Roaring Back to the Verse with Browncoats: Redemption

By WorldofHiglet

Michael C. Dougherty is the co-creator of Browncoats: Redemption along with his friend, Steven Fisher. This is a fan-made film set in the Firefly/Serenity ‘Verse. With a brand new story, ship and cast, all the monies raised after production costs are met will be going to charity. Since our interview with Michael in April, principle photography has been completed and the film is well on schedule for the premiere at 2010 Dragon*Con.

At Dragon*Con 2009 the first trailer was released, giving people an initial look at the cast and a tease about what the film is going to be like. Since then production has been going on apace. I caught up with Michael to find out how things are going.

Pink Raygun: After all the work you have been doing this year, Dragon*Con 2009 was going to be a big event for all the cast and crew. What preparations did you make and what happened on the day?

Michael C Dougherty: There was a lot of pre-planning that went into it. Getting the final edits done of the full teaser trailer, create postcards that we would pass out before the panel, and coordinate who was there, both volunteers and crew, to help us get the message out.  Once we knew the date and time, which didn’t come till the last minute, we did a brief teaser of the teaser that was shared online announcing the panel at Dragon*Con to try to give an idea of what the trailer would look like.

A huge thank you has to go to Wayne Hutchinson who was in charge of the Whedon Track, and a reoccurring member of the Signal Podcast, who made the panel possible from a logistics point of view. I don’t think any of us could have anticipated filling the room to maximum capacity by ten minutes before the panel.

One thing that was done at D*C, which was only possible thanks to the many people that were there helping, was we hit the ground running from day one passing out postcards of the film with the panel information on the back. We brought in about 7,000 postcards that had information about the films mission and the date, time, and location of our panel. With the amazing help that we had, we put just over 6,000 postcards in the hands of people.

PRG: Were you pleased with how the trailer was received? What reactions did you get?

MCD: I was very pleased. The reactions were mixed, but that was expected from the beginning. Everyone liked it, but some let us know they were expecting more from the trailer. I completely understand that, but we have a year to show more and didn’t want to give away everything right out of the gate.

I learned, from fans that saw Serenity before they saw Firefly, that most people didn’t have a connection with the Big Damn Heroes the way those of us that saw Firefly first. I knew if we have a new crew that the first thing we need to do is introduce these characters and let people get a sense of them. The last thing that we wanted to do is just assume that people would immediately connect with this new crew just by throwing out a highly polished trailer.

PRG: This has been a long-term project. When you’ve told people you’re making this film, what have they said?

MCD: Everything from “Awesome, I can’t wait” to “You’re never going to pull this off”. It’s been amazing to see the people who were the later of the two come around and support the film and everyone involved, because they are right…alone I would have never been able to see this through.

PRG: How do you keep it all going forward? Have there been any situations where you’ve thought that you might have to call the whole thing off?

MCD: Sheer force of will. That sounds really overly dramatic, but it’s true. I, personally, keep going forward because I know that it’s the right thing to do. For me, the fans of Firefly/Serenity, the project, and for the charities. Wavering if/when it got hard meant that we would be full of talk and, in the end, that would be nothing but a disservice to the fans of Firefly/Serenity and the charities we sought to help.

PRG: On a weekly basis, what might you work on in order to get the film ready for next year?

MCD: That’s a great question, because it’s constantly evolving based on the needs. There are some things that are done at least once a week, check in with Andrew Louis Marnik (our editor) and see how things are going with syncing the audio and video of film, touch base with some of the crew and see what help they need or vice versa, touch base with the core production team to make sure we’re on task for everything we need, and update Facebook/Twitter with new things.

I’ll be the first to admit that I get completely scatterbrained when it comes to things, because I’m trying to move in so many directions at once. If there wasn’t an amazing crew of people supporting this…I can’t say for certain that everything that is getting done would be as best as it has been. That would be something I hope anyone interested in making a film takes away from our project. No one person is an island. Even if you write, direct, and etc. yourself… a core team of people who are there for the project, and you, are really what makes it a home run.

PRG: After the film is released (or maybe even before!) have you thought about maybe doing something else – like a webseries – for these characters you have brought to life?

MCD: I would love to continue the stories of these characters in any way we can. There are ideas for sequels and if the stars line up a web series would be an amazing way to keep the ‘verse active till Joss, and the crew, come back. One thing I’m pretty firm on is that I don’t feel comfortable moving forward on that until we’ve finished what we started with this project. I want to make sure we don’t just put the DVD out and move on to the next thing, but rather make sure we are working to reach our goal for the charities as well.

PRG: Do you think that more projects will develop from the friendships that have been made with the cast and crew?

MCD: Absolutely. I know that a few people are batting around ideas already. I have been extremely proud, and surprised, by the friendships that have been created by this project. So many talented people have come together…I’m more than confident you’ll see a few projects come out that is made up of people who have met on this film.

PRG: You launched a new campaign that involved a lot more Browncoats, including Felicia Day. Can you tell us how that came about and whether people can still get involved in the project?

MCD: Steven Fisher, one of our producers and the co-creator of this project, and I were sitting down and talking about how we’d find Browncoats and get them involved while waiting for the film to be released. We realized that you never know who really is a fan of the show until you talked to them. Since, the internet has been so critical to our success, to date, and we realized that getting flans to submit a video was something people could do fairly easily and at their own time.

Since Dragon*Con we’ve collected a few people from the convention floor, but the real surprise was to find so many stars, like Felicia Day, are fans of the series as well. It’s a humbling thing to know this connects us all, even in a small way. 

Since that first video has come out we’ve had a few submissions from people on YouTube. We’ve pulled them together with some familiar faces for “I am a Browncoat…Two”.

As more videos come in, we will be combining more and more videos together. Videos can be sent in, via YouTube (with the tag #iamabrowncoat), all the way up until June (and beyond). June is a good hiatus for us on that because we will be in full swing for getting things ready for the DVD release.

PRG: Will there be more trailers before the release next year? Is there anything you can share with us that might be happening?

MDC: We’re planning on at least two or three more trailers leading up until the films release. One will be more of an inside look than a trailer. We’ll also have a few auctions so we can raise additional money to support the last three charities we haven’t had a full chance to spotlight yet, downloads of the cast and the ship, ways to share the updates of the film, but you’ll have more to keep a look out. Those that attending the Firefly/Serenity Creation convention know this, but Greg Edmondson, pending time and schedule, has offered to write a track for the score of the film.

We are also partnering with Jones Soda to do Browncoats: Redemption bottles which we will have to give away for free conventions in a variety of flavors. 

There’s so much happening right now, and it’s really difficult for me not to give away everything, but we’ve got a lot of great surprises up our sleeves that need to be kept under wraps. But I assure you, and your readers, you will know as soon as we are going to get it out.

PRG: Thank you for your time, Michael, and we wish you all the best with the film. The trailer looks really good and I can’t wait to be reviewing Browncoats: Redemption!

MCD: Thank you very much for takin the time.

Find out more on the Browncoats: Redemption website and join them on Twitter and Facebook.

The Facebook website also has some great pictures of some Big Damn Heroes modeling some pretty cunning tee-shirts and information on how you might secure one of these sought-after items.

WorldofHiglet is the online persona of writer Mary R. Higgins, a born-again geek reclaiming her heritage bit by bit. A youth filled with sci-fi, horror and adventure fare (TV, films, computer games and books) was crushed by years of office grind. Buffy brought her back into the fold after years of denial. Discovering Firefly sealed the deal. Now she geeks fulltime on her blog ‘the last geek bus home’ and her first novel ‘Turning left at Albuquerque” is currently looking for a home in publishing-land.

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