SAT 10 - Sanctuary Summary

A couple of people I know have been asking me what Sanctuary is all about, so I combed through all the info from various sources and compiled a bit of a list to summarise what I know so far. Let’s start with the summary from the production company site, Stage 3 Media.

There are monsters loose in the world. And they are the key to the future of our race.

Each webisode of Sanctuary follows the exploits of Dr. Helen Magnus as she seeks out all manner of terrifying and monstrous creatures. She is aided in her quest by her reluctant protégé Will Zimmerman and her intrepid, if somewhat reckless, daughter Ashley. Together they will be drawn into a frightening and mysterious world populated by beings that defy explanation.

And from the show’s creator, Damian Kindler :

The basic pitch would say that it's almost "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman" meets X-Files. It's a show set in an undefined, somewhat Gotham City world with a foot in historical Victorian-era London.

Followed by info I have gathered, now if anyone has any more info or has corrections to what I have, then please leave a comment so I can update the list.

Sanctuary

1. Sanctuary was started by Helen’s father, he collected creatures from around the world which were reviled by society and created a safe haven for them, a sanctuary, and studied them.
2. Sanctuary itself is an abandoned church and beneath it is a huge laboratory, it's absolutely massive, many stories high.
3. Is set in an undefined, somewhat Gotham City world with a foot in historical Victorian-era London

Helen Magnus

1. Is 157 years old and acquired her longevity through working with the creatures of Sanctuary. She's not immortal.
2. She's a doctor and she was one of the first female doctors in the Royal College in Victorian England.
3. She was engaged to Jack the Ripper and has a daughter, Ashley, by him.
4. She basically took over her father's practice. Wherein he btings these disparate abnormal creatures from around the world which are reviled by society and creates a sanctuary for them and studies them and creates a safe haven for them.
5. Studies the creatures for scientific reasons believing that they are in fact the evolution of our species.
   

Ashley Magnus

1. Helps her mother with Sanctuary. She's pretty cool, she kick ass.
2. Ashley is a deadly fighter, trained from an early age to handle herself in dangerous situations. She’s a weapons expert, a tracker, a chase ‘em, stun ‘em, toss ‘em in the van type who acts on instinct rather than logic (which is her mother’s department).
3. Damian Kindler comments on Emilie Ullerup - "Emilie’s portrayal of Ashely’s dark nature, how she wrestles with her many demons, will absolutely make you all fans of Ms. Ullerup -- The Actor. Oh, and you’ll also dig her high wire stunts, cool martial arts scraps, double-Glock gunfire moves, and the odd underwater action sequence."

Will Zimmerman

1. Is a reluctant psychiatrist who Helen hires to help her. He is to be Helen's next protege and is at first a tad reluctant. Unfortunately it's a dangerous job and some protege's die in pretty strange ways.
   

The Show

1. A two hour pilot has been made which will be released as eight webisodes that are approximately 15 minutes each and the first of those webisodea is set to go live sometime in May.
2. It's entirely green screen and the actors have renderings to look at before hand so they have a pretty clear idea of what things look like.
3. They use 3D computer imaging for pre vis which is tied directly to the head of the cameras so that you can go behind a monitor and see the camera moving with actors on it with the partially rendered backgrounds already in place and moving in 3D real time.
4. The show is shot on High Definition direct to hard drive. HD tape is sometimes used as well for backups.
5. A massive amount of pre vis is done, a lot of what would normally be done in post production.
6. Once the show goes live you'll be able to interact with it on the website (probably walk through the virtual world).
7. Other interactivity is planned for the future, they will pay attention to what the fans want.
8. A short teaser is currently available on the official website.
9. A two minute trailer showing more of the series will be available in mid March.
10. Volunteers for beta testing were drawn from interested fans in February and is now closed. A date for commencement of testing has not been established but is expected within the next few weeks.
11. A selection of high quality photos, art work, MP3 files has been released to the fans through various means. More to come. They want audience participation and are giving us some cool things to play with :)
12. They're hoping to go back into full time production as soon as possible, hopefully this summer, in order to get more webisodes out there hard on the heels of the first eight.

Roll on May!! I am so excited about this project! Can't wait to see it!

Last updated Sun 18 March