QUANTUM STORM WIKI ABOUT “ZERO ZERO ONE”

ZERO ZERO ONE is the Directors Cut to a 2021 horror, dark comedy action film written and directed by David Quintana-Lujan, that has never been officially released to the public. It is the ninth full feature film directed by Quintana-Lujan and his third under Quantum Storm Pictures. In the near future, oil field manager, Kris Castle [Zara Majidpour], is sent out to El Paso, Texas in the middle of the night. Leaving the safe confines of her home in Houston, Texas, she sets out on a nine hour journey to help save a fracking contract in West Texas. After stopping to refuel her large truck in the small town of Havoc, Texas; where unknown to her, a nerve gas agent was accidentally released into the air on the same night that causes the dead to rise in an alarming rate. After her truck breaks down, she is forced to run for her life, and with the aid of another Texas family on the run, she learns quickly that she has fight to survive. Zero Zero One features Saira Ramos, Valjean Eskridge II, Larissa Dali, Sara Mao, Noah Pekari, David Kufner, and Brett Wilson Sr in supporting roles.

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

Associate Producers  Barbara Johnston,
Patty Weisler Hall, James McShan

Starring Zara Majidpour, Saira Ramos

Cinematography D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Edited by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Music by Lora Mao
            Valjean Eskridge II

Production Company Quantum Storm Pictures in association with James McShan

Release Date 

Running Time 81 minutes

Countries United States

Language English

Budget $10,500

 

Zero Zero One is an ultra-low independent film project produced and directed by David Quintana-Lujan in 2020, that was shot entirely at night; there are no day scenes in this film. The film was produced and entirely filmed in four different towns in Montgomery County and Atascosa [South San Antonio] in the state of Texas with a budget of $10,500. The entire movie, from script to film was created and filmed by Quintana-Lujan, while recovering from an injury sustained in December of 2019. All of the screenplay, actor casting, cinematography, and editing was completed in 19 days and without the help of any outside resources. Creators copyright is listed under the date of July 19, 2019.

 

The production for the film was shot in 19 days over the course of a year; mostly due to the Corona Virus shutdown which forced smaller crews on set during the year 2020. The script for the film was fallout from a previous script and low budget film project written by Quintana-Lujan in 2005, entitled as “Sally Sixkiller; Vampire-Zombie Killer,” starring Cheryl Martino, which was actually set for production in late 2018, but was shelved until a larger group of actors could be cast in 2019. Many of the original items in the original script were kept, but the character names and locations were changed to better suit the studios direction with the new script concept. Martino was originally set to play the part of the leading character in both productions, but could not confirm working on the film in San Antonio due to her busy work schedule.

 

HOW THE SCRIPT WAS DEVELOPED

The old script was reworked during the summer of 2019 and Quintana-Lujan began to rewrite the story and plot for a newer version of the script, which was then given the working title of Havoc 114. Quintana-Lujan, who is known for making web series projects with titles containing numbers at the end of each title, added the number “114” at the end of the Havoc name, not only to differentiate the name “Havoc” from other titles searched on IMDB, but in homage of Mavericks fighter plane number from the original Top Gun [1986] movie, in which Quintana-Lujan is a big fan of. With the new script completed in July of 2019, an original cast was selected for Havoc 114, which was originally to star Independent actor, Stephanie Greenfield, of San Antonio, Texas and led by first time director, Bobby Lee Osborn, who was personally chosen by the producer to lead the production crew. 

 

The remaining cast and crew were assigned under an “all volunteer” agreement with Quintana-Lujan as the producer, and the film was set for a three week production schedule that would begin in mid-December of 2019; this filming schedule would allow the film to be released in the Spring of 2020, just in time for the independent film screenings that would begin throughout the U.S. and abroad. Original music composer, Lora Mao, agreed to produce the music for the film and she would also play parts of several different zombies and a cameo character in the film. The script for the film was also written as a cross-over piece for the Quantum Storm Pictures Universe which would cross over several other films that were produced by the studio over the course of 14 years.

 

AN INJURY BEFORE FILMING

In early December while working on another independent film production in Houston, Texas, Quintana-Lujan fell on the set and severely injured his left shoulder which prevented him from taking part in seeing the start of Zero Zero One’s shoot. It was agreed by the production team that the films shooting schedule would be put on hold until the producer’s shoulder healed after an operation. During this break, the producer and Osborn worked together to prepare the best special effects makeup arrangement for the film. The duo did most of the pre-production work over the phone and since the leading actress lived in San Antonio, and to defray the cost for the film, it was agreed that the entire production would originally be shot at various locations in San Antonio. Quintana-Lujan requested the aid of Brett Wilson Sr. and his wife, Diana Wilson, to help secure locations in the town of Von Ormy, Texas, just south of San Antonio and to expedite the legal release of the properties in writing prior to production.

 

THE PRODUCER FINDS HELP

In early January of 2020, the producer was able to confirm a sponsor to assist in the production of the film. The producer wanted the sponsor to sign on as an investor, but the sponsor refused to sign a contract for the credit and privilege of owning part of the film. So, with the close guidance of the producer, the sponsor began to excitedly procure film and sound equipment, then hired Quintana-Lujan as an independent contractor [via a verbal agreement] to help the sponsor create and develop a movie studio in Montgomery, Texas; as the sponsor had absolutely no experience in making films, procuring locations, writing scripts, editing, casting, camera selections, nor had contacts in the local independent acting field to build future film teams of his own. With the producers help, the sponsor wanted to learn how to develop future films with proper film formats and promotional advertising on his own.

A MAKEUP ARTIST IS HIRED

At the time, it was felt that the sponsorship could  help elevate the production level of the film with the procurement of new filming equipment. During this time, Quintana-Lujan affirmed the commission of a makeup artist, Adrianna Villedas, who would be in charge of the makeup department during the entire films production. She proved her work capabilities with the producer and would eventually be responsible for applying all of the zombie makeup on set; sometimes applying makeup for as many as ten actors in only two hours. In mid-January 2020, the producer realized that Wilson Sr and his wife were not accomplishing the task of procuring locations for the film in a timely manner, due to having issues with the “all volunteer” commitment to the film’s production. Instead, the duo in San Antonio spent more time trying to find local people to act in the film instead of completing the tasks at hand. It wasn’t until after the producer paid Wilson Sr  “cash for gas,” that one location for the first scene in the production was finally confirmed in writing.

 

VIDEO CAMERAS USED

By the end of January 2020, the producer was recovering from an operation on his injured shoulder and his team began preparing shoot dates for the film. The sponsor’s equipment arrived to his "studio" [his home actually] and it was first thought that the film would be shot using two Blackmagic 6K HD video cameras with various sound and lighting equipment. By the time the end of the month arrived, two locations were confirmed in San Antonio and the team was ready to begin filming. On March 6th of 2020, filming began with Osborn directing and handling duties as lead cinematographer. Both the director and producer had very little experience using the new Blackmagic cameras, also experiencing issues with limited battery life, and formatting the cameras for use that most of the video work captured on their first night of production was useless and eventually lost. After a disagreement with the productions pacing and cinematography formats being used on set, Osborn left the production and Quintana-Lujan took over as director and lead cinematographer. 

The use of the Blackmagic cameras were immediately dropped and the producer, and now also director, requested the team use Canon cameras to complete the film. The director felt that the Cannon’s “ease of use,” extended battery life, and pristine sound capturing capability outweighed the 6K video capturing of what the Blackmagic cameras could deliver. The director-producer knew the RAW footage from the new cameras would present a 4K video format that was acceptable in transferring the film to future streaming sites and/or BlueRay sales.

OTHER CAMERAS WERE USED FOR THE FILM? [*]

Yes, the director-producer required the need to use a Canon 7D camera and at least four Apple 12 Plus iPhones were used in car scenes, action scenes during a slaughterhouse event, and showing a vehicle drive on the highway at night where iPhones were mounted on dashboards and rear windows using a suction cup "jimmy" to capture the scenes. [*]

PRODUCTION MOVES TO MONTGOMERY, TX

Due to issues with finding locations in San Antonio to complete the film, the primary search was for an abandoned house that could not be confirmed, the next day on March 7th of 2020 while driving back to Houston, the director-producer decided that the entire production should be moved to Montgomery County. Due to his experience in producing a plethora of projects there, he knew that he had access to countless locations for the film, that most of the actors in the film lived in that general area, and more importantly, the team would save budget money by bringing the remaining few actors from San Antonio to Montgomery during the weekends to shoot their parts. Greenfield, who is also a mother, could not confirm the scheduled travel dates and also disclosed to the director-producer of a severe neck injury that could have held the entire production liable during required stunt scenes. She was replaced by Zara Majidpour, who was coincidentally working with the now director/producer on a Science Fiction project called Iscandar. Without a skip in the mid-week of March, production to Havoc 114 restarted with the first scene in Atascosa, Texas and then shifted back to Montgomery, Texas the following weekend.

 

During "Day One" of the shoot with the original production also brought with it an issue that transpired with one of the planned cast members in the opening scene. Before shooting at an isolated grocery store in Atascosa, TX commenced, actor David Perales Jr. - who came highly recommended by Wilson Sr - failed to show up for production, but was immediately replaced by the talented, Val Jean Eskridge II, who just happened to be on the set helping out as a crew member. Eskridge was with the production team due to also working on the SciFi project  Iscandar with Majidpour. He "winged" his performance during the first try, not even knowing the script. But with a week to prepare before the retake of "Day One" of the production at the same location, Eskridge's performance as the Store Clerk proved to be a good turning point in the production, providing comedy relief at the beginning for developing the leading character of Kris Castle [Majidpour] into the film. [*]

Two different locations were use for the gas station scene. The first scene inside the store was located in Atascosa, Texas, the location found by Wilson Sr, after he had the production team bouncing back and forth between two different stores. The director-producer was looking for a certain feel and focused on the sound and natural lighting, choosing the Atascosa store as the best one to use for the film. The second scene for the store was located in Richards, Texas - just outside of Montgomery; a store that the director-producer frequented during his work on Angelika5. Ownership to this store shifted several times and Quintana-Lujan was able to get signed releases for it's use almost immediately. [*]

 

THE INFAMOUS ELVIS PRESLEY PERFORMANCE

 

The director-producer changed the script in the grocery store scene because the original script was developed to present a comedic and flirty "Machete" type Hispanic character with Perales Jr, who was replaced by Eskridge II. The scene was re-written to present the store clerk making an idiot of himself while working alone in an empty store. A song played in the scene, credited as "The Candyman in Me" was performed by Eskridge II wearing long sideburns and singing in an Elvis-esq type voice while an acoustic guitar played in the background. The song was penned by the director-producer in post editing and the rhythm guitar was later performed by Eskridge II. [*]

 

THE CORONA VIRUS SHUTDOWN

By April 2020, the entire production for the film was moved to Montgomery County. Then, just as production was in full swing, the entire state of Texas was shut down due to the Corona Virus. The team found it impossible to film on locations without being able to acquire filming permits with large teams of production crews and actors. As the production slowly grounded to a halt, the director learned that he could still film on private property with small three man teams and complete scenes that were used as filler until the county offices opened and the production could acquire filming permits. By summer, the production was only shooting one scene a month, until some of the Covid Restrictions were dropped. By the end of August 2020, a sporadic 60% of the film was complete, but the Foley and music arrangements were still not complete. Updates for the film’s production efforts were only being updated by the director/producer on Facebook, the sponsors website, Instagram and Twitter, for the production crew, the actors and their families who were following the progress of the film’s production.

 

FINDING THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE [*]

Once the production was officially moved to Montgomery, Texas, the director-producer was on the search for an abandoned home or trailer to use for the very much needed "slaughter house scene," which would be the money shot location for the film. The director-producer searched high and low for two weeks, where, by chance, he landed on an empty property located just outside of Willis, Texas off of "old Texas highway" I-75, leading north towards Huntsville, Texas. There was no access to electricity or running water, but the inside of the home gave plenty of elbow room to move about, and with the cooler weather starting to set in, it was perfect to protect the cast and crew from the outside elements. Better yet, since the team would be filming late at night, the traffic on the back highway was rarely in use and could be masked from view without having to black out the windows.

 

The director-producer was able to find the owner, who had no problem with renting out the property for the film. The cast and crew filmed at the abandoned home for five days over the course of a month; last minute changes in scenes and one big alteration in the plot of the script was added which required two additional dates of shooting for the scene. Because the director-producer was still recovering from a shoulder operation, he required the use of four camera operators on set to complete shooting the sequences at the abandoned home. Ivan Winkler Sr was instrumental in assisting the director-producer during the latter days of shooting at the location. [*]

 

THE TEAM NEVER FILMED IN A CEMETERY

 

During one of the opening scenes in the film, the script demanded a scene being shot at a cemetery. The actual location used was the infamous Lightsey Ranch that the director-producer has used in many of his previous film and web series projects. He spent well over eight hours cutting cardboard and painting headstones for the set, something that the sponsor wasn't happy about as he couldn't wrap his head around how cardboard would fool anyone. When the yard on the property was set up with the fake headstones and a fog machine was activated prior to filming, the entire scene came to life with a movie magic feel all it's own.

Deep down, the sponsor was so embarrassed about how the film production filmed the cemetery scene, that on one of the early screenings of that scene to some of his friends, he cried out, “Those aren’t real headstones, just cutout cardboard!” while the film was playing to the crowd watching the film. Up to the moment of his statement, no one in the room was aware that the set was staged outside of a cemetery.  [*]

 

LARISSA DALI IS CAST

 

In mid-October, a scene in the film required three sexy models to fill the cast for a hot tub scene that would include Instagram & TikTok comedian, Noah Pekari, as "Ricky" - the brat teen step-son of the leading actresses previous marriage. The director-producer was able to procure Larissa Dali [from Austin, TX] to the production of the film. Her addition to the scene in the film ensured a lure of sexiness that would bring more attention to the targeted male viewers who might want to see more of the actress in the film. Dali was excited about being on the set with the small team and had genuine interest with working with the director-producer and his team on an upcoming SciFi horror project. Two other models were procured through actor, Ivan Winkler Sr, who had made contact with two waitresses from the local, Bombshells establishment. Winkler would would play the role of "Richard" - a drunk father that yells art his son, in the film; plus would also play a zombie in several scenes of the film. Behind the scenes, Winkler helped out as a prop supervisor and in visual effects.

 

A SECOND INNER PRODUCTION IS COMMISSIONED

Quintana-Lujan commissioned Brett Wilson Sr. to produce a short film that would be added to Havoc 114 as a television show in one of the early scenes of the film. Wilson agreed to produce the short film for $500 and the television addition would be formatted as a black and white zombie film production with a separate cast from the main group. The short film was shot over the course of two days and was titled, Reign of Zombies; a title that mocked a failed production which Wilson [and his family] had worked on in San Antonio from 2015 to 2018. But in a twist of plagiarism, Wilson Sr added vampires and a similar closet scene in his short film; something the director/producer was not aware of and was furious about as it mirrored one of Havoc 114's scripted scenes and the "Sally Sixkiller" project mentioned earlier; which without proper authorization was considered willful copyright infringement by the director-producer. Since then, the film was renamed, Zombie World, and re-released as a short film

When the short film was completed, Quintana-Lujan originally added most of the short film into Havoc 114 as a part of the main production, until Wilson had confided with the director-producer that he had stolen a scene from the now defunct zombie production called Zombie Reign, directed by Ramiro Avendano, that he had worked on a few years before. 

Due to Wilson Sr’s admission of willful copyright infringement, Quintana-Lujan was forced to remove a large majority of Reign of Zombies from the final cut of the film and only left parts of the audio track play in the background. This one issue about the misuse[s] of copyrighted material would be a larger problem a few months later.

THE FIRST LOOK OF THE FILM

By November, the director/producer presented a "rough cut" first look of the film to the sponsor, who was not impressed with what he saw. However, the sponsor’s own inexperience with film production was the deciding factor in his disappointment turning into anger that the film didn’t look 100% complete. Due to his severe inexperience in film making, the sponsor was unaware that there were many more steps required to complete the sequencing of the film before presenting a completed project; including Foley, color arrangements, music, pacing; and that this was just how things are usually presented in a "rough cut." Part of being a film maker is having the ability to look at the potential of a film, not judging what only a partial look at the film looks like; the sponsor was failing to see this flaw in his thinking. So, the director/producer promised the sponsor that a more polished look at the film would be delivered in late December or even January, which didn’t help the sponsor cool down. During the same month, Quintana-Lujan, with the help of the Mexican metal rock band “Awake,” secretly produced a music video to help promote the release of Havoc 114, which caught everyone in the production team off guard.

 

In late December, the sponsor [in a drunken stupor] argued with the director/producer about the progress of the film production taking almost a year to complete and threatened to fire him from his studio[*] for his failure to complete the film. The director/producer knew that the sponsor was only venting his own frustrations over the time being used on the film and a car accident which had occurred on the set during production.[*] But the director-producer insisted the film would be complete in January of 2021, with plenty of room to prepare the film for the independent film festivals that occurred in the spring. 

 

POST EDITING STARTS

The director-producer began editing the entire film in mid-January of 2021. While watching the film over and over during this phrase of production, he realized that something was missing from the film. The pacing and edits were pristine, but there was no story arc that explained why the dead [zombies] were being brought back to life and also where a pizza delivery man [played by David Kufner] came from. Without having to clear a change in the films direction with anyone, the director/producer quickly prepared two extra scripts for additional scenes, procured two new locations for a soft schedule and shoot these new scenes with very little preparation. These two scenes were the only parts of the film that used “guerilla style” filming techniques – filming without permits - to complete the scenes. These scenes were not officially added to the final version of the film until March 6th, 2021. This new sequence of scenes included the talented performance of Jennifer Lee, who was once penciled in as a possible lead for the film project.

FILM FESTIVAL ENTRIES BEGIN

In late February 2021, Wilson Sr, who was at this point extremely excited about the film and swooning at the side of the sponsor at every chance, and the sponsor conspired together to release the first version of Havoc 114 to several independent film festivals in the U.S., where it won some awards. They both also released the Reign of Zombies film in the independent film festivals even though they were warned by Quintana-Lujan about at least two instances of willful copyright infringement in the short film. The good news was that the Havoc 114 Awake music video won several awards for “Best Music Video.” With the shooting schedule now “in the can,” the director/producer presented the finished film in all of its glory to the sponsor, minus the footage from Wilson Sr’s short film, to a small group of movie previewers and a film critic from Dallas, Texas who gave Havoc 114 high marks in production and suggested an R-Rating for violence and adult situations. 

 

This newer version of the film won many independent film festival awards, including: Best Actress [Majidpour], Best Supporting Actor [Wilson Sr], Best Music [Mao], Best Editing [Quintana], Best Makeup [Villedas], Best Sound [Quintana], Best Cinematography [Quintana], Best Producer [Quintana], Best Director [Quintana], and Best Music Video [Awake]. At this point, while on top of winning awards, the director-producer thought it best to prepare a private screening of the film to the cast, crew and their family and friends.

