The Making Of Gathering Of Heroes: Legend Of The Seven Swords

Sources: Mark Grove / Avery Guerra

How it started: Mark Grove met Jon Firestone on the 2005 *-horror film “The Shadow Walkers”. Mark directed the film and he brought Jon on as a 2nd unit director of photography to shoot all of the action sequences in the film. Mark was also serving as the stunt coordinator and special effects supervisor and Jon was pulling double duty as the visual effects supervisor. It was while entrenched in the battlefield of low-budget filmmaking that these two men gained a great respect for one another. After Shadow Walkers completed, Mark was set to direct a feature he wrote called “Prime Evil: Spirits of the Fallen”, for the same investor who financed the Shadow Walkers film. The Prime Evil script was still being finalized when the investor received another script that he decided to produce first. Mark changed gears and prepared to direct the comedy-horror film “MIDNIGHT SUN” about backwoods vampires. The script was very mediocre and filled with low-brow comedic gags, but Mark was dedicated to turning it into something fun, so he renamed it “Red Neck” and worked with the writer to develop the story further. The writer wasn’t very supportive of Mark’s changes and the producer was adamant about letting the writer maintain creative control of the script. Mark knew this was film was headed for disaster, but his concerns went unheard. Jon Firestone was brought onto this film as well. Jon would once again serve in the camera department and be involved in visual effects. The production went to Los Angeles for a casting session as many of the supporting roles were cast, but the primary roles were proving harder to fill because the script was not enticing to the level of actors we needed to make the film marketable. As we grew closer to our start date, we had still not acquired our leads and the distributor cautioned us that without name actors the film was destined for failure. It was then that the producer pulled the plug…Red Neck was no more.

A meeting of the minds: With Red Neck at the wayside, Mark had decided to approach Jon Firestone with a new proposition. They met at a local restaurant and Mark gave Jon his pitch. A fantasy film. Mark had always wanted to make a film in the vein of Dungeons and Dragons. To Mark’s surprise, Jon was immediately sold on the idea. It turned out that Jon was equally interested in the same genre and had even developed a script called “Honor Bound” which he was set to direct with his twin brother, Heath Firestone. Unfortunately, the company he had owned with his brother, Firestone Studios, had recently been dissolved and he and his brother we no longer working together. It seemed like fate had brought them together at the perfect time. In 1999 Mark started a film related company with his partner Trygve Lode called Asgard Entertainment, but its primary focus was to provide stunt and special effects services to film and television and had never produced any projects under its own banner. That was about to change. Jon became a partner in Asgard Entertainment and the transition from services company to production company began.

The filmmakers: Mark Grove has owned and operated Martial Arts studios since 1983 and has worked in the film business since 1989. Mark began his career as an actor and stuntman. He apprenticed under veteran stuntman Lars Lundgren and began learning all aspects of stunts and special effects. Since that time he has gone on to work in the industry as a Stunt Coordinator, Special Effects Supervisor, Pyrotechnician, Firearms Handler, Prosthetics Make Up Artist, Historical Consultant, Writer, Editor, Director, and Producer. Mark maintains a full team of stuntplayer/actors and special effects personnel that he has personally trained.

Jon Firestone has been a filmmaker in Colorado for over 10 years. Specializing in compositing and #D animation, Jon Firestone used his knowledge to create the MAYA animation program for the Colorado Film School in the late 90’s. Since that time he has been applying his skills in the industry on a variety of film and television projects. One of the foremost authorities on the RED camera, Jon has written many in-depth articles for magazines about the camera’s technology and use.

Together, these two form a complete package. Physical prowess and technical knowhow.

Developing a story: Mark and Jon began tossing story ideas around. They came to agree on three things. First, the story needed to be based in a fantasy world of their own creation. Second, it should have an ensemble cast that represented different races and professions that audiences could connect with. Third, it would involve an antagonist that could summon the dead. The working title would be “Gathering of Heroes: Legion of the Dead”. Although they collaborated on the story concepts, Mark was given the chore of actually writing the script. The first draft began to take shape and various group readings led to numerous rewrites.

Visualization: During the process, Mark and Jon decided to shoot a bit of pre-visualization footage. Taking out a Sony Z1U HDV camera, they shot a variety of scenes focused on some of the characters in the script. No dialogue, just action and visual effects sequences to test their ideas. The footage turned out awesome and was indeed inspirational, but in the end, Mark and Jon were not content with the specific characters that were to become the heroes and villains in the film. Back to the drawing board.

Story realization: With a complete revamp of the characters, the script took its final form and was re-titled “Gathering of Heroes: Legend of the Seven Swords”. But having the script in place did not mean the film could go into production. Now was the time to find financing…the hardest part of the filmmaking process.

Building the company: One of the primary pieces of the puzzle arrived in December 2007. The RED camera. High definition HD with the combined benefit of using film lenses. This camera was going to change the industry…and Asgard now owned one. Asgard had also acquired a 5 ton grip truck from Universal studios, and lots of lighting equipment as it prepared to become Colorado’s leader in feature film production. Mark and Jon kept focused on the Gathering movie while attempting to survive in the industry by renting equipment and services to commercial productions.

