The The Idea

As I mentioned in a previous post, the inspiration of this short came from an old Fan-made movie/trailer called GRAYSON.  The story focused on a "what if" story.  What if, Batman was killed, Dick Grayson(the former robin) came back to Gotham to solve his murder and at the same time he took up the Batman mantle.  But did it as Robin.  The unique thing that they did was make the short in the form of an epic trailer.  And I gotta say, they did a wonderful job. There have been other fan films of the more major super heroes such as "Batman Dead End" or "Patient J", but none of them ever had the "sidekick" as the main attraction.

So it got me thinking about a Fan Film I could possibly do and use the "grayson idea" of making it into a trailer.  There was no way I was going to try and touch GRAYSON and do another Robin short, but I did want to focus on the younger generation of Heroes.  As I started doing some digging  around, I found that no one has done anything with The Teen Titans that's fan-film related.  The Titans are literally virgins when it comes to the world of live action.  So I wanted to be the first.  Just in case you are wondering, this short is being based off of the Comic book version of the titans.  When Tim Drake(Robin III) joined the team. As I started reading through almost all of the Teen Titans comic books I saw that it had a in depth story line. Main characters that you grow to love dying, unseen betrayals, etc.   It also deals with alot of things we went through as teenagers.  Juggling many things at once, living up to someones expectations, love and trying to find yourself.  The Titans had to deal with all of that PLUS have the huge responsibility of being the next generation of heroes. Don't get me wrong they had their fair share of villains to fight but at the end of the day their main concern was them being closer as a Team.  They felt that the Justice League had forgotten what its like to be a family.

Also while going through the comic book version of the titans, you don't get a "happy feel."  In almost every book you see the team dealing with one trial after another(including multiple deaths), so it has a much darker tone than say the "Teen Titans" cartoon on cartoon network.  As a director, this is a huge factor for me because the mood has to fit the comics. The camera work, costumes, tone of the actors, everything   When I think about how this film is going to turn out, I almost get a Watchmen or The Dark Knight sort of vibe.   Something that makes the audience connect with the character and keeps there body in suspense.  Well, enough of me thinking out loud.. Time to get back to work..

-Titans Together, Titans Forever!