The ‘Making Of’ contributions to the film industry have become a foundation and mainstay for both audiences and students with production dreams. When we received our now infamous ‘Red Letter,’ we suddenly found ourselves caught between a practical joke and what could be good fortune rap, tap tapping on our chamber door.
SeaKings Creative Studios found itself sliding down the so-called rabbit hole. Once we decided this missive was for real, we encountered what separated this ‘making of’ project from all the rest we had heard of . . . . It was from an anonymous source, and the conditions were that the creative forces behind the enclosed instructions and music were to remain that way. We were invited to become Official Members of the Phantom’s Private Reserve. We asked, out loud to one another, ‘what does that mean?’
The package contained the short story, ‘The MONGREL,’ a tale of a boy’s vision of his rural Texas family, a mysterious uncle and his beloved mongrel named Potato. None of the story’s main characters fit the mold of their family’s expectations of normal. All families have secrets. All families have heroes waiting to pull the family up the rung of being kinder to one another. The MONGREL was to be the essence of Episode Two. It would star the ‘voice behind the Green Curtain’s’ cherished golden retrievers. Instructions came that a ‘special’ handler would bring the bounding goldens to a private Texas farm. “Shoot the film and leave,” the handler grunted. To this point in the production, there is still a running bet on whether or not the ‘special’ handler was the author of the scarlet letter.
Next, we encountered the song CHICO. It was the score for Episode One. It was poetry set to pop music that reeked of layers of interpretation, and stared unflinchingly into the eyes of the age-old range war of the Rio Grande boundary. Who gets in, and who does not. Political rhetoric was not our specialty; and the prospects of having a ghost guiding the way in a story of Manifest Destiny turned on its head, did give us pause. However, CHICO rang of the hard concrete streets in its determined guitar intro, and then glided the listener into the heavenly Hill Country on strings of angels.
There were scant instructions, but Episode Two did imply at least an Episode One. We were hooked, but our production company being the SeaKings did offer the possibility that we had hooked something from many leagues below the sea.
A second scarlet envelope arrived and completed the trilateral expectations of this haunted person or persons drawing us into a walk through an artist’s psyche that wished never to be seen. Ironically, the third piece called, NEVER MET A STRANGER, whispered the wishes that those once loved still were valued and forever maintained their inspiration. It was to be a montage of black and white, with one glimpse of color.
Animation was required. A private mailbox in Swan, TX was provided. We were asked for a bid on the project. We sent the bid. We received an OK and ½ the production budget. We were right. There would be an Episode One, Two and Three. We began.
