PEACOCKS "M3GAN" STUNS AND THRILLS!

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - M3GAN [The Directors Cut] - Peacock [2022] - PG13 - Directed by Gerard Johnstone and Edited by Jeff McEvoy. Written and created by Akela Cooper and James Wan, this movie has a little punch in its deliver of chills and thrills. Not to be considered another "Chucky-type" horror movie, M3GAN is a story of how a child's toy in this day and age of new technology, might go too far in protecting it's owner.

Starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Jenna Davis, and Amie Donald.  The story and plot involves a young girl named Cady, performed by a talented and emotional McGraw, who loses both her parents in a horrific highway accident. She is then raised by her aunt, Gemma [Williams], who is single and also a robotic's engineer. Through her aunt, Cady is eventually introduced to Megan, an automaton that is programmed through sophisticated Artificial Intelligence [AI] to be more than a child's friend, but to also be a beneficial guide in building trust through a physiological series of daily events that parents seem to ignore in a young persons life. Megan follows Cady and reminds her of what's the right thing to do, the right way to feel, and that at times, it's okay to share memories and feel strength through solid companionship.

THE GOOD - The cinematography seems perfect, especially when a scene requires to show how short the children [and Megan] are against the parents. In the film sequences "size really does matter" as the actual size of Megan hides the actual inner strength of the android when it's fully engaged to protect Cady. The special effects, along with the practical effects are delivered nicely, with very little CGI that has to be abundant during certain action scenes. The director does a great job enforcing some much needed character development to set the mood and get the viewer to trust the android in the earlier parts in the film. There are some surprising effects in presenting the android using 'less human" antiquated movements that seemed a little eerie to watch.

THE BAD - Due to this being a "Directors Cut" review, there are some bad editing skips that occur in the film; even thought they don't ruin the mood of the film, they are noticeable and I cant shake off bad mistakes in films that have gotten such great reviews. Some of the darker scenes that require torn skin or burning flesh were cut too short, but that's what you can expect from a PG13 movie. This movie should have been Rated R and the blood factor should have been pumped up to maximum; it certainly has very little to offer entertainment to children and is certainly falls under an adult horror film.

POST MORTEM - M3GAN is a definite "like" in my opinion. The film could have easily gone into deep gore and horror if the director and the films producers wanted to push the envelope. There's only so much a film can deliver to fans in the genre of a PG 13 film, but there are some scenes that kept me on the edge of my seat.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫[3.5 of 5 Stars]

QUANTUM STORM WIKI ON “GRAVITRON” [2010]

GRAVITRON is a dramatic, SciFi short film created and produced by David Quintana-Lujan in 2010, under the team moniker of DAMAR Editions Ltd. This was the 17 short film created by the director-producer under the studio name, Quantum Storm Productions., and the fourth short film he created during his move back to Texas. The story is simple; a lone traveler [Larry Carrell] visits a distraught mother [Amy Mitchell] who lost her daughter [Briannah Korin] ten years ago in a horrific car accident. The lone traveler gives the still grieving mother a gift to go back in time and correct a wrong and live her life in another more positive reality. This short film was planned as part one to a mini-series of five short films.

Directed by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Screenplay by D. R. Quintana-Lujan & Larry Carrell

Story by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Starring Amy Mitchell, Larry Carrell, Briannah Korin

Cinematography by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Edited by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Music by Zeca Mahoney

Production Company Quantum Storm Productions

Running Time 8 minutes

Countries  United States

Language English

Budget  $2,500

 

 

GRAVITRON is an ultra-low independent short film directed and produced by David Quintana-Lujan during the fall of 2010. The script for the short film was fallout from a cancelled episode of "The Secret of Angelika5" [TSOA5] where a supporting character, Brianna Fuller [performed by Jessica Yanker] learns that she has the ability to travel back in time and change certain events that helps her save the life of her own father from a tragic accident. The director removed the episode and re-wrote the script after sharing the idea with Larry Carrell after the TSOA5 break for season two.

