Get a peek behind the scenes and meet the stars of 'Judas Kiss' in the 'making of' documentary by award-winning filmmaker Matt Bucy.

LOS ANGELES – Get a look behind the scenes at the genre-busting, time-bending 2011 film festival favorite, “Judas Kiss,” the best-selling movie critics cite as taking gay cinema in a bold direction.

Award-winning documentarian Matt Bucy spent weeks on the set shooting footage for “Judas Kiss: Behind the Scenes,” which chronicles the production of the acclaimed film, the first feature by director J.T. Tepnapa and writer-producer Carlos Pedraza via their production company, Blue Seraph Productions.

All four episodes of the series are available now on the Judas Kiss channel on YouTube. The film itself, distributed by Wolfe Video, is at the top of the sales charts in its category on Amazon in the United States and in Europe. Here’s the first episode:

WATCH THE ENTIRE ‘BEHIND THE SCENES’ SERIES

The first episode of the Web series introduces the film’s stars Charlie David (star of Logo TV’s “Bump,” the TV series “Dante’s Cove,” and the feature, “Mulligans”), Richard Harmon (of AMC’s “The Killing”), Sean Paul Lockhart (aka adult star Brent Corrigan) and Belgian TV and pop star Timo Descamps, as well as director Tepnapa and writer Pedraza.

Critics have lauded the film’s high production values, strong ensemble cast, and its ambitious effort to meld drama, science fiction and magical realism; the film has won multiple awards at film festivals for its screenplay and acting. “Judas Kiss” tells the story of a washed-up filmmaker (David) who returns to his alma mater, where he gets the chance to reshape his destiny.

The four episodes:

• Introduce the principal cast and crew, especially the hot young stars getting so much recent press around the United States.

• Document the creative tension at the heart of the partnership between director Tepnapa and writer-producer Pedraza.

• Explore actor Sean Paul Lockhart’s past as controversial adult film star Brent Corrigan, and what it means for his new career as a mainstream actor.

• Offer a sneak peek at the Bollywood-style end musical number, “If I Fall,” performed by the Judas Kiss cast and crew, joined by the song’s composer, American Idol alumnus Brian Lam.

SELECTED REVIEWS AND AWARDS

• “Brilliant production. Excellent cast.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• “Incredibly original and extraordinarily well-made. Transcends all genres, and features solid performances from really charismatic actors.” (Examiner.com)
• “A deep, insightful film that explores the shadows we run from as gay men and the toxic and self-destructive decisions that can change our lives.” (Edge Network)
• “A metaphysical rumination on lost opportunities, Judas Kiss uses magical realism to convey its message. To that end, the film is pure joy.” (Men of Color blog)
• Best Debut Feature (Q Cinema, Fort Worth, Texas)
• Best Screenplay (Q Films, Long Beach, Calif.)
• First Place, Alternative Spirit (Rhode Island International Film Festival)
• Best Screenwriting (FilmOut San Diego)
• Honorable Mention, Youth Jury for Best Picture (Rhode Island Film Festival)
• Rising Star Award, Sean Lockhart (Q Fest, Philadelphia)
• Official Selection, Frameline 35 (San Francisco)
• Official Selection, NewFest (New York City)
• Official Selection at dozens of other film festivals worldwide

WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION “Judas Kiss” is distributed in North America by Wolfe Video, in the United Kingdom by TLA Releasing, in German-speaking Europe by Pro-Fun Media, and in French-speaking Europe by BQHL.

Blue Seraph Productions is a Los Angeles company headed by Tepnapa and Seattle-based Pedraza. Their previous work on the Web’s longest-running series, Star Trek: New Voyages and Star Trek: Hidden Frontier has been featured in the New York Times, BBC, Variety, Rolling Stone, the Today Show, MSNBC, and other international news outlets.

Tepnapa’s short films include the multiple award-winning parody of 1950s teen health films, “Masturbation: Putting the Fun Into Self-Loving,” the comedy “Drag Queen Heist” and the drama about homeless youth, “Begging for Change.”

BEHIND THE SCENES on the set of Judas Kiss with stars Richard Harmon (left) and Charlie David. Director of Photography David Berry sets a light in the background.

Watch this video featuring behind-the-scenes footage from the Judas Kiss shoot this past summer. The video introduces the film’s principal cast and shows off talents of the mostly Seattle-based crew.

The video was shot by the film’s videographer, Matt Bucy, who also edited it together in record time for its premiere at the fundraiser held at the end of August at The Lobby Bar in Seattle.

