Colors of The Realm

Color plays a vast part of the psychology of filmmaking as it helps the audience get a sense of the characters mood as well as the overall scene.

In the Realm we used color as best we could to convey these things. If you haven’t noticed by now James wears an awful lot of Blue unbuttoned shirts, as a matter of fact, he virtually wears nothing else. That is because blue is a calming color and James needed to be that for Sorcha. James conveys his feeling via his t-shirts. In the first season he will wear Black when he is at odds with Sorcha and Grey when he is not. In season two he will shift from grey to white as he gets closer to her and closer to his own truths about himself.

Sorcha, we were trying to give her all earth tones for the first season, she had an earthy vibe but at the same time tried to give her a slight fantasy look and since she was getting her clothes via James and the local thrift store, we dubbed this look the “thrift store fantasy”.  She is also devoid of makeup and jewelry as she has no real identity of her own. This will change in the second season as she will wear makeup, jewelry and acquire a fashion sense, thanks to her friend Cassie.

Dustin was introduced as a kind of sleaze bag friend so we dressed him in reds. It is revealed in the last episode of season one that he was in fact, Teagan, Kyan’s brother, the red worked as well since the Selene use red and black as their colors.

As for the Helios and Selene as mentioned above, the Selene get Red and Black as they are of the belief that magic should be used for personal gain. The Helios believe magic is for healing and wisdom they wear blues and whites.

The sets were also encoded with a color scheme in particular James’s apartment. The walls are blue and the furniture green trying to reflect the sky and grass where Sorcha comes from as well as make it a safe place for her.

Finally the magic colors. Maedoc with the red to match his Selene colors and Melvina gets green like the earth. Tegan got a shallow red, almost pink tone, as his place in season two will be in between the Selene and Helios and he has some choices to make.

The Harbinger colors will fluctuate depending on where Sorcha is mentally when she turns. Sorcha’s natural magic color is green but the Harbinger is fiery red so depending on the magic she uses when turned.  This tells you how much of it is Sorcha and how much is just plain and nasty Harbinger.

Keep an eye out in season two for theses color clues and some new ones and please, enjoy The Realm.

Easter Eggs of The Realm

Inside The Realm web series are a few ‘Easter Eggs’, some real, others for fans of Butterfleye Films and so on. Here are some of the Easter Eggs of season 1. Let us know if you find others!

1.      Sorcha’s name revealed in episode 3. If you looked closely at the book, "Signs, Symbols & Omens" Warlock was using while talking to James and Sorcha you would have seen a couple of things of interest in the other books alongside.

A.    Crossroads: This is a reference to a book series my wife Allyson has written about two souls who always reincarnate and find each other. Like James and Sorcha, I want their love to be eternal.

B.     Sorcha. Yup, It's Sorcha's name right there in plain sight. I thought it would be cool to put it there never forgetting that the audience is not dumb someone might have jotted down these clues and remembered.

C.    Insight.  This one is actually the name of my Ghost Hunting group. (On top of writing, directing, musical composer and editor, I also hunt ghosts!) It felt appropriate since this story deals with the paranormal.

2.      MS-408. In the series, Warlock reveals this to be "The Voynich Manuscript" A strange book that cannot be deciphered. This book, in fact, exists in real life. It is stored at Yale University where it has the catalog name… you guessed it, MS-408. I ran across the story of the manuscript some years ago and thought it would be great to include it to suggest that people from The Realm have been here before. (Also, it is referenced in Warlocks book as a sticky note at the top of the cover. You can also kind of spot it behind Warlock in her office in episode 5).

3.      Mysterious Crystal: In episode 12: part 1, as Ashley is looking through the manuscript; the page facing the camera shows a strange yellow crystal with a red center like a flower. It has been seen before and will be seen again. Keep digging.

4.      What the hell kind of stuffed bear is that? In James's bedroom on the headboard, you will see a rather deranged looking teddy bear. This is, in fact, FUFU, He is Butterfleye Films unofficial mascot..sorta. He has appeared in every film we have made. That thing is a diva as you can tell.

5.      Who lives in Apt. #342? You might have notice that James has neighbors. The Apartment across from his is numbered #342 this is a reference to one of Butterfleye Films movies called “Case #342” a found footage horror film, who knows maybe that apartment is haunted?

6.      Harrington Hospital: Sorcha is obsessed with a soap opera called Harrington Hospital. This fake soap opera is actually produced by Butterfleye Films and can be seen on the web here. I even went as far as to give the show an entire history from the 1950's to the present. I wanted to make it seem as real as possible. You can read about it here.

7.      But wait there is more: Also next to the TV you can see some films. Star Wars is the box set as James is a big sci-fi fantasy fan…much like myself. The two films next to that are “Timequake” And “Attack of the Atomic Zombies”. These were the first two films made by Butterfleye Films.

8.      There something on the TV: In the restaurant scene, as Dustin passes by the bar to get to Cassie, there is something is on the TV.  Look and you will see it's the opening credits for a TV show called "Woven". This, in fact, was the original web series we intended to do but dropped in favor of producing The Realm.

Keep an eye out during season two for more Easter egg fun! Season 2 of The Realm starts in June 2016.

