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.

Survivors Club: Hulde Blizzard

There are a lot of days when we film in bad weather - days so hot your eyeballs feel like they're frying, days so cold your hands might fall off, and rain pouring so hard you could almost drown on set. Each month we'll remember one of those horrible weather days and celebrate the survivors who braved the elements in order to film.  Why would we want to remember those days?  Because going through hell on set has a way of bringing everyone closer together when they can say they survived mother nature AND filming on a Yibble set.

THE WORST WEATHER

The worst filming weather to date was definitely the blizzard.  We had only one day we could film in 2009 - December 27 - and it happened to be a day when there was a terrible blizzard.  So, being a cruel director, I made people film anyway.  

The majority of Twisted Tales: Hulde was filmed that day and it was so cold and snowy that it was hard to physically operate the camera.  We had to hold an umbrella over it during the blizzard to try to protect the camera and lens from the blowing snow.

The weather was hard on the actors, the crew, and even the equipment.  We had to film each outside scene in sections so we could run back into the house at the MacLeod Farm and warm everyone up.  Unfortunately that caused condensation in the camera and we had to thaw it out with a hair dryer.  The weather proved too much for us and in the end we didn't film the last scene - we filmed it a year later instead.  

The only person who wasn't freezing to death was Annamarie because she had to foresight to wear a layered snow suit and only had about three inches of her face showing during the whole shoot. 

The following is a special feature from the Twisted Tales DVD:

Another problem with the cold weather was discovered while filming a critical effect in the snow:

To those who survived the Great (Hulde) Blizzard of 2009, I thank you and salute you:

Andy H.

James McKinley

Annamarie MacLeod

Jacob MacLeod

Diana Neatrour

Julia Mayfair

T. J.

Now go get a cup of hot tea and a flu shot. 

Destiny: the Mini-Series

DESTINY: The Mini-Series

An extended and re-edited version of the Destiny Trilogy, this mini-series takes you inside the kingdom of Traldon and into a story of intrigue, betrayal, love, and murder. Includes scenes that were not in the movies and a special final episode entitled “The Making of Destiny” which includes interviews and bloopers.

Number of Episodes: 12

Date Completed: June 1999

Airdates:

January 1999 – July 1999 on PCTV in Champaign, IL

September 1999 – December 2002 on SPC-TV in Carbondale, IL

Main Cast:

Ketlan — Christopher Hutchens

Esteban — Tanino Minneci

Balthazar — Jacob MacLeod

Melantha — Annamarie MacLeod

Princess Elaina — Jill Hutchison

Ali-Jinjil — Edward Stasheff

Erion — Jen Weber

Molly — Kate Weber

May — Rachel Anderson

Queen Lavina — Annamarie MacLeod

Maggie — Morgan Diektus

Written, Directed, Edited, & Costumed 

by Eleanore Stasheff

Check out the article from the News Gazette that came out before the series premiered. 

Visit the Destiny Photo Album for more Destiny photos!

Episode Guide

Episode 1: Dreams – On his twenty-first birthday a young farmer discovers he is really a prince, the only child of a murdered King and Queen. Suddenly he is engaged to a princess, falling in love with a gypsy, and when an innocent dance becomes a declaration of war, Ketlan must accept who he really is and what fate has planned for him.

Episode 2: Desires – With Melantha banished and a new enemy at Court, Ketlan must decided what he wants more — his throne or the love of his life. Esteban finally reveals to him the treacherous plans of his uncle, King Gergio of Traldon. Balthazar plots to kill the king and take the throne for himself while Melantha is sold into slavery and saved by a mysterious man with an even more mysterious past.

Episode 3: Reunions – Ketlan takes back his throne at last with help from Ali-Jinjil and the OOPS. Balthazar escapes and Melantha and Ketlan marry. But as one journey ends another begins. A year later Ketlan and Melantha have a son and Ketlan asks Esteban to tell him more about his parents and a past he can’t remember; a past Esteban would rather forget.

Episode 4: Nightmares – Esteban continues his tale of Ketlan’s parents’ life and death. Lord Geoffrey is destroyed and life seems perfect. The King and Queen rule and raise Ketlan without any knowledge of the sinister plot that Gergio and the banished Balthazar are creating.

Episode 5: Sacrifice – Esteban continues his tale of Ketlan’s parents’ life and death. Ketlan is now eight and for a year Queen Lavinia has been driven mad by a terrible feeling of disaster and murder. Plauged by nightmares she turns to her guardian fairy, Erion, for guidence and through her own magic comes to realize that she must pay the ultimate price in order to save the life of her only child.