OTHER NEWS The film wrapped production on September 4, and is well into post-production. Judas Kiss is currently being edited, and preparations are well underway for sound design, visual effects, color correction, soundtrack, the score and other aspects of its completion.

The post-production timeline is scheduled for about six months, which means the film should be ready for exhibition at film festivals around the world starting in Spring 2011.

THE AQUA VI premium clothing line will be featured by the cast of Judas Kiss.

Just as important as casting the right actor for the part, locking down the perfect location and picking great music to carry a film, we have to search for the best clothing lines to dress our stars in Judas Kiss.

Thanks to the work of Judas Kiss’ product placement coordinator, Richard Hagerty, we can announce the first of our clothing sponsors: Aqua VI.

Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Aqua VI offers a fashionable, innovative and contemporary clothing line we’re proud to feature in our film. Here’s what BlackBook Magazine says about the line:

Art is truly not just for the walls anymore. Here to prove just that is Aqua VI, a clothing line making a name for itself very quickly. Not only is it offered at Nordstroms, Scoops in NYC, and the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, but stars all over Hollywood such as Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Cameron Diaz, Mya, and even Emmitt Smith have been spotted sporting these new threads. The company logo is Uncharted Waters. In the fashion industry, this line is just that.

Thank you, Aqua VI, for helping our stars look like superstars.

Link

• Aqua VI Premium Clothing – Official Online Store

CHECK OUT the eScape preview at www.eScapeTheSeries.com

LOS ANGELES — What if you woke up one day at summer camp to discover all the adults had disappeared? That’s how the kids’ adventure series, eScape, begins when it comes to the Web this summer, producers announced today.

Created by Mike Feurstein of New York-based MovieQuest Productions and co-produced by Blue Seraph’s partner company, Runic Films, eScape tells the story of a group of campers seemingly abandoned by their counselors. They soon discover they are trapped in a video game that grants them amazing abilities. But in the real world, this game is the object of a power struggle between powerful corporations and mysterious military interests.

The first three seasons of eScape will premiere on the Web this summer on its Web site, www.eScapeTheSeries.com. A trailer and a preview of the show are available on the site now.

“The show tells a great story in the same vein as Lost,” said Feurstein. “Young and older viewers alike connect with its characters’ struggles to make the right life choices in the face of adventure, danger and unimaginable odds.”

eScape’s third season is currently in production in and around Albany, N.Y., starring local actors and school children. The students also worked behind the scenes to help produce the series.

“Wide release of eScape this summer will introduce viewers to the space- and time-bending world of the show,” said Runic Films producer Ben Alpi.  “It’s a world we plan to continue to explore.”

eScape is the latest project from Runic Films, which comprises the creative team behind the Web series Star Trek: Phase II, winner of TV Guide’s Online Video Award for Science Fiction, and nominee for the Hugo and Nebula awards — science fiction’s highest honors.

Alpi, who had contributed visual effects to the first two seasons of eScape, introduced series creator Feurstein to his Runic partners — writer-producer Carlos Pedraza, cinematographer David Berry, and visual effects artists Joël Bellucci and Matt Jolly — after their recent departure from the Trek series.

Watch the Trailer

Feurstein and his young filmmakers have produced movies that have won gold medals in New York state competitions and top prizes in regional film contests. Feurstein himself earned Best Local Filmmaker kudos in readers’ polls from the Albany, N.Y., Times Union, and the Metroland newsweekly. He has also produced an international educational DVD series on autism, contributed to the blockbuster award-winning Guitar Hero video game and owns Cucumber Alley, a film lighting rental company.

“Ben, Carlos and the rest of the Runic guys came aboard to help make the third season of eScape the best yet,” Feurstein said, “and its release on the Web is an exceptional showcase for the cast and crew.”

Runic Films is a production and entertainment company developing original properties for Web, film and television. Now located in Los Angeles, Runic was founded by two brothers in New York, and has grown to a staff of award-winning writers, directors, artists and technicians. Dedicated to upholding the rich traditions of storytelling, Runic Films harnesses cutting-edge technology and visual effects to create amazing worlds for dramatic tales grounded in humanity.

Based in historic Schenectady, N.Y., MovieQuest Productions is a motion picture production company dedicated to offering young people educational opportunities to create quality films.

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Links

• eScape Web site http://www.eScapeTheSeries.com
• Runic Films http://www.runicfilms.com

TREKMOVIE.COM is among the leading sources of Star Trek news on the Web.

TrekMovie.com, the leading Star Trek movie news site, named the Star Trek: Phase II production of Carlos Pedraza’s screenplay, “Blood and Fire, Part 2″ the best Star Trek fan production of 2009.

