INNOCENT GUN - October 2013 to January 2014

         The idea of a film based on our "Life Will be Hell" concept started in April 2013 during the filming of the "Life Is Hell - Short film." The "Life  is Hell" Tv series concept is a series that has two shows in one. The comedy portion which is titled 'life Is Hell" & the action portion titled "Life Will Be Hell." Both "Life is Hell - Short Film" & "Life Is hell 2: The Injured Man" feature prequels to a "Life Will Be Hell" film. When we began writing a script (for which is now titled "Innocent Gun" apposed to "Life Will be hell"), we had a completely different story. Originally it was going to be a film where Spear trains a rookie operative known as Stone for a potential suicide mission where they're going after a USB that a villain named Smith had. Agent Hunter was not in the original draft. Half way through the writing of the draft I had an idea. I thought to myself, why don't we do a film where Spear is a rookie and at some point he's forced to work with Hunter? I liked that idea and i went ahead with it. When I told Aramis Neal Pacitto about it, he thought it was good, as long as we could cast someone to play Hunter.

         So I began writing the script and I kept the USB storyline and modified it in a way where the USB is something that could get majority of corrupt criminals world wide behind bars. Smith was going to use it as leverage. Aramis thought that we should name it something different than "life Will be Hell" since it was too close to "Life Is Hell." I agreed and we came up with "innocent Gun." The film basically became a prequel to the "Life will be Hell's" that were featured in the "Life Is hell films." So its still a "Life Is hell" spin-off, but its more of a loose spin-off. On October 22, filming began in downtown Toronto. We used Toronto but made it double for New york. It was pretty much a day where we filmed all the exterior scenes with Spear talking on the phone with Cutter in New York. For close to a month we didn't film anything until we casted Kendall H as Hunter. Since September we were trying to find someone to play Hunter and we had a little bit of trouble finding someone who fit the role and who wanted to do it. But luckily we found a good actress who was able to pull her off. On November 16, Kendall made her debut as Hunter. We wrapped all her scenes in one day and it turned out better than expected. The film wouldn't have been the same without Hunter thats for sure.

               Our next filming day was November 22 with a new cast member Alex Stacey as a thug named Matthew and Darius Ban (known for Lucas Wolf in "The Challenger Short Film, The Challenger 3 & 'The Challenger 4") as Stone. Darius plays a thug named Stone that eventually will become a operative for the USA government. Our original script had Stone in that position. The scene we filmed that day is my favourite fight scene that we've ever done... Well not my favourite, the one in "The Challenger 4: Urban legend" is. But you'll have to wait until June for that... But that scene that we filmed on the 22nd was our most brutal fight scene with Spear. He shoots two people and then hits a guy over the head with a gun.  A few days later, we filmed a scene where Spear enters an Italian restaurant and we hear him basically beating information out of people. That scene was very "Person Of Interest." On November 29 we filmed a scene where Spear took out two thugs. Dominic Licorish & Marc Samuels played those two guys and pulled it off well.  After that we took a few days off to begin filming "The Challenger 4: Urban Legend" & "The Challenger 5: Dark Triad," we were back filming 'Innocent gun' on December 9. That was the day I made my acting debut as Smith the antagonist in the film.

                Smith is a cross between Elias from "Person Of Interest," Silver from "Skyfall (007)" & Ricci from "The Challenger." It was a fun role to play, very different from Andrew DiNardo (Comedic version of myself in "Life Is Hell") & Ronny Gunnerson ( Detective in "The Challenger"). It was fun to play and not particularly as hard as i thought it would be. A few days later we were supposed to film the opening scene of the film, but the camera fell of the tripod and filming was cancelled. We quickly bought another camera and filming was back on December 12. We filmed the opening scene with Chika Mafiana (known for Walker in "the challenger 2: Unlimited" & "The Challenger 3: Urban outlaw"). Chika played a agent known as Patrice who (SPOILER ALERT), got killed in the first scene. Matthew Quan- Yin acted as 5 thugs that day and filmed the climax between Spear & Smith. Filming was complete, Aramis Pacitto edited it and it was released on January 11. The future of "Innocent Gun" is still in question. A sequel is possible as the script is currently being written by me, but threes no guarantees.

You might also be wondering, whats next for Suit & Stubble. Next is "The Challenger 4" & "The Challenger 5" which will feature new cast members in Kendall H. from "Innocent Gun" as detective Savanna & Liia Kajak joining the crew for the first time as Brookyln. "The Challenger 4" will debut on June 6 2014.