PRE-PRODUCTION

The director first met Amy Mitchell on the set of a local film project, at the time a pitch film for "Divorce Texas Style" of 2010. He wasn't only captivated by Mitchell's natural beauty, but taken by her 'untapped' talent as an actress. He pitched Mitchell the script and immediately the two began to collaborate to make the short film a dramatic masterpiece by delivering a performance outside of her current training. During the production, Mitchell was well prepared and delivered her part in the film brilliantly.

Larry Carrell had just finished up working on his first season on TSOA, taking the role of Arthur "Art" McAdams. He volunteered to work on GRAVITRON as he was shifting a career in indie films from working as a director towards performing parts as a leading actor.

Brianna Korin had answered a casting call for "The Immortal Legion" which was also being produced by the director. Korin had little acting experience, so she was asked to join the production for a small part and give her some exposure to working on a film set.

LOCATION SPOTTING

The director had worked with Rick Cloutier on two "Razor" short films for TSOA5 and had also held a TOSA5 actors "mega-photo shoot" at Cloutier's home in Montgomery, TX. The same home was used in GRAVITRON and was supposed to show what the parents had done with the insurance money gained from their daughters loss. That part of the script was scrapped after a second home, which was supposed to be a mobile home in a rural area, could not be confirmed on the day of filming.

The director used three filters on the camera lens to show the variation from a cold atmosphere in the beginning sequences of the production, to warmer colors at the end of the film. The change in filters did not require extensive lighting.

PRODUCTION NOTES

Filming began early in the morning on November 13, 2010 and the camera rolled for over five hours to capture the scenes required for the eight minute film. Due to the large windows in the main scene in the film, natural lighting was used to capture all of the scenes in the project. Cloutier provided some of the wardrobe that Mitchell wore and also provided food for the cast and crew.

Immediately after filming, the director took the footage home, downloaded it to this computer and began editing the film. Special care was taken to give the best production as possible and Carrell assisted with the sound and color variances in the film.

The film was submitted to a film festival in Houston, Texas where the leading actress won "Best Actress" in a dramatic short film and the music coordinator, Zeca Mahoney won "Best Music Arrangement." Carrell would later direct and star in the classic Houston horror film JACOB and Mitchell would also work with Carrell and have a small part in that film.

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

QSE .357 WIKI POSTS SHOW GREAT SUCCESS WITH FOLLOWERS!

Read the numbers and weep! - The Quantum Storm History WIKI pages are proving to be a hit with studio followers. Many comments of your comments have been received and the studio is doing it's best to answer your questions to give you the best up-to-date information, and in some instances, provide behind the scenes requests. The Wiki posts are an attempt to build "source material" for the Wikipedia website to start building a historical database for studio films.

There is no doubt that the largest hits we received over time was the latest issue of the QSE .357 E-Magazine which has a ton of Star Trek fans requesting an extensive peek into the Iscandar series that is currently in production. News was leaked in the last issue that the series production team was in Dallas, Texas working on a new episode and there were photos presenting a possible time travel episode concerning events on November 2, 1963; the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. 

The studio CEO says that the episode in production for Iscandar concerns a dark story that is in line with the Original Star Trek series [STOS] "City on the Edge of Forever" and one that  strong cast was hired to assist with the episode. A Wiki for the Iscandar series will not be released until the first season of the series is released online. The studio has not mentioned a suggested release date for the series, but promises that a trailer for the series is currently being manufactured with all of the footage that is currently on file. What is known about the series is that there are several variances in the cast lineup which will be presented at one time. More information for the Iscandar series to follow.

Studio Wiki's will also be produced for local and statewide Independent films which were advertised or hyped for production, but never released or were failed to be produced as promised. With notes taken from studio news investigations over the course of more than ten years, the studio plans to release the Wiki's in the next few coming months. As mentioned earlier, people involved in these failed Independent film projects will be given an open opportunity to add or request certain information to be released from the new Wiki posts, but all requested changes or deletions will be posted on the Wiki's to give other individuals the chance to counter a change or deletion.

THE QUANTUM STORM .357 E-MAGAZINE ISSUE 12 IS RELEASED!

 

THE LONG WAIT IS ALMOST OVER! THIS ISSUE WILL TAKE YOU ON A JOURNEY THAT HAS TAKEN EIGHT YEARS TO COMPLETE. WITH SEVERAL RECASTS, OVER NINE LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT TEXAS AND AT LEAST FOUR DIFFERENT PLOT LINES IN ONE SEASON, "ISCANDAR" IS JUST ABOUT READY TO LAUNCH.

 

YOU MUST BE A SUBSCRIBER TO VIEW THIS NEW ISSUE OF THE QUANTUM STORM .357 E-MAGAZINE AND FOLLOW THIS BLOG

 We received BIG viewing numbers on the release of this new issue. Thank you all!

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QUANTUM STORM WIKI ON “BIANCA: 2029”

 

BIANCA: 2029 – The Wild Card is a 2015 SciFi, dramatic/action web series written and directed by David Quintana-Lujan. It is the third web series idea and pitch produced by Quintana-Lujan, this series was the second web series [in development] produced under the studio name, Quantum Storm Productions. In the near future, aliens [from deep space] are running loose in America. Some of these aliens have good intentions and others want to take over the world. Bianca Wolfe is hired by an organization that regulates the free living aliens who roam the countryside and sends her out to arrest, detain, or eliminate any alien that poses a threat. Not everyone is aware that these aliens exist within their society, and now one police detective, Mr. Williams [Kelly Raymer], is curious to Bianca’s motifs, often wondering why she is above the law at every turn. BIANCA: 2029 features Kacey Kelley, Kelly Raymer, Katie Garza, and Jacob Hubbard.

Directed by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Screenplay by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Story by D. R. Quintana
               Kacey Kelley

Based on Characters by D. R.  
                                 Quintana-Lujan
                                 Kacey Kelley

Produced by D. R. Quintana
                 Michelle Kelley

Executive Producers  Barbara Johnston
                        D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Starring Kacey Kelley

Cinematography by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Edited by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Music by Snowflake

Production Company Quantum Storm Productions

Running Time 12 minutes

Countries  United States

Language English

Budget  $2,700

 

BIANCA: 2029 is an ultra-low independent web series directed and produced for development by David Quintana-Lujan during the summer of 2015 after a teaser trailer was released in 2014 during the Ghosties premiere. The entire web series was developed and filmed in Montgomery County, Texas. This series concept was fallout from the successful “Secret of Angelika5” web series that was quickly coming to a close. The director-producer wanted to start a more action packed series with more of an adult theme to every one of the new episodes planned for production. Transitioning to this new series meant that the studio would need to bring in a new cast and also require cross ever episodes with Angelika5.

Originally, Bianca Wolfe was created as a comic book character that Quintana-Lujan developed in the 1990’s under a graphic serried entitled, DEADLY FORCE; so bringing this character to life was a long time dream. The director-producer approached Kacey Kelley with the idea to produce an off-shoot series after the end of the fourth season of Angelika5, where Kelley was more than excited to extend the characters development, especially after she was introduced in the fourth season of the hit series. Kelley was given copies of the original Deadly Force graphic novel and also encouraged to openly share ideas for the character and began full time training to toughen her up for the role during the final weeks of shooting Angelika5. The director-producer sought out to find an investor-producer to help out with the running costs of the show and found Barbara Johnston more than ready to be part of the shows production effort.

In February 2015, Quintana-Lujan met Kelly Raymer at an independent films event in downtown Houston and admired the actors look and tall lanky build. He thought to himself, “this guy would make a really badass bad guy or a micromanaging dickhead,” which is where the idea of creating Mr. Williams was first established. Through a mutual contact, Darla Redwine [of Ghosties], Raymer had actually attended the Ghosties premiere [the year before] and wanted to work with the film’s director-producer on a new project, if the chance ever came up. Raymer was a respected comedic actor in the local Houston film scene and wanted to play a larger role in films, so when the director-producer first approached him about a new project, Raymer was ready to say, yes!

March 2015 brought the idea of Quintana-Lujan making changes to the first rough script for episode one. Where his previous works were more dramatic in the story telling, the director-producer began working on the dark comedic parts of a storyline where the “aliens on the run” might be more quirky in explaining that many of the authorized aliens don’t like the less intelligent aliens running around the planet making their race look bad. With the help from Kelley, the lead character would be portrayed as “tired of doing her job, but if no one else wants to step up to do it and get paid she might as well stick around.” This new philosophy in the character helped the script develop to an all new format in writing which the director-producer had never worked with, so several episodes were completed in only two weeks.

In May, Angelika5 wrapped up what would be the final season and the studio jumped to working on Bianca: 2029. Locations were set and Kelley was excited to get the project started. With only two weeks to prepare, the director-producer began to fill the rest of the cast. He found Jacob Hubbard working at a sandwich shop in the Woodlands, TX. He was fascinated with Hubbard’s facial features while he was telling tall tales or jokes with the local customers. Hubbard had no acting experience but was willing to try his best on camera; that was all Quintana-Lujan asked from him. Next he stumbled onto Katie Garza through the recommendation of Raymer who had met Garza on another indie production, and after a minor audition, she was brought on board to play Raymer’s partner. One actor who didn’t make the first episode due to having a stroke a few weeks prior to filming was Kevin Kretz, who was set to play Bianca’s alien Bail Bondsman who hires her to hunt down aliens.

Shooting of the first episode began in June on a hot day. The location for the first episode was filmed on Kelley’s fiancés home barn in Montgomery County, Texas. Most of the first scenes covered Raymer and Garza on camera, but the rest of the episode skipped to introducing Bianca Wolfe in all of her action packed and comedic splendor. The entire production took less than six hours to produce, and with the help of Kelley’s mother, Michelle Kelley, the production quickly moved from one scene to another. Unfortunately, at the completion of the production to the first episode, Kelley’s mother disclosed that she had terminal intestinal cancer but didn’t want to share the news until the first episode was complete. The episode was edited together in less than a day and two weeks later was released on the studio website as a teaser episode.

The first [and only] episode produced for the potential series was released to raving reviews by both the local indie film scene and at least five indie film critics. The episode received over 16,000 views in the first week after it was posted, most of the views were from overseas and many were centered by “instant fans” in Japan. After the studio website crashed and was lost, the series episode was posted on YouTube where it lost most of its momentum. The director-producer was so impressed by Kelley’s portrayal of Bianca and performance on film that to this day, no other actress has had the technical skill, ability, or commitment to play Bianca Wolfe on film.

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

THE QUANTUM STORM .357 E-MAGAZINE ISSUE 2 IS RELEASED!

THIS NEW ISSUE INCLUDES THE “ISCANDAR” TRAILER AND A SPECIAL INSIDE LOOK AT THE PRODUCTION EFFORTS FOR “PIECES OF 8”

 

 

 THE THRILLING NEW STUDIO PROJECT FILM "GREY PANIC" TRAILER SETS THE MOOD FOR SCIFI HORROR STARRING STUDIO VETERAN ACTRESS, SAIRA RAMOS WITH INCREDIBLE VIEWS EXCEEDING 800 HITS IN LESS THAN A HALF HOUR FROM E-MAG SUBSCRIBERS AND A FEW SELECT POSTS ON FACEBOOK & TWITTER! A FULL ARTICLE ON THIS NEW FEATURE FILM WILL BE RELEASED IN THE JANUARY EDITION OF THE QS .357 E-MAG.

YOU MUST BE A SUBSCRIBER TO VIEW THIS NEW ISSUE OF THE QUANTUM STORM .357 E-Magazine and follow this BLOG

Thank you for stopping by!

OUTSIDE SOURCES WANT TO CLAIM RIGHTS TO AEGIS' "ISCANDAR"

Houston, TX - Some indie projects are so hot and fresh, everyone just seems to want to be part of the action. Very recently, the studio uncovered an IMDB page that was not authorized by the studio, which was being maintained by a third party that had members claiming to be part of the production, claiming to fill positions like "assistant director" and "second unit camera and electronics." The studio has opted to contact IMDB and inform them of the infringements that are occurring on the page and insisting certain person(s) be held liable for the false IMDB page that is listed under Minotaur 1.1. Of course, most people who now follow the new studios name "Aegis Films presents" know that as of May 2021, the series was renamed as ISCANDAR.

