It’s crazy to think about. 8 days to make a trailer after waiting almost 2 years to shoot it.
I remember it was the beginning of 2020. February. My son had just turned one and I was returning home from a family trip to Arizona. It was a very exciting time. My team had been talking to a few prominent studios who were interested in KID COMBAT. It was agreed that we would make a highlight sizzle reel or teaser trailer – whichever you prefer to call it. It was to be shot in LA and was scouted by my director and her team. An escape room in LA was to be the backdrop. A few child actors would need to be secured and we decided to enlist the help of a well known actor – a friend of our casting agency – to play our villain – Artie Jones.
Everything was falling into place perfectly.
It was now early March 2020 and we received a call from our casting agency that our actor needed to push our shoot back or not be able to help us out – a pressing matter in New York would keep him out of LA.
We checked with cast and crew and it wasn’t meant to be. Our crew had other projects to get to. Our actors had other projects to get to. And our location wasn’t too keen on us moving our dates around.
No matter. We lost one actor and gained another to help. Everything was set.
The pause.
Late February 2020 there were whispers of Covid and by early March the whispers grew larger. It was March 7th when Covid first entered my world. I was at a St Patrick’s day parade, celebrating with concern, when the phone rang. My EP was on the phone and he said things didn’t look good. That we may have to brace for a delay. Not a long delay, but a few weeks. There wasn’t really too much for me to say. Soon after the NBA shutdown, then the NHL, then the world paused for a few weeks.
We circled back in April and set new dates for June. By May, we June became July. July became August and then it became an indefinite hold.
Frustrated I sat at home and waited.
2020 quickly passed and 2021 didn’t start off well. I got word that my EP, my main lifeline to our studios laid in an England hospital bed clinging to life. Covid had struck him down hard and he admitted to me later that his doctors told him to prepare for death. Thankfully, new ways to attack the virus became available and he was able to fight off the disease and make a full recovery.
And as the winter months broke and spring brought new life – so did new interest in Kid Combat form.
Why not a series?
I asked my EP that question. With the future of movie theatres an unknown and viewing dynamics changing rapidly with everyone stuck at home – we needed to change as well. Be adaptive and be prepared. Kid Combat, I thought, would make a great Streaming Service Series.
It was now March of 2021. A full year after our pause. But I felt the energy growing once again in Kid Combat and myself. And I had a new challenge – how to extend the Kid Combat screenplay into a streaming series. Can’t be too hard, huh?
I gave myself a deadline – June. I had to have it written by June. Why June? Well, my second son was to be born in June. And I knew as we grew closer to that date – and especially beyond that date – the hours of me being able to be locked away writing a streaming series would be very limited.
There were a lot of early 5AM writing sessions (not my favorite time). There were a lot of late nights, and sacrifices to be made. But, I made it. The series was written – at least a good finished revision of it at least – and we started to talk to the studios again.
We just aren’t sure when.
It was now June, and then July, and we heard the same things all across the board. Investing dollars are tight, we just aren’t too sure when new projects will get green lit. I understood of course, you had 2020 projects and 2021 projects piling up.
All this time, our trailer budget sat in an account, waiting to be sprung. I asked and asked, but the time was never right to shoot the trailer.
We fast forward through more waiting and more delays. Waiting for the third quarter became waiting for the fourth.
December 2021 started to bring promise of a trailer. The studios wanted to see it and an event was planned for Dec 21st that we were to be apart of.
8 Days To A Trailer
December 6th was the official green light day. I started scouting locations in my hometown as it would be easier to have me on the ground every day with the short notice.
December 7th confirmed actors and locations were available for our date December 14th.
Here we go. Actors were booked. Flights were booked. Hotels were booked. Cinematographer booked. Locations, insurance, cameras, everything was booked and prepared.
It was December 10th now. The script was finalized, and tomorrow our director and first AD would start showing up to scout the locations.
When you wait two years for something to happen. And after countless delays and issues, you always wait for the bottom to fall out.