- Andrew Di pardo



Life Is hell films:

"Life is hell - Short Film (Innocent Gun prequel included):" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ87m94biDQ&list=PLRP2JYMLvhzcPAN-tHL0Hr3x8uvQXJ-FY

"Life Is hell 2: The Injured Man (After credit scene ft. a "Innocent gun" prequel):" http://vimeo.com/81253888

Film's 4 & 5 WILL END 'The Challenger" WEB SERIES

          "The Challenger" Film Series will come to an end in 2014. " A hero will fall."  One of the three main characters will die in either film 4 or 5. Will it be Captain Mora (Mike Covello), Ronny Gunnerson (me) or will it be Rick Sledge aka "The Challenger" (Aramis Pacitto)? Thats the big question. But I assure you, it will be unexpected... Film 4 is titled "The Challenger: Urban Legend" and will feature Darius Ban reprising his role as Lucas Wolf. With Ricci in prison and Walker side tracked, Lucas Wolf is the main antagonist in this film, his goal is to get the crate containing melted gold and the black gun that 'The Challenger" uses. The Lawman has a big part in this film as he goes after Wolf and in his battle with him, we discover who he is. Filming for "The Challenger 4" has partially begun. We filmed a scene with a new cast member, Liia Kajak who plays Brooklyn. This scene will show you the softer side of Sledge from the past. We have also casted a new member to play a computer hacker named Quan. This man also acts as "Matthew" in our upcoming film titled "Innocent Gun," his name is Alex Stacey. Mr. V will also make a return in this film. But his role hasn't been casted yet. We are hoping to bring James DinElla back to reprise his role.

        Onto "The Challenger 5: Dark Triad," this film follows the events of "The Challenger 4." I can't say much about this film... All I can say is that Ricci & Walker are back and they have a major role along with Wolf. One more thing that I can say is that the Lawman offers to help "The Challenger." Will they team up? You'll have to wait to find out. Mr.V will have a minor role in this film. "The Challenger 5" since it's the conclusion of the series will have tones more action than any other film we've done. "The Challenger 4" script is complete and we will continue filming that in January. It's too early to set a release date, but possibly in the summer of 2014. "The Challenger 5" script is currently being written. 'A hero will fall.'  The fifth film concludes the series but there may be potential for a spin off.  I'm not guaranteeing anything but we might have a Captain Mora spin off.  But a Mora spin off would be a comedy. Theres potential for a spin off in any character that we don't kill off like maybe Gunnerson, Lawman or Mora. We may also do a film that shows Sledge's early years in the LAPD. But only time will tell.

"The Challenger 4" & 5 will conclude the film series and someone will die.

- Andrew Di Pardo

THE CHALLENGER 3: URBAN OUTLAW - July to October 2013

             Since the beginning of "The Challenger 2" film sessions, Aramis Pacitto and I had no doubt in our minds that there would be a third Challenger film. So I had an idea about how we could do a sequel that picks up from where the second one left off. I wrote the first draft of the film and I wanted to make this film more of a drama than an action film. I accomplished that in Draft 1, but once Aramis got a hold of the script he said that we should add some more action. He did that and it made the script more interesting. Once the script was complete by mid-July, Aramis and I had an idea for a new character. We decided to take one of the characters we have and make him into a Vigilante called "The Lawman." The Lawman is someone who is trying to give criminals a chance to confess to their crimes, and if they don't... They get killed. I play "The Lawman" in the film and this character has a small scene that's setting up something bigger for "The Challenger 4 & 5."

            On July 22nd 2013, it was the last day of filming for "The Challenger 2:UNLIMITED" and it was the first day of filming for "The Challenger 3." We filmed a flashback scene where, The Challenger slams Walker into a wall and gives him a warning. Walkers role in this film is to play a villain who has been defeated and depressed and its the Don's role to give him the confidence to take down "The challenger" once again.  On August 5th, we filmed our opening scene of the film with a motorcycle. This scene features james DinElla as Mr.V. Frank Pacitto doubled as Sledge on the bike. One of our most iconic shots in this scene was when Mr. V came out of the shadows.Our next filming day was our toughest day on set. It was Mike Covello's day to shine in his role as Captain Mora. This scene was somewhat of a comedic scene where Sledge has to pick up the captain of the LAPD and bring him to work. Mora's job in this scene is to remind Sledge that he has to take down "The Challenger." There was a tone of bloopers in this scene. Mike Covello, due to his heavy Italian accent has a hard time saying some of the words. But after two hours of filming, we got through it and got a good light hearted scene out of it.