Episode 6: Reunions – Esteban concludes the tale of Ketlan’s parents and Traldon settles into an Golden Age of peace and prosperity. Twelve years later that peace is threatened when Balthazar returns after making a pact with an evil god to gain enough magic to destroy the royal family and get his revenge.

Episode 7: Deception – A surprise confrontation between Balthazar and Esteban leaves one unconscious and the other taking his place at the royal ball. Balthazar uses his magic to court Elaina and disguise himself as Esteban to gain the royal family’s trust. But when the real Esteban turns up no one is sure who to trust.

Episode 8: Kidnapped – Balthazar puts his plan into action and uses his magic to kidnap Ketlan and Melantha’s two children, but his plan almost goes wrong as little Princess Telana fights back and Balthazar nearly doesn’t escape alive. As he disappears into thin air the heroes are left to wonder if they will ever see the children again.

Episode 9: Journeys – With Balthazar and their children gone, Melantha and Ketlan fight over who is better able to get them back. Ketlan locks Melantha in her room to prevent her from going after Balthazar and getting kidnapped by him too. He then heads off in persuit of Balthazar, but Melantha won’t let anything stop her from getting her children back.

Episode 10: Defiance – Balthazar brainwashes Prince Rowan into believing that he saved his life and adopts him as his own son, but the evil god must be repaid for the magic he gave Balthazar and demands that Princess Telana be sacrificed to him. Melantha and Ketlan meet up when the ships their on attack each other and end up washed ashore in Balthazar’s kingdom. Erion helps Ketlan make a plan while Melantha takes Elaina to sneak in a rescue the children on their own, but when they get caught who will rescue the rescuers.

Episode 11: Deliverance – Ketlan and Co race against time to save Melantha, Elaina, and the children. Erion fights an old flame to rescue Telana while Ali saves Rowan and Esteban takes on Balthazar. But in the end it’s up to Ketlan to finish the fight he began twelve years ago and destroy Balthazar once and for all.

Episode 12: The Making of Destiny – Go behind the scenes in this epic mini-series that started it all. Full of interviews and bloopers, take an inside look at the people who created the Kingdom of Traldon.

Character Bios

Ketlan – First Prince, then King of Traldon, Ketlan is raised in Liliya by Esteban after his parents are murdered. He must come to terms with going from being a peasant to a prince when he turns 21 then takes back his throne and leads his kingdom into a golden age.

Esteban – Known as the most intelligent man in the Kingdom of Traldon, Esteban is the royal tutor who raised young Prince Ketlan in safety when his parents were murdered. He has a deep hatred and rivalry with Balthazar that no one knows the reason for except the two of them. He is both a mentor and a father to Ketlan, is loyal to the crown and will protect the royal family with his life.

Balthazar – The bastard son of a vicious Duke, Balthazar was banished from the kingdom of Traldon at a young age and returned years later to take his revenge on Esteban and the royal family. A charming, handsome, charismatic man, Balthazar is also a vicious, vengeful, scheming villain.

Melantha – A gypsy by birth, Melantha and her sister Telana were raised as ladies in waiting, and best friends, to the Princess of Liliya. Melantha is beautiful, vivacious, and courageous woman who dances her way into Ketlan’s heart and stands by his decision to take his throne.

Princess Elaina – Feisty, spunky, and something of a brat, Elaina — the Princess of Liliya — is a woman who knows what she wants and won’t let anyone but her mother tell her what to do. Originally engaged to Ketlan, she was only too happy to let Melantha take her place by his side while she ruled her own kingdom. She is best friends to both Ketlan and Melantha.

Ali-Jinjil – Tall, serious, and brave, Ali-Jinjil is known as the Ghost of the Desert. A tribal chieftain in the kingdom of Illishar, he is a warrior with a mysterious past who lost his family. He adopts Melantha when she is alone in Illishar and in danger and becomes a friend to the royal family.

Erion – Tall, slender, and magical, Erion is a fairy from the Kingdom of Achea who is guardian to Ketlan’s mother, Queen Lavinia. She then protects Ketlan from a distance and in disguise.

Molly and May – Molly and May the are fun loving, wacky, and strange sidekicks of Erion. Disguised as hapless bandits turned bodyguards, they serve and protect Princess Elaina and the royal family of Traldon.

All Destiny movies and material is under copyright.

©1996, 1997, 1999 by Eleanore Stasheff