QUANTUM STORM WIKI WITH "SPECTRE ZERO"

Spectre Zero is a paranormal, dramatic web series created and produced by David Quintana-Lujan in 2018. This was the fourth web series created by the director-producer under the studio name, Quantum Storm Pictures. Paranormal Research team "Spectre Zero" led by Markus [Daniel Erik] and Wynn Mi [Sara Mao] investigate some of the scariest Urban Legends in the local towns. Markus is a skeptic who questions everything in a logical manner, while Wynn is a "seer" with the ability to jump into the paranormal realm to see the real problems that occur whenever benevolent spirits are haunting the local people. They are not "ghost whisperers" they only seek to find the answer to the problems with evil spirits. Spectre Zero also features Saira Ramos, Joseph Marshall, Gwendoline Chang, David Kufner, Celina Monks, Larry Monks, Alex Yi, and Lora Mao.

 

Directed by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Screenplay by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Story by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Based on Characters by
                      D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Produced by D. R. Quintana-Lujan
                  Barbara Johnston
                  Patti Wieser Hall

Starring Daniel Erik & Sara Mao

Cinematography by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Edited by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Music by Lora Mao

Production Company Quantum Storm
                               Productions

Running Time 25 minutes

Countries  United States

Language English

Budget  $1,700 per episode

 

 

SPECTRE ZERO is an ultra-low independent web series directed and produced by David Quintana-Lujan during the summer of 2018. During a years hiatus from film production, the director-producer had a paranormal experience that he couldn't explain clearly, so he put it into a script. The experience concerned a constant loud knocking on the front door to his home, each time in a row of three knocks, the knocking became louder and louder. Outside a white shadowy figure stood there relentlessly knocking as hard as it could. When the director-producer awoke he was in a cold sweat and quickly began to type out the script. The first episode was written in three days and shortly after that, episode 2 and 3 were laid out in a week.

PRE-PRODUCTION

Before casting and pre-production ever started, the director-producer contacted Lora Mao and requested specific music to fill the mood of the show and to create something memorable for the opening credits. Mao responded with precision expertise, sending the director-producer a perfect set of tracks with moods of mystery and paranormal eeriness that he felt was perfect to introduce the show to fans of various ages. With the track selection narrowed down to only five tracks, the director-producer began a casting call to fill roles and to also begin searching for locations to this paranormal monster project. The director-producer wanted to work with newer and malleable actors who could commit to a long term project and be able to deliver their performances in an unusual atmosphere - like acting in the complete dark.

NEW ACTORS TO LEAD

The studio had been dying for a chance to use Sara Mao [Lora's daughter] as a leading actor in a new project. Sara made quite an impression on the director-producer with her performance on a cancelled film project entitled "Sapphire Soul" a few years earlier and he wanted to explore her untapped talents in front of the camera. She was known to have performed in smaller roles in Houston’s Indie film scene, with a few surprise roles that had yet to surface in her list of career performances. 

Before accepting the role in the new series, Sara studied many shows on television and Netflix, studying actors emotional responses to situations that occurred from scene to scene. She used method acting to fill in the mission spots and her gamble paid off as the director-producer chose her for the leading role as "Wynn Mi," a young lawyers assistant by day and a clairvoyant paranormal investigator by night. Wynn Mi's mother would be played by Gwendoline Chang, who came highly recommended by Lora Mao. Chang proved to be perfect for the role of a sexy lawyer and mother who uses her daughters gift of clairvoyance to screen out potential clients for her law firm.

SCRIPTING THE SERIES

As the original script for the potential series set character development of a three member group for the paranormal investigative team, the director-producer decided to cast his son, Daniel Erik in the role of "Markus" - the guy who put the investigative team together, and his quirky electronic surveillance assistant played by new comer, Bishop Asher. A week later the studio began working on practical effects that were needed for the first episode. The director-producer filmed most of the test footage in his own home and every second of the footage was used in the opening sequences of the first episode. A few weeks later the series went into full production and where a cold front moved into the area and seemed to hinder the first cuts of the film, but gave the series a distinct eerie look and format for the rest of the episodes that were planned to go into production.

