Charlie and Lillith work at Boondock Alley: A Doctor’s Surgery for the Undead. Headed up by Dr Miranda Evans, a pioneer in research and medicine for the Undead, they are a tight team. In spite of the recent passing of the controversial Integration Act, humans remain divided in their views on equal rights for the Undead. Amid the ensuing conflict, Dr Evans goes missing. In the face of threats from both ends of the creature continuum, Charlie and Lillith fight hard to treat their patients and to save their colleague, assisted ably, if reluctantly, by newcomer Evelyn. As each wrestles with the complexities of treating such distinctive often dangerous clientele, their own secrets are driven to the surface. Finally, the past enters the present in the forms of a Gypsy, a Vampire and a Warlock, and scores are revealed that may cost lives if they are to be settled.
Australian Drama Series Boondock Alley: A Doctor’s Surgery for the Undead was created by James Pentecost, Anita Barnes, Catriona Coe, Leon Grey. Director James Pentecost has won awards for previous films such as the Merit at The Indie Fest in California and was also nominated for ‘Best Long Form Drama’ at the 2014 WA Screen Awards. The creators spoke to use about making Boondock Alley.
What inspired your web series?
We were brainstorming ideas for a series one day with our writer Richard Hyde. We were discussing different locations, including the possibility of doctors in a surgery in a remote part of Australia. Leon, Cat and I had decided our characters would be a trio of exactly what you see in Boondock Alley. Richard commented that he was happy to work with any idea “so long as it wasn’t another zombie story”! We mulled that over for a few seconds then he smiled cheekily and with a question in his eyes. We all looked at each other and smiled. There it was, our series would be about a Doctor’s Surgery for the Undead, Boondock Alley was born!
Your series uses lots of special effects make up and costumes, how long was the wardrobe process and were there any challenges?
We were lucky to have a talented special effects makeup artist Stephanie Davis assisted by Jennifer Stan-Bishop who both also looked after wardrobe. In terms of the process, we discussed general high level objectives for the looks of each character with the Director James Pentecost who conveyed to Steph and Jenn and built in more detail of what he envisaged the feel of the series should be. Steph and Jenn were then given a wide scope to fill the brief on a limited budget, which we feel they did incredibly well. Unsurprisingly work on the Troll took the longest!
How did you go about creating the scenery and eerie look of the series?
In terms of sets our Director/Producer James came up trumps. He scouted and wandered and worked his way around ideas we had for locations and found the Herding Cats location that was a winner and fitted our limited funds – thankfully – and we were so grateful. It worked so well because we could film all the scenes there including the external alleyway scenes in a hidden den of darkness outside the building that became the surgery. It was perfect.
To create the surgery, Art Director Chis Bannister, assisted by Rhys Tiernan Hall and Katelyn Collins, worked magic making one big office style space into several “rooms” including Lillith’s Reception area, the Waiting Room and the operating suite with full-on plastic sheeting to cope with Troll blood splatter! To create atmosphere the crew worked hard to fill the rooms with smoke using a smoke machine continuously to get the murky, hazy, gritty feel you experience in the series. It was summer at the time and we had a lot of cast and crew in the smallish space with no air-con so we were pretty much melting the entire shoot! We have to hand full credit to our talented director James Pentecost and fantastic art and makeup departments for delivering the desired look and feel of a surgery for the undead with very limited resources.
What is unique about your series?
You don’t see a lot of series that are set around the action in a Doctor’s Surgery for the Undead. You don’t see a lot of series about the Undead where the focus is on their potential in a forward moving society. Generally, they are the bad against the human’s good. We have kind of reversed over that idea and decided that good can come in many forms and often from unexpected places, so let’s reflect that and have some fun with it in our own world of humans, undead and other fantasy creatures. We feel we have a fresh and unique idea.
What is also unique is that the storyline doesn’t revolve around the undead creatures. It is the mystery surrounding the three characters, Charlie, Evelyn and Lillith that forms the centre of the story with their secrets only being revealed as the story moves on. Having created the world we have, allows us so much scope for indulging our imaginations and we hope others will connect to that as they watch.
What are the challenges you came across making your series and how did you overcome them?
We struggled to get a producer. The three of us have taken this project from concept, script review and variation, shoot and marketing but couldn’t find a producer to assist with the actual shoot. None of us had produced before and as we were acting in the series also we felt unqualified to act as producers for the shoot. At this point it felt like the project might not happen when James Pentecost our Director, said he felt so strongly about the concept that he would produce for the shoot also. The relief was overwhelming. We had all worked so very hard, we needed someone who could step in and say “I got this.” James was that guy. He was amazing.
How did you fund your series?
We looked into all sorts of government funding programs and crowdfunding but we really wanted to create our own destiny by lessening further delays to the project, so the three of us saved up and have personally funded everything to date. It’s been difficult financially, but we’re proud to be full owners and creators of the series.
Do you have any future plans for this series?
We’d love to film the other episodes to create a full season. We have more episodes scripted and a story bible so we’ll be thinking about how we fund the next stage. Boondock would be great as either a TV series or as web content. We feel that as Boondock is a fresh concept, it has a strong mystery arc along with the political unease (at times we comment on current issues facing society through our undead characters such as immigration) as well as some huge secrets. It could easily be adapted for TV and has tremendous scope for ongoing story evolution through the characters and their world. We know this means continuing to work hard to get our series out there and hope to attract interested parties who can help us take it forward.
What do you want your audience to take away from this series?
We would like that they end up sitting forward in their seats as they feel the tension, the intrigue and the mystery. We want them to empathise with the plights of the characters, living and undead, as they fight to fit into a world that is not always fair. We would like the audience to feel the surprises that are revealed as the story unfolds. We want to transport the audience to an alternate reality where the undead are real, and have rights and where this has led to consequences including political unrest and societal division. We want them to ask “Who would I side with in this world?” while having a good laugh at some of the cheesy comedy elements. We want them to feel a part of our world and to have fun watching Boondock Alley!
What advice would you give to emerging creators?
Don’t give up! If you believe your concept has value then work it as hard as you can and take on as much of the work as you can yourselves to make it happen. For us this is why Boondock has got where it has, and why it has got here to Spotlight at Melbourne WebFest.
The three of us as creators have taken turns at leading the way, we have pushed and prodded and worked through long, late nights after our 9-5s and we are very proud of what we have made happen so far.
We hope you enjoy your trip down Boondock Alley and look forward to seeing you there!
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