            Then on August 10th, we filmed our best scene yet. I call this scene the disappearing act. Dino Mazza reprised his role as Ricci, the head of the mafia. The scene starts off with Ricci pulling at the chains from which "The Challenger" escaped from in the second film. Dino pulled so hard on the chains that he broke the shelf it was hanging on (See our bloopers for details). It was one of the funniest bloopers we had. Onto the scene. Aramis Pacitto once again acting as "The Challenger" gives Ricci a warning to stay on the straight and narrow. Anthony Digiovanni returned for this scene as Baily. He runs in and gets shot. By the time Ricci looks back, The Challenger is gone. The next day, Aramis and I filmed our first ever scene in what we call the Cellar. The Cellar is where Sledge & Gunnerson do their workouts and their training.  In those scenes we show, Gunnerson boxing, Sledge doing cinder block push ups, pull ups and target practice.

        On August 18th, we filmed the final scene of the movie where Sledge & Gunnerson pay their respects to Amanda Sledge (Who got murdered by Ricci). After that scene we took a week off to continue filming "Man Of War." Then on August 26, we got back to work on "The Challenger" and we filmed a scene featuring Mikayla Pacitto as Barbra. Barabra is a character who works for big criminal enterprise which is not explored during the film. She works for a man called "The Ring Lord." The Ring Lord will appear in "The Challenger 4." Mikayla's scene was tough because she seemed a little nervous while acting with Chika Mafina (Walker). So it took over a hour for her to get it right, but just like Mike's scenes it turned out good at the end. Our next filming day was September 3rd. We filmed the final battle between The Challenger, Ricci & Walker. This is when you see Walker return with the confidence he had in "The Challenger 2." He nearly kills Sledge, but Ricci gets in the way and spoils the party.

      Ricci ends up getting arrested and Walker has now turned on him. What will this lead to in the future? Time will tell... With less than a month until "Man Of War" gets released, we once again took a break from "The Challenger" to finish that film off. A month after filming the Ricci scenes we filmed the debut scene of The Lawman... This scene is just a basic introduction to a new character that will be a main role in future films. Two days later it was the last day of filming for "The Challenger 3." It was Sledge, a green beret VS Wolf, a Mercenary. Darius Ban played Wolf in a epic fight scene that we believe was our best fight scene in all of our films. It was Bourne style camera work on that scene. After that it was onto post production. Aramis Pacitto edited everything and released the film on November 15th ( 1 month early.)

      So whats in store for the future of "The Challenger" you ask? Well "The Challenger 4" has begun filming and all I can tell you is that Lucas Wolf is the major villain and the Lawman's identity will be revealed. I can also tell you that "The Challenger 4" & "The Challenger 5" are continuous stories that conclude our Film series at 5 films. "A hero will fall." Who will it be and when? "The Challenger 4:urban Legend" will be released in the summer of 2014 and "The Challenger 5: Dark Triad" will be released in the winter of 2014.


     - Andrew Di Pardo

Soundtrack for "The Challenger 3" provided by the Audio Network & Duran Duran



 

A Monologue by Rick Sledge (THE CHALLENGER)

     My names Rick Sledge… I was recruited to fight in the Iraq war in 2003. I was a green beret. I risked my life for the sake of others. Lucas Wolf was a mercenary in the war, and he held a crate that contained a weapon with no serial number on it. It was untackable. Wolf is a killer and I couldn’t let him keep the crate. I kept thinking to myself, “Imagine what would happen after the war if Wolf had this gun. Many people would die because I gave it up.” I didn’t want that kind of blood on my hands. When I made it back to LA in 2005, I had a hard time adjusting to life behind the warzone. That’s when the Captain of the LAPD approached me with a job. He wanted me to become a detective and work alongside Tom McCoy. I hesitated at first, but thanks to the help of my girlfriend, Brooklyn, I decided to take the job.