MISINFORMATION ON IMDB

Due to his lack of experience and total excitement about being in his first legit film, Brett Wilson Sr. took it upon himself to produce an IMDB page for HAVOC 114 and falsify information on the database to boost his film career and those of his family. He claimed that his daughter, Brandy Wilson, was credited as Cinematographer for the film, even though she was only on the set for 3 days of a 19 day shoot and was only a camera operator. He also submitted himself for a “Best Actor” award in the Golden Sparrow International Independent Film Festival which he apparently won, even though he was only listed as a supporting actor in the film, at best. Over a short period of time, Wilson Sr. proved to the producer and rest of the cast and crew that he had no real knowledge of film production positions, even listing himself as “assistant director” and “second-assistant director” on previous studio projects to try and bolster his filmmaking résumé. 

LEGAL AGGRESSION BEGINS

With a 45 day window to promote the film, a private screening and awards ceremony was planned by the director/producer for the evening of May 28, 2021 in Conroe, Texas. The producer/director and his cast began to spread the word in the local indie film community, their family and friends, and anywhere they could on the internet. The production team was planning a huge, fancy event with tons of glamorous people in the Houston indie film scene to make a statement about premiering indie films and properly delivering awards. The production team was able to get some big names to attend the private screening; a few names were Michael Berry [Radio Show Host], Marcus Luttrell [Book Writer], "Rocking" Robin Smith [WWF Wrestler], Steve Luke Johnson [Indie film critic], just to name a few. The director/producers aim was to reach out to at least 2,000 people in the local area to help bolster the premiere night in such a fashion, that more indie films would be welcomed in Conroe, TX for an extended period of time; something unheard of outside of the tremendous indie film scene in Austin, TX and something to use when the next studio film was produced.

During this time, the sponsor had begun to invest in another film in central Texas. The new production team began using the sponsors studio logo and the director/producer, not aware of the sponsors intent to invest in another project, began to take steps to shut down the other production. Prior to taking action, the director/producer informed the investor, who claimed he didn’t know anything about the other film production and that the director/producer should just ignore the new studio using his studio logo. The director/producer found that strange and dropped the subject, but the sponsor was obviously upset that the news of his investing into another project leaked out so quickly. [*]

 

However, just as momentum was building to reach their mark, two weeks prior to the premiere, the sponsor - who had never planned such an event in his entire life - wanted the premiere to the film cancelled, because he “didn’t like the way things were progressing,” even though 1433 reservations for tickets were already confirmed [at $20 per ticket] and the theaters corporate owner was willing to confirm the use of two additional auditoriums just to present the feature film.

The sponsor contacted the theaters owner, demanding the screening be cancelled and threatened to file charges with the local police department to shut the event down. The sponsor’s inexperience in independent film production, presentation and marketing were proving to be the downfall for the film, as he filed a lawsuit alleging that the films director/producer was bootlegging DVDs on his own, which was always the intellectual property of Quintana-Lujan, but the sponsor claimed copyright privileges to the film even though the rights to the film were never released to the sponsor in writing. 

During an attempt at mediation, the sponsor disclosed that he did not have intellectual property rights to Havoc 114, but was demanding that the director/producer release them to him in writing and with all of the “RAW video,” promotional advertising, and all photography. The sponsor also began to allege ownership of other Quintana-Lujan related film projects that were in development many years prior to the sponsor ever working with the established film director. None of the sponsors claims were ever proven and all of his demands sank in civil court. To this day, Quintana-Lujan and Quantum Storm Pictures retains the rights to the film, all of the footage, photographs and advertisements to the film created by the director.

DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR BEGIN

During this time, Brett Wilson Sr. began to credit himself in positions on IMDB that didn't exist in current and previous productions that Quintana-Lujan had created. Wilson Sr. credited himself as a co-creator, a second assistant director, a co-writer, and he also posted copyrighted video material from Havoc 114 that he edited out of the film on YouTube [see the picture below] without permission. Wilson Sr. went as far to add unauthorized photos of himself on IMDB in an attempt to try and market himself as a "top actor" in the film.

LEGAL ACTIONS END

 

In May of 2022, after the course of almost a year, a civil judge dropped the lawsuits filed against the director/producer. Shortly afterwards, Quintana-Lujan filed for an appropriate copyright with the Copyright Office in Washington, DC, claiming that the sponsor’s claim to copyright was invalid and fraudulent. The Copyright Office agreed and granted a new copyright to Quintana-Lujan under the production team name of Quantum Storm Pictures, which was inserted into the final version of the films credits. Since his victory with the Copyright Office, Quintana-Lujan changed the title of the film from Havoc 114 to ZERO ZERO ONE, added additional extended scenes and cut several scenes of the old version of the film, also giving the film a totally different ending. 

 

Also being removed from the film were two musical tracks that were brought to the production by the sponsor under two fraudulent contracts which promised percentage earnings of the film, not authorized by the legal copyright holder of the film. The ending to the film has also been altered and re-written with new locations for additional scenes, and new cast members were added to the production. 

