Director’s notes: Soon-to-debut short film “The Cryptid Cast vs. The Goopy Ganker”

JULES HOEPTING 

Managing Editor 

(All photos courtesy of Jackson DiCarlo.)

“Out for intrigue and out of their league” is the slogan of the soon-to-debut short film, “The Cryptid Cast vs. The Goopy Ganