the productions that are about ghosts – ghost stories, ghost points of view, etc.  The Walking Stick (Margaret Olson and Laine as the Ghost) is a short film that is a ghost story – the ghost is the main point of conflict.  In The Vigil, written by Joel Pierson, the two main characters – Julie and Abner (Nina Samii and Ryan Segovich) - are ghosts and we see the world of the living through their eyes as Julie, with Abner’s help, comes to accept her death.  In Scene 4D of Quatrain (Annamarie and Jacob MacLeod), a ghost mourns the loss of a loved one.  Ghosts at Play is a haunting vignette about two ghostly children (Grace and Henry Graaf) and the mother (Gen Stasheff-Graaf) who mourns them. In The Curse the main character – Zandra (Liz Schafer) – is cursed (by a ghost) to see ghosts and at least one ghost appears in almost every episode.  In Eidolon the main character – Zelda (Brittany Ann Whalen) – is cursed (by the same ghost) to be a ghost and spends the next nine episodes trying to return to a corporeal form, meeting other ghosts, demons, and ghost hunters along the way.   So yeah, there are lots and lots of ghosts.  

Another element of ghosts is their ability to possess people which happens at least four times in two of the shows – once in The Curse, and three times in Eidolon.  Yay?

I will leave you now with one of my favorite scenes from Eidolon.  In the following scene from Episode 3, Zelda (now a ghost) is extremely angry and becomes a poltergeist, attacking Maria, her only friend, over a problem that Maria knows nothing about.  Maria cannot see Zelda, but knows about ghosts and how to banish them if necessary. 

Clips Credits:

Actors:

Zelda – Brittany Ann Whalen

Maria – Morgan Thomas

Crew:

Camera Operators –Eleanore Stasheff and James McKinley

Production Assistants – Bryan Kieft and Andy H.

Music:

Lost by Stabbing Westward

(I don’t own the copyright but I have no money so please don’t sue)

Characters 101 – Zarconia Gold

Each month this blog will feature a character from one of the SFF productions.  We’ll start with one of the most popular characters in all of the SFF repertoire – Zarc.

Zarconia Gold, known simply as Zarc is the young, spirited Underworlder known as the Queen of Thieves. She joined the rebels shortly before Cat did and saved the rebel’s life. Although she is impish and carefree, she does have a serious side that is most often apparent when her foster family comes to call.

Zarconia Gold
played by Virginia McCreary

History

Zarc is the orphaned child of one of the four rulers of the Underworld – an organization of criminals divided into four groups – Cutthroats, Bandits, Beggars, and Thieves.  Her father was the King of Thieves and when he died she was taken in by the others Royals and tossed back and forth between them whenever they were too busy to bother with her.  Zarc ran away when she was eight and joined the rebels who were working to overthrow the Empire because she had nothing better to do. 

After joining the rebels she met a woman – Cat - who was on the run from the army and Zarc helped her escape to safety and join the rebels.  Cat became a leader in the organization and eventually lead the largest unit, with Zarc by her side.  Zarc basically grew up with the rebels, but still worked with the Underworld whenever necessary.  She was still the official Queen of Thieves, but didn’t have to take her place as a ruler in the Underworld until she turned eighteen.  When the series starts she’s sixteen and has been with the rebels off and on for eight years.  Although she lives with the rebels she often points out that she technically isn’t a rebel at all – she’s an Underworlder.

She didn’t really hate the Empire or the Army Faction, being with the rebels was just something to do that kept her busy and away from the Underworld.  That changed when the Army Faction used her to get to Turlo by having an undercover officer named Phil seduce her and make her fall in love with him.  The revelation of the man she loves being a traitor, and then seeing him killed while trying to save her life leads her to hate the Army Faction.

Appearance

Zarc has long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, a big smile, and an impish demeanor.  She almost always wears red and black striped tights, a mix of bright colors, and lots of jewelry.  She always stands out.  However, her appearance changes more than any other character in the series because she starts the series as a teenager and is an adult by the time it ends.  This change is most evident in her clothing.  

At the start of the series she wears short skirts and vests in patchwork, stripes, or plaids, and short-sleeved shirts in bright colors that sometimes clash.  In the middle she wears mostly longer skirts and more pastel colors and fluffy shirts.  By the end an older, more serious Zarc is mostly wearing pants, in more muted colors and more functional clothing in general. 