During the summer of 2022, some cast members of ZERO ZERO ONE began to personally confide with Quintana-Lujan that the sponsor tried to compile a list of witnesses [within the cast] to use against director/producer in court. One actor was asked to sign a letter against the director/producer maintaining ownership of the film and in return the sponsor would approve funding for another horror movie that was in production. The sponsor also wanted other actors in the film to allege that the director/producer stole money from the productions budget and absconded with it. The only persons known to have agreed to file letters against Quintana-Lujan were Brett Wilson Sr. and his family; Wilson Sr attended the initial day of court but never testified. All of these attempts by the sponsor to gain favor from other cast members of ZERO ZERO ONE failed and his allegations of theft from the movies budget were not true and never proven. 

By the end of July of 2022, Quintana-Lujan began to enforce copyright claims on ZERO ZERO ONE on various websites that contained informational services for the film. Websites most impacted were Facebook, YouTube, and most especially, IMDB.com; where Wilson continues to update the database with faulty information, choosing to add family as production personnel and personal friends at every turn to positions that bolstered his newly formed “film studio.” As stated before, and in an attempt to bolster his “film career” on IMDB, Wilson Sr's claims as being a “co-creator” and “second-assistant director” credits on other film projects that Quintana-Lujan was recently producing outside of ZERO ZERO ONE, plus the private video on YouTube with only his scenes cut from the then Havoc 114 film were all stricken and/or removed from the YouTube and IMDB web sites.

Also during this time frame, Quintana-Lujan began to reach out to the members of the ZERO ZERO ONE cast to both re-shoot scenes and complete the film with an additional action sequence.

STILL NO PREMIERE DATE

As of now, the original ZERO ZERO ONE has not been officially released to the open market, but was released unofficially online at Rumble.com on December 2, 2022, where over 5800 people viewed [as of August 2023] the film in the first hour of the film launch. The original cinema-graphic video files for the film are still under the custody of Quintana-Lujan, and so are all of the promotional material, photographs, behind the scenes videos with cast and crew, and all of the required licenses purchased under Quintana-Lujan’s name. The copyright and exclusive intellectual property rights for the completed full feature film has never been released in writing – as required by law - by Quintana-Lujan, Highwaymen Editions Ltd and Quantum Storm Pictures. The studio will be entering a new production phase for ZERO ZERO ONE in 2024.

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

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.

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QUANTUM STORM WIKI ON “STAR TREK BEYOND”

Star Trek Beyond [STB] is a SciFi, dramatic/action web series written and directed by David Quintana-Lujan. It was the first web series idea ever produced by Quintana-Lujan, this series was produced under the studio name, StoneWater Productions from 2006 to 2008. This series takes place 87 years after Start Trek Voyager, after fallout from a massive war has brought the Federation and Romulan Empires to forge an Alliance that has now expanded into the Kilos Quadrant of deep space; this part of the cosmos is vast and relatively uncharted. One species [The Jade Kussar] is helping the new Alliance map the farthest reaches of the quadrant in a vain [but cryptic] attempt to expand trade and commerce. When an advanced offshoot of the Borg are found in the sector, the crew of the ASV [Alliance Space Vessel] Precipice must investigate the reasoning for the Borg presence and help the Alliance defend what’s left of their homeworlds.  Star Trek Beyond features Bernice Tremblay, Marah Anderton, A. J. Lightsey, William Foster, Jeremy Chubb, Rachael Duerrler, Tom McAvin, Seanna Six, Heather Hyland, Jessica McAvin, Randall Behan, Melissa Damon, Aaron Hayes, Mike Valletta, Kristi Lynn, Matt Vaughn, and Kat Hansen.

Directed by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Screenplay by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Story by D. R. Quintana-Lujan
            Bernice Tremblay
            Heather Hyland

Based on Characters by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Produced by D. R. Quintana-Lujan
                 Bernice Tremblay
                 Jeremy Chubb

Starring Bernice Tremblay, Racheal Duerrler

Cinematography by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Edited by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Music by Within Temptation

Production Company StoneWater Productions

Running Time 20 minutes per episode

Countries  United States

Language English

26 Episodes

 

Star Trek Beyond [STB] is an ultra-low independent web series directed and produced by David Quintana-Lujan during the Spring 2006. Living in New England during his military years, the director-producer spent two years working as an editor on low budget independent schlock vampire films in Boston, MA. One day after getting fed up with the local drama there, he went back to his home and thought about starting his own independent films in Connecticut. After talking with a friend [Professor William Foster] at a comic book convention, they narrowed the field of potential projects down to two formats; either produce a western or produce a SciFi project. Since the logistics at his current disposal couldn’t support horses or building a town for a western, he decided on producing a SciFi feature film. Foster jokingly told the aspiring filmmaker that if he made a Star Trek show, he wanted to be in it.

