Albert and Don on the Flea

 Don in the Solar Beacon Landing Bay

 Don and Ana in the coffee shop

I’m Lauren Leasure, and I am an actress, artist, production coordinator, and costume designer for Kendall Pictures’ Decktechs. But when you get right down to it, I’m just a big ol’ nerd.  

I love science fiction. You name it, I’ve watched it. I didn’t start that way, but now the geek runs deep. That said, I am living with a dark, dark secret. Sometimes I’m embarrassed at the amount of sci-fi that I consume. Is it a good thing, I wonder, to devote so much attention to one genre? Shouldn’t I be more concerned with programming that accurately represents the reality of my world? The truth, however, is only a few channels away: I could just as easily be watching Jersey Shore, Toddlers and Tiaras or The Real Housewives of Mansionland, which purport themselves to be reality, but are just as unbelievable and far from the real world as any episode of Battlestar Galactica. With sci-fi, I have to suspend my disbelief just as much as any other program, but I get the bonus of having spaceships, time travel and robots thrown into the mix. It’s that love for sci-fi that brought me to Decktechs.

I heard about Decktechs on the Internet. A brand new, original sci-fi show trying to find a foothold online? Naturally, my interest was piqued. For the past few years, sci-fi television has been thirsty for a quality show with a unique script, and suddenly, here it was. Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered the show was filming just minutes from my home in Savannah, Georgia. What’s more, the casting notice detailed a female supporting role, Jos: an independent, self-sufficient, bad-ass of a character. The sci-fi geek in me jumped into action, calling forth images of Princess Leia, Kara Thrace, and River Song.

As it happened, the notice was for that very day, with a little over an hour left for the auditions, so I rushed there. Unlike the sci-fi heroines of the past, Jos was a new and original twist on the old “tough-girl-exterior” genre staple. My excitement was ratcheted up even further.

Decktechs TV Pilot is a Kendall Pictures, LLC production

Enjoy the Decktechs Cast Photo with McCrae, James, Ana, Don, Albert, Victor & Jos

The Director’s Perspective – Sound Design
by Dave Kendall

Working on an independent television pilot can be like creating a multi-layered cake. When production wraps, the creative aspects of postproduction kick into full swing and you begin to see the fruits of your labor come together. While this phase can be very rewarding, it takes time, patience, and a dedication to see it through. Once we had finished production for Decktechs, we went straight to work on editing and in April of 2011 we had a picture lock. What this meant for us was that we could finally start working on the multitude of visual effects shots and begin tackling the intricacies of the pilot’s sound design.

Post sound design in itself has many facets. There is dialog editing, sound effects, sound synthesis, Foley sounds, automated dialog recovery (ADR), the musical score, and various instances of panning, blending and equalizing that coalesce to bring the picture to life. None of the aforementioned could have been handled without a strong post sound design team and we were fortunate enough to develop one. This was largely made possible through the efforts of SCAD sound design professor, Rob Miller, and his graduate level post sound design class. We approached Rob with this task early in April by pitching the project to him and his students. Two weeks later, the project had been approved through SCAD’s sound design chair, David Stone and the process began.

Rob decided that it made the most sense to divide the episode up into four reels that would coincide with each of the episode’s acts and then disperse supervising roles to each of his four students. These students would then be in charge of working with other sound designers that we had appointed ahead of time—some of which were working remotely from other states. The fact that we had uploaded the movie file and Pro Tools files to an FTP site allowed our designers to “work in the cloud” by accessing all of the content from the web.

Soon we were able to conduct spotting sessions to decide where and how certain sounds should be placed. As the director, this was the most enjoyable phase of the process as it allowed for me to articulate to the designers how sounds could be used to further tell the story. To put it simply, I wanted the sound design to act as its own character playing to the mood or meaning of any particular scene or story arc.

At this point in time, we are about halfway through the sound design and I am looking very much forward to the second half. This little article wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t thank the following individuals for putting so much time and effort into Decktechs: Professor Rob Miller, Professor David Stone, Nick Gough, Blake Johnson, Eric Berzins, Timothy Liedel, Pete Dupon, Robert Garvin, Brandon Neslund, Max Christman, Matt Klimek, and Sean Regan.

Talent: Reece Thomas, Tia Williamson, April Flojo, Tom Nelson

Contributors: Brian Ramondetta, Stephen Withers, Carrie Kendall, Dan Bollwerk, Jorge Montero

I first learned about Decktechs when I received an email at the end of last April from Carrie Lee asking if I would be interested in reading a script for a production they were working on. As soon as I read the script I knew I wanted to be Albert and be a part of telling this story. All the characters jumped off the page and the fact that it was set in space got my Deep Space Nine juices flowing.

The audition was held over Skype, which gave the project a further futuristic feel. I felt like George Jetson the Actor during the whole thing. The months that followed were filled with pre-production interviews and a successful Kickstarter campaign. All of  which was just a precursor to the production. WATCH Erick’s Interview.

It wasn’t until late November that I boarded a red-eye flight at LAX.  I slept most of the flight which simulated the cryogenic sleep I would have been under if I was traveling to a space station near the sun.  I landed at Savannah/Hilton Head Airport and was greeted by the smiling faces of Carrie Lee and Dave Kendall of Kendall Pictures.  Dave was playfully holding up an “Albert” sign. We all shared a laugh and headed straight to check on the production load-in at Meddin Studios, where we would film the bulk of my scenes and where most of  the green screen work was done.

As I stared into that huge green space and the all-green frame of the spaceship that I would fly, I was like a kid in a toy store.  I had only worked on a green screen once before but never at this level.  The moment was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Once I sat in the cockpit chair of the Flea, I had a feeling that I was about to be a part of something very special.  I was really here. It was now time to shoot.

The week I spent in Savannah filming Decktechs’ pilot is one of those weeks in my life that I will never forget.  There was a synergy in the air the whole time we were filming.  There are times in your life when you know you are exactly where you are supposed to be. Decktechs was definitely one of those times for me.

I have been acting for almost fifteen years.  I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of many wonderful productions, but living on the “Solar Beacon” and getting to fly a spaceship ranks near the top.  I can’t wait to start on episode two.

WATCH The “Albert” Experience

by Erick Esteban,
Decktechs Cast Member

Thank you to all the Vfx & Sound students that we met at the SCAD Soiree Event.  The Soiree was a great experience & we met many talented artists!  We look forward to working with many of you during Decktechs‘ postproduction.

Thank You, Savannah College of Art & Design for awarding Dave Kendall, Director/Writer of Decktechs, with a $500 film grant!  Every dollar counts, we appreciate the support! -clbk