With next month’s release of the Mad Max reboot, Game of Thrones going strong and a Twin Peaks remake in the works, the arrival of Disrien is perfectly timed. The icing on the cake for Sooke-based creator Simon Norton Game is that his science-fiction fantasy web series also just won some prestigious industry awards.
Its directors of photography, Daniel Carruthers and Ian McAllister, were recently honoured at L.A. Webfest, where Disrien — which doubles as a cautionary tale about the consequences of environmental abuse — won the prize for Outstanding Cinematography in a Drama Series. The series, co-produced by Game’s Pioneer Filmworks, also won the Best Special Effects award and was nominated as Best Fantasy at the Vancouver Web Fest.
The first two episodes of the series Game pitched in 2013 as “a dystopian Twin Peaks” to local writer and philosopher M.E.J. Powell were less than 10 minutes each, but it has taken two years to get it off the ground.
“Hard work pays off, I guess,” Game said. He and longtime friend Greg C. Thompson were executive producers of the online series that was inspired by Powell’s script for The Enemy, a series that was never produced.
Their production team includes producers Weyla Roy from the Scia’New First Nation in East Sooke, Mia Golden, Stephanie Koett and production designer Kristine (Hoff) Boyle.
Filming began last year in Sooke and the Great Bear Rainforest as locations that include the title’s dystopian “multi-verse” depicting the potential outcome of industrialization of our pristine coastline.
“If we keep going the way we are, this is what it’s going to look like,” said Game, whose crews created a special-effects shot of a sunken Chinese supertanker in Douglas Channel, not far from where the Queen of the North sank. Duncan-based visual-effects supervisor Marc Streifling began the labour-intensive compositing process last summer, mating live footage and computer-generated effects.
“It was our first big special-effects shot,” Game said. “We [digitally] sank a freighter to show what could potentially happen on the Enbridge pipeline.”
The supertanker sequence appears in the self-financed show’s second episode, which zooms in on Hartley Bay and cuts to footage shot in East Sooke. It observes hero Dante Virtu (Black Fly’s Matthew MacCaull), rightful heir to the Throne of Dreams, as he journeys through the industrial wastelands of the “Kermode Energy Corridor” toward Puregate, his estranged father’s hometown populated mainly by women.
One of the next locations Game hopes to shoot at is Ocean Falls. The cinematic potential is obvious, beginning with an “eerie waterfall” that runs through the decaying central coast community that was once a productive milltown until Crown Zellerbach closed its plant there in 1973. Since it’s only accessible by boat, helicopter or seaplane, Game acknowledged it will be a challenge.
Set in 2026, Disrien focuses on the gradual, disturbing awakening of Dante, who was born in secrecy and raised by idealistic sorceresses.
Other characters include Beatrice (Hillary Jardine), a mysterious woman Dante encounters, and his uncle Narke, the elitist sorcerer who sits on the Throne of Dreams he acquired by murdering his brother.
Although Game was intrigued by Powell’s vision for a series that would ideally be broadcast as a 10-episode TV series, he and his partners lacked the funding or resources to go that route.
What they did have was an abundance of drive and creativity unleashed through Game’s production company, which has, for several years, partnered with co-producer Wenstob Studios. Inspired several years ago when producers of a TV movie rented space from his old sawmill, Sooke logger Kevin Wenstob built the industry-calibre studio facility on the site.
An old aluminum lunch shack on the property with a seven-acre backlot was transformed into the futuristic Tiki Noodle House for Disrien.
Disrien was briefly envisioned as a short film before Game and his partners decided to develop it as a web series with a multi-dimensional storyline.
“It was originally a discussion about a fellow strapped in a room with no doors,” Game recalled. “The closer he looked at everything, the more there seemed to be an infinite layer — a multi-verse — and the only way out would be through his mind.”
Game’s other partner is Pacific Wild, co-founded by McAllister, the wildlife photographer, environmentalist and former fellow tree-planter before Game became his video editor.
“I’ve been so inspired by Ian,” Game said. “I’ve been focusing on the indie stuff and Ian’s gone the documentary route, so I said: ‘Let me go into the narrative fiction end and we’ll have a two-pronged attack to build awareness.’ ”
Their hope is that, bolstered with awards recognition, the “little bite-size pieces we’re putting out there” might trigger arts council and Canadian Media Fund grants and attract potential executive producers.
“All our characters will have Twitter accounts, so as we connect the digital and web-series world there’s a lot of neat stuff happening when you start to think about the interactive possibilities,” Game said. Viewers will be able to watch Disrien online (at disrien.com or via YouTube), play an interactive game and get updates on Twitter (@Disrien) and Facebook.
One of the show’s most distinctive aspects is the multitude of local talent, such as Tyrants, a song by the band Black Mountain — which includes Game’s friend, Victoria-raised Steve McBean — in Episode 2.
“It’s hard to monetize, so we want to continue with the series, but you’ve got to make a splash,” said Game, who hopes to resume shooting this summer.