Personality

The best word to describe her is probably impish or mischievous, although she loses a little of that as she gets older and more serious.  Zarc is full of energy, overly dramatic at times, and loves shiny, pretty things which is one of the reasons she’s a kleptomaniac.  She is extremely loyal and very smart although she pretends not to be in the beginning.  As she grows older she goes through a romantic phase of reading romance novels.   There is a general air of loneliness around her after the other rebels start pairing up.  She falls in love twice and gets her heart broken twice.  After the second time she is so upset and depressed that she contemplates leaving the rebels. She decides to stick around in the end, but she is more serious and less carefree from that point on. 

When asked about her character Virginia McCreary said, “I thought my character was a very interesting type of person. Someone I don’t think you’d often meet on the street.  Someone with lots of inconsistencies.  For instance she’s a complete kleptomaniac and yet the nicest person in the world.”

There are also some big inconsistencies in her personality due to how the episodes were written.  In the first few episodes she is cowardly and easily frightened. “She couldn’t fight very well in the first few episodes," said Virginia.  However, we later learn that she was raised by the Underworld Royals including the King of Cutthroats so there’s no way that she was raised without knowing how to defend herself.  The cowardice in the beginning must be a ruse, although it obviously never stated as such.

 Zarc is generally feisty, funny, compassionate and kind, but has a temper and if pushed too far can become quite violent.  She can be rather arrogant too – she’s good at what she does and she knows it.

Abilities

She is a thief – the Queen of Thieves by virtue of her birth.  She loves to swipe stuff, especially jewelry, and can never quite get over the urge to steal. She can pick pockets and locks, untying knots, overcome security systems, and swipe things off counters unnoticed.  Obviously she’s very good at stealing, but we only see her steal a few times in the show – mostly her talents are talked about and rarely seen. 

She knows how to fight but rarely seems to.  In episode 12 we learn that she has perfect aim when she’s pissed off.  She’s also a good actress, appearing to be a cute, harmless, cowardly kid when she’s anything but.

Her greatest asset to the rebels is the fact that she seems to know everyone.  She has connections and allies in all the major organizations and seems to be able to talk almost anyone into helping out the rebels.  As Cat often says in the beginning “she’s annoying but useful.”  She is a very good judge of character unless her own emotions are involved. 

“The thing I liked most about my character," said Virginia, "was her ability to recover after any situation.”  Zarc is a lot tougher than she looks - inside and out.  Her greatest ability is her resilience. 

Relationships - Allies & Enemies

The Rebels

Catalina Crims is her best friend and they would do anything for each other.  They’re like sisters.  Zarc seems to be the only one who can yell at Cat, point out when she’s being a stubborn idiot, and actually have Cat listen to her.  She’s also protective of Cat, especially when De Carlo is around.  When De Carlo and Cat start dating Zarc isn’t happy about it because she’s not sure De Carlo’s good enough for her.

Diyara DuQuoi is also one of Zarc’s best friends ever since they ended up in the same prison van together.  Zarc takes the priestess under her wing when she first joins the rebels, reassuring her that Cat’s bark is worse then her bite.  They get along great until Zarc and Diyara both fall in love with Turlo and he ends up picking Diyara.  Eventually she and Diyara become friends again but their relationship is never quite the same after that.

Turlo Mason is one of her best friends and her first love.  It’s made clear from the beginning that Zarc and Turlo have known each other long before the start of the series, but how they met is never really revealed.  They fight a lot at first, but Zarc is the one who takes Turlo’s side against Cat when Cat wants him thrown out.  She becomes his lab assistant because she likes cool looking things and they test out gadgets together.  They seem to have an older brother/younger sister relationship, but as Zarc gets older she falls in love with him. Turlo still sees her like a little sister and doesn’t return her feelings, falling in love with Diyara instead.  Obviously that damages they’re relationship a lot, but eventually Zarc and Turlo become friends again and go back to the sort of sibling relationship they had before when Zarc gets over her feelings for him.

France Wah & Aggie are also good friends and Zarc hangs out with them a lot.  She seems to understand and enjoy France Wah’s zaniness and can translate France Wah speak for the other rebels.

The Underworlders

Zarc tends to exploit her relationship with the Underworld, using them to help spy on the Empire/Army Faction and supply them with goods.  It puts a strain on her relationships within the group.

Cordero, the King of Cutthroats, is the closest thing Zarc has to a father.  He helped raise her in the Underworld and often worries about her.  He’s the only one of the Royals who can talk with her and not give commands and is really the only Royal who cares about her.  They have a very strong familial bond and would do almost anything for each other.  

Zurielle, the Queen of Bandits, is the second Royal who helped raise her and would be her enemy if Zarc wasn’t the Queen of Thieves.  They can’t stand each other and Zurielle thinks Zarc is an irresponsible brat.  She resents being used by Zarc to help the rebels. 

Qadra, the Queen of Beggars is the third Royal who helped raise her.  There doesn’t seem to be much of a relationship between them, as if they neither like or dislike each other.

Qadim, the Prince of Beggars is Qadra’s successor and a good friend of Zarc’s.   They get along well and seem to have a sort of cousin bond. 

Gregor is an underworld thief who helps spy on the Army Faction for a price.  She doesn’t really trust him and implies that he has betrayed her before.  After Zarc officially becomes the Queen of Thieves he becomes very loyal to her.

The Empire/Army Faction

General Darion De Carlo starts off as an enemy – kidnapping her twice – but ends up an ally when he joins the rebels.  As Cat’s best friend, De Carlo sees Zarc a weapon he can use against Cat at first, but then as someone he needs to get on his side.  The way to Cat’s heart is apparently through Zarc because if Zarc doesn’t trust him, Cat never will.  After he kidnaps her the second time, then helps her escape and turns traitor, joining the rebels, Zarc trusts him a lot more than the other rebels do, suggesting that she sees something in him that the others don’t.  She becomes a referee between Cat and De Carlo and is instrumental in getting them to work out their differences and come together.  De Carlo eventually becomes like a brother-in-law to her and trusts her completely.  

Zarina, the former Empress, and Zarc mostly know each other by reputation, only a few times in the series.  The only time Zarc meets Zarina as “Zarina” is when De Carlo kidnaps Zarc to steal a secret weapon for Zarina.   

They later meet after Zarina fakes her death and returns as General Mira Mernecky.  Zarc and Mira meet twice – the first time Mira reveals that the man Zarc loves is a traitor who was just pretending to love her in order to get information.  Obviously that doesn’t go over well.  The second time and final time they meet, they end up in a fight that results in Zarina shooting Zarc and nearly killing her.  Zarina despises Zarc but sees her as a weak link that can be exploited, and Zarc sees Zarina as a spoiled brat and a bully, but doesn’t have any reason to personally hate her.  Mira, however, manipulates Zarc, which is something Zarc can never forgive. 

Philemon Orion/General Phil Gamon is the love of Zarc’s life.  She meets him as the lone survivor of his rebel unit.  He’s a technical genius like Turlo and he and Turlo become great friends.  Diyara distrusts Phil from the beginning, but Zarc is so taken with him that she just thinks Diyara is being a bitch. Zarc falls in love with him and he seems to fall in love with her, but after he gets both her and Turlo to help him recover and repair a powerful weapon he hands it over to the Army Faction, revealing that he’s a traitor.  

Suddenly he seems disgusted by Zarc, but after she gets hurt he bandages her arm and tells her that he’s a soldier on a mission and never planned to fall in love with her but he did.  He’s broken her heart and her trust so she doesn’t believe him at all.  In the end, however, he rushes in to save Zarc from an insane Turlo and gets killed in the process.  Zarc mourns him, realizing that he really was in love with her after all since he risked his life to save her.  

 Other People

Horace Gandergelder is a ghost that inhabits the theater the rebels use as a base.  He is accidentally summoned by Turlo and quickly takes a liking to Zarc, seeing in her a spirit that reminds him of his own daughter which he had neglected.  He is determined to help Zarc and make her happy by manipulating the situation so that Zarc finds out that Turlo and Diyara are in love, breaking Zarc’s heart.  Horace apologizes, admitting again that he was a terrible father, and warns Zarc that her heart will be broken again.    

