Today's interview takes us to the fine state of Indiana, where director/producer/writer Mark Racop and the MagicHouse Productions team is based.
A full production house with a studio facility, MagicHouse Productions is readying an exciting new science fiction movie, Starship II. The film features an extraordinary amount of special effects elements, and returns many fan favorites from the first Starship film (titled Rock N Roll Starship).
For the indie film world, Mark Racop and MagicHouse Productions represents an intelligent approach to developing films and a production company. Mark has spearheaded a methodical path that has built a solid foundation for current and future projects, one that draws upon previous projects and has established an in-house production infrastructure. This approach enables growth in each progressive project, something demonstrated strongly in Starship II with its arsenal of special effects and increased production value.
The buzz has been building for Starship II at conventions across the country, and is well on the way to becoming a growing indie movie franchise. Working with an array of talented individuals in Indiana such as Jeff Ello (the mastermind behind the CGI) and Chuck Budreau (sound and music wizard who is also with Indy Film News, a networking and resource site for Indiana Filmmakers), Mark has worked to establish the nucleus of an outstanding independent movie team.
Mark Racop is a filmmaker to watch, and MagicHouse Productions is definitely on the indie movie map. Watch out for Starship II in the very near future, and hop on board a great new indie movie series!
-by Stephen Zimmer, for Indie Movie Masters, September 6, 2009
SZ: What is your background in terms of filmmaking/production?
MR: The filmmaking bug bit me at an early age. My father John remembers that I was interested in making movies even at the age of two, always asking, "How do they DO that?" Dad could only answer, "Trick photography." So while other children were reading short stories, I was busy reading–check that–studying Stephen Whitfield’s "The Making of Star Trek."My filmmaking life was changed permanently when "Star Wars: A New Hope" was released when I was twelve-years-old. I knew from the first scene of that movie that I HAD to make movies. I voraciously read everything I could about movie making. As a huge1966 Batman fan, it was no surprise to my friends that I decided to make Batman the focus of my movies while learning my craft.
I collected a rag tag group of misfits from Logansport High School–and I'm quick to add myself to the list of rag tag misfits–to make my first movie in 1980, a 60 minute short film. We didn’t have a clue what we were doing when we started, but we figured things out pretty quickly. Shot on Super 8 movie film, and edited by hand with a Kmart splicer, it truly was a labor of love. It lacked big time, but as a first film, it was rather ambitious–there were several fight scenes, and the movie was made at many locations throughout Logansport, including the vault of the First National Bank. Logansport Mayor Jone Wilson even played a cameo in the film. The movie was rough, but well-received, and won some awards in high school.
Bolstered by the completion of my first effort, the following summer I made a second Batman film, a 30 minute short. The titles, fight scenes, and editing were much more sophisticated, and I was learning from my mistakes. Mayor Jone Wilson again made herself available for a cameo. And again, I received some awards.
There was little doubt that I would be going to college, and there was even less doubt that filmmaking would be the major. Majoring in telecommunications with a film emphasis at Ball State, I worked on several short films for classes, and networked with students that shared my passion for filmmaking. It didn’t take long for students to figure out that I was very serious about making movies. I was the only one that owned my own equipment.
Even though I was ahead of my class, I still had a lot to learn. Before diving into professional filmmaking I knew I needed to learn more about lighting, sound, editing, and overall pacing. My third and final Batman film was entered in the David Letterman Scholarship Contest at Ball State, and won a $3,500 award. Logansport Mayor John Davis played a cameo this time. This film was certainly different than my previous two. Acting, sound effects, and lighting improved tremendously. I built sets for the first time, which provided for better camera angles. And the ultimate prop was added–the Batmobile. Built by five seventeen-year-olds, we transformed a 1974 Monte Carlo into the world-famous Batmobile and used it in my very first car chase.
