Landroval Studios: Midnight Chronicles Set

In July 2005, I was contracted by a small start-up company, Landroval Studios, to build a set for some opening-scene test footage as a proof-of-concept. They handed me some research from the art department, I did the production design, ordered the materials, and got to work. I had only 14 days to design, build, paint, and dress this set. I had only 2 full-time carpenters on my crew, and had to recruit several part-time scene painters. It was exhausting work, in limited conditions, with a minimal budget, and I got paid peanuts, but on camera, this set looked great.

A week later, the project was going to be 30-second video podcasts. Then it was a television pilot, then back to podcasts, then a feature film, then a pilot with additional podcasts, then back to a feature. There was a script, a cast, then two more scripts, then a shooting script, then an entirely new script, a new director, another shooting script, 3 hours of footage in the can, then back to concepting for a few more scripts, an entirely different cast, a script, a rearranged cast, two more scripts, the wrap on principal photography, and then another script all together. The production had also changed names more than once. For myself, and many other professionals, this was one of the most confusing film productions we've ever worked on.

I was called back to the studio a few more times the following year, but due to budget limitations, this set was the only project that I worked on from start-to-finish.

We're not really sure what happened, or what the final product was; only that this production took 2 years to get through principal photography, hundreds of thousands of dollars were wasted, there were another 18 months of pickups and post, then there was a premiere... and even then nobody was really positive that it was really done. Allegedly, the finished film is called The Midnight Chronicles, and this set appears at the climax, near the end of the film.