It's been an adventure trying to get the right chemistry between actors and production crew, scripts and plots, and more importantly, the best intentions of delivering a dream that has consumed a large portion of the creativity that I have left to keep things new and inventive during my free time in writing a SciFi series that is supposed to be the next arc of a little universe I started way back in 2006.
Even though I admit that MINOTAUR has gone through a metamorphosis of changes over the course of almost ten years, my intentions were only to produce a series that, in my opinion, would be way passed "fan film fiction" or amateur film production levels. Think about it, I've been working in films for over twenty years and I've produced, directed and created over 155 feature films, shorts, web series, and documentaries, that I am sure that I qualify for anything but an amateur film director level filmmaker.
With that out of the way, all I have to tell you know is that "here we go again!" - two years ago I was working on another web series, a paranormal juggernaut entitled SPECTOR ZERO where I began to realize that my creative juices were still fresh, but that I was getting older and less capable of working in the fast paced environment that I was once known for in the local film circles. The new series had spunk and a capable cast, but I wasn't completely sold on the idea that all of the principle work was running under the influence of staying original with all of the other paranormal shows on network TV, punching out new episodes each week and many of their stories coming closely to what we were planning to produce. Since I truly don't watch network TV and haven't for over ten years now, I knew that I wasn't taking anyone elses idea and running with them, and I knew for a fact that no one as stealing my work, as I hadn't shared the new stories with anyone outside of my family and a few friends; none of whom had network connections - so, maybe my work wasn't as fresh as I thought in that arena?
After working on four episodes of ZERO, I decided to shut everything down and start working on my one true love, SciFi storytelling. I reached into the top corner shelf and pulled out MINOTAUR. I began reading the old scripts, looking over the old footage and CGI that was developed for what I call "the first wave" of production. Then I saw something in some older original works which caught my attention with some cold-cold fresh hands. On some notes I had scribbled down on yellow stickies, I saw the formation of a series based on Quantum Time Travel and the possibilities of how minor altered timelines [rather significantly not thought of after the fact] could have never decayed and eventually had extreme influence to changes in the far future; hence - a few small nudges that eventually leading to a major event that could wipe out an entire galaxy without the result of a galactic war. I'm sure you had to re-read that last sentence as I did.
I know that the idea doesn't sound all of that original or new, especially since recent movies like the AVENGERS and X-MEN have tread those waters, bringing "happy-happy, joy-joy" feelings to viewers and fans throughout the world, making those few changes in history that seemingly fixed everything. But true believers in time traveling will tell you that, those movies left little "nudges" that would have to be explained later, and that no matter how minute the travelers felt at the time that a little nudge didn't have consequences, in movies like BACK TO THE FUTURE, those little nudges could change everything, even slightly alter life events that shouldn't have ever existed, but were accepted because Marty lived happily ever after; even without the need of the Sports Almanac.
The series is being lead by the talents of Zara Majidpour, a little known actress who has an extensive list of roles in feature films as an extra on IMDB and an actor who pays a lot of attention to her surroundings and stays in top shape to look her best at any new film project that comes her way. Her talent at script reading and memorization is mind blowing and she has been a huge strength at keeping the cast on track by practicing their parts through constant communication during the Corona Virus lock down period.
During her time for preparing for the part of Admiral Tera Escher, I asked her to study a couple of movies, more especially two actors in two movies who played Captains in Navy warship movies. The first movie was HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER and the part of Commander Bart Mancuso, played by Scott Glenn. The part of Commander Mancuso is probably the most realistic portrayal of any Submarine movie that ever exists. I've personally worked under five Submarine Commanders and I honestly can't think of a time when one of them ever smiled or joked around with the crew. Glenn was said to seriously study with a real submarine commander before taking the role, studying shipboard operations and how a ship captain's position is a serious task, always overlooking every situation and taking into heavy consideration the safety of his crew and the operational commitment of his ship to any mission that arises. Through Glenn's portrayal, I wanted Zara to understand the operational seriousness of every decision being made, the concern for completing the mission.
The second ship's captain for Zara to study was that of Captain Jack Aubrey, performed brilliantly by Russel Crowe in MASTER AND COMMANDER. Partly wanting her to learn the friendlier side of being a leader among members of her senior officers, but still being a hard forged leader to the rest of the crew. But the most important part of her study would be the employment of getting nasty when there is no other alternative, but to fight and inflict as much damage as possible.
A piece of Captain Aubrey was asked to stay afloat throughout the first several parts of the planned series, to advocate a little liking by the future fans of the show. Zara has never had a moment of doubt for the role, especially in her performances in front of the camera thus far. For someone who has never been in the military, when Zara is in uniform, she wears it proud and with a lot of solid, well earned attitude.