Production Diary - The Long Take

 Once a month I’m going to talk about a specific production, what it was like to film it, and what was involved in making it happen.  This month I’m going to talk about The Long Take. 

The Long Take is a short film that very few people have seen but it’s an important production because it’s one of only two films that are actually shot on film.  It was written and produced for a class project in film production at SIUC and wasn’t considered part of the SFF project list along with several other short films because it was produced as a part of some other project (in this case a class).  However, I realized a few years ago that they were filmed by me with mostly or entirely SFF cast and crew so I’ve included them now. 

The assignment was to make a short film that used audio and sound effects or dialogue but none of the dialogue could be in sync because that was something to work on in another class (that I was never able to take).  I purchased a 8mm film camera for the class and after filming my first two assignments I started working on my third and last – The Long Take .

I really liked the look of film and wanted to do a nod to the silent movie era so I chose to have the movie be set at the end of some dashing romantic adventure movie a la Errol Flynn.  But I also wanted it to be funny and decided to focus on the making of a movie like that (only modern, not 1920s because I didn’t have the money for period lights and props, etc.).  

The basic plot is that a harried director is trying to film the final scene of a movie and problems keep happening including crew breaks, flying donuts, divas, and drunks. 

It’s mostly one basic shot of the set with some close-ups as needed, and filmed in the upstairs lobby of the beautiful Virginia Theater in Champaign, IL. There was a great cast with actors able to ham it up in silent movie style including Ryan Segovich as the Hero, Chris Hutchens as the Villain, Margaret Olson as the Princess, and Genevieve Stasheff as the Director. 

The first day of filming actually had Genevieve Stasheff playing both the princess and the director (not sure why).  After shooting, the cast sat around and recorded the audio for the leads and generally hung out and had fun.  It should have only taken that one day to film it, but actual film requires good lighting and strong knowledge of the equipment and I apparently had problems with both. 

Film has to have enough light exposed to it for the image to appear.  It’s pretty much the same principal as a video camera, but the amount of light needed is a lot higher for a film camera.  Also I suck at figuring out exposure.  I suck at lighting in general. unlike video you can’t just go home and watch the footage because the film has to be mailed away to be processed which takes about two weeks (jeepers!).  When I got the film back I discovered my exposure problems (oh my!) and was dismayed to discover most of the footage was too dark to use or out of focus (focus, damn you, focus!).  I salvaged the shots I could and made a list of what had to be reshot which was pretty much everything.  Shots from the first shoot that made it into the film include the shot of the hero in the beginning, the actors taking the sword fight off the set and past the lighting equipment, and the close up of the donut being stepped on. 

Over a month later I returned to Champaign to reshoot the film and gathered the actors once again.  Most were able to return but Genevieve was busy that evening and could only be there for a short time to shoot the director bits.  Margaret Olson took over the role of the princess – a difference that really only changed one shot.  When the actress gets fed up and steps off set for a few minutes what she does is different.  Genevieve took off the wig and lit up a cigarette contrasting the sweet princess look.  Since Margaret didn’t smoke and was too young to anyway, we had to change it, so instead she pulls a cell phone from her bodice and calls her agent to yell at him. 

The first shoot was shortly after daylight savings and the second shoot was way after, so even though the time of the shoot was roughly the same (approximately 5pm-9pm) it was still light when we started filming at the first one and dark when we filmed the second which did actually change the lighting to be more contrasted.  I liked it in the end because I think it has more of that silent movie look with the sharp contrast.  Needless to say I over exposed it a bit too since I was paranoid.

The next day I gathered friends and forced family to record voices for the general crew (and I needed to get more adlibbing from them but didn’t – oh well).  I put it all together in the edit bay (actually cutting the filmstrips and taping them together – sweet!) and it looks great.  I added the titles and credits on a computer a while later.

And this quirky little film earned me a solid B on the project.  I didn’t have enough variety of shots so I got graded down for that.  But that’s okay.  I still had fun and I hope the actors did too.  This makes me all nostalgic – I need to shoot another silent film soon.



Want to watch the movie?  Here you go!

Interview with Edward Stasheff

Each month we'll interview a member of the Sine Fine Film company, asking the same or similar questions, and learn more about the actors and crew. This month I'm interviewing Edward Stasheff who's been with the company from the beginning in 1996.

