Sock-vile
Digital feature, producer
In January 2011 I initiated the production of a television series for a course at the University of Regina called simply "Advanced Production". This course is to all the students to work on a high end production and to learn something about professional filmmaking. Based upon a bible I created in my 1994 short "The Golem of Socks", the 15 students each wrote a script for a 6.5 minute chapter of a situation comedy called "Sock-vile" (originally called "Sockville", but a combination of trademark issues and desires to include more puns led to this change). The students were: Emily Berntson, Gabe Boyko, Marita Clark, Paul Crepeau, Noelle Duddridge, Matthew Ellis, Brittany Gossner, Geremy Lague, Emilie Lebel, Amy Mantyka, Zaul McLellan, Derek Novosad, Ashley Scarfe, Ian Schneider, and Erik Sirke. I based the ideas on the characters I'd initially developed for the Golem of Socks with the addition of the Baron's mother, the Baroness, narrators, and the Executioner. The intention was for the chapters to represent the creation of episodes of a television series with me acting as producer. The students would need to find ways of working in an environment of creativity where they do not have the final word as to how their film will be realized. Over the next four weeks, the scripts would be rewritten, at first by the initial writers and then by a smaller writter/story editor team made up of a handful of people from the class. Characters were tweeked and story arcs would be discussed and shaped. The final set of fifteen scripts, totaling 160 pages, were tweeked by me and would then go to the voice directors to record with actors. Although the budget wouldn't cover much more than tape stock and a few planks of wood for the set, the casting went well and included
Jason Shabatoski as the Baron of Shivers
Marita Clark as the Baroness
Rob Miller and Simon Moccasin as the Narrators
Jerry Paul as Nick
Derek Novosad as Simon
Joe Topuschak as New Simon and the gangster pigeon
Alexis Losie as Marsha
Paul Crepeau as Frederick
Amy Dakue as Mrs. Stoattoadlich
Jason Shabatoski as the Baron of Shivers
Marita Clark as the Baroness
Jim Toth as Randolph
The series was shot over five days in March using hand puppets in sync with audio playback from the edited studio recordings. Episodes can be arranged in groupings of three (padded out with titles) to create a total of three television half hours. However, during my 2020 Covid-19 quarantine period in March to July, I finally completed teh digital effects as well as other reworking of the project and this led me to re-format it into a feature film, divided into three concurrent parts.
As of the beginning of 2021, Sock-Vile is in still in post production with sound and music being worked on by me and Erik Sirke.
Noelle Duddridge's journal on SockVile
Crossover film with Canister the Robot: Rockem, Sockem, Canister