A little lesson I learned from the first SciFi series we produced from 2006-2008, was not to ever get too deep with telling the intimate details of the main character's past. Yes, it's fine to chat about her time at the academy, where she's from and what she likes to drink, but her deep inner feelings and opinions about certain aspects of duty should all be learned in front of the camera and not through the explanation of dialog. With Zara, it will all be about her performance and how she handles each problem or circumstance that arises. Future followers of the show should know that she is more than ready for the role of playing the first Admiral in charge of a mission, who likes to get her hands dirty and take action when the need arises to kick a little ass.
The next actor in our lineup is Saira Ramos, who partakes the role of Commander Ka'Jol - the ship's Science Officer who not only lacks emotion, but makes it well known that she has a strong dislike for the human race and finds a little human emotion of disgust as she admits to the duality of trying to find a cure that will save millions of future generations due to a "nudge" in the timeline that will certainly write out the human species and leave a large chunk of the remaining known galaxy void of any life. She too is in fantastic shape, cares for the concerns of her friends and loves to act in front of the camera.
I've known Saira for over ten years and we've worked on a ton of projects together. She's a very busy woman who I have admired as a "little sister" - punning that she's always there when I need her for emotional support and sharing the insights of local gossip and drama whenever crap like that arises within Houston's infamous Indie Film Scene [IFS]. We choose to watch from afar than engage of the little nastiness that surfaces from time to time, so we'd rather let our finished work do the talking for us, then engage on useless forms of burning energy. I think that's where our strength lays over the course of ten years that we've worked professionally in so many genres of film.
However, she's up to the task of making the alien character a strong presence in the series and she apparently welcomes the challenge that future scripted episodes will demand of her performances later in the near future. Saira has spend most of the first five months of 2020 in lock down, self-Quarantined in her home, waiting for a chance to step out into the sunlight and see what changes have happened since she left the human race for safety reasons. I guess you can say that she's having a little taste of "method acting" in preparing for her role as an emotionless alien with a stiff chip on her shoulder. I'm sure Saira will get a little giggle out of reading that last sentence, as I did.
Rounding out the triad for the series is the talented and every sultry Patrice Kentimenos, who has extensive on-stage experience as a stage actor. She's performed live on stage in front of thousands of people most of her life and enjoys the stiff challenge of changing her demeanor and character from one show to the next. I've known her for over eight years; yeah, that's right Patrice, eight years! - and she had an award winning performance in one episode of The Secret of Angelika5 which I directed and produced.
Originally, I approached Patrice about playing the role of Admiral Escher seven years ago, where we discussed the character origin and trademark South-African accent, as the character would be native to that region, being born half human-half alien for the series. This initial attempt at producing the series was shelved after some of the efforts on creating a sustainable CGI for the ship's design failed and then Patrice was planning to move her family out of state. I was surprised two years ago, when I learned that she had moved back to Texas and started to perform on stage again. I made contact and we've chirped on the phone over the course of several months, making plans to work together again. She's extremely busy with her family, making them the focal point of her priorities in life, but plans on working either in front of the camera again or on stage.
As Commander Adrianna Sherman "Tank" Powers, Patrice portrays the Southern belle oriented, cranky and coldly humorous Ship's Doctor; think of a female version of Tombstone's Doc Holliday. Over the course of a week, we revised and changed the aspects of what a "doctor of the future" would actually act like, having to deal with medical issues that would obviously be considered archaic with all of the fancy new technologies to lead the way. What we decided to do was create a medical officer who has been on and off '"the field" of wars and conflicts for so many years, that going on a deep space mission would seem like child's play to a doctor with a nickname like "Tank" - which will be explained in later episodes of the series.
Patrice seemed to grin wildly the prospect of playing a character who is obviously over dramatic - like most theater actors are, and a little comedic with a southern attitude - which this transplanted New Yorker truly is living in southern Texas and having to deal with some 'colorfully' vulgar people from time to time. What I like best is that she will get more face time to prove her dramatic prowess on the big screen and enjoy the laughs she will deliver for her performance of a doctor who sees the humor in some of the patients she will be exposed to over the course of time.
All of this now leads us to the fourth and final ingredient to the series; and of course there can't be a valued SciFi series without a ship to compliment some of it's crew that has been presented in the forefront. Where most fan films and SciFi fan shows deliver a ship of grand scale and performance, MINOTAUR will deliver three ships of new design, which will separate itself from other designs seen in the recent universes of SciFi fan films. The prime ship of the series is, of course, the USS MINOTAUR [ECC 54]; developed and constructed for long term voyages and deep space exploration. The introduction of the other two vessels [called Derringer Class Cruisers] will be previewed as a hybrid design of the advanced Heavy Escort ship, to be first previewed in the series as the ASV ESKANDAR [ECC 1771], is considered a "drop ship" from the mother craft that is capable of extraordinary feats and challenges while the mother ship continues on it's main mission.