The Name Game!

I feel that a character’s name should hold a meaning that connects the character to their part in the overall story.  The names of the characters in The Realm are just as important as the story itself. Here are the names in The Realm and their origins. I tried to stay, for the most part, with Irish or Scottish names where I could.  I feel they sound mystical and mysterious. My wife Allyson also had a big hand in choosing these names and I could not have done half of what I have done in this series without her.

James is an evolution of the name "Jacob" in Hebrew, which means Supplanter.

The lead character needed as strong name.   As far as the meaning it's sort of an interpretation and will be explored in season 2.

Sorcha is common to both the Irish and Scottish Gaelic languages, and is derived from a word meaning "brightness".

This was mostly in reference to James, as she would brighten his life up for the better. She is written almost as an angelic character who is ‘cast’ from heaven.

Melvina means 'Armored chief'. Also, gentle lady.

Melvina is a tough character but she also has a royal and gentle side that made this name work.

Maedoc is ancient Irish. The meaning is unknown but Saint Máedóc (also known as Áedán) of Ferns was a 7th-century Irish bishop.

This character is meant to be an enigma, we are not sure who side he is on.

 Bradwr is a Welsh name. It means traitor.

‘nuff said?

Kyan is based on the Irish name "Cian" pronounced "KEE-an" meaning ancient and enduring.

This was appropriate as her family is from a long line of guardians to the Selene head of order since nearly the beginning. On a side note, the characters full name is "Kyan Naidraug". Her surname simply being ‘guardian’ spelled backwards.

Dustin originates from an English surname, which is derived from a Norman personal name, which is probably derived from the Old Norse Þorsteinn (Torsten). This Norse name is composed of elements meaning "Thor" and "stone".  In ancient Germanic languages, 'Dustin’ also means "brave fighter" or "valiant fighter".

This character has a long way to go in season two but we can see already him switching sides and aptly suiting his name.

Professor Aydin Warlock was just to play against the whole witch concept of the story. Modern day male witches do not like to be referred to as warlocks.  In the middle ages warlock meant "Oath breaker"

The Realm 8 years in the making

This is presented as a blog to account my creation and ideas in forming The Realm.

I have always wanted to tell a large story with many parts involved in it like life itself. You are where you are now in your life because of many circumstances and people in your life, I find that fascinating and try to make my stories follow suit. I had previously written a couple of large stories, most notably the "My Sisters Saga" which I presented in the medium of manga. That was a multi-generational mystery centered on the Toho family and a goddess. The story was simple enough but the nuts and bolts of how it all got to that place are what made it interesting to me. I was able to layer history onto the current characters and then later reveal those points and even tell back stories of the ancestors of the Toho Family. By the end of the massive story you could go back and see how our protagonists ended up where they were and why they did the things they did. You can read the whole story here

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Moving forward; I wanted to try the same thing but on film. A web-series seemed liked the logical idea as I could take time and flesh out characters and even make short films to fill in historical gaps so that one day you could watch all of the material and get a richer story out the main, simple story.

Sometime in 2006, I had a germ of an idea about a guy who is left a package by his estranged father and this would lead him to a forgotten land that had since died. As he learned about the people who lived there, he grew to understand his father. This would be called "The Compass" but it did not develop any further than an idea.

The concept of an undiscovered country intrigued me. Holding onto that idea, I added the concept of possible modern day witches. Descended of witches who lived in a dimension just next to ours and a queen that had to banish her daughter to protect her from the darkness that threatened both worlds. Appropriately I named the series "Woven", since I would weave the lives of the exiled witch with that of a mortal human. The concept got really big and I feared I could not do it justice in a web series and that was abandoned.

The in the summer of 2013 a more simple idea came to me and ran it past my wife Allyson. She liked the cells of ideas, well, more like… broad brush strokes and she eventually filled in the gaps and characters and "The Realm" was born.  Some of the ideas for the characters from the prior endeavors filtered down and eventually became Sorcha, James, Melvina, and Maedoc

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Another concept that help fuels ‘The Realm’ was embracing my love of Anime and Dungeons and Dragons. In Anime, always plays out large stories that are nothing like the stories we tell here in America. The imagination and scope of the ideas are so high concept and beautiful. This helped my create the main story and plot as well as shape certain characters like 5 Ash 2 (or Ashley if you like).

As far as the history and such that is where Dungeons and Dragons came into play. About three years ago a friend of mine asked if she could try a game that most boys, when she was growing up, said that it was “not a game for girls”! I said absolutely. I had not played the game in almost two decades so I was excited. As we played I created a large story for the world we would be playing in and even created a 50,000 plus year history of this planet. The land was called Ironcrest and would eventually become the land Sorcha, Melvina and Kyan came from. I wove the history of Ironcrest into the backstory of The Realm and the rest was….history.

 

So now with season one under our belt and some short films coming to fill in the gaps, we are ready to do season two and the film to finish of our long story. I hope you will be able to embrace it. When the time comes, watch all of the varied material.  See the nooks and crannies hidden between the everyday dialogue of these characters and see the lives they are living because of the actions of their ancestors and the results those actions made.