     For years I worked with McCoy, until one day when Lucas Wolf came after me. He wanted the crate back so he could do the crime without doing the time. Wolf then kidnapped both my girlfriend and my trusty partner and threatened to murder them. I was a man who always followed the law by the book. Until that day. I managed to reach Wolf and take down his men. But then…Then… He killed them. He crossed the line and I was angry. So I grabbed him by the throat and held him over the building. He begged for his life, saying that I couldn’t kill him because I was a cop. I didn’t care about the law at that moment, all I cared about was justice and revenge. So I threw him off the building. I though he was dead. But his body was never found. That moment was the day that I became “THE CHALLENGER.”

I now followed my own rules… “If you’re Bad… You’re Dead.” I didn’t let any criminals get in my way. I gave criminals a chance to go to prison. But if they challenged me… I fired back. I don’t believe in warrants… I believe that “Proof is overrated.” If you know where the criminal is and what he’s done, why do you need warrants? Because a book says so? I don’t think so. I still am a man of the law, but in a different way. Justice can be defined in many ways. The criminal doesn’t have to be alive for justice to be served. Most of the time they are better off dead. The Challenger has no rules, no limitations. That’s why the criminals fear me. They don’t know what I will do next.

- Rick Sledge (The Challenger) Monologue was written by Andrew Di Pardo

PS: This monologue does not connect to "The Challenger 3:Urban Outlaw (Which premiers on December 6th)"

THE CHALLENGER 2:UNLIMITED - February to August 2013

                    In early February, Aramis Pacitto and I decided that we would do a sequel to "The Challenger - Short Film." We had a few variations of the story, but after several re-writes we decided that we wanted to take "The Challenger" film series in a totally different direction than the first one. "The Challenger" is meant to be a drama not a comedy and we wanted to make sure that we really showed that in the second one... Because face it, the first Challenger was a better comedy than both our "Life Is hell" films. So we continued to talk about a interesting and dramatic (but not over the top) story. We looked back at the scrapped variations of "The Challenger 2" and pulled ideas from it and shaped it into something we could use.  Our main story idea that we had in those scripts was that Ricci JR was out for revenge against Sledge for the murder of his father... We kept that idea and decided that Ricci would hire a hitman. But who is this hitman? Aramis came up with a interesting name for the hitman, Walker.

        Then we thought about how this character would be... We wanted him to be a tough guy who could pretty much kill Sledge by himself.  Aramis's main goal for this film was to show the difference between Sledge as the vigilante known as "The Challenger" & Sledge as a cop. As for my goal... I wanted to move my character, Gunnerson away from his comedic/goofy version that we saw in the first one to more of a serious cop. Aramis also wanted to show Mora in this film apposed to me doing the sound over voice like in the first one...I was fired. But before we got to who would play who, we needed a script...Aramis insisted on writing it on his own and by the end of March we had a script ready to go. Our next step was casting... We casted Dino Mazza as Antonio Ricci JR, Mike Covello as Mora, Chika Mafina as Walker and a few more people for minor roles.

         By April 28th we were ready to film. The first scene we filmed was the cold open with Matthew Quan Yin & Pranavan Seleve. They both had to play 3 different people each. But since Sledge was taking them on one by one, we were able to pull it off. I was behind the camera for this scene.The scene was a big action scene and it took 5 hours to film and by the time it was done and edited we thought to ourselves, "Wow, this is way better than The Challenger One." We believed it was the best scene we ever filmed, but little did we know that it was just going to get better. The next thing we filmed was "The hostage situation" scene on May 5th. James Dinella starred in the scene as Enzo (Hostage taker) along with Anthony Digiovanni as Baily. This is the scene where Sledge gets taken for the first time by Baily. Later that day we also filmed scene 5, where Gunnerson finds Sledges Gun and we also filmed Gunnerson on the phone with Mora by the pond.

       On May 19th it was the day where we were going to debut Mike Covello as Mora with a Lamborghini. In the script this scene was supposed to be a serious scene, but once we let Mike do improve it ended up becoming a funny scene. Thats fine, there's always room for comedy in drama shows. Mike was good, I will always remember filming that scene... Especially since Mike put his reading glasses under his sun glasses, a moment Aramis and I refer to as the "double glasses" scene. Mike was good and funny which works for the Mora we are displaying in this film. The scene was basically about Mora telling Sledge about Ricci and that the Challenger vigilante is a killer. You guys can expect to see more of Mike in "The Challenger 3." On May 27th, it was Gunnersons turn to become the Vigilante. I acted as Gunnerson on the edge as he was out looking for Sledge. A week later, it was the highlight of filming... Chika Mafiana as Walker. This scene we have Sledge chained to the wall and Walker is torturing him and killing people in front of him. Chikas performance in that scene was some of the best acting I've ever seen. He reminded me of Django mixed with the Joker from Batman.