Carlos co-authored the screenplay with noted scifi author David Gerrold (“The Trouble with Tribbles”), who also directed the episode.

TrekMovie.com hailed “Blood and Fire, Part 2″ as:

An emotional yet exciting story, complete with the excellent production values and effects that we have come to expect from the Phase II team.

The past year also attracted kudos for Carlos’ work from Joss Whedon, who told Rolling Stone that the Phase II episode, “World Enough and Time,” which Carlos co-executive produced, inspired Whedon to create the Internet phenomenon Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog.

Rolling Stone, by the way, named Phase II, among its five must-watch Web series.

“Blood and Fire” is based on a script Gerrold originally wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation in the 1990s. It was never produced because its passing reference to a male couple aboard the Enterprise was considered too controversial by the producers.

Carlos adapted the script for the original Trek series-based Phase II, expanding the story to include Captain Kirk’s nephew Peter as one part of the male couple. Interestingly, two decades later, that portrayal proved controversial when “Blood and Fire, Part 1″ debuted a year ago.

Fortunately, Part 2’s release this past November was greeted by far fewer objections.

“Blood and Fire” was shot by Judas Kiss‘s director of photography, Dave Berry, and second-unit director Ben Alpi of our partner company, Runic Films, with visual effects by Joël Bellucci.

COVER OF the Judas Kiss investment prospectus, available now.

Potential investors can read the full investment prospectus for Judas Kiss, which describes the story, cast, crew, target market, budget and business plan for the film project in one neat package.

Designed by Minneapolis-based graphic artist Andria Peters, the prospectus reflects the film’s fictional Keystone University setting by mimicking a campus recruiting booklet.

You can download an excerpted version of the prospectus. If you are interested as a potential investor, please email us for a copy of the full document.

INSIDE PAGE spread of the Judas Kiss prospectus

CHARLIE DAVID will star as Zachary Wells in Judas Kiss.

LOS ANGELES — Charlie David, star of the popular series “Dante’s Cove” and the recent feature “Mulligans,” is slated to star in the independent film Judas Kiss, the movie’s producers announced today.

David will play the role of Zachary Wells, a washed-up filmmaker who returns to his peculiar alma mater, where he meets his younger self and gets the chance to change his troubled past so he can avoid a disturbing future.

“Judas Kiss” is the first feature film from director J.T. Tepnapa, who has won many international awards for his short films, including the multiple award-winning parody of 1950s teen health films, “Masturbation: Putting the Fun Into Self-Loving,” the comedy “Drag Queen Heist” and the drama about homeless youth, “Begging for Change.”

“I’m excited to work with such a multi-talented entertainer,” Tepnapa said. “Charlie’s experience in front of and behind the camera will add so much to “Judas Kiss’” production values.” For his part, David was attracted to the screenplay’s time-bending drama.

“I was engaged by ‘Judas Kiss” concept of altering the past and future through the choices we make right now,” he said. “Who hasn’t wondered what lies down the paths not taken in career, adventure and love?”

PLAYING ZACHARY WELLS David was also intrigued by the character of Zach. “It’s exciting and scary for me because he has such a troubled past and a present devoid of feeling and passion,” he said. “The script has emotional triggers for me – some that immediately resonated and others that honestly terrified me. Zach is going to allow me to get a little messy as an actor and it’s about time I did that.”

David also joins “Judas Kiss” as an executive producer with his production company, Border2Border Entertainment, which will also act as “Judas Kiss’” sales and distribution representative. “I am very excited to be joining this project as an actor and producer,” he said. “I love the art of telling a good story and Judas Kiss is a really good story. I’m confident our connections at Border2Border Entertainment with international distributors, broadcasters and new media ventures will help Judas Kiss find a large and lasting audience.”

“Judas Kiss” is being produced by Blue Seraph Productions, a Los Angeles company founded by Tepnapa in 2000 to create his short films. “Judas Kiss” was written by Blue Seraph partner Carlos Pedraza from Tepnapa’s story. The film is scheduled to shoot in 2010 in Seattle.Tepnapa’s and Pedraza’s work has been featured in the New York Times, BBC, Variety, Frontiers, Fab magazine, the Today Show, MSNBC, and other international news outlets.

The film has already attracted attention for casting talented and controversial adult film star Brent Corrigan, who recently appeared in this year’s Oscar-winning “Milk” and the comedy “Another Gay Movie.”

