Writer-Director & Creator of The Secret Box Trilogy G.S. Leitgeb reveals how everything came together and why this complex Entertainment Bundle was not just another project to get made, but a necessity that would define his years to come…
BLOG ENTRY PART 1: ABOUT WRITING AND FEEDING A 'MONSTER'
The Secret Box Trilogy has been a project that accompanied me for the last 6 years and will remain a fixed part of my years to come. Why?… Well, it all started about 8 years ago in 2016, when our creative company, which would grow to become ‘KTC®Universe’, was in desperate need of a portfolio. A showcase to demonstrate our new Creative Studio along with the skills we had to offer, to hit the Entertainment Market with.
There we were, trying to force & forge something to promote our new company and ourselves as creatives. So, eventually the idea got stuck in our heads to create a neat narrative short-film, that would combine all our services and set our brand image, while entertaining a target audience. Definitely genre-driven, to mark our emphasis on playful adventure & fantasy. And since I’m a hopeless perfectionist whenever I’m sitting in the Writer-Director & Designer chair, I wanted to pursue a production value that would hold up to similar entertainment produced by our friendly competitors. And the working title of said short film? ‘The Secret Box’!
Fast forward. 2 1/2 years later in 2018, ‘The Secret Box’ had grown into a monster of a project. Not only did we struggle with getting it financed. We also had to push the shooting date twice! First pushing it for an entire year and after that, pushing it again for about 6 months, because of availability issues. It had gotten to the point where you usually burry a project. But, despite it had grown into a monster, I was stubborn enough to push through. Not only had I fallen in love with it, on top of things there was simply no ‘turning back’: Because it had taken us so long to finance this neat Secret Box short, I had plenty of time to write other adventurous stories. And gradually, I realised that all those stories seemed to originate from the very same world. The very same world ‘The Secret Box’ was set in. Which pushed me on taking a step back to see the actual opportunity here. Since all those new and exciting stories originated from the same world, why not throw everything into one big pot and blend it?! Organically and without real intention, I had created an entire Universe for an even larger Target Audience. And the solution was staring us in the face: Adjust the Secret Box short-film and turn it into an interactive Entertainment Package…
Instead of doing what most creatives would have done when struggling to secure a budget - actually lowering the scale of a project to get it made - I did the complete opposite. Instead of simplifying the scale of one short film, I added even more bits and pieces to this project. Turning it into a story-driven Trilogy, that would combine different interactive media-formats to capture this Universe I had envisioned. Instead of killing the monster, I began to feed it, for turning it into an even bigger monstrosity. But, aside of that monstrosity, something else had grown bigger as well: My hunger and motivation to get this Trilogy off the ground, to introduce this exciting new Universe to an audience and industry. ‘The Secret Box’ got buried…long live ‘The Secret Box Trilogy’.
written by G.S. Leitgeb
BLOG ENTRY PART 2: LET’S JUST SHOOT THIS MONSTER!
‘The Secret Box’ is dead, long live ‘The Secret Box Trilogy’!
Instead of ‘just one neat short-film’, I had put this monstrosity in front of us: A Trilogy package to dive into the so called ‘KTC® Universe’ while experiencing one story across different media-formats. All of a sudden we were confronted with the task to finance, produce, create and manufacture two period short films, one fantasy novel, an online text adventure game and 35 collectible art prints. At least I had figured out the ‘WHAT’…
…leaving me with the ‘WHO’, ‘WHERE’ and ‘HOW’. Three burning hoops I would need to jump through, together with an Irish-Austrian team brave enough to join this endeavour.
WHO…? The first big game-changer was certainly when Production Designer Damian Draven joined the project, who had previously worked on big period shows such as Penny Dreadful and Ripper Street. Damian and I clicked right away, and within only 3 months we managed to create the entire world for this Trilogy, including the set-design of a plane crash-site and a dockyard in 1885.
With the shooting date approaching fast, and after two well established Cinematographers had dropped out because of conflicting schedules, we finally managed to bring in Senior DP Ciaran Kavanagh. A gentleman, who already pulled focus on classics such as Braveheart, who’d recently worked on Penny Dreadful, Into the Badlands and Vikings.