During the summer of 2020, in efforts to train a new team to the studios large line of future projects, the studio was involved with a new team of actors and crew from San Antonio. Some of these new team members were part of the production team that helped one, Ramiro Avendano, during his five year pipe dream of producing his scam project, "Zombie Reign" - which eventually became "The Oath" that was being produced in Las Vegas, Nevada from 2018 to 2020. Back then, this "team" rode on Avendano's promising success of the ill-fated zombie film project as they expected millions of dollars for being part of that monstrosity. After the zombie films failed launches, it seems that some of the remaining cast and crew were hungry to leech themselves to another promising project in the local area.

 

Other persons involved in their claim of being part of the ISCANDAR production, is an investor who paid Avendano an alleged $460,000 for a film that has never has never seen the light of day, or will ever come to be. Readers should be reminded that D. R. Quintana wrote the script to this series, cast the entire project, and created character developments for the Minotaur and ISCANDAR projects a little over eight years ago; years before the new team from San Antonio and the upstart investor from The Oath ever crossed paths with this projects creator or any part of the series production efforts.

 

This same investor is also responsible for the cancellation of a private screening of a recent full feature film that was directed and produced to completion by D. R. Quintana and his team during 2020. He has attempted to also lay claim to the feature films ownership, trying to force the studio director to sign over his legal copyright in an attempt to take complete ownership of the feature film and claim that he created the entire production himself. The reasoning behind these two attempts to steal on these two particular projects is purely speculative at best. But what is sure is that the outside parties know, beyond a doubt, that the director spent a lot of his personal time and energies to make these projects come to life with very little support or assistance from anyone around him. Previous experience has shown that thieves within the indie films scene never work alone and very rarely do they ever produce anything successful that hasn't been stolen from some other local production.

Since production re-started at the beginning of the year, the ISCANDAR series has started to take a life of it's own, each week as the studio set out to shoot new scenes for the 9 part first season of Aegis Films' new addition to it's studio name. Created and directed by D. R. Quintana, an independent film producer with quite a history of developing and producing extensive SyFy feature films and web series, this long awaited gem of a project has been in several long phases of development with at least four to five recasts in the acting department, and that is just in the last three years.

The hardest part in casting the roles in this series has been the lack of finding actors who can sell portraying military-style officers, keeping in shape, and also being able to deliver the techno-garble of dialog that always accompanies a good SyFy series. Over the course of eighteen months, the studio finally landed just the leading actress for headlining the series; after that, the director will tell you that the supporting actors fell into place in a much-much shorter time.

"For a long time, we wrote scripts and scrapped them," says Quintana. "We spent weeks trying to redefine the series to keep it at an arms length of anything ever seen or heard from in other web series or Sci-Fi shows. All of this was happening at the same time Paramount and CBS were breathing down the necks of other fan productions for Star Trek fan films, limiting them on what could be produced, with time constraints, property usage, and just adding logos, titles, and music for productions created by their own fans. I didn't want any of my original ideas to be wrapped up in some format bullshit that would require to lose all rights to my original work; just so it would wind up in control of a few assholes that are having problems coming up with good entertainment on their own."

So for many years, the ideas, plots, & storylines within ISCANDAR has remained secret to only a few people in the production team. It's only been in the last five months that the studio has released photos of crew uniforms and ship's concept designs for fans to preview on the projects Facebook page. And to the surprise of Star Trek fans who were expecting another fan production, they witnessed a different looking format of production, something more professional and distant from many of the other fan productions in known Star Trek fandom circles.

 

To begin with, the studio had to bargain on the development and design of a new ship with qualities, some technologies, and propulsion systems with a well known CGI gaming programmer in Croatia, by the name of Alex Meshu, to help create the drop ship, ASV ISCANDAR which will make it's debut before the actual mother ship, ASV MINOTAUR, is ever seen by viewers. Quintana developed a unique story line between ships to facilitate that something incredible had happened to the original crew that was still in another part of the galaxy.

"We wanted an organic feel to the first ship seen by the viewers of the series," says Quintana. "The Iscandar is manned with a small crew, but is highly maneuverable and packs quite a punch in battle. But this series is more about science than it is about space battles and constantly encountering an unknown enemies time and time again. As in real Navy vessels, this smaller ship is meant to be a gentle reminder that something bigger is out there, ready to make it's appearance when things tend to get out of control."