 

TROUBLE ON THE SET

 

However, the first two episodes were a complete waste of effort as Asher fell into some legal issues and had to be dropped from production. So the studio made changes to the first two scripts and then continued to work on the existing two episodes with little loss of time. Lora Mao found three to four interesting office locations for two of the scenes which bolstered the production value of two episodes and also took part in acting as both a secretary and an evil spirit, the latter in which she had a lot of fun performing in front [and behind] of the camera. Two episodes were completed in three weeks and the ease of production was admired by both the cast and crew; even with two of the locations actually being known for paranormal activity which completely freaked out a few actors on the set.

 

REAL SCARY MOMENTS 

There were no reported injuries on the set of the show, but there were come scary moments in which actors were exposed to acting in the dark and in one case, an actress was squeezed under a bed to play an evil spirit that drug its victims off the bed by their feet and suffocated them as they slept. The scene required the production team to lift one side of the bed and prop it higher for the actress to squeeze underneath it. Wynn [Sara Mao] would be the victim laying on top of the bed - and even though her body frame was less than a hundred pounds wet - the crew kept an eye on the bed due to the shift in weight, as the scene was quickly prepared and shot.

In the end, a lot of work went into producing four episodes to the series. Only two episodes have been released by the studio as the studio began efforts to work on another feature film and the director-producer had to focus his efforts to complete the feature film first before returning to work on Spectre Zero.

***If would like to request to add or change in information on this Wiki, please let us know here.

 

SPECTRE ZERO DELIVERS A POWERHOUSE OF EERINESS

Unlike a large majority of Independent films based in south-eastern Texas, the first episode of the Quantum Storm Pictures new flagship series was actually released for preview on Facebook to a surprisingly large number of online fans who had recently joined the fan page to have access to watching the twenty-two minute thriller that didn’t hold back in its presentation. Filled with dramatic performances, some hinted comedy and a plethora of visual effects that will keep viewers on edge and in suspense up until the final minutes of the show; the episodes message and plotline struck viewers directly on target making the first show a hit with fans.

Spectre Zero is another project developed by D. R. Quintana after he was considering filming a humorous and fake ghost hunting documentary which provided details on how teams try to create special effects to fool clients with misleading evidence uncovered by local ghost hunting experts.  During the development of several of those effects, the idea of creating a new series began to surface. Basing the remaining ideas of the show on a “sensitive” and a “psychic” that the director/producer was actually introduced to in New England, the rest of the first episodes were finished and then he was off to trying to cast the two leading roles.

“I wanted the two leading characters to be in their early twenties,” recalls Quintana. “It’s very rare to see two twenty-something’s running a prominent paranormal research team and also trying to be professionals in the field. Most of the time on the news and in documentaries, psychics and sensitive’s are much older people who have had years of experience in their backgrounds.”

Quintana wanted fresh faces to work with, both to mold the actors to what the series requires and to have a little more fun behind the camera, so he hired Daniel Erik and Sara Mao, two relatively new actors who only worked as extras in other film projects, to take the leading roles; a decision which proved to harbor success with the presentation of the first episode. Taking casting to the next level, Quintana also accepted to use the skills of local Houston Indie actors [as extras] who would be willing to return to the series to build up their characters.

“I was casting the first season of this show with sheer honesty and no delusions of grandeur that we would have million dollar offers or instant success if we completed the first season,” adds Quintana. “I was concise with all of the details, as I wasn’t sure how long it would take to put the whole first season together, especially as everyone in the cast and crew was going to have to work for free and the studio had to work around so many schedules that were based on volunteer ethics.”

Principle production started in February of 2018 and crossed over the course of eight months with the casting of over nine actors/actresses to help complete shooting enough material for season one. Some of the local Houston actors who stepped up to help in the production are: Alexi Yi, David Kufner, Shruthi Bekal, Gwendolyn Chang, Saira Ramos, and Joseph Marshall, who all played large parts in their perspective episodes and are expected to return to the series in season two. The studio is planning to expand the cast for season two as required, plus travel to vast area in Texas to complete more eerie episodes in the near future. Even now, the studio has recorded over eight episodes of material, but only four full episodes have been edited to completion, but not in chronological order.

Quintana said that the studio decided to begin production on all of the scarier scenes that required special and visual effects first before starting work on the actual scenes that required dialog through acting. Even though scheduling was grueling to complete each episode, the change in formula seemed to speed up the completion of each episode with limited production time of four hours per day; which helped many of the cast and crew who were parents that had family waiting for them back at home.

