BacktoFrankBlack: 2010

A short audio message from myself and Troy Foreman regarding the sad departure of Mark Hayden from the campaign head team and where we intend to take BacktoFrankBlack in 2010!

Farewell to Mark Hayden!

2010 is going to bring BacktoFrankBlack.com many things. But as it gives, it will take away.

We're sad to announce that Mark Hayden, who has been on the campaign since we started it in late 2008, is stepping down from his campaign role.

Mark has done many great things for us. He started off merely as a liaison between myself and Graham Smith - who kindly offered to host BacktoFrankBlack.com. But anyone who knows Mark knows he never does anything by half. He came on board and pulled the local fans into the campaign with his left hand while regularly reporting and interviewing Millennium cast and crew with his right.

Mark has decided to call it a day after an intense year. It's a hard job for everyone involved and I myself understand where he's coming from. He loves the campaign, believes in it, but it can overwhelm! Mark will still be supporting BacktoFrankBlack.com and maintaining his Elder role at TIWWA forums.

Of course on a professional front, if you have any queries, comments, ideas, contacts, feedback etc to do with BacktoFrankBlack, make sure they come to myself, Jim McLean or my colleague Troy Foreman. We can be contacted separately at jim@backtofrankblack.com and troy@backtofrankblack.com - or through the group email at info@backtofrankblack.com.

Thanks again for Mark's constant help and we wish him a year filled with missed sanity in 2010.

But myself and Troy are still going with you guys ably supporting. We've got some great stuff coming up, including Morgan and Wong week. Keep your comments coming in!

Luminary Week Day Five: I'm an Animaniac!

Having been more than impressed by the wonderful work that Josef has done for this campaign (and let me tease you that his next project is one to really get excited about) I felt a little guilty that I had not created a video of my own since way back in the early days of the campaign. I'm not adept at video editing, truth be told I'm not adept at very much at all, but I can find my way around Photoshop and came up with a little something to add to our Youtube page - all in the name of Luminary Week.

I really wanted to show you guys that you don't have to be particularly clever, or even talented, to cobble something together that will help to spread the word and recruit more soldiers for Franks Army. A music montage, a little promo piece like mine, a talking head style clip featuring your passionate plea for a return of Frank Black: anything helps the cause and Youtube is such a powerful tool for promotion when all is said and done it cannot be ignored.

So get your thinking caps on and remember, every little thing you do for this campaign is greatly appreciated by us. Nothing is too big or too small.

We do hope you guys have been enjoying the week so far and we urge you to check back tomorrow for what is the true highlight of this week, an exclusive interview with Chip Johannessen who reveals which member of Millennium's cast influenced the story of Luminary, why Glen Morgan and James Wong angered him and why he wasted Chris Carter's time. Intrigued eh? Thought you might be....

Mark x

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE: HAUNTEDHOUSE.COM JOIN THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL!

Thanks to the phenomenon that is twitter, I had the pleasure of discovering HauntedHouse.com and it's wonderful webmaster Christopher. Like us, Christopher is a Millennium aficionado and was happy to share with us his thoughts and feelings on one show that left an indelible
impression upon him. Imagine our delight when he extended his friendship to us and offered to support the campaign by way of an interview with yours truly.

Hauntedhouse.com really has to be experienced to be truly appreciated. If you lean towards all things horror and Halloween, as I do, then this website is a veritable goldmine of information and goodies and what's more it is the work a fan of the show and, more recently, an appreciator of the campaign, what further impetus do you need to check it out?

I could not in all honesty do justice to the impressive content the site has on offer. If you are seeking the best in horror podcasts, haunted house locations, Halloween related goods, the meaning of life (well, evidently not the latter but it has to be the only thing this site doesn't have) then head on over and get lost in the content. I did and a happy hour went by in the blink of an eye.

To read the resulting interview visit here and ensure you check the site out in the process. Our tremendous thanks to Christopher for the warmth and kindness he has extended to us.

APOCALYPSE NOW - BEHIND THE SCENES OF AN INDEPENDANT MOVIE

PART ONE....


