PROJECT_RANGER 2014: MMPR Interview with Louis Maldarelli (Part 2)

Recently, I had the opportunity to talk again with Mr. Louis Maldarelli of the MMPR fan project; he updated us on what the cast and crew have been doing over winter break and what lies ahead for the show.

GK: Hello, Louis! It’s been awhile since the July 4^th trip, hasn’t it? How have you and the rest of the group been?
LM: We are doing well. Everyone enjoyed the holidays with their families and now we are back on track towards releasing the first episode.

There’s surely a lot to talk about, so let’s start with the first thing that’s on everyone’s mind: what is the current status of MMPR?
Right now, the first episode is currently in post-production. We are currently at picture lock and will be sending it off to our special effect artists and sound designers to work on.

What is ‘picture lock’?
Picture lock is when basically the physical film has been put together and we decide we won’t make changes anymore, like moving scenes around; it basically means the film is done, but now we send it to sound design and special effects and to Ron Wasserman to score the footage.

What has kept you guys busy since the release of the Thanksgiving trailer? Surely there’s been quite a bit to do in the past few months to get done. How have you guys spent your production time through 2014?
It’s actually been very difficult. The Holiday season is always a slow time of the year where everyone likes to take time off. Not to mention that New York City was hit with one of the worst winters we have had in some time. But despite all of that, we have been busy with the editing of the first episode, as well as working on scripts for a handful of mini-episodes we will be producing soon.

Your team attended a series of cons late in 2013 showing off the freshly-minted Blue Ranger episode trailer, starting with New York Comic-Con; I’ve seen the interviews your team did with TheCinemaCouch for YouTube, but in your own words, what was the MMPR experience at NYCC like?
New York Comic Con was a blast. It was honestly such a great day. It was the first of several Cons we attended in late 2013. So we wanted to use this opportunity to not only promote the film, but to say thank you to our cast and crew members that were with us. The MMPR team has really grown into a tight-knit family, so it was great to spend the day with everyone. The convention was amazing – packed wall to wall with cosplayers. We met some great fans and were able to check out the Bandai America area, which was a lot of fun. Heck, at one point, Ricky Barksdale (the MMPR fan film Black Ranger) had a break dancing dance off with a Darth Vader cosplayer! Yes, it was as epic as it sounds.

What kind of response did you get there? Was there a particular presence of fans or non-fans that came to visit you?
The response was overwhelming. There were many Power Ranger cosplayers, so we were able to pull them in and show them our trailer. But we also wanted to meet other fans and they really enjoyed the trailer as well. We also wanted to REALLY showcase our series and get people’s attention, so actor Jerry Murdock dressed up in full make-up as Lord Zedd and it was AMAZING. As soon as Jerry showed up, little kids just looked at him in awe and hid. People were coming up to us left and right asking for photos. Not only was the make-up great, but Jerry is a character all in himself and carried himself great. We will be posting a video soon of our experience at NYCC.

You also went to Rhode Island Comic-Con to show off the Blue Ranger trailer. What did Rhode Island have to say to you guys?
Rhode Island Comic Con was great. A lot more of a Power Ranger presence than NYCC. It was a great time meeting the fans, meeting some cast members we never met before like Steve Cardenas, or reconnecting with some old friends like Robert Axelrod, Barbra Goodson, Catherine Sutherland, & Kerrigan Mahan. And the icing on the cake was the MMPR Fan Film Blue Ranger, Dina Cataldi, getting a chance to meet with MMPR Blue Ranger, David Yost! She got a real kick out of that!

Your final appearance of 2013 was Rangerstop in Florida, and I understand your team got to do an MMPR fan film panel! Have you or any of the others ever done a panel before?
Rangerstop in Florida was one of the best experiences for our team. They are, without a doubt, the premiere convention for Power Ranger fans on the East Coast. I would highly suggest anyone who can to make it to Rangerstop 2. The MMPR Fan Film had their own table where fans were able to come up and talk to us, view the trailer for Episode One and were able to get pictures and autographs. We got to spend the weekend with some great cast members like Jason Faunt, Nakia Burrise, Jason Narvy, Steven Skyler, Alex Heartman and Najee De-Tiege. It was so much fun. We did get to have a panel and were able to show all of our trailers, all of our mini-episodes and answered questions from fans. It was a great experience and we are currently working on getting the video online of the panel and of our experience at the convention!

