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Canadian transplant Jason Faller said he used to make romantic comedies. "Moving McCallister" and "Pride and Prejudice" are among his producer credits.
A few years ago he challenged his students in film class at Brigham Young University to try what he calls an experiment — to make a fantasy film. It was called "Dragon Hunter."
"It was very successful for us worldwide," Faller said.
Based on that success, Faller and his producing partner, Kynan Griffin, a transplant from South Africa, formed a local company called Arrowstorm Entertainment, to produce what are called "fanboy movies" — fantasy, science fiction and action films.
"We're kind of a smaller group, kind of getting bigger and bigger as we go here," Faller said.
In the past five years, they've produced titles like "Orc Wars,""The Shadow Cabal,""The Crown and the Dragon," and "Osombie," Osama Bin Laden's film reincarnation as a zombie.
Now Arrowstorm is producing a five-film series called "Mythica," about a slave who runs away, teams up with a band of misfits and saves the world.
They're shooting scenes at the Utah State Hospital's recreation center, a New Deal era stone structure with a castle-like appearance.
There's a lot more available to a lot more people now. The cameras are smaller and cheaper and higher quality computers (for creating special effects) are faster.
–Matt Hoffman of BluFire Studios
A production like this, small by Hollywood standards but epic for Arrowstorm, is made possible by Utah's varied landscape, the state's tax break for film production and the accessibility of digital film production, Faller said.
"There's a lot more available to a lot more people now," said Matt Hoffman of BluFire Studios. "The cameras are smaller and cheaper and higher quality computers (for creating special effects) are faster."
BluFire produced special effects and built dragons and other digital creatures for Arrowstorm's movies and will be working on "Mythica."
"You get a lot more done with a lot less people and it's kind of an exciting place to be because it has opened up so many possibilities for different kind of film to be told that couldn't before for these budget levels," Hoffman said.
"The things that you want to do in a fantasy film that the writers want to write into the script used to be impossible especially on our budget," Faller said. "Now all things are possible and really kind of opens it up and allows us to do some epic storytelling on a reasonable budget."
Faller said "Mythica" shooting should wrap up this summer and the first "Mythica" film should debut in theaters or on TV in the fall.