The design of the ESKANDAR was inspired by a metal model that was purchased by the director in 2002. The model has since been scanned and produced in CGI under the careful eye and design of Meshu Alex of Romania, who has poured his heart, sweat and tears into developing the ship for preview in the series.
The MINOTAUR and its two Derringer Class Cruiser drop ships have an almost technologically organic AI computer system that's ahead of it's time and is called a Definitive Automated Response Robot or DARR [voiced by our talented musical director, Lora Mao] as used by the ships crew. The computer system runs over 80% of the ships systems including helm control, basic ship's operations, and emergency holographic damage control repair and maintenance teams, limiting any requirement for large crews. The ships are powered by Dark Matter Quantum Filament Cores; giving them long life power to travel to the outer edges of the galaxy and beyond without refueling; while still providing extended energy for temporal away missions to complete the ship's mission, and the ship is armed with pure anti-proton weaponry which can cause significant damage to any vessel that crosses path with the crew. Where the Derringer's were built for speed, stealth and maneuverability, their limited shielding presents a problem in long term battles.
Everything presented in this new blog update will be presented to SciFi fans this fall, as the series continues production in several locations in Texas; due to the overwhelming scripts that require various locations with different climates of environments, the production team has spared no expense to bring you the most alien looking environments possible outside of a studio set design. We know that this will be a monumental endeavor to complete and present to future fans of the show, but we aim to please and hope that the journey will truly be a chance to "explore strange new worlds."
Ride Easy,
D. R. Quintana
Director, Executive Producer
Patrice seemed to grin wildly the prospect of playing a character who is obviously over dramatic - like most theater actors are, and a little comedic with a southern attitude - which this transplanted New Yorker truly is living in southern Texas and having to deal with some 'colorfully' vulgar people from time to time. What I like best is that she will get more face time to prove her dramatic prowess on the big screen and enjoy the laughs she will deliver for her performance of a doctor who sees the humor in some of the patients she will be exposed to over the course of time.
All of this now leads us to the fourth and final ingredient to the series; and of course there can't be a valued SciFi series without a ship to compliment some of it's crew that has been presented in the forefront. Where most fan films and SciFi fan shows deliver a ship of grand scale and performance, MINOTAUR will deliver three ships of new design, which will separate itself from other designs seen in the recent universes of SciFi fan films. The prime ship of the series is, of course, the USS MINOTAUR [ECC 54]; developed and constructed for long term voyages and deep space exploration. The introduction of the other two vessels [called Derringer Class Cruisers] will be previewed as a hybrid design of the advanced Heavy Escort ship, to be first previewed in the series as the ASV ESKANDAR [ECC 1771], is considered a "drop ship" from the mother craft that is capable of extraordinary feats and challenges while the mother ship continues on it's main mission.
The design of the ESKANDAR was inspired by a metal model that was purchased by the director in 2002. The model has since been scanned and produced in CGI under the careful eye and design of Meshu Alex of Romania, who has poured his heart, sweat and tears into developing the ship for preview in the series. The MINOTAUR and its two Derringer Class Cruiser drop ships have an almost technologically organic AI computer system that's ahead of it's time and is called a Definitive Automated Response Robot or DARR [voiced by our talented musical director, Lora Mao] as used by the ships crew. The computer system runs over 80% of the ships systems including helm control, basic ship's operations, and emergency holographic damage control repair and maintenance teams, limiting any requirement for large crews. The ships are powered by Dark Matter Quantum Filament Cores; giving them long life power to travel to the outer edges of the galaxy and beyond without refueling; while still providing extended energy for temporal away missions to complete the ship's mission, and the ship is armed with pure anti-proton weaponry which can cause significant damage to any vessel that crosses path with the crew. Where the Derringer's were built for speed, stealth and maneuverability, their limited shielding presents a problem in long term battles.
Everything presented in this new blog update will be presented to SciFi fans this fall, as the series continues production in several locations in Texas; due to the overwhelming scripts that require various locations with different climates of environments, the production team has spared no expense to bring you the most alien looking environments possible outside of a studio set design. We know that this will be a monumental endeavor to complete and present to future fans of the show, but we aim to please and hope that the journey will truly be a chance to "explore strange new worlds."
Ride Easy,
D. R. Quintana
Director, Executive Producer
