Blue Screens, the Garage and Cannes
Flashback, the first feature length film by Brendan Rogers, is now out on DVD. I was fortunate enough to work with Brenden on a theatre project at university - a play called The Virgin Student. I'm delighted to see a truly talented person achieving something incredible.
Flashback, which will be known as Timelord in the UK, won't arrive over here for a few more weeks, so I'm having to wait for my copy. In the meantime, Brendan has been kind enough to give a quick interview.
Briefly tell us about Flashback. What's it about?
Flashback Films, a once proud 32nd century movie studio, has fallen into disrepair thanks to a sinister corporate takeover. Classic films are robotically remastered. A prop collecting Time Machine is the studio's latest gimmick. When janitor Jack Taylor attempts to date starlet Tiffany Sloane, his would be romance collides with the scheming of a corrupt studio executive - and the entire back lot is plunged into chaos. Our heroes must ultimately travel through time to save the future of Hollywood in this action, adventure, sci-fi, comedy.
It looks very professional. Am I right in thinking it was put together in a domestic garage?
That's 100% correct. The entire movie was edited in a garage. The budget was literally the collective pocket change of the three producers (Will Phillips, John Mondelli and myself). We didn't have a studio to shoot in, because we couldn't afford it. Fortunately, the movie was all shot on blue screen so wherever we could hang our blue cloth became our studio for the day. Locations like apartments, dorm lobbies, theatres and even a cheerleader's locker room were used throughout the production.
Actor and co-writer, Will Phillips, on set
It's just been released on DVD. How did you go about making the DVD release happen?
After completing the film, it became a full time job to both promote the movie and reach out to various sales agents.
The Youtube campaign really was invaluable. Because the film is about a fake movie studio that create terrible cinema, we thought it would be fun to create a series of fake trailers and skits and treat our fictional studio, Flashback Films, as if it's a real company.
Youtube videos like The Hobbit Games and The Walking Inbred introduce the audience to our comedic style and at the end of the video provide a link to the actual feature film. These videos, and the online presence we were creating became part of our pitch to sales agents. We were fortunate enough to get in contact with a company that both enjoyed the online videos and the feature film and after signing with them, they represented us at the Cannes Film Festival. From there we signed video deals for the UK, Eastern Europe, China, and the US.
The boys at the Cannes Film Festival
Getting Flashback out there has been quite a journey, hasn't it? What important milestones did you reach along the way?
From the first draft of the script to completion of post production, it's been a nine year journey. This of course was largely due to having to balance day jobs and school with our shooting schedule. We were actually still in the middle of shooting the movie when I was a part of your Virgin Student production (loved being a part of that production).
Brendan on the poster for The Virgin Student stage play (2006)
There were a lot of mile stones along the way. As I mentioned before, we shot the entire movie in front of a blue screen, so backgrounds had to be added later in post-production. Originally we assembled a cut of the film with just the raw footage, so it was literally just a movie of people running around on a blue cloth, quite possibly the least visually impressive film ever made. As silly as it looked it was still fun to see the story in a sense play out for the first time.
I also remember the completing the first 6 minutes of the film, with final backgrounds. We must have watched that sequence 80 times in one night. Very exciting to not see blue sheets any more.
Probably the most magical moment, however, was hearing the musical score for the first time. Seeing even the first two minutes of the film put to music was a real thrill. Our incredible composer, George Shaw, really did a fantastic job.
Do you yourself act in the film?
I do act in the film. I play kind of the nerdy sidekick to the lead villain. My character's name is Maynard.
When can we expect the film to be released in the UK and where can we pre-order it from?
We have been told that the film will be released in September. It's available at a variety of online stores.
Here's a price comparison page to help you find the best buy. I recommend buying at least 10 copies.
What's next for the Flashback team?
We have a variety of project currently in the works. I'd love to shoot something in England. Any excuse to come back works for me.
The US Poster for the Film