Millennium Fans are a tenacious, creative and passionate bunch of people. A bunch of people who are prepared to go that extra mile to support the franchise they care for. If anyone is under the misapprehension that there is neither the audience or the passion out there to support a Millennium movie adaptation then allow me to show you one example of the passion that exists. Myself and fellow co-coordinator, James, had the opportunity to talk to Jason D. Morris, Shoni Alysse Cook and Jeremia Draper. Three contributors to 'Millennium: Apocalypse', a fan created series, and now DVD, that kept the story of Millennium alive for its countless fans. This extremely popular and well received project lead to bigger and better things for the team but we go right back to the beginning of their success and talk about the blood, sweat and tears they shed to keep Millennium alive.

BTFB: Am I right in thinking you guys cut your teeth as independent film-makers on Apocalypse?

JASON: Yeah as far as features go, so to speak, since it was actually really shot as a bunch of shorts and then edited together for the DVD but I still consider it a feature because of the length and the amount of time and focus the project took as a whole. We had done a bunch of short films in the past but this was by far was the biggest and most ambitious project.

BTFB: Did you produce it with both short and full length in mind?

JASON: Yeah, from the beginning it was the idea, I wanted to make something that would translate to both mediums. Unfortunately I was not up on the copyright laws nor did I care at the time but that quickly changed.

BTFB: Was the whole 'Apocalypse' Team assembled from within TIWWA [Millennium's largest and most active fan community]? Or did you already have at your disposal associates who could edit, write a score, create the titles, film it etc.

JASON: Most of the entire crew came form TIWWA and everyone over there was really great to work with, they gave us our own message board and development threads to iron out the project. As we gained steam we reached out to the members and brought on Mick Moreau to help score the project, Erin, Mellissa, Joe and everyone else was almost all on board from the beginning of the project since our initial post on the forum. There was outside production crew that shot the project and acted in the project but the development and pre-production was all from within the TIWWA circle

BTFB: There seems to me to be some misconceptions regarding 'Millennium' fans who are often perceived as less visible in their support of the show than 'Philes' are with regards to the 'X-Files'. Do you share my contention of this assumption and hold 'Apocalypse' up as a strong argument against it?

JASON: Absolutely, I think the bigger issue with that though is there are many more x-philes then there MM fans and the fact that X-Files received 9 years on the tube and now two movies and MM only received three years makes a difference. I think the smaller number of fans is a factor but we are a ravenous bunch that are really, really big fans that runs deeper then just making sure we tune in when the show is aired.

BTFB: When you decided the focus of the show would be on Jordan were attempts made to go back to the source material and see if anything could be drawn from Brittany’s performance that could inform an adult portrayal of the character. Or was it concluded that it is impossible to extrapolate from a child what their adult persona will be?

SHONI: I took a lot of time and watched scenes with young Jordan, some key things I took from her. One being that she always looked like she was thinking about something and or pondering a question and I think that would remain the same into adulthood.

JASON: The curiosity of the child I would think was still a part of Jordan's persona particularly having gone through the things she had and seeing the things her father went through.

BTFB: Was it always going to be Jordan's story? Was wanting to tell her story the reason why you decided to do a film or did the desire to do a film come first with the story evolving from that?

JASON: Yeah for me it was always going to be about Jordan...no question

SHONI: I think that it needed to focus on someone close to Frank for any of it to make sense.

JASON: If we picked up where it left off I do not think the audience would have accepted new actors taking the place of ones in the original show. As to setting the project in the future it helped with that aspect, people could believe another actress playing Jordan because Brittany was not even old enough at that point to play the Jordan that we portrayed in 'Apocalypse'.

JEREMIA: Not following Jordan in the future would have pushed away a lot of fans in my opinion. The only person in MM that didn't have their story told that people would actually want to see and follow.

As always please leave your thoughts and comments, I am sure the team behind 'Millennium: Apocalypse' will appreciate them as much as we do and don't forget to check us out tomorrow for part two of this interview!