Interview: Cisco Davis, Jr, Director of Zordon of Eltar (Fan Film)

I recently came across Cisco Davis Jr's Zordon of Eltar project on Kickstarter as noted in my previous post. He was kind enough to let me interview him about the project to spread awareness of his goals with the project.

The interview came across really great. He was really informative and helpful, discussing issues Saban's direction of the show had, while still portraying it as his inspiration. I really have to thank him for the interview.

Speaking of which, right when I was coming up with this interview, he did some more updates from social media, including the fact that his film has received full funding. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody including Cisco!

Here come the questions:

PRPHD: How did your animation team get together? There is a lot of detail in this film like that on the scale of a Lord of the Rings budget. 

Cisco Davis, Jr: There wasn't an animation team to speak of to begin with when this project started. I actually taught myself how to do the basic animations and placement  of 3D objects within a shot four weeks prior to the release of my trailer. In all the years of my filmmaking experience I had sought out others to do my visual effects work. This was the first time I did everything myself and I learned pretty quickly to get the shots I wanted.

Cisco Davis, Jr: Fortunately, after the trailer's release I was able to hook up with Demone Amerson who offered help with creating 3D assets and assisting with animation. He's currently tasked with working on the Dragonzord and it's looking great so far!

Cisco Davis, Jr: I'm a firm believer that if you have a good idea for what your shots look like you can create a project with a high production value on a very limited budget. Sure I'd love to do high budget films one day. But making a film like this on a smaller budget forces me to be creative and become a better problem solver, the mark of a good filmmaker.

PRPHD: Any homages to the source material Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger?

Cisco Davis, Jr: Not specifically. This fan film uses Saban's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and parts of the somewhat murky mythology the show created and takes the opportunity to flesh out a re-imagined history to MMPR.

PRPHD: With the emphasis on realism in superheroes nowadays, I was wondering your stance on the direction American superhero shows have had recently and what were your perceptions of storytelling needs?

Cisco Davis, Jr: One of the things I wanted to do was try my best is to take some of the very "fantastic" elements of the children's show and try to give it a contemporary spin. I'm not trying to make things more "realistic" but make the fan film present the universe as something more epic.

PRPHD: I know that there will be differences; (it is a space show opposed to a teenager's show,) but in the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, there was this emphasis on honor and martial arts. Will there be something similar to that like that of perhaps King Arthur's Knights or something? What can you tell me about the new/old Rangers?

Cisco Davis, Jr: The focus of this fan film will be around Rita Repulsa and Zordon. I originally wanted to have a team of rangers but that kind of story demanded a somewhat more involved budget and also a less involved story. By focusing on fewer characters I believe I am able to give the audience a better time at relating to and experiencing the characters during the film.

PRPHD: Will the film be accessible to non-hardcore fans?

Cisco Davis, Jr: For starters this fan film is going to eventually be posted online for everyone to watch for free. The main person I'm making this film for is myself because I'm the one who wants to watch it most. It's really just an added perk that I get to share this labor of love with the whole world as well.

Cisco Davis, Jr: The intent for this film is for it to be standalone and presented in a way that anyone, Power Ranger fan or not, could watch this film and understand everything that's going on. That's why I decided to make this film a prequel because I feel the audience would much better appreciate Angel Grove's team if they knew the history they lead up to them. I also wanted to give the Zordon and Rita Repulsa more depth. Especially Rita. I felt like she needed more depth and motivation to be the character that she is. That was my first challenge when taking on this project.

PRPHD: I understand you are attempting to make it inspired by Mass Effect. That seems ambitious on such a small budget. Yet you seem to be pulling it off quite well. It seems very inspiring to the point of being a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers lesson all in itself. Tell me more about got you into this direction for the film.

Cisco Davis, Jr: As with films like Star Wars and Star Trek the video game Mass Effect helped influence this fan film by means of its portrayal of futuristic space-faring civilizations and how they interact with each other. Mass Effect, by far, has the most superior caliber of sci-fi storytelling.

Cisco Davis, Jr: The Power Rangers universe plays host to tons of different planets and alien races. But despite countless seasons I never felt we got to feel the scope of how vast the universe the show created. One of the things I wanted to try to do with this fan film as a prequel was portray a sort of "living and breathing" galactic civilization. I hope I do a good job at it.

PRPHD: Again about Mass Effect, there were several interesting things about that universe, such as the races, the aliens, the decisions and the characters. (More on that in the Zordon question!) Speaking of which, do I see a little bit of dark Fem Shepard in Rita Repulsa? What else is your favorite thing about Mass Effect and your other inspirations that you are trying to bring about in the film?

