The Challenger by Andrew Di Pardo

            Over the course of the last 7 months, my cousin, Aramis Pacitto and I had decided to make short films based off the Tv Shows we created. It all started in December 2012 by sitting down and getting our laptops and keyboards ready to write a script for our concept for the drama series we made titled “The Challenger.” We tossed a few ideas around and then decided that we would write a script based off the pilot script that Aramis wrote. But we took a few liberties on the script and made it a little funnier than we would have liked. Our next step was casting which took about two days as we only needed three extra people aside from ourselves. Then we began to film.

            The first photo shows our character detective Richard Sledge (Played by Aramis Pacitto) on the roof with a gun. This photo is a screenshot of one of the most cinematic scenes in “The Challenger,” as he looks out at the city of Los Angeles wondering what crimes he will have to solve today. Detective Richard Sledge is well known and a well-liked detective at the LAPD, he has two sides to him. One side of Sledge is a side that all his fellow cop friends see, that side is a cop that follows the rules of the law. But the darker side that they don’t see is that he is a vigilante known as “The Challenger” who drives a 1973 Dodge Charger and he shoots first and asks questions later. In the first Challenger we don’t see the good cop side of Sledge as we made it more like a comedy about a cop takes down everyday type criminals with excessive use of force. We are currently filming “The Challenger 2:Unlimited” and we have scenes that show the good cop side of Sledge when he’s with his captain known as Mora and we see the dark Challenger side for when he’s the vigilante.

            The third photo shows me, Andrew Di Pardo as detective Ronny Gunnerson on the phone talking to his boss, Captain Mora in “The Challenger 2: Unlimited.” The character Gunnerson is a perfect example of a guy who shouldn’t be a detective. Gunnerson and Sledge are detectives that work together on most cases, but when push comes to shove it’s always Sledge that does the hard work.  In “The Challenger 2: Unlimited,” Sledge is taken hostage by one of Ricci’s (Mafia don) hitman known only as Walker. So it was up to Gunnerson to find out where Sledge is located, so he calls Mora and lets him know that he needs backup. Along the hunt for Sledge, he finds his gun and decides to take on the “Challenger” vigilante role to find him.

            The fourth photo shows Sledge hanging from the ceiling chained up by Walker the hitman. The whole purpose of this kidnapping of “The Challenger” was for Ricci to get revenge on Sledge for killing his father. This particular scene with Walker (played by Chika Mafiana) was the funniest and best scene that I ever had to film. Chika is an amazing actor and it shows in the scene that we filmed, he reminds me a bit of Django and the joker from Batman “The Dark Knight.” Chika went according to the script and even came up with a few lines of his own. For example he would tell Sledge “who’s coming to save you?” Which preluded the next scene with me as Gunnerson interrogating a guy named Baily.

            Overall, my experience in acting/filming/directing in these short films have been great.  The first Challenger we filmed was a little rushed and not down to concept, but overall it was a good experience. Acting as Gunnerson for me was tough the first time around because I didn’t know how to play the Character right, but now I got the hang of it.  Finding great actors has always been a challenge, but now we got a great actor in Chika Mafiana who we will bring back for future films. I hope I can continue to have great experiences in making these short films for years to come.