The film cameras will be rolling in Yorkton this summer as a former Yorkton resident returns to film a dozen webisodes of a new production featuring a familiar face, at least on YouTube.
Daniel Redenbach is the filmmaker. He explained the idea is to create films of seven to eight minutes each which will go straight to the Internet, viewable on the 'Gunderson' website.
Yorkton people may well be familiar with the Gunderson character, the short video persona of Tyson Off. He was brought to life in a series of 'Welcome to Yorkton' videos which garnered thousands of hits on YouTube.
Redenbach said it was the strong following for Off's videos which initially attracted his attention and got him thinking about creating a more professionally put together package.
"I got a hold of him (Off)," said Redenbach, adding the videos getting 25,000 hits was intriguing.
Redenbach said cooperating was a natural, adding the conversation was pretty simply; "I do this for a living. You (Off) want to do this for a living, why not figure out a way to make it happen."
So Gunderson was born. Redenbach said the show is a comedy about community, family, friends, and growing up in Yorkton. "It follows key character Glen Gunderson in an overarching plot involving Gunderson's coming-of-age, Yorkton, Saskatchewan's political structure, and the hijinks of this schmuck's life. Gunderson will combine comedic narrative with improvisational moments of the lead character interacting with the real town of Yorkton," explained a show synopsis.
Once they decided to proceed Redenbach, who will be executive producer on the project, said things have fallen into place pretty quickly.
"We have a rough draft of all 12 shows. We're working on the second drafts right now," he said.
Once the scripts are complete, the next step will be filming, all of it to take place in Yorkton.
"We plan to start shooting in July," said Redenbach.
The general plot is explained as "Glen Gunderson, a 21-year-old party animal, enjoys his life in the small prairie city of Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. He has a decent job at a pizza joint, he seldom attends the classes he needs to graduate, and he kicks his feet up playing videogames in his parent's basement. He's got a few friends, and a family that loves him despite his flaws. One day Glen's mother has a heart to heart with him, throwing his leisurely world into upheaval- she's leaving his father for another man. Glen is going to have to grow up and move out of the house.
"After a bit of research and a lot of lamenting, Glen decides that living off of student loans in the big city is the way to go. He'll be able to party all he wants, meet women who will want to sleep with him, and get paid for simply getting out of bed and going to class. He begins to soul search to the bottom of every bottle, attempting to discover what his passion may be and makes a goal of completing his high school classes-or at least concocting a way to sneak by.
"Glen's father, however, is not so ready to move on. After his wife leaves him, he begins a megalomaniacal campaign to become town mayor- a position that would allow him to destroy the town he so loathes. As Glen's departure time looms near, so does election day. The fate of the entire city of Yorkton could be resting in the hands of he-most-unlikely, Glen Gunderson."
In terms of the show Redenbach said they want to "blur the line between what's real, and what's not real." They plan to do that by letting Off go out in the community and interact with people during the film process.
Redenbach said while the films will be the heart of the project he sees Gunderson as a multimedia creation with lots of opportunities for fans to interact with the cast and show.
"We want to build a community around the show," he said.
For example people will be able to comment on, and ask questions via the show's website, and the character Gunderson will actually answer some of them, explained Redenbach.
The idea of community is something Redenbach said he hopes works both ways with individuals and businesses in the city jumping on board with website advertising and sponsorships. He said while the films will go to the website first, it will be free to re-post, so it can easily be "shuffled around to 10-different platforms," so advertisers should get good play.
There will also be opportunities for people wanting to help on the film crew, and in some cases even on screen, said Redenbach, adding in one episode they want a massive crowd scene and will be inviting the whole community to participate.
Anyone willing to help on, or sponsor Gunderson can contact Redenbach at 351-9309 or email [email protected]
If the idea takes off, and Redenbach said they are ready to move forward with more episodes.
"We've already got season two scripts," he said with a smile.