The MMPR facebook page has been abuzz through the filming of the Blue Ranger episode and the release of the Red Ranger poster, and it’s very exciting to see the project to have come this far since the Kickstarter all the way back to Morphicon 3 and the first trailer. Has anything changed from your initial vision?
No, right now, we are still on track with releasing the first episode, putting together several more mini-episodes and moving forward from there. That is our goal for right now – just keep moving forward.

The trailer for the Blue Ranger episode looks fantastic. What can fans look forward to in the episode? Does it have an official title yet?
Much, much more than what is shown in the trailer. We honestly believe that our fans will love everything that we put into the episode. I’m excited myself to see the final product. But no, there is no official title to it other than Episode One as of right now.

People have also taken note of the CGD patches pinned to unnamed scientists and soldiers in behind-the-scenes content you’ve posted to Facebook, insinuating the continued promotion of the Silver Guardians as a plot device. What can we expect from the CGD and the mysterious General Collins in the Blue Ranger episode?
While we have used the Silver Guardians in a way not shown on Time Force, we won’t be straying too far away from the show and you may actually see some familiar names pop up when discussing the hierarchy of the Guardians.

Where was the episode filmed? Did you use any pre-existing structures?
The episode was filmed in two locations; one was on campus at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. We used several buildings around the campus for different scenes and let me tell you, it make for a crazy night. The second location was an industrial warehouse in Corona, New York. We filmed the majority of our fight scenes in this building, but what was really special about this building is about the month prior to us getting in there, Martin Scorsese used the same building to film ‘Wolf of Wall Street.’ It is a very humbling experience to be filming in the same location as a legend like that for a film as great as WoWS.

What will be the significance of the Blue Ranger episode to the overall story? Why should fans be excited for the first legitimate piece of content from your team? Why should non-fans be interested?
The first episode will revolve around the Blue Ranger and will be the beginning of our story. It will explain the world a little bit more and introduce us to not only the characters involved with the Silver Guardians, but what their motives are. Fans and non-fans should be excited as this episode will involve some great action, great storytelling and beautiful cinematography. We believe that it will have a little bit of everything to really bring in a large audience.

When was your last contact with Ron Wasserman? Is he scoring the Blue Ranger episode?
We spoke with Ron not too long ago. He is a very busy guy with all the work he does on his sitcoms, but he is definitely doing the score for the Blue Ranger episode! He said he is very excited to see the final product after seeing the trailer!

What is the current state of MMPR interaction with the fan community? I understand the various other Rangers, Red Ranger Don Money and Black Ranger Ricky Barksdale, have been semi-actively participating in forums on various sites, and other cast members remain involved on facebook, blogs, and other forms of social media. How important is social media to MMPR?
Social media is very important to the success of MMPR. It’s not coincidence that we have one of the biggest followings for any fan film on the web and recently our trailer for episode one surpassed 200,000 views on YouTube, which is a huge milestone for us. It is very important to stay in contact with our fans. Pretty much all of our actors are on twitter and talk to fans daily. But something cool that we are planning in the next week is we are dedicating a whole week to the MMPR Fan Film Black Ranger, Ricky Barksdale. We will be releasing the art work for the black ranger, the character poster and we will be doing a special “viewing” of sorts with our fans, as we do a live stream with Ricky and watch some fan-picked Black Ranger themed episodes from throughout the Power Ranger franchise! It should be a lot of fun and Ricky loves interacting with the fans.

What is in store for the MMPR crew through the rest of the year? Is there any other content besides the Blue Ranger episode that we can expect?
We will be producing a handful of new mini-episodes that will introduce new characters (not involved with the Silver Guardians) in a way to start preparing for the other side of the story that we haven’t told yet. We will have some promotional videos, new artwork and posters. We are working on getting some very big names involved in the series, one way or another, and can’t wait to make these announcements when we lock them down.

Anything else you’d like to say to fans leading up to the big release?
Thank you guys for sticking with us. We have been working very hard for over a year now and we do not plan on stopping just yet. Thanks to Morphin’ Legacy for all the support, thanks to Rangerstop for inviting us down to their great convention. Let us know what you think on Twitter (@MMPRfilm) and stay tuned as we release more content over the next few weeks leading to the premiere!

Check back to their Facebook page (facebook.com/MMPRfilm) for the upcoming Black Ranger events and continued updates on the project.