The David Letterman Scholarship award opened a lot of doors. It gave me credibility to deal with people in Hollywood as well as local investors. Without the scholarship, I don't think I would have made it on the set of my "big break," a terrible action/terrorist movie called "Terror Squad," made in Kokomo, Indiana, in1986. The final film was horrible, but I learned so much from being on a professional set. As the head production assistant, I learned the ins and outs of just every single department. I helped the camera and grip departments lug equipment, helped stuntmen with prepping cars for stunts, built a storefront for an explosion, landed product placement for clothing for the movie’s star, Chuck Connors, and I ferried film from the airport to the editor. I learned about special effects makeup, safety requirements for explosions and bullet hits, and how the same shots can be accomplished with different camera techniques–and how to choose the best one.
I was invited to Hollywood by some of the crew from "Terror Squad," so my friend Jeff Johnson and I departed in a 1976 Dodge Colt with stars in our eyes. 41 hours later, we arrived in the usually sunny state to find that we had somehow brought snow with us. Yep, that’s right--for the first time in ten years, Los Angeles experienced snow! I spent time on several movie sets and at camera stores, and talked with professionals in the business to learn what it really takes to make it in the business. I also learned that I didn’t want to live in LA. It just wasn’t right for me.
SZ: When was MagicHouse Productions formed, and what was your mission with the company when it began?
MR: I formed MagicHouse Productions in 1987 and raised money to shoot my first professional movie, the ultra-low budget spoof, "Rock N Roll Starship." The up-front budget was $5,000, and the final cost of the film was $25,000. Dark Star and Hardware Wars were major inspirations as we put the movie together. The movie featured cheesy sets, cheesy dialogue, and cheesy acting–but it was all part of the plan.
SZ: As independent production companies often need to pay the bills while developing a feature film project, what kind of production work do you engage in outside of your film endeavors?
MR: I shoot documentaries, commercials, promotional videos, music videos, and even legal depositions to keep the lights on.
SZ: Give us a little history leading up to the production of Starship II, in terms of when the first film was produced, the response to it, and when you made a decision to do a sequel (and when you began pre-production on it).
MR: "Rock n Roll Starship" has played well to science fiction audiences across the Mid-west. I am truly amazed at our fan following. While we never received national distribution, we have self-distributed over 1,500 copies on tape and DVD, from Georgia to Minneapolis.
I am my toughest critic, and I am really tough on the film, but it is nice to see a crowd of 400 people rolling in the aisles with laughter. It helps remind me that it was worth all of the hard work.
While we were shooting Starship 1, we joked about the possibility of a sequel, and the ideas that could be incorporated into it. While everyone else went to sleep, I was writing down hundreds of tiny notes on scrap paper, napkins, placemats--anything I could get my hands on.
People everywhere demanded the sequel. The beautiful Leslie Culton is one of our biggest fans. It was really weird. She met us at a con, quoting dialogue from Starship! And then all of the planets aligned to allow us to make the sequel. I lost my job as a manager of a movie theater--and it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Chuck Budreau and I took those hundreds of scrap notes and used them as an outline to create the script for "Starship II." We finished the first draft in three weeks, and did a script readthrough at the 1998 Inconjunction science fiction convention. Actors that had moved to New York and Ohio moved back to Indiana. At a chance meeting in a movie theater in Lafayette, watching the end credits of "Phantom Menace," I found our special effects team.
SZ: For those that may not have seen the first Starship film, catch us up to speed on events pertaining to the beginning of the story in Starship II, as well as a little about the plot of the new movie.
MR: Because "Starship II" involves time travel, it is both a sequel and a prequel--making it a sprequel. Bob, Doug, and Jorge are well-known throughout the galaxy as the ones that blew up the Ramses Colony. In a freak accident, they accidentally go back in time to right before the blew up the colony. They now have the opportunity to stop themselves from blowing up the colony, and clearing their names...but you know how changing things in the past in a time travel has a way of screwing things up in the future, right? Bob, Doug, and Jorge discover that they have to go back in time to stop themselves from stopping themselves, or the entire universe will be taken over by robots!
SZ: What cast members returned from the first film for the 2nd? Who are some of the key new additions?
