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.
