(Teaser Clip of Spellfury, Episode 1)
KoldCast.tv is an online network that offers dozens of original series created exclusively for the web in a multitude of genres. One of those web series is a fantasy comedy called Spellfury. I recently offered up my opinion of the show on KoldCast’s blog (you can read it by clicking here). To sum it up, Spellfury is funny and entertaining, and succeeds where many previous attempts at mixing comedy and fantasy failed.
I recently spoke with creator Travis Gordon about his inspiration as a filmmaker and what influenced his creation of Spellfury.
ÜberSciFiGeek (ÜSFG) Who were your influences in filmmaking?
Travis Gordon (TG) George Lucas. Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are my favorite three films.
(ÜSFG) Did you always plan on doing Spellfury as a web series?
(TG) We’d worked for about 6 years on a feature-length film called Mass Stupidity that we’re submitting to festivals now so I had lived with this heavy burden of carrying this huge film from script to post production and I told myself I wouldn’t be doing another film for a long while so I decided I wanted to do something easier. A web series provides more freedom for a writer, a film is very structured, a series can be a little looser, I do have the characters and story arcs worked out for the show for a few seasons but a web series allows the characters to grow and take on a life of their own. I can watch an actor play the character and go, oh, that was interesting, I’d love to see more of that and try and work it into the storyline. There’s a lot more collaboration with the actors, I have more flexibility in the storytelling, I’m enjoying that.
(ÜSFG) You have several other projects that have gotten some acclaim. Tell us a little bit about them.
(TG) We received a Bronze in Dramatic Shorts at The Houston International Worldfest Film Festival in 2008, it was very exciting for all of us, it was the first time we had won an international award for filmmaking. It was for a sci-fi short called Revelation about a woman struggling with her predetermined destiny, it also starred Julie O’Halloran, Robbie Drebitt and Penu Chalykoff from Spellfury and was shot entirely in front of greenscreens.
(ÜSFG) When can we expect more episodes of Spellfury?
(TG) I’m going to wrap up episode 9-12 in the next few months and that will be the end of season one. After that I might take a little break and make a DVD with extras, commentaries and lots of behind the scenes stuff and then start into season 2.
(ÜSFG) What are your hopes for the future of Spellfury?
(TG) My hopes are we can grow our audience and actually make a profit on the show in season 2. My dream is that the show can be sustainable enough that I can actually start to pay the actors and crew for their hard work, they’ve been so supportive of the show from day one! That’s the trouble with making a web series, there isn’t enough money coming in to pay for the episodes. I think things will change soon though. More and more people are watching video online nowadays, the advertising dollars are shifting from television to online.
(ÜSFG) For anyone watching Spellfury, what’s the one thing you most want them to take away from the experience?
(TG) I want them to think “wow, that was fun”.
You can watch Spellfury on the official website and at KoldCast, then check out these other links:
Spellfury Official Website
Spellfury on KoldCast
Spellfury on Facebook
Spellfury on Twitter
Travis Gordon on Twitter
Travis Gordon on Funny or Die