          After that scene we took a week off and got prepared to film the final battle between Walker and Sledge on June 17th. This scene just like the prologue took a while because it was a big action packed battle. Chika and Aramis were both great in that scene, but I can't revel much about the content at the moment... All I will say is that its a great ending to "The Challenger 2" that will set up "The Challenger 3" in a way. On June 25th we were back and filming this time with Dino Mazza as Ricci along with Chika Mafiana and Angelo Di Pardo as Provinzano.This scene introduces the new mafia don, Antonio Ricci Junior... But throughout the film he's refereed to as just Ricci. Dino pulled off the mob boss in a Elias (from Person of Interest)/ Tony Soprano fashion that was believable for this kind of movie. After completing the filming for that scene, Aramis went on vacation to Miami to film most of  the first installment of our new film series titled "Man Of War" which will debut in October.

     When he got back on July 14th we filmed a scene where Baily (Anthony Digiovanni) kidnapped Sledge and tied him up with twist ties in the middle of nowhere... My favorite moment of that scene is while Baily's tying up Sledge, Sledge looks to the camera with a look that says, "is this guy serious?" After completing that scene we had just two more scene to film. We started with Walker, where  he introduces himself to Sledge and the last scene we filmed was on July 28th with Sledge and Gunnerson driving to the mansion in the dodge Charger. On that day we also began filming "The Challenger 3," but the details of that story will remain unknown for now.... Filming for "The Challenger 2" is done, editing is done, all is left is to release it at 12:01am on Sunday August 8th. This film is the best film we've done so far and it's only getting better.

- Andrew Di Pardo

THE CHALLENGER 2 - CAST: 
Aramis Neal Pacitto (Jim Caviezel look a like) as Detective Rick Sledge / The Challenger Andrew Di Pardo as Gunnerson Mike Covello as Mora Chika Mafiana as Walker Dino Mazza as Ricci Angelo Di Pardo as Provinzano Mikayla pacitto as The Hostage James DiNella as Enzo Anthony Digiovanni as Clifton Baily Matthew Quan Yin as Thug 1 Pranavan Selve as Thug 2

THE CHALLENGER 2,3,4 & 5 TO CONTINUE ONE BIG STORY ARCH WITH MANY TWISTS & TURNS

         With "The Challenger 2" set for release in late July the creators/actors/Filmer's & directors, Andrew Di Pardo and Aramis Neal Pacitto have decided to make plans for the future. They already wrote the script to "The Challenger 3" which takes place 5 years after "The Challenger 2," with characters like Ricci and Walker making their return. Towards the end of the third one a new twist in the "Challenger legacy" had developed with Ricci and Walker having their own side story. What the story for the third film is will not be announced until later this year. But what I can tell you is that there is a guarantee of at least 5 Challenger films and films 2 to 5 will all continue each other. Expect the 5th film to have a epic conclusion to the series.

       But for now, "The Challenger 2:Unlimited" has to be completed filming, which were about 80% done and then upon completion we will start planning for the filming of the third one. "The Challenger 3" will most likely begin filming in August of this year or sometime in March of 2014. But a 2014 release date is a guarantee and believe me, when you watch "The Challenger 2" you will want to see more of Sledge.

- Andrew Di Pardo

Release dates for our upcoming "Challenger films":

 THE CHALLENGER 2:UNLIMITED - July 2013 
 THE CHALLENGER 3 - SUMMER 2014 
THE CHALLENGER 4 - WINTER 2014 OR SUMMER 2015 
THE CHALLENGER 5 - 2015 OR 2016

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.

THE CHALLENGER (Short Film) - December 2012 to January 2013

           Over the years Aramis and I have always thought about the possibilities of doing a short film for our shows. We talked quite often about doing a "Life Is Hell" short film but we soon realized that without pro actors it wouldn't do the  people that the shows based off justice. The idea was ultimately scrapped. But then when "The Challenger" was created in early 2012, it opened a new door for us and since it wasn't based off real people, it was a lot easier to do and easier to make it believable.

