HANGMAN | Ep.1 of "RAPACES - The Western Web Series"

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• published: 26 Mar 2011
• views: 17948

1886. A mysterious set of cards is scattered all around the World: the MAJOR ARCANAS. Among the greedy adventurers struggling to collect them are THE LOVERS: STONE, his TWO WIFES and his son. They just captured one of their most dangerous rivals. A MANIPULATIVE and SEDUCTIVE bird of prey. Introduction of the episode available here: www.vimeo.com/21359009 _____________________ // THE GENESIS The RAPACES adventure began two years ago with a crazy idea: Paying tribute to our first love, the Western, by shooting a short movie with a very simple concept: 100% action, no dialogue, guns and real bad-ass desperados! Thus we have produced "RAPACES Birds of Prey", the struggle of three greedy cowboys for the body of another dying bastard... Mission accomplished: our costumes and our gunfights were quite credible, despite a ridiculously low budget of about $200. In spite of the difficulties, this short movie finally exceeded our expectations. We could not stop there! Hardly have we finished editing “Birds of Prey” that our decision was made: we wanted to develop our western concept, tell a story over several episodes, develop interesting characters, touch the audience and cross genres. We also needed to add our personal touch. And what about a mystical touch? Fantasy and esotericism crossing the doors of a grimy saloon? The western mythology is full of strong archetypes: the desperado Eastwood style is none other than the Angel of Death personified, no name and no ties. We had a lead. We decide to draw our inspiration from the divinatory Tarot and we build the foundations of a brand new Rapace adventure: a mystical card game, 22 major Arcanas and 22 "Rapaces" related to these magical items, struggling to collect these precious artifacts and launched into a real treasure hunt... // THE TEAM Rapaces is above all a family affair. We have selected our team by bringing people we were sure of the talent and involvement. Shooting the first episode of a western webserie involves a strong organization and a flawless cohesion. A director (Thibaut Oskian), a screenwriter (Thomas Mansuy), a team of production managers... We needed to find some specific talents. To work on the soundtrack oh HANGMAN, we wanted composers who could create a unique atmosphere and put rhythm into the action of our first episode. The Bernagoult brothers had already worked on "Birds of prey" –doing a great job! – and they decided to follow us for a new challenge: they had already rebranded the western music style, now they also had to compose a more moving and mysterious soundtrack. Let just say that they exceeded our expectations. HANGMAN also required a lot of special effects. Hugo Oskian had already dealt with all the visual effects of "Birds of prey" and we had confidence in him to make real our gunfight and create fully animated closing credits. We also decided to work with stuntman Manu Cartigny. He managed all aspects of physical tricks: jumps, runs, falls and blows ... The realism he brought to our fight scenes is more undeniable when striking at a genre like western also influenced by action. We had a united team, a family crew. We had a script, we had the equipment, we had location in Nemours, France. We had now to found our Rapaces... // THE CAST We already knew many talented actors, met on other set or seen on other movies. For HANGMAN we needed "faces", but also subtle actors able to transmit a range of emotion without any dialogue. HANGMAN Dan Bronchinson was an evidence for us. It was time that we wanted to work with him: very invested, very active and his physical appearance fit perfectly to this role. But Dan had much more to bring to Hangman. A simple coffee as an informal casting was enough: he agreed to be our hero. STONE Hervé Berty is a friend. He could have embodied very different characters with much subtlety. To play this part we needed an experienced actor, able to play the brute but not only! Hervé was Already committed to other projects with us and he seemed perfect to play a cruel and jealous bad-ass sheriff. A phone call was enough to make him a Rapace. RUBY and SAPHYR For both roles, we organized (a real) castings via the Internet. Meeting at least twenty actresses for each role, Mathilde and Laura have emerged as the obvious. We needed two very different characters but which could be run in a trio with the character of Hervé. Mathilde and Laura were able to get inside the skin of these two rivals women loving a man they’re trying to escape from. Above all they were also able to fully trust us. CUPIDO Make a young actor play is a gamble. Being confronted with strong personalities and being completely involved when you’re just thirteen years old is a kind of challenge. Elliot was brought into the project from its genesis and he had several coaching sessions delivered by Martin Dillard, a professional actor. On the set he finally played his part perfectly and even performed his stunts

