By John Moore
Oct. 10, 2012
The 10-minute pilot episode of “After the Darklights,” a new post-apocalyptic web series written and directed by Denver’s Michael Morgan, was launched today as a free online offering. The video posted above chronicles the launch party held at the Laundry on Lawrence artists collective at 27th and Lawrence streets in the RiNo neighborhood just north of downtown. The video posted below is the actual pilot episode.
Morgan, also a local actor who will next appear in Curious Theatre’s “Time Stands Still,” opening Nov. 3, filmed the pilot with an all-local cast and crew that includes Emily Paton Davies, Leah Watson, Josh Hartwell, Brian Landis Folkins, Pamela McCreary, Mike Marlow, Chuck Fiorella, Channel 9 news anchor Kirk Montgomery and more. The series is produced by Brian Landis Folkins, who also appears in the series. Future episodes will feature Karen Slack, Jude Moran, Jim Hunt and others. Specials effects were designed by nationally recognized make-up artist Todd Debreceni.
Here is the official summary statement describing “After the Darklights,” which is most easily categorized as a zombie tale — but the undead evil ones here are better described as “ferals”:
The world as we knew it ended the night the lights came. There were a few of us who missed their coming. The few survivors. The rest who watched fell where they stood in the glow of the unexplainable strobing and fading in the sky. Most died. But not all. Many rose, bloody, shaking. Changed. Like animals. Ravenous animals. The last of us woke to a world where the air hurt to breathe, the sun burned you alive in minutes, and the risen hid in the shadows, waiting for nightfall, waiting to hunt. Waiting to feed. We are the last of who we once were, and we’re fighting every minute against a world that wants us dead…
The creative team has launched a $20,000 online fundraising campaign to help pay for the filming of the next several episodes.
Look for “After the Darklights” to be featured on the Friday (Oct. 12) episode of “In Focus with Eden Lane,” airing in Denver at 7 p.m. on Colorado Public Television Channel 12.
Photos from the Oct. 7 launch party:
