Post by /\/\att on May 7, 2007 6:45:18 GMT -5
--LoG featured in the Orange County Register Newspaper
the Orange Country Register Tuesday, November 16, 2004
The first interview ever conducted on Legions of Gotham was with Sandy Collora, the director of the 2003 smash hit fan film Batman: Dead End. Matt MacNabb was asked to do an interview about the Batman fan communities reactions to the film by the "Orange County Register", who was doing a piece on Collora. Although only one quote was really used, the interview was several questions long. Thanks again to Peter Larsen of the Orange County Register for the fun opportunity.
You can read a transcript of the article below. The LoG section is in bold.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
The Morning Read: Calling on a superhero
Sandy Collora's eight-minute Batman film would change his career forever - one way or the other.
By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register
HUNTINGTON BEACH – Sandy Collora had a nice little Hollywood career going: well-paid work as a special-effects artist and commercial director, a pad in Corona del Mar, a shiny new Porsche.
So when he gambled all that to make an eight-minute Batman film - one which he could never sell or profit from - well, who'd blame his mom for yelling at him?
"My parents went ballistic," says Collora, 36. When I told my mom I sold my car, she couldn't believe it: 'How are you going to get around now?!' "
But Collora, with Batman as his role model and inspiration, had it all figured out.
He would be like the superhero he had always adored. Not Superman born on a faraway planet, not Spiderman bitten by a radioactive spider, but Batman, who with hard work and his own money tapped the super powers within himself.
In the screenplay he imagined for himself, Collora would make his mini-epic "Batman: Dead End," get discovered by Hollywood, and leap from the eye-straining crafts credits at the end of a film to the prime spot of director.
The moment he would learn whether he had succeeded comes at the climax of this story. Tounderstand how Collora got there, roll the first reel.
As a kid growing up on Long Island, Collora loved comic books, "Star Wars," art and the movies. And always, Batman.
At 17, he went west - promising his folks to enroll at Cal State Northridge, but always with his eye on any chance to break into Hollywood.
An internship turned into a low-level job with Stan Winston, who created creatures for "Alien," "The Terminator" and "Predator."
He landed higher-profile gigs - designing the logo for "Jurassic Park" was one - and eventually moved into directing commercials and music videos. But the big dream remained out of reach.
"I knew I could make a great film," Collora says. "What I didn't know how to do was create buzz and get attention."
Two years ago, Collora called on Batman to come to his rescue.
Collora sold his 1999 Porsche Carerra 4S, pulled together the 50 members of his cast and crew, and started filming - even as his mom scolded him, his agent dropped him and $40,000 flowed out of his bank account.
"It was heaven," he says of the experience. "Especially once we started shooting, because there's Batman! There's the Joker! It was like having a life-sized action figure, my childhood hero, the way I wanted to see him."
Eight months later, he was still driving an old Toyota pickup, but his parents had more or less forgiven him.
Better still, the film had been accepted by the country's biggest comic-book convention.
The table was set. All that remained was to show the movie and see how it played to Collora's fellow comic geeks - a tough, knowledgeable, critical audience.
Collora and his producers worked the convention all weekend to promote the film, unsure whether anyone would show up to see it.
"There were all these other short films before us, and periodically I'd run up and stick my head in to see how many people were in there," he says."There'd be three people or 12 people, and I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, are we going to get people in this room?' "
But by showtime the room was packed to its capacity of 350, with hundreds more in line outside. With so many unable to see the show, convention organizers decided to screen it at the Masquerade party that night, which 5,000 people would attend.
"The lights go down, the music comes up and if I was standing right next to you, you couldn't hear me," Collora says of the response it got that night. "The place was insane."
Even before the convention closed, Internet chat rooms were buzzing with talk of the film, a dark look at a Batman, perhaps more human than the Hollywood versions, who ends up battling not just the Joker, but creatures from "Alien" and "Predator," too.
"The biggest thing to come out of the 2003 convention was 'Batman: Dead End,' " says Matt MacNabb, creator of the Legions of Gotham Web site for Batman fans. "I swear, overnight hundreds of people had gone online raving about it."
The day after the convention closed, Collora's agent called to say the phone was ringing nonstop.
"I was blown away. I mean, oh, it was a moment," Noel Cox, owner of 21st Century Comics in Fullerton, says about seeing the film.
In September, Cox hosted a store appearance with Collora, showing both his short films on a TV as Collora drew sketches and signed autographs for a few hundred people in an eight-hour stretch.
"I would totally go see anything he directed," Cox said.
Which leads to the final act and the answer to the question: Did Collora get his shot at directing?
In the months that followed the debut of "Batman: Dead End," he was offered three projects, he says, all of which he turned down, feeling they weren't right for him.
Though his dad, Joseph, worried about him not taking the work - his mother, Joann, passed away shortly after seeing her son finishthe film - Collora is now attached to two projects that are close to a studio green light for 2005.
One, a film he also wrote,is called "The Circle" - think "Gladiator" with aliens.
The other, a project in development with the producers of films such as "Hellboy" and "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" is called "Off World."
"This is one of the very few times in my life that worked out exactly as I planned it," he says.
And if by chance it doesn't work out?
"I'd have to do something else to get the attention of Hollywood," Collora says. "But nothing will ever take away 'Dead End.' It's something I always wanted to do, and I went out and did it."[/center]
the Orange Country Register Tuesday, November 16, 2004
The first interview ever conducted on Legions of Gotham was with Sandy Collora, the director of the 2003 smash hit fan film Batman: Dead End. Matt MacNabb was asked to do an interview about the Batman fan communities reactions to the film by the "Orange County Register", who was doing a piece on Collora. Although only one quote was really used, the interview was several questions long. Thanks again to Peter Larsen of the Orange County Register for the fun opportunity.
You can read a transcript of the article below. The LoG section is in bold.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
The Morning Read: Calling on a superhero
Sandy Collora's eight-minute Batman film would change his career forever - one way or the other.
By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register
HUNTINGTON BEACH – Sandy Collora had a nice little Hollywood career going: well-paid work as a special-effects artist and commercial director, a pad in Corona del Mar, a shiny new Porsche.
So when he gambled all that to make an eight-minute Batman film - one which he could never sell or profit from - well, who'd blame his mom for yelling at him?
"My parents went ballistic," says Collora, 36. When I told my mom I sold my car, she couldn't believe it: 'How are you going to get around now?!' "
But Collora, with Batman as his role model and inspiration, had it all figured out.
He would be like the superhero he had always adored. Not Superman born on a faraway planet, not Spiderman bitten by a radioactive spider, but Batman, who with hard work and his own money tapped the super powers within himself.
In the screenplay he imagined for himself, Collora would make his mini-epic "Batman: Dead End," get discovered by Hollywood, and leap from the eye-straining crafts credits at the end of a film to the prime spot of director.
The moment he would learn whether he had succeeded comes at the climax of this story. Tounderstand how Collora got there, roll the first reel.
As a kid growing up on Long Island, Collora loved comic books, "Star Wars," art and the movies. And always, Batman.
At 17, he went west - promising his folks to enroll at Cal State Northridge, but always with his eye on any chance to break into Hollywood.
An internship turned into a low-level job with Stan Winston, who created creatures for "Alien," "The Terminator" and "Predator."
He landed higher-profile gigs - designing the logo for "Jurassic Park" was one - and eventually moved into directing commercials and music videos. But the big dream remained out of reach.
"I knew I could make a great film," Collora says. "What I didn't know how to do was create buzz and get attention."
Two years ago, Collora called on Batman to come to his rescue.
Collora sold his 1999 Porsche Carerra 4S, pulled together the 50 members of his cast and crew, and started filming - even as his mom scolded him, his agent dropped him and $40,000 flowed out of his bank account.
"It was heaven," he says of the experience. "Especially once we started shooting, because there's Batman! There's the Joker! It was like having a life-sized action figure, my childhood hero, the way I wanted to see him."
Eight months later, he was still driving an old Toyota pickup, but his parents had more or less forgiven him.
Better still, the film had been accepted by the country's biggest comic-book convention.
The table was set. All that remained was to show the movie and see how it played to Collora's fellow comic geeks - a tough, knowledgeable, critical audience.
Collora and his producers worked the convention all weekend to promote the film, unsure whether anyone would show up to see it.
"There were all these other short films before us, and periodically I'd run up and stick my head in to see how many people were in there," he says."There'd be three people or 12 people, and I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, are we going to get people in this room?' "
But by showtime the room was packed to its capacity of 350, with hundreds more in line outside. With so many unable to see the show, convention organizers decided to screen it at the Masquerade party that night, which 5,000 people would attend.
"The lights go down, the music comes up and if I was standing right next to you, you couldn't hear me," Collora says of the response it got that night. "The place was insane."
Even before the convention closed, Internet chat rooms were buzzing with talk of the film, a dark look at a Batman, perhaps more human than the Hollywood versions, who ends up battling not just the Joker, but creatures from "Alien" and "Predator," too.
"The biggest thing to come out of the 2003 convention was 'Batman: Dead End,' " says Matt MacNabb, creator of the Legions of Gotham Web site for Batman fans. "I swear, overnight hundreds of people had gone online raving about it."
The day after the convention closed, Collora's agent called to say the phone was ringing nonstop.
"I was blown away. I mean, oh, it was a moment," Noel Cox, owner of 21st Century Comics in Fullerton, says about seeing the film.
In September, Cox hosted a store appearance with Collora, showing both his short films on a TV as Collora drew sketches and signed autographs for a few hundred people in an eight-hour stretch.
"I would totally go see anything he directed," Cox said.
Which leads to the final act and the answer to the question: Did Collora get his shot at directing?
In the months that followed the debut of "Batman: Dead End," he was offered three projects, he says, all of which he turned down, feeling they weren't right for him.
Though his dad, Joseph, worried about him not taking the work - his mother, Joann, passed away shortly after seeing her son finishthe film - Collora is now attached to two projects that are close to a studio green light for 2005.
One, a film he also wrote,is called "The Circle" - think "Gladiator" with aliens.
The other, a project in development with the producers of films such as "Hellboy" and "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" is called "Off World."
"This is one of the very few times in my life that worked out exactly as I planned it," he says.
And if by chance it doesn't work out?
"I'd have to do something else to get the attention of Hollywood," Collora says. "But nothing will ever take away 'Dead End.' It's something I always wanted to do, and I went out and did it."[/center]