        The idea to do a short film for this show came to us in August. But we decided not to go through with it until December 13th. On that day I looked at the pilot that Aramis wrote and took some scenes that I could see working in a cut down version of the show and put it into a script for the short film. Then the over the next couple of days Aramis and I finished the script and we were ready to go. We casted Anthony Digiovanni as Mafioso 1 and Dario Nouri Nejad as the hitman and Mafioso 2. Then we added ourselves into the mix with Aramis Pacitto as Detective Rick Sledge and me as assistant Ronny Gunnerson.  We chose the theme music right away, we chose a untitled and unreleased Duran Duran instrumental from 1989. There was even a time when we were considering using that music for the action part of "Life Is Hell" (AKA "Life Will be Hell).


                  The next step was Storyboards... Aramis took care of that and our next step was filming.The first shot we filmed was Scene 3 on December 19th, that was when Gunnerson meets Sledge. The next scene we filmed was the Cold Open scene in the Sheppard plaza on the 21st, where the Crazy Christmas robber (AKA me), ran out of the bank into a dark ally where he would get killed by Sledge. Anthony came in and filmed what we like to call, a scene that should have been left out. I think it should have been left out because it didn't go with the flow of the film. Aramis agrees and regrets his decision to keep it in the film.

        Anthony was supposed to come back for another scene but the next scene we were filming was on Christmas eve and he couldn't make it, so that's when I put on the ski mask for another scene to stand in as Mafioso 2. The other member that cancelled last second was Dario, due to reasons we can't disclose. So I called Matthew Quan Yin at about 11:00 PM and he agreed and the film went on. Our best decision in casting was to bring in Darius Ban (who was standing in for Dario) as the Hitman. Darius portrayed the role better than we thought and we are even considering bringing him back into the series as another villain, that is if we do a second Challenger. Another good piece that we added was a Frank Pacittio cameo as Mafia boss Ricci in the after credit scene.

      Other good additions to our film was Mikayla Pacittio as Camera women for scene 1 and 3 along with Angelo Di Pardo as camera man and director for scenes 4 and 7. Aramis and I even had to step behind the camera for a few scenes. A good thing to know about the filming in this film is that all the scenes where it was Sledge and no one else, that was filmed by Aramis himself.The editing for the film was done by Aramis Pacitto and it was completed on New Years and was released on Youtube on January 6th.

The main reason reason why we decided to do a short film for "The Challenger" was so that networks can see our concept of what could be a 40 minute Drama series.

- Andrew Di Pardo

THE CREATION OF "The Challenger" - JANUARY 2012

             In early January 2012, the creation of the Challenger began just as Life Is Hell began and that was by watching TV.  Aramis Pacitto spoke to me one night about how all cop shows such as all the CSI, Rookie blue, Flashpoint and more, are all the same type of shows with different characters and the same story over and over again. Aramis and I felt that cop shows were done to death. "Andrew you know what we should do?," Aramis told me. "We should do a new type of cop show with, get this, a cop that stands for law and order and will do anything to stop criminals, even if it means to kill them." I liked the idea and he ran with it. He came up with the main character, who is a 6 foot 3 and was an ex-Green Beret who had a type of personality like Clint Eastwood from Dirty Harry and Jack Reacher from the novels. This characters name is Rick Sledge.

            The boss for Sledge was named Captain Mora. Mora is an elderly man who's first name isn't known (for now), and hes been in the force for his entire life and knows the ins and outs of the industry. Sledge is often question about his morals by Captain Mora due to the fact that Sledge takes the law into his own hands.

         Aramis had a first name for Sledges asssistant, Ronnie, but he didn't have a last name. Then while watching the Toronto Maple Leafs versus the Montreal Canadiens, we came up with a name based off of the Leafs defenseman named Gunnerson. We both liked the name and there he was Ronnie Gunnersson. "Ronny Gunnerson has just been newly promoted from Officer to Detective, he is Capt. Mora's solution to try and keep Sledge on the straight and narrow line of the law,"it says in The Challengers Synopsis. The comedic aspect is where I shed my light on the story especially when it comes to Sledges neighbours, Mr. & Mrs Johnson. With there one way glass and there tendency to spy on Sledge and watch his every move. They often complain about how Sledge acts and parks and they aren't afraid to call the cops on him. But the cops could care less about the complaints.

        That's all I'm willing to tell you for now. But be sure to watch our upcoming short Film on "The Challenger" Starring Aramis Pacitto as Rick Sledge and Andrew Di Pardo as Ronnie Gunnerson. Filming for the short film begins tomorrow and the final product will be released sometime next year.

Andrew Di Pardo