My director flew in. The first AD flew in. Sunday the first AD and I walked the mansion location. In the dark, with flashlights.
Between Sunday and Monday I never spent so much time at the airport. Picking up cast, picking up my director and first AD. Getting everyone to the hotel and make sure they were all set for Tuesday.
Everyone was so nice and so excited for Tuesday. I was so excited for Tuesday. It was just a few hours away. The start. I could feel it. It was going to be magical.
I bid everyone good night, told my director and crew I would see them at 7AM to meet at our first location at 7:30. We would set up, get things ready, and call for cast around 8:45 for our first scene.
This is bad.
7AM came and I was on the way, driving alone, to pick up my director. My first AD called the night before and he was picking up a generator and would meet us there. I parked the car and joyfully walked over with my director to shoot my trailer. MY TRAILER. It was time. I did it. We finally made it to here after two years of waiting…
I remember walking up and finding it strange that the lights were not on inside the Escape Room. I looked at my watch and it was only 7:20. No biggie. We are early. I started unpacking the craft services and other miscellaneous gear from my car.
At this point my cinematographer and his finance showed up and started unpacking their gear and placing it by the door.
7:30AM
I first called the Escape Room at 7:30, just in case they were in back or maybe setting up for us in the room and didn’t see us standing outside the big glass windows and doors. No answer. No need to worry, they will be here.
7:45AM
OK, the first bit of panic starts to set in after 15 minutes of being late and the entire crew starting to show up.
8:00AM
As I stood by the large glass doors wondering how much it would costs me if I busted one of them down and invited myself in, I could tell worry was starting to cross everyone’s faces. As I called the Escape Room for the hundredth time, I stood there, mere feet from my 2 year goal, locked out.
8:15AM
“This is bad.” are not words you want to hear from your director before you even begin the day. We were officially losing time on our day. 12 hour days is all I was allowed and we were officially burning that time.
Finally! And…nope.
My first AD came striding fast toward me and the door with the phone to his ear. A bad accident on the highway involving cars vs trucks was why we were delayed. Luckily my first AD was smart enough to put his phone number on the call sheet and the Escape Room was smart enough to find it. Being relayed the combination, my first AD started doing a combination on the lockbox on the door. It didn’t work. Another try of the same code. It didn’t work. A second code was giving with the same results. Two phone calls back and nothing was working.
8:30AM
Try this code…BAM! We are in. The key from the lockbox appeared and my first AD opened the doors. We were finally in.
First call was pushed back a bit and my team ran as quickly as they could to set up and my day of endless running around began.
By 9:30 AM I was watching a small monitor, behind my director, as she, my cinematographer, my first AD, and the rest of the crew filmed the first scene. It was finally happening.
The day zoomed by. We shot 3 separate scenes at the escape room and closed up operations there around 2PM.
The Mansion.
It is little secret that the mansion used in the trailer shoot was the original inspiration for our villains home. For many years have I driven past that mansion and have whispered to myself “One day…”. One day, became today.
It was not without its problems and was quite nerve racking as we had strict orders what and where we could film and not film. And some of those rules were bent as far as they could be bent.
But, as we filmed our last and final scenes at the mansion – the day was done. The trailer was done. We had done it.
What’s one more potentially catastrophic problem.
“We had a hard drive failure last night.” Were not the words I wanted to hear first in the morning. But, what was one more problem? I was summoned to the hotel and a decision needed to be made. A hard drive failure meant we could not make a secondary copy of the footage. Do we send our director onto a plane with that footage, through x-ray machines, and bumps and whatever else or do I keep the drives, make a copy, and then overnight them to her.
We choose the later and the drives stayed with me. I made the copies, got the drives to them the next day and was able to finally relax.
We currently wait on the edit and seeing the final work and all the hard work everyone behind the scenes and in front of the camera did.
There are many more stories from this day to tell. And I can not wait to reveal all and unleash Kid Combat on to the world.