 Q: How did you get involved in SFF?  And what possessed you to keep coming back for more torture?

A: You’re my sister. And um...you’re my sister?

Q: What was your favorite part to play?

A: Cordero because I got to look all badass and I had an eye patch that switched sides.

Q: What was your favorite filming day?

A: There really isn’t one that stands out more than the others.  I remember the days that were really rough but the fun days sort of blur together.  But, I guess the day we filmed the big dance number for King of Elflin’s Daughter stands out because it was really fun, and there was a rainbow in the sky.  Great weather, beautiful sunset and it was just really fun.

Q:  What was your least favorite filming day?

A:  Oh wow...um...the really late one in Mind Games when we had a big fight and you fired me.  It left the worst taste in my mouth, so to speak.

Q: What is your dream role?

A: To be Jaba the Slut – be fat and fun and have hot chicks sitting in my lap.  Or maybe write another script.

Q: What’s your favorite production to watch?

A: The Dragon & The Unicorn because it was well written – very mythic – and it was one of the most coherent scripts for that time.  The flashbacks/time-travel sequences worked well.  Annamarie did a great job as the evil chick and it was just a lot of fun to watch.  

Q: What’s your favorite costume, accessory, or prop?

A:  My favorite costume was Cordero’s outfit.  My least favorite was the Ali-Jinjil outfit because I kept tripping over the damn thing!

My favorite prop was the six feet tall golden sword in King of Elflin’s Daughter and the poison bottle in Pandora’s Box because I had so much fun with it. My least favorite prop was the eye patch I wore as Cordero because I couldn’t remember which eye I put it over.

Q: Who’s your favorite actor co-star/actor you’ve worked with?  

A: As actor – Tanino as Esteban because he’s hilarious and Annamarie in the King of Elf because we had lots of fun doing the “Shakespeare” version of a scene.

As a director – Chris Lamb was great to work with in Mind Games and Jacob MacLeod in Quatrain – he came up with a lot of really funny ideas.  Overall the three psi-squad actors were really great to work with as a group because they took direction well and play off each other well.  They understood the characters and worked as a unit. 

Q: What was it like writing and directing Mind Games?

A: Hummbling.  It was fun though and we managed to pull off some really neat shots, We got to film in the Planetarium and press a lot of buttons.  There was the kiddie-Car-of-Death – that was fun.  Also, that’s when I realized the importance of sound design – there were lines you just couldn’t hear. Boom mics might actually be helpful. 

As for writing Mind Games, I’d written the script before for another project and rewrote it as a separate movie but for a long time I didn’t have an end for it.  It wasn’t done and I having the actors read it and Annamarie saying “No! Where’s the rest?!?”

Q: What was it like writing and directing for Quatrain?

A: Writing was fun - trying to come up with something that could work any number of ways. I knew what I wanted the twist to be but it had to be vauge enough to work for other people and situations, so it was very challenge. 

What I remember most about directing was having to hurry up and film before we lost the light while shooting the scenes in the back of my truck.

Q: Sum up each production you’ve been in using only one word or short sentence.

A:

 DESTINY:

Cheesy smile.

DESTINY II:

Ouch. (If Eleanore says “jump into those bushes” – DON’T!)

THE KING OF ELFLIN’S DAUGHTER:

Shakespearan Parody

THE PERFECT COMBINATION: 

Why don’t you give me a copy so I can watch it?!?

MIND GAMES:

Getting kicked off the project

PANDORA’S BOX:

Black Death Liquor

EIDOLON:

Was I in that?

THE CURSED DESTINY OF PANDORA’S GIFT BOX:

Shake it shake it shake it Turn!

QUATRAIN:

We’re losing the light!

Q:  Top 5 favorites: 

Favorite Color - Blue

Favorite Movie or TV Show – Babylon 5

Favorite Song or Band/Artist - Enigma

Favorite Food or Drink – Anything that comes out of my smoker (well, almost)

Favorite Holiday – Not sure I have a favorite,  If I had to pick one it would be my birthday because that’s when I get to do my smoke-a-thon.  So I guess Smoke-a-thon Party day is my favorite.