The opportunity to work with such experienced Keys was a great luxury to have as a Director. But at the same time, it put tremendous pressure on our producers, who suddenly had to provide a suitable production environment with the little money we had.
Giving it all, Austrian Co-Producer Julia Stipsits and local Irish Producer James Fagan managed to bring in a well established crew over the course of one month. A huge achievement, since our entire team suddenly consisted of professional film industry people who usually worked on big shows. Complemented by an Irish cast, lead by talented child-actor Senan Jennings (Vivarium, Vikings Valhalla, The Wise Guy), Degnan Geraghty (The Man who Invented Christmas) and Desmond Eastwood (Krypton, Blue Lights). As well as Johnny French (Caveat, Oddity), Wesley O’Duinn (The Young Offenders) and Charlie Hughes (Red Rock).
Now, there was in fact nothing to hold us back from shooting Part I & III of our Trilogy. Except for the minor fact, that we weren’t even completely financed. But, surprisingly and right on time, our ‘green light’ to move forward was handed to us, when the last 20% of our budget were covered by Kurt Kozina, a dear friend, who came on board as an Executive Producer at the very end of pre-production.
WHERE…? As a big part of our story was set in 1885, it was never really an option to shoot somewhere on location. Especially, when you prefer an environment that allows for stage constructions and heavy adjustments to create a larger-than-life feeling. On top of things, the Irish weather always bears a risk, where hoping for a full day without rain is like playing Russian Roulette with 6 bullets. Yet, 3 weeks before shooting, we were still missing a proper studio space, gradually discovering that not only all studios around Dublin, but in all of South-Ireland were booked out.
Eventually Andrew Walker Doherty, a Dublin builder & maker, and a good friend to our Production Designer Damian came to the rescue, as he was about to open his own boutique Studio Space. So there he was, looking for his first project to happen in his Studio – and us, looking for a space. Only, the place would not be ready by the time we wanted to start shooting. But, instead of pushing our shooting date for a third time, Andrew came through big time. While Damian and his team were already building our 1885 dock, Andrew had been working day and night, to finish the space only seconds before we were lining up our first shot.
With the entire hall blacked out, and making it as sound proof as possible, the space came pretty close to a real Studio. Yet, something vital was missing: The overhead rigging…
HOW…? If your Entertainment Piece is called ‘The Secret Box Trilogy’, you better have at least one box as part of your story. And, of course, we had! A manufactured wooden cargo box with a special mechanism and hidden buttons to push. A big box which, at some point, would even be hoisted up, only to be dropped down again. Which is quite hard to achieve, when your Studio doesn’t have proper overhead rigging and the weight of your box is about 200 kilo. Yet, one big concrete truss on the ceiling, combined with a chain block and six heavy lifting people made it possible in the end.
Eventually, without really intending it, my larger-than-life vision and my itch to maintain a certain level of production value, seemed to have ‘infected’ the entire team in a positive way, and they went above and beyond, how our Production Designer Damian Draven would describe it. Somehow, the Cast & Crew must have felt, that we might achieve something rare and special here. Which is rewarding beyond measure, to see an entire team believe in you and your story. ‘Cause lifting and handling a 200 kilo box was only one out of many things our cast & crew had accomplished, during this 4 1/2 day shoot.
ABOUT 6 MONTHS LATER, we were ready to send our Part III short-film ‘The Rise of Paperboy’ on its festival run, premiering with 4 nominations at the Utah FilmQuest Fest in the United States. Another magical moment, which nearly made me forget about the novel that still had to be written, and the online text adventure game that had to be developed back home. Little did I know, that soon after our Festival Circuit ‘Somebody’ we didn’t expect would knock on our door, to throw a completely different light on the Secret Box Trilogy…
written by G.S. Leitgeb
The identity of this ‘Somebody’ and how they changed the release-strategy of the Secret Box Trilogy will be revealed in PART 3 of this very personal blog.
PART 3 - HOLDING BACK TO PLEASE A… (coming soon)
