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



 

MAN OF WAR - July to September 2013

         Filming for "MAN OF WAR" began during the "The Challenger:Unlimited" sessions in July of this year when Aramis Pacitto went on a trip to Muskoka, Ontario. The basic story of "Man of War" is: "The CIA needs someone with experience to handle their latest assignment... So they go on the hunt for a former CIA operative who is 41 years old, retired but not dead. He is as deadly as they come. His name is: James Ryan AKA Colt." On July 1st (Canada day), Aramis Pacitto began acting for the first time as James Ryan in a flash back scene, where Ryan says his famous line "I may be retired but I'm not dead." Since I didn't go with Aramis on that trip, I was unable to watch the scene live. But a day after it was filmed and edited I got a email from Aramis with the scene attached. That was all that was filmed in July, next was in August when Aramis and his family went to Miami, Florida. Aramis Pacitto got to drive the new Lamborghini Avantor for a scene at the end of Man Of War. 

       "It's like being in the cockpit of a stealth jet- what a rush - I don't no how I'm gonna go back," Aramis said about his experience driving the Lamborghini. Aramis and his camera crew, Delaina, Mikayla & Frank Pacitto went on a long journey in Miami to film the cinematic parts of the story. They filmed everything you  can imagine to make this film great, the only thing they were missing was the action and the introduction of the head of the CIA, Derek played by Angelo Di Pardo and Faye La Perla played by Angela Di Pardo... So that's where I come in. On

September 6th 2013, It was day 1 on the Man Of War set for me and I had to act, film & direct. It was a tough 4 hour shoot with Chika Mafiana (famous for playing Walker in "The Challenger 2") as Agent Johnathon and Aramis Pacitto as James Ryan. Before I get to the filming aspect, I forgot to mention that I was also the hair designer for the day. I had to put the gray in Aramis Pacitto's hair to make him look 41 and that took a good 20 minutes to get it perfect.

         Once the hair issue was resolved, it was time for me to act as Doctor Stoaks in the first scene of the film. So I began to run through the bushes in the forest and Aramis was the cameraman and he followed behind me, but I was so fast that I lost the cameraman and we had to do it again. I was like "THE FLASH" in that take. So after Aramis found a way to keep up with me I had to pretend to get shot and fall off the cliff. I did and it looks like I may have died, but rest assured it was only acting. Next I had to get back behind the camera and film the rest of the scene with Chika and Aramis. Chika was once again great, he was not playing Walker for the first time and was able to adjust like a snap of the finger. As for Aramis, he was also great, he pulled off playing a 41 year old like no 21 year old has done before.

        Our next filming day was September 8th with Angelo Di Pardo as CIA boss, Derek, Angela Di Pardo as Faye La Perla, me as "The man at the bar" & Aramis Pacitto as James Ryan. Angela and Angelo had instant chemistry when they were acting in their respected roles at the time. Maybe its because they're married... But it looked professionally done and we had a lot of bloopers that will be released on the DVD... DVD for us means Youtube, since we don't have the funding from our $0 production to make a real DVD. There was one blooper for me that stuck out and that was when Angelo forgot a line and sang a line from one of Duran Duran's songs called "My Own Way." After that scene was complete, Angelo's work was done, but Angela and Aramis still had a scene to do.

        It was a scene that was supposed to take place at 12am, but instead we filmed it at 10am and made it look like night... We have a lot of tricks up our sleeves. Everything went well in that scene except when Angela took a page out of the "Young and the restless" and grabbed Aramis's arm and in dramatic

Sop-opera type style and said "Denise - VAN - HOSE." But aside from that, the scene was a good dramatic scene. Next on our to do list was the final scene on our list, the ally scene with Anthony Digiovanni and Matthew Quan-Yin. Those two were playing 2 hoodlums that thought they were going to steal some old mans money, but they ended up running into James Ryan who beat the living daylights out of them with a crowbar and his Colt gun. We filmed that scene in public with weapons and this time we didn't get arrested... Thank God. "Man of War" will be released on October 4th.

- Andrew Di Pardo

PS: Aramis Pacitto himself will be writing a post on his experience next week.

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.

LIFE IS HELL SHORT FILM EXPERIENCE - March 2013

TORONTO,O.N-  On March 10th 2013, Aramis Neal Pacitto and I began to write a script for a "Life Is Hell" short film The script was done by the 12th and filming began on the 13th. We picked our theme and it was a song by Duran Duran called Virus and Aramis is working on a new version of the song.The first scene we filmed was THE COLD OPEN scene with a spoof on "Rear Window." Its a funny scene that you really have to see to understand. But its basically Andrew and Aramis sitting down in front of a window with Nikon cameras with 240 mm zoom lenses. Andrew claims that an elderly women has different men over every night and that she kills them. Meanwhile, Almorindo and Gigi argue in the background over dishes. Aramis did the voice for Al and I did the voice for Gigi.

      The next scene on our list was a scene where Almorindo (Aramis), opens up the blinds in the bedroom and begins to yell at his neighbor who is in the process of cutting his tomato plants. Last on our list for the day was filming a scene where I played Tony Rissi. The filming process took about 4 hours to film. Our next filming day was on Sunday March 17th. We were filming the action part of "Life Is Hell, AKA "Life Will Be Hell." Bruno Sepe was playing Cutter and Aramis Neal Pacitto was playing Aramis Spear. We filmed for about a hour and a half and after Aramis edited the scene we realized that Bruno was not going to work as Cutter. He was playing more of a traitor type of character so we made him the handler.

       So we ended up needing an extra day of filming (which was on March 21st 2013 at Yorkdale Mall). So we re-wrote the final scene and made it be Spear on the phone with a British version of Cutter. This is where it gets interesting. There was a part of the scene where Spear pulls out his gun. Someone called 9-1-1 to report it and next thing you know, the cops were following us. They followed us all the way from Yorkdale mall to my street. Then 5 cop cars swarmed all around us! 15 cops pulled out their guns and said "Put your hands up!" They didn't notice that I was in the car so I leaned forward and said, "Do I have to put my hands up to?" They said yes and told me to lean back. We ended up going to the police station for possession of weapons. Soon after, they realized that arresting us was a waste of time because we only had a BB-Gun. The charges were dropped.

       So after sitting in a cell for 3 hours we were released and now were done filming. To top off the day when we went back to get the car, the seats were ripped out and Aramis's sun glasses were in the trunk along with one of our zoom lenses and not to mention that we ended up on the 6:00 news. It was an experience that we will never forget. The "Life Is Hell- Short Film," will be released next week.

- Andrew Di Pardo