Cisco Davis, Jr: Rita Repulsa is pretty much her own unique character for this film. I just knew I wanted to give her an origin story and legitimate enough motivations to become the villain of the Power Rangers. In the very first episode I remember one of Rita's lines being "Hey look a planet! Let's go conquer it!" as if it was a random idea she came up with after being imprisoned for 10,000 years. Logic like that wouldnt cut it in my project. So as a writer I sat down and asked myself what would motivate her to attack earth and why would she have conflict with Zordon? After coming up with a convincing story and plot for the prequel I went on from there and built upon that.

I'm a big fan of science-fiction in general and like I mentioned Mass Effect is in my opinion is the best modern display of sci-fi storytelling hands down. I just aspire to tell compelling stories and have characters interact with each other that we can care about as an audience and as fans.

PRPHD: Will new things such as planets, zords and characters be introduced? I've noticed a few monsters that were not included in the show.

Cisco Davis, Jr: Even though this is a re-imagining I don't plan to go crazy with creating a lot of new things. I will mostly take the source material and present them in different ways. For instance we know there are many different planets that comprise the Power Rangers universe ... but there is no unified or authoritative system of government between them. How did they discover each other? How would people travel between them? Do they trade with one another? There are little details like those that are completely overlooked in the show. The only things I would add to the story would be to give this universe some much lacking depth.

Cisco Davis, Jr: I won't take a great deal introducing new characters either as my goal with this fan film is to re-create the exisiting universe and its characters. Without listing off a laundry list of familiar names or characters I will just say that everyone I do have in this fan film serves a purpose to the plot and isn't there for fan service. Telling the story is top priority with this project.

PRPHD: Will certain enemies such as Lokar, Cyclopsis, Goldar, Finster, and Master Vile appear? There was a certain mythology to Rita's creatures and you saw that in the design. 

Cisco Davis, Jr: Rita is obviously the focus as far as why she becomes a villain and this fan film will serve as an unofficial origin story for her. The mentioning of the god Lokar is an interesting point you bring up because in the fan film dialogue there is at least one reference to Lokar's name as a god in Rita and her family's religion. I did enough research to make sure at least one reference to a deity was made in this fan film. Because as much as religion plays a role in our world I would imagine it would even in this fantasy world.

Cisco Davis, Jr: The Cyclopsis story arch isn't important to this story and isn't a part of it. Not to say Cyclopsis wouldn't exist in my version but it definitely isn't important to Rita's origin story. Master Vile is an interesting case as he is Rita's father. Even though vague refrences will be made to her father he will not make an appearance. I do opt to show Rita's mother though. I also might add that I'm not a fan of Rita's relatives looking like monsters while she looked humanoid. So when I do show members of Rita's family, like her brother Rito for example, don't expect him to be a bone-headed talking skeleton! Haha!

How will the character of Zordon be in this film? We saw how he looks but not how he acts.

I have a very romanticized vision of how Zordon could have been in the past. Early in the show it had appeared as if Zordon had experienced the monsters threw at the Power Rangers in the past and he always seemed to know how to defeat them. So I went on that assumption that maybe Zordon was some kind of fighter or warrior in the past and ran with it.

My version of Zordon I wanted to make out to be an epic hero like from Greek mythology. Perseus, Thesseus and Odysseus came to mind when I was re-imagining this new version of him. Aside from being an alien obviously I wanted to give Zordon a somewhat  "human" element. I hate to say it but Zordon in the early parts of the show was very 1 dimensional and always knew the answers to everything. I hope to portray a Zordon who questions himself and his objectives if need be, deals with morality issues,

 and actually DOESN'T always have the right answer and can actually be wrong. It still needs to be seen how that will come across on screen but this was a goal of mine for my interpretation of Zordon before he became the mentor of the teens from Angel Grove.

PRPHD: Will old personalities show up in Zordon of Eltar? The Blue Senturion, Phantom Ranger, Andros and the Masked Rider come to mind.

Cisco Davis, Jr: Again, while I'm sure these characters would and should exist in my re-imagined universe they aren't integral to the specific story I'm trying to tell. Adding too many characters for the sake of adding them convolutes the plot and takes away from the story which is the most important part to any film. A character or two from Masked Rider may have brief cameos though however. If you might remember correctly there was a certain character that was responsible for creating Alpha 5 so... Hmm. Haha!
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That is it for the interview. Again, I have to say thanks to Cisco as it really does seem to be a dream project for the fans. He really seems to be the Carl Icahn of fan films, considering how low the budget is.
Best of luck and Happy Thanksgiving!