HANGMAN | Ep.1 of "RAPACES - The Western Web Series"

• Report rights infringement
• published: 26 Mar 2011
• views: 17948

1886. A mysterious set of cards is scattered all around the World: the MAJOR ARCANAS. Among the greedy adventurers struggling to collect them are THE LOVERS: STONE, his TWO WIFES and his son. They just captured one of their most dangerous rivals. A MANIPULATIVE and SEDUCTIVE bird of prey. Introduction of the episode available here: www.vimeo.com/21359009 _____________________ // THE GENESIS The RAPACES adventure began two years ago with a crazy idea: Paying tribute to our first love, the Western, by shooting a short movie with a very simple concept: 100% action, no dialogue, guns and real bad-ass desperados! Thus we have produced "RAPACES Birds of Prey", the struggle of three greedy cowboys for the body of another dying bastard... Mission accomplished: our costumes and our gunfights were quite credible, despite a ridiculously low budget of about $200. In spite of the difficulties, this short movie finally exceeded our expectations. We could not stop there! Hardly have we finished editing “Birds of Prey” that our decision was made: we wanted to develop our western concept, tell a story over several episodes, develop interesting characters, touch the audience and cross genres. We also needed to add our personal touch. And what about a mystical touch? Fantasy and esotericism crossing the doors of a grimy saloon? The western mythology is full of strong archetypes: the desperado Eastwood style is none other than the Angel of Death personified, no name and no ties. We had a lead. We decide to draw our inspiration from the divinatory Tarot and we build the foundations of a brand new Rapace adventure: a mystical card game, 22 major Arcanas and 22 "Rapaces" related to these magical items, struggling to collect these precious artifacts and launched into a real treasure hunt... // THE TEAM Rapaces is above all a family affair. We have selected our team by bringing people we were sure of the talent and involvement. Shooting the first episode of a western webserie involves a strong organization and a flawless cohesion. A director (Thibaut Oskian), a screenwriter (Thomas Mansuy), a team of production managers... We needed to find some specific talents. To work on the soundtrack oh HANGMAN, we wanted composers who could create a unique atmosphere and put rhythm into the action of our first episode. The Bernagoult brothers had already worked on "Birds of prey" –doing a great job! – and they decided to follow us for a new challenge: they had already rebranded the western music style, now they also had to compose a more moving and mysterious soundtrack. Let just say that they exceeded our expectations. HANGMAN also required a lot of special effects. Hugo Oskian had already dealt with all the visual effects of "Birds of prey" and we had confidence in him to make real our gunfight and create fully animated closing credits. We also decided to work with stuntman Manu Cartigny. He managed all aspects of physical tricks: jumps, runs, falls and blows ... The realism he brought to our fight scenes is more undeniable when striking at a genre like western also influenced by action. We had a united team, a family crew. We had a script, we had the equipment, we had location in Nemours, France. We had now to found our Rapaces... // THE CAST We already knew many talented actors, met on other set or seen on other movies. For HANGMAN we needed "faces", but also subtle actors able to transmit a range of emotion without any dialogue. HANGMAN Dan Bronchinson was an evidence for us. It was time that we wanted to work with him: very invested, very active and his physical appearance fit perfectly to this role. But Dan had much more to bring to Hangman. A simple coffee as an informal casting was enough: he agreed to be our hero. STONE Hervé Berty is a friend. He could have embodied very different characters with much subtlety. To play this part we needed an experienced actor, able to play the brute but not only! Hervé was Already committed to other projects with us and he seemed perfect to play a cruel and jealous bad-ass sheriff. A phone call was enough to make him a Rapace. RUBY and SAPHYR For both roles, we organized (a real) castings via the Internet. Meeting at least twenty actresses for each role, Mathilde and Laura have emerged as the obvious. We needed two very different characters but which could be run in a trio with the character of Hervé. Mathilde and Laura were able to get inside the skin of these two rivals women loving a man they’re trying to escape from. Above all they were also able to fully trust us. CUPIDO Make a young actor play is a gamble. Being confronted with strong personalities and being completely involved when you’re just thirteen years old is a kind of challenge. Elliot was brought into the project from its genesis and he had several coaching sessions delivered by Martin Dillard, a professional actor. On the set he finally played his part perfectly and even performed his stunts