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.
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