Some interesting incoming emails and notes about the cast has seemed to draw the attention of other SyFy film producers looking to break away from conventional casting for their film productions. The studio has presented female characters thus far who are in fantastic shape, wear their uniforms professionally and also bring a sexiness to the photos released on Facebook and other venues. Off camera, the actresses seem to always be in the best of spirits and there seems to be good camaraderie between the cast and crew; something that the series creator and director demands from his team during production.

"For the series, I wanted the crew to seem like they've been working together for many years," continues Quintana. "Building a good team through some detailed and intensive character development has made way for the cast to understand the parables between their characters on how they have to deal with the duality of being a scientist and a potential deep space warriors."

On and off set communication is the key to the success of any project which requires character actors to portray lone time friendships. The cast of ISCANDAR had done a magnificent job in creating an atmosphere of "military-style respect" between the ranks of of the crew; more-so leading credence to senior officers like, Admiral Tera Escher, prescribing the upmost maturity and military bearing through her entire performance, something that most of the cast and crew make comment on each time Zara Majidpour steps up on the set to shoot her part as the mission commander. The Captain of the series will be played by Dru Rovito, taking the part of Captain Jadrian Quest, a character that will tie-in the timeline between ISCANDAR and the ST-BEYOND series that was launched in April of 2006. It has been said on more than one occasion that the two actresses are very excited to be working together on this series.

 

Quintana added that with the addition of Saira Ramos [as CDR Ka'Jol] into the project has presented some unforeseen grit that wasn't expected during the initial phases of the series screenplay. During the principle shoot of the first episode in Marfa, Texas, the director noticed that her performance far exceeded what was expected from her. Ramos is best known in the studio circles for her work in the Secret of Angelika5 Series that ran for five seasons from 2009-2013 and a recent episode of SPECTRE ZERO. Her part in ISCANDAR has been the perfect fit for a co-star to help launch the series in its debut sometime this fall as the moves to a streaming format.

"We honestly don't know what to expect when season one of the series is launched," added Quintana. "We guarantee solid story telling and some good science in the show. There will be some comedy and a taste of the darker things to come as the series progresses. We can guarantee that there is no "dark government" or an enemy that you can't see. All of the elements to develop a good series will be presented for all to see with a little mischief and mystery to solve along the way."

 
The studio says that the production to the series, even though it's gone through several stages of progression, produced over the course of seven years, and changed from one set of actors to another, claims that it has all been done on purpose to distance itself from other SyFy productions that have a tendency to mimic Star Trek or Star Wars fan film formats. But the studio admits that it will be up to the fans to decide where ISCANDAR is either just another "chance" film project that will eventually fail or an extension of an older idea that needed a little jump start to make its point.

***This blog entry was developed from studio Liner Notes and Director commentary by Beatrice Holland and Dillon Mason, Q Storm Production Assistant Writers.

SCIFI SERIES "ISCANDAR" OFF TO A GREAT START!

Houston, TX - Since production started at the beginning of the year, the ISCANDAR series has started to take a life of it's own, each week the studio sets out to shoot new scenes for the 9 part first season of Aegis Films' new addition to it's studio name. Created and directed by D. R. Quintana, an independent film producer with quite a history of developing and producing extensive SyFy feature films and web series, this long awaited gem of a project has been in several long phases of development with at least four to five recasts in the acting department, and that is just in the last three years.

The hardest part in casting the roles in this series has been the lack of finding actors who can sell portraying military-style officers, keeping in shape, and also being able to deliver the techno-garble of dialog that always accompanies a good SyFy series. Over the course of eighteen months, the studio finally landed just the leading actress for headlining the series; after that, the director will tell you that the supporting actors fell into place in a much-much shorter time.

"For a long time, we wrote scripts and scrapped them," says Quintana. "We spent weeks trying to redefine the series to keep it at an arms length of anything ever seen or heard from in other web series or Sci-Fi shows. All of this was happening at the same time Paramount and CBS were breathing down the necks of other fan productions for Star Trek fan films, limiting them on what could be produced, with time constraints, property usage, and just adding logos, titles, and music for productions created by their own fans. I didn't want any of my original ideas to be wrapped up in some format bullshit that would require to lose all rights to my original work; just so it would wind up in control of a few assholes that are having problems coming up with good entertainment on their own."

So for many years, the ideas, plots, & storylines within ISCANDAR has remained secret to only a few people in the production team. It's only been in the last five months that the studio has released photos of crew uniforms and ship's concept designs for fans to preview on the projects Facebook page. And to the surprise of Star Trek fans who were expecting another fan production, they witnessed a different looking format of production, something more professional and distant from many of the other fan productions in known Star Trek fandom circles.

 

To begin with, the studio had to bargain on the development and design of a new ship with qualities, some technologies, and propulsion systems with a well known CGI gaming programmer in Croatia, by the name of Alex Meshu, to help create the drop ship, ASV ISKANDAR which will make it's debute before the ASV MINOTAUR is ever seen by viewers.

"We wanted an organic feel to the first ship seen by the viewers of the series," says Quintana. "The ship is manned with a small crew, but is highly maneuverable and packs quite a punch in battle. But this series is more about science than it is about space battles and constantly encountering an unknown enemies time and time again. As in real Navy vessels, this smaller ship is meant to be a gentle reminder that something bigger is out there, ready to make it's appearance when things tend to get out of control."

Some interesting incoming emails and notes about the cast has seemed to draw the attention of other SyFy film producers looking to break away from conventional casting for their film productions. The studio has presented female characters thus far who are in fantastic shape, wear their uniforms professionally and also bring a sexiness to the photos released on Facebook and other venues. Off camera, the actresses seem to always be in the best of spirits and there seems to be good camaraderie between the cast and crew; something that the series creator and director demands from his team during production.

"For the series, I wanted the crew to seem like they've been working together for many years," continues Quintana. "Building a good team through some detailed and intensive character development has made way for the cast to understand the parables between their characters on how they have to deal with the duality of being a scientist and a potential deep space warriors."

On and off set communication is the key to the success of any project which requires character actors to portray lone time friendships. The cast of ISCANDAR had done a magnificent job in creating an atmosphere of "military-style respect" between the ranks of of the crew; more-so leading credence to senior officers like, Admiral Tera Escher, prescribing the upmost maturity and military bearing through her entire performance, something that most of the cast and crew make comment on each time Zara Majidpour steps up on the set to shoot her part as the mission commander. The Captain of the series will be played by Dru Rovito, taking the part of Captain Jadrian Quest, a character that will tie-in the timeline between ISCANDAR and the ST-BEYOND series that was launched in April of 2006. It has been said on more than one occasion that the two actresses are very excited to be working together on this series

Quintana added that with the addition of Saira Ramos [as CDR Ka'Jol] into the project has presented some unforeseen grit that wasn't expected during the initial phases of the series screenplay. During the principle shoot of the first episode in Marfa, Texas, the director noticed that her performance far exceeded what was expected from her. Ramos is best known in the studio circles for her work in the Secret of Angelika5 Series that ran for five seasons from 2009-2013 and a recent episode of SPECTRE ZERO. Her part in ISCANDAR has been the perfect fit for a co-star to help launch the series in its debut sometime this fall as the moves to a streaming format.

"We honestly don't know what to expect when season one of the series is launched," added Quintana. "We guarantee solid story telling and some good science in the show. There will be some comedy and a taste of the darker things to come as the series progresses. We can guarantee that there is no "dark government" or an enemy that you can't see. All of the elements to develop a good series will be presented for all to see with a little mischief and mystery to solve along the way."

The studio says that the production to the series, even though it's gone through several stages of progression, produced over the course of seven years, and changed from one set of actors to another, claims that it has all been done on purpose to distance itself from other SyFy productions that have a tendency to mimic Star Trek or Star Wars fan film formats. But the studio admits that it will be up to the fans to decide where ISCANDAR is either just another "chance" film project that will eventually fail or an extension of an older idea that needed a little jump start to make its point.

***This blog entry was developed from studio Liner Notes and Director commentary by Beatrice Holland and Dillon Mason, Q Storm Production Assistant Writers.