BOX OFFICE PHENOM David is also a gay box office phenomenon. His steamy supernatural soap opera, “Dante’s Cove,” is the No. 1 show for the here! television network in the United States, and the series’ DVD sales continue to be a genre leader worldwide. He also stars in the travel series Bump!, now in its fourth season, airing in more than 12 countries, with more than 50 million households in the United States alone on MTV’s sister station, Logo.

David has had three features released in the past two years: “A Four Letter Word,” “Kiss the Bride,” and “Mulligans.” David also wrote and produced the award-winning Mulligans, which has played at more than 65 international film festivals and garnered worldwide distribution.

David’s first two novels, the film novelization “Mulligans,” and “Boy Midflight,” were published in 2009. Among his many awards are the Out 100 Award (2005); Rising Star Award, Philadelphia Film Society (2007); and Best Male Actor, Festival del Sol Gran Canaria, Spain (2008).

David’s show business career began with the pop band, 4Now, and includes hosting stints on television shows on E!, NBC, Fine Living, and other networks. David’s move from his native Canada to Hollywood generated even more opportunities, including roles in Showtime’s outrageous musical, “Reefer Madness,” ABC’s “Ugly Betty” and the Sundance Channel’s award-winning series, “Terminal City.”

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Links

• Judas Kiss movie site
• Blue Seraph Productions
• Border2Border Entertainment
• Star Charlie David’s IMDB profile
• Co-star Brent Corrigan’s IMDB profile
• Director J.T. Tepnapa’s IMDB profile
• Writer Carlos Pedraza’s IMDB profile
• Additional photos of Charlie David

We’ve moved into preproduction for Judas Kiss, and we’ve got a lot of big news we’ll be announcing in the coming weeks. Judas Kiss continues to attract attention in the industry, and we want to share the news about some important new partnerships that will bring our film closer to reality. This news is so exciting that we thought we should showcase it by offering our fans a new Web site.

THE NEW Judas Kiss Web site offers previews and easy access to the news, blog, podcasts and other media on the site.

This new design allows you to quickly scan and link to all our new content in a more visual fashion.

Virtually all the content from our previous site has been moved from the old site to the new, though a few bits are still under construction, so pardon our dust for the next week or so as we complete the transition.

Keep your eye on the new site for upcoming exciting Judas Kiss news. Trust me, it’s gonna be big. You can be alerted automatically by subscribing to the Judas Kiss RSS feed. J.T. and I both have Twitter feeds, too, so you can subscribe to those, as well. J.T.’s Twitter. Carlos’ Twitter. You can also subscribe to our upcoming newsletter.

ON THE PACKAGE Actors Brent Corrigan and J.T. Tepnapa; photo by Carlos Pedraza; styling by Adam Browne; design by Peccadillo Pictures.

Peccadillo Pictures, a U.K.-based production company, crosses the Atlantic to pick up seven gay short films including our very own film, “In the Closet,” produced by Blue Seraph partner DoorQ Entertainment, and starring Brent Corrigan and J.T. Tepnapa.

Brent is slated to star in Judas Kiss, the Blue Seraph drama now in preproduction. Meanwhile, check out our work in the cover art!

Boys on Film 3: American Boy is now available on the Peccadillo Pictures Web site and at Amazon.co.uk. Peccadillo Pictures has been bringing quality international films to the United Kingdom since October 2000. They have grown over time to become one of the U.K.’s most recognized distributors of art house, gay & lesbian and world cinema titles with an impressive collection of films from Europe, Latin America and Asia.

EXTRA!
Check out Peccadillo’s gallery of high-resolution photos for all the short films that appear in Boys on Film 3: American Boy.

On the DVD

COLLECTION INCLUDES In the Closet – Dir. Jody Wheeler; Dare – Dir. Adam Salky; Area X – Dir. Dennis Shinners; The Young and Evil – Dir. Julian Breece; Dish – Dir. Brian Krinsky; Bugcrush – Dir. Carter Smith; Astoria, Queens – Dir. Kyle Coker.

UNDER FIRE Capt. Kirk (James Cawley, center) narrowly avoids enemy fire while rushing to aid crewmen in Star Trek: Phase II's next episode, ‘Enemy: Starfleet.’

On the heels of the “Blood and Fire, Part 2” release, Star Trek: Phase II has posted the teaser and part of Act 1 of the next episode, “Enemy: Starfleet.”

The episode marks Blue Seraph director J.T. Tepnapa’s debut as Lt. Cmdr. Sulu, and Carlos Pedraza’s turn as First Assistant Director. Blue Seraph cinematographer Dave Berry served as Director of Photography for this episode as well.

Watch preview of ‘Enemy: Starfleet’