MR: Rob Hinkle, Michael Allen Williams, and Logan Michaels reprise their original roles of Bob, Doug, and Jorge. Christopher Tracy returns for a cameo as the evil golden android Zake, and Robert Hubbard reprises his role as Leiutenant Ed. Scream queen Leslie Culton joins the cast as the female lead, Captain Jane Wey, and we were fortunate enough to land John Astin (Gomez from The Addams Family, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes 2) as Professor Peabody. Babylon 5 alumni Jason Carter and the late Richard Biggs play Commander Deckins and Sergeant Franklin. And to finish off the cast, we hired Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica) to play cloned news reporters John Alpha and John Beta.
SZ: Highlight a few key members of your production group involved with
Starship II.
MR: Three people made a significant difference from the first film to the second--Jeff Ello, director of photography and also the post production special effects supervisor; Greg Fauvergue, set designer and builder; and key grip Eric Ridge, who provided camera booms, dolly track, and other great toys for me to play with.
SZ: What lessons did you learn out of the process of the first film that you have applied to help improve the process of making the 2nd?
MR: I am always learning from my successes and failures, and I knew that we had to overcome the shortcomings from the first film. We shot the first movie on film, and the cost was astronomical for negative and developing and transferring to video. The sets were built from white beaded styrofoam. We built the lights from foamcore and hung them from the rafters with twine. Even minor setups sometimes took an hour. We did the special effects on the Amiga Videotoaster.
The sequel had to have better sets. It had to have exteriors, and it had to have a much larger cast. We shot on miniDV with Canon XL1s and GL1s. We had professional lighting. The sets were made from plywood. Camera setups took minutes instead of hours. "Starship 2" was a radical step up from the original film, featuring a much more sophisticated script, great sets, great special effects, and most importantly, some great actors from Hollywood. The up-front budget for Starship II was $50,000, and the final budget is coming in around $100,000.
SZ: How has having a studio facility helped the process in Starship II? What has it enabled that would have otherwise been too surmounting to attempt otherwise?
MR: We bought the 8,300 square foot building a few years after we wrapped Starship II, but the studio has changed our filmmaking forever. We have shot five movies, two shorts, and several commercials at our facilities. It has allowed us to build sets and leave them standing much longer than borrowed warehouses. I hate to shoot in interior locations any more because the studio is so much more controllable. From electrical to makeup to office space and our kitchenette, everything is right here.SZ: Your team is tackling an extraordinary amount of effect shots for a film, whether independent or not. Tell us about the number of FX shots estimated in Starship II and some of the challenges you have faced in this area of the production.
MR: Ugh! Yes, Starship II has an exceptional number of effects, that's for sure! At last count, there are over 800 visual effects shots. I made the mistake of allowing the FX guys on set. They got me so excited that we added 100 visual effect shots that weren't in the script! Raising the money to make the movie was a snap. Finding competent special effects artists that can generate usable material to assist Jeff Ello has been nearly impossible. With the exception of Staffon Norling and Ian Strandberg, he has had to scrap or completely redo almost every single effect that was delivered to him.
SZ: Do you have an estimate as to when Starship II will be finished?
MR: Jeff Ello has passed the most difficult portions of the effects work, so we expect completion "around the end of the year." In the meantime, I have worked on five more movies, and one that I co-produced, A Time For the Heart, was premiered at the Imax theater in Indianapolis this past spring to a sell out crowd. I am also in preproduction on three more films, so there is never a dull moment around here.
SZ: When finished, what kind of path are you looking to take Starship II on?(festival circuits? Distribution goals? Etc.)
MR: A successful film producer in Hollywood happens to be the cousin of my primary investor, and we expect that he will be able to point us in the right direction when he sees the completed movie. We are planning a limited theatrical run, and hoping for Sci Fi Channel or Lions Gate to pick us up. Festivals and science fiction conventions are definitely part of the future for Starship II, I'm sure.
SZ: Are there plans already for a Starship III?
MR: Absolutely! Starship II ends with a cliffhanger, so we are compelled to make a Starship III to wrap up the mystery. The script is halfway completed. And Jeff Ello has said that he didn't spend the past several years of his life making special effects for just one movie. With 90% of the effects work already done, the next movie will go much faster in post this time!
SZ: Give us some links for folks to use to find out more and connect with MagicHouse Productions and Starship II online.
MR: You can find Starship II online at: www.starship2.com, and MagicHouse Productions at www.magich.com.
(Starship II Trailer)
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