Quintana-Lujan began talking with long time Navy buddy, Del Mar Rosa, about working on a potential SciFi movie. One idea was called Andromeda7, which would later be produced as Angelika5, and the other was a deep space feature partially based on a Mad Max type world where a star ship crash lands and the survivors have to mingle in to survive. But Quintana-Lujan and Rosa had never used camera equipment before, so they both decided on working on a project they both new best, a Star Trek show. Quintana-Lujan began working on a script and his friend, Marah Anderton, helped out creating one of the new aliens to present in the show called, The Jade Kussar. This new race was a bunch of half-assed but very mysterious pirates; who may have been the culprits who visited the earth long ago and brought the pirate mentality to Earth.

CREATING THE ASV PRECIPICE

Quintana-Lujan wanted to design and present an all new class of ship. It was to be a hybrid of technologies between the old Federation and Romulan fleets. But since the technology was not readily available to the studio to project the new ships design, the director settled on using the Akira Class Cruiser from STNG canon, but with various alterations in propulsion, a cloaking device, and advanced weaponry on board. Rosa worked feverishly to design sets for the show, most on paper and with cardboard cutouts. When a design was found doable, Quintana-Lujan funded $250 to help build the set, which was nothing like what Rosa had designed. The team loved the color setting, most were earth colors with maroon shades and thin black stripes, which matched the uniform colors of the ships personnel.

The two filmmakers, with the help of Jeremy Chubb, spent a weekend hammering, spray painting and gluing the set together in Quintana-Lujan’s carport and eventually moved it into his car garage where the entire first season would be filmed. The set was very flat, no curvature like they wanted, but it could be manipulated into different designs and various compartments for use in front of the camera; it would eventually be used as a bridge, a turbo lift, medical bay, crews cafeteria, and more. Terminals were later designed and put together with wood and cardboard. Some of the LCAR panels were painstakingly put together by Rosa by using sliced up sticky pads and colored labels. Within a month, the bridge set was complete and the team was so excited to get things started.

CASTING SEASON ONE

Quintana-Lujan and Marah Anderton held a casting call for the lead role in the series. Since they were both in the Navy, they were both looking for someone that “had the look” of a ship’s Captain but with a younger outlook on life. They went through five actors until one night they met up with a veteran theater actor, Bernice Tremblay of Sterling, CT, who Quintana-Lujan stumbled on while going through an online actor’s database; Tremblay later recalled that she “drove a considerable distance just to meet the two at a Chili’s restaurant.” The chance meeting went very well and Quintana-Lujan knew they had found what they were looking for to fill the role of Captain Jadrian Quest. A few weeks later, after the team gave Bernice time to look over the scripts – keep in mind that Tremblay had never seen one episode of Star Trek before in her life and had to proficiently learn Trek’s techno jargon – they began to film tons of scenes, traveling to several locations in Connecticut and filming some more. The first four episodes of the first season were filmed in only three weeks.

In the beginning, Anderton demanded she play the Jade Kussar Princess and First Officer, Ravine; since she helped develop the new alien species she felt she was the only person qualified to play the role, but with one little addition, she wanted her character to wear an eye patch; something that would differentiate her with a handicap from the other characters. A. J. Lightsey would be the quirky Trill Science Officer and, due to his busy schedule teaching at the University of Connecticut, William “Bill” Foster wanted to play the ship’s doctor, Stitch Brown; who was known to have a sense of humor and use old remedies to cure his patients. Since the first season would only be introducing the character development of a triad of actors for the first season, the team didn’t feel the need to cast an Engineer or Security Officer for the first bunch of episodes. The first episode of the show started with the ship’s Captain and First Officer standing on a holodeck program and talking about World War II Submarine Memorial in Groton, CT.

FILM FORMAT

Quintana-Lujan did a lot of work studying the film format of both the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation [STNG]. Going with the old “learn as you go” method of filming was proving to hurt the production of the first three episodes, than help. The young director knew that he was over lighting the bridge scenes, but just couldn’t figure out what he needed to do to set the right mood for the show. It wasn’t until the director watched STNG Episode 15 of Season 3 that he found the film format he was searching for. The episode was about one “possible” future and the lighting was very dark. Seeing that STB was a fan series about a possible future, it seemed logical to change the format in the show towards a darker setting. By the end of the first season and going into the second, the camera angles, lighting, and story boarding seemed perfect for going into a more aggressive direction in the show.

THE SEASON TWO DILEMMA

After a short break from STB Season 1, the fan following boomed to an all time high which kind of caught the cast and crew off guard. So, Quintana-Lujan began working scripts for a more edgy season to deliver to their fans, The Borg War. There was a slight uniform change to make the series a little darker and warmer for the winter months, then the scripts went out to the cast. Moreover, the studio moved the entire set into an apartment where an entire living room area would be used for the bridge, medical bay and crews quarters. The rear dining area of the apartment would be used for the Engineering spaces. Quintana-Lujan and Chubb lived in the apartment and they slept in the upper floor area, only using the downstairs kitchen to cook.