An Angel investor: Mark and Jon were hired to go to Los Angeles to work on a concept piece for a big budget production of the top MMO roleplaying game on the planet. Mark was serving as a stunt/fight coordinator and Jon Firestone was a camera operator using Asgard’s RED camera. During that shoot, Mark and Jon met quite a few influential financing people and they pitched the concept of Gathering of Heroes. The pitch went very well and one of the financiers said they would be very interested in investing in the project. After various phone conversations and a few personal meetings, it looked like Gathering of Heroes was going to get a fairly large investment to make the film. Although the potential investment was considerable, it would still be very low budget for a epic fantasy piece, but Asgard had the advantage of owning all the high end equipment and editing facilities. Asgard also had its own in-house stunt and special effects teams, so they were content to move forward despite the limited funding. At that point, another investor with a smaller amount of capital also came forward. The smaller capital was immediately available so Mark and Jon decided to use it to fund the creation of costumes, weapons, props, and anything else related to the overall look of the film. With that process well under way, they received the news that the primary investor had changed their mind and would not be putting money into the film.

Choices to be made: With money already spent designing and creating the look of the film, Mark and Jon had some hard choices to make. Do they put everything in storage why they try to secure another investor, or do they move forward and make the film with virtually no budget? The answer was clear to them before the question was even asked. The show must go on. Mark and Jon called in all the favors they had both accumulated over the years. They gathered with cast and crew and explained that the shoot would happen despite the lack of funding. To their surprise, the vast majority of those involved stepped up and agreed to work on the project.

The Crew: Jon Firestone knew this wasn’t going to be a traditional shoot because the crew would be working on a volunteer basis, so they would be revolving. Mark and Jon knew this would make it difficult, but that was the situation. Most of our primary crew remained intact during the shoot, but when they offered higher paying jobs, they had to take them.

The Cast: The primary cast was made up of performers from the Asgard Action FX Team, most of which had performed in television and feature films in a stunt capacity. Because of this, they were all excited to become involved with a project that would allow them to put their acting skills to the test. A few local actors outside the team were also cast and were equally excited to be involved in the project.

The Shoot Begins: July 15th 2008 the shoot began at a Bishop castle in Beulah, Colorado that had been secured as one of the primary locations. After three days of non-stop shooting, they had amazing footage. This set the standard as the crew moved on to shoot for two at the Bear Creek Lake Park in Morrison, Colorado. Eight days in the dense mountains of Blackhawk, Colorado. Four days in the Pike National Forest in San Isabel, Colorado. Two days on private property in Littleton, Colorado. Two days at a series of caves and two days at a private ranch in Golden, Colorado. These 24 days allowed the production to capture most of the location shots. Next it was onto studio shoots on the Asgard green screen stage. Two of the rooms of the Bishop castle were recreated to accommodate three days of interior shots. The Bishop castle set was then removed and the green screen was utilized to shoot the interiors of the Deep Elven kingdom were shot for five days. Lastly, the most elaborate set was the interior rooms of the Grayraven castle which were shot for seven days. Now a total of 39 days were spent shooting Gathering of Heroes over three and an half months.

American Film Market: On November 1st, Mark and Jon accompanied their other partner Trygve Lode to the American Film Market in Santa Monica, California. Mark had been involved with AFM since 2003 with partners Trygve Lode and Darlene Cypser, actively selling movies to buyers throughout the world. Asgard took promotional posters to test the response of the buyers and it was far beyond their expectations. The interest in the film was almost universal as buyers visited the room in search of products for their prospective countries. The outlook was good.

Returning to Denver: Upon returning to Colorado, Mark and Jon began preparing to shoot the final scenes of the film, but various commercial projects took precedence over the in-house production. The Gathering film would have to wait until the beginning of the year.

When it rains, it pours: As the end of December drew near, a new film production came to Asgard Entertainment that would require all its attention. A full co-production with all of Asgard’s equipment and crew to be kept busy for 5 weeks of shooting and eight weeks of post production. Production was set to begin the last week of February 2009 and finish the last week of March. Post Production was set to be completed the first half of June. Once again, Gathering would have to take a back seat.

More growth: Asgard grew once again. The studio expanded to twice its size. Multiple HD edit suites, a Maya animation room, a multi-seat stadium theater, sound booth, graphic design room, and prop shop. All of this along with a large open production room and offices for key personnel.

The quest begins again: In June 2009, Asgard was once again free to focus its efforts on Gathering of Heroes. Pick up shots have taken the film over 50 days of principle photography and The post production process has progressed at great speed. The edit, the music, the sound effects, the visual effects… all coming together. Now, the film will be ready for distribution at the end of 2009/beginning of 2010.

The journey to making Gathering of Heroes was a long one, but it is a testament of what you can do if you strive forward with firm resolve. Mark Grove and Jon Firestone are simply two filmmakers who are focused on making feature films in Colorado. They live by a simple motto. “The best way to predict your future, is to create it yourself”.

The Future: With Gathering of Heroes near completion, Asgard Entertainment is already developing it’s next few projects. The next film on the table is “Rogue Space”, a sci-fi adventure with plenty of spaceships and aliens.