As we continue to celebrate 15 years of "Mark of the Wolf" , it's time to look back at the second of three episodes that came out in our first year. Episode 2 of the WebSeries episode that came out in our first year, "The Message", which debuted on October 11, 2008.
Still learning the ropes about putting this series together, me and my friend Brad Fish got together back in the spring of 2008 about doing a story for the series. This would be my first time of actually writing out a script for the series (At the time, I was still working out ideas based on the movie script I had written years prior.)
Both me and Brad were inspired by the hit film at the time, "Cloverfield", and thought it'd be cool to do a werewolf story based on that concept, where the story is told through the found video footage of someone bearing the cursed mark. Using that as the launching pad, I wrote out the script while Brad chipped in with his ideas.
After the script was done, I handed it off to Brad, who at the time was gonna direct it with one of his friends playing the lead role. But, things kind of stonewalled as it was hit with several production delays, including one where the guy who was gonna play the lead filmed a few scenes but didn't finish them.
By September, Brad decided that he would take on the lead role himself and worked on the story. He got the filming done by the end of that month. After sending me the footage, I sent a few scenes over to another friend of mine, Chase Langley (who worked with me on a joint film project a short time earlier) to do some visual effects on the distorted transformation scene.
Once that was done, we launched it online a few weeks later.
A few months later, I got Brad to write about his experience doing the episode for a blog post that I dug up after all these years. Here's what he said at the time:
"Me and Mark came up with the idea after watching Cloverfield (not together of course but we had both seen it) and we liked the idea of a gritty recording of something fictional, being made to seem real. That’s when we decided to make the episode together.
Filming started around Easter time, however the finished product didn’t come to after the summer. This was due to cast members either not turning up, or just ditching the part after so long. So in the end, I decided to put my face in front of the camera and do it.
Editing in the static was simple enough. Mark sent me some along through email and I just placed it in at the right moment, simple yet effective. I was rather happy with the effect the static gave. After getting it all together, I sent it off to Mark who had his effects guy do some stuff with it. Did a pretty good job I think.
I was pleased with the final product, and even more pleased with the praise it received. I hope everyone who hasn’t seen it likes it, and I hope everyone who has seen it likes it also. Cheers."
Looking back on it now, it was a fun, quick little episode. Knowing what I know now, we could've done a lot more with this. But for what we were all about 15 years ago, I liked what we did with it.
Today, Brad is now a singer/songwriter in his native country of England. And we still keep in touch every now and again. When I brought up MOTW's anniversary and if he'd like to talk about his contribution to the series back in the day, he said, "It was so long ago I hardly remember so I wouldn't be much good at that! But I wish you every continued success with the series and a huge congratulations to everyone who's been involved in the journey so far."
So here's to 15 years of "The Message" and a big shout out to Brad, who played a small, but vital part in MOTW's early years.