But the real treat of the first episode is the tremendous soundtrack and audio effects which were produced and written by Lora Mao. Each new track delivered to each art of the show with a unique eeriness that defies explanation on how the tension and drama was delivered in each scene. Quintana says that Lora Mao didn’t hold back, she was committed to the project from the start and her ability to adjust to his musical demands proved that she was more than qualified and mature to handle each track as required by the director/producer. Even now, Lora Mao is reaping in the success of her music as she is selling tracks for the show on the Internet.

“Lora has a style of producing original tracks of music that is second to none in Houston,” says Quintana. “She’s efficient, professional, and loves what she does. There is no doubt in my mind that without Lora, this project would not have delivered such a strong first episode to preview to the fans out there. I am very proud to have her on our team.”

Unlike most Indie films that only ever post a 7 minute trailer of their film projects, Spectre Zero’s first 22 minute episode is posted on Facebook as a preview and will be removed in twenty days. The rest of the series episodes will eventually be made available through Amazon.com in 2019. So if you’re interested in watching the newest production from Quantum Storm Pictures, this will be your only chance to see it for free until the series is released on Amazon.com. You can see the full first episode HERE.

CHINESE/KOREAN AUDIENCE KEEPING CLOSE TABS ON SPECTRE ZERO

Thanks to some smartly prepared promotions through various internet sites, the studios supper-thriller SciFi series, SPECTRE ZERO, is taking strong roots with many Oriental fans due to the reason of the show including a talented and heavy Oriental cast who portray lead characters who delve into a career of searching for spiritual phenomena.

One of the series leading characters, Wynn Mi, is played by the talented and beautiful Sara Mao of Katy, Texas who has made a name for herself on the internet with cosplay modeling she has produced online for the last few years.  Her character is gifted with the psychic ability to step through a doorway of the "minds eye" and communicate with evil spirits that live inside a sub-space world that has parallels with our own world. Her clairvoyant abilities are pretty impressive as all she has to do is see and sense the area around her to fully engage with spirits and try to communicate with them. In many cases, the trips into the "minds eye" are simple and a bit scary, but at other times her trips into the nether world are quite horrifying and seem to send a warning about seeing things in the dark that people shouldn't.

Wynn's team members are the creators and inventors of the band name company, Spectre Zero. Markus McCain, is played by Daniel Erik, and Lewis Denmark, is played by Bishop Asher [both of Conroe, Texas] who run a website which lists only the proven "active" places in Texas that have ghostly phenomena and also have an Urban Legend tied to them. In the series, the trio trek through the Texas landscape verifying or debunking ghost sites and make a good living off of them. In some cases, the phenomena is so extreme, that Wynn Mi is put in peril over some evil forces that are up to no good.

The series director and creator, D. R. Quintana, said that the studio project was seriously only intended to be another web series, which was being produced solely for fun.

"I never want to over-emphasize or over-hype any of the projects I produce through our small enterprise, but the Chinese audience is watching, listening, and reading every article and trailer we release on the web" says Quintana. "The numbers are real and there is no exaggeration about the expectation for this low budget series, that doesn't look so low budget in final production."

Quintana says that the high quality video production has everything to do with thinking about how to produce the best material possible before actually rolling their cameras. The series must maintain a high quality video production and at least a 7.2 Dolby surround sound production format with original music score and full scripts to have a chance for approval to Amazon's film and series acceptance program for streaming services.

"In years passed, it was all about filming this scene and that without thinking of the quality of the production" added Quintana. "Where I wanted quantity of material to spill out onto the internet, racing the remaining time of a young cast of actors, in Spectre all of the actors are adults and there's no racing required to keep the look of the cast in check." 

The studio continues to produce episodes for the series, aiming for a goal of 13 to 15 episodes for final delivery to Amazon for streaming and distribution. The studio is hoping to wrap up season one by April and commence production of season two by the end of July. With a young cast and  a plethora of stories to tell, the studio is sure that the series will find it's way to fans across all corners of the globe, just like previous project releases produced by the studio.

The studio is planning to release a new series trailer in the first week of March.

J. Jazz
[Contributing Writer]