Just as filming was getting ready to start for Season 2, Anderton was forced to move out of state and A. J. Lightsey was also gone, which left the team trying to figure out how to save the role of the resident Kilos Quadrant alien and bring aboard a science officer. Quintana-Lujan stumbled on Seanna Six working in an office adjacent to his and asked her if she was interested working on the series with him, when after realizing it wasn’t a porn thing, she said yes. When Six found out she was going to play a space-pirate, she was so excited and brought  most of the costume accessories she had bought for herself. She was cast as the Jade Kussar sister to Ravine, Sin’Jin. Tom McAvin also worked in the same area as the director on the base and was asked about stepping on as the ship’s Engineer. Mike Valletta was brought on to the show via Tremblay, who she met on a set of another project, to play Commander Wallace, the new First Officer. The theater guru, Matt Vaughn was brought on board to play General Teris Rodar, the leader of the new Alliance.

Tremblay also brought in Kat Hansen to play the Borg Queen and Kristi Lynn to play a “Q” to round up the required actors for Season 2. The series went into production without any further hiccups and the entire 8 episode season was shot in under eight days over the course of a month, shooting episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. Tremblay worked a lot on this season of the series, with her hard work playing the character of Captain Quest, then helping with script writing on character development and also stepping in to do all the makeup for the Borg Queen. Hansen worked two nights on the series episodes as the Borg Queen and then stepped away before the third season began. The season ended with the entire cast and the ship being destroyed by the Borg. The episodes concerning “The Marble” drew the largest viewership from the shows fans and a spike in episode views reached over 1,600 on the first night of being released; at that time, it was a huge thing as no other fan production was receiving that high of traffic on their shows.

SEASON THREE

After an extremely hard winter, the studio and the series team returned to start pre-production efforts on Season 3. Seanna Six had to step down from her role due to being pregnant and was replaced by Heather Hyland, after Quintana-Lujan had met with Hyland over lunch. Hyland would eventually re-write the history of the Jade Kussar before the end of Season 3 and was introduced as the empire’s second eldest daughter and family accountant, Fra’Oc. Melissa Damon was brought on board as the Borg Queen, covering Hansen’s duties. Mike Valletta’s character was planned to move off the series, so Racheal Duerrler was cast as Commander Maku, who was filling the role of a stern First Officer. Jessica McAvin also entered the series production and was placed as the ships Science Officer. The cast and crew slipped into the third season with elegant ease. Everyone knew their characters, knew the Trek lingo and followed their scripts brilliantly. One surprise was the return of LT Palmer, now performed by Aaron Hayes, who had worked with Tremblay on a previous independent project.

The series was firing on all thrusters and was a smooth operation going from one plotline to another with professional execution. By the end of Season 3, Tremblay had made mention that “the series had run its course” and it was time for her to work on other projects. To the sadness of the series director-producer, the character of Captain Jadrian Quest was promoted to Rear Admiral by a stern Federation Fleet Admiral (played by Randall Behan) and was written off the series. Commander Maku [Duerrler] was promoted to Captain and took over the ASV Precipice and her crew.

SEASON FOUR

Going into the early spring of 2008, the cast returned to perform a theatrical performance that was well out of center from the series production format of the previous seasons. Hyland worked closely with the director-producer in creating a whole new back story and look at the Jade Kussar. A story that was written in the Jade Kussar’s ancient lore, a history that claimed the pirate race were the fore-bearers of “The Duat”- a mystical technology of three items, that when put together, would give its wielder the ability to control, bend and open doorways into time and space. This new season would allow fans to see that Fra-Oc was once a passionate part of her empire until tragic events forced her to become the looney-type accountant that she was playing. Theater performances were recorded on the set and in four different locations in Connecticut. At first, the storyline received low reviews, but over time fan followers claimed that the plot and storyline were perfect and produced well ahead of its time.

A separate production and storyline to Season four brought in actors and a crew from the upper Hartford area, the team was identified as Meezemeyer studios, who have worked on independent films for many years in Connecticut. This team covered a plotline that crossed STB with the STNG timeline. This crossover brought in a high number of views that were missing since season two.

THE FINALE

Kristi Lynn reprised her role as the “Q” for the final episode of the series. A new line of cast members lined the bridge and the series ended with the possible hint of an extension to the series. The final episode received the highest amount of views from fan production fans. Many SciFi fans have shared their thoughts through comments and emails that the series ended on good terms. Many online fans missed Tremblay’s performance of Captain Quest and wished to see the entire cast from the previous seasons on the final episode; something that was impractical at the time. The series ended on a holodeck program with the ship’s Captain and First Officer exactly where the series began. The series has since been immortalized by having a page on Facebook. DVD sales to raise money for a new extension of the series proved to be more than fruitful for the new studio. The Facebook page also gives updates to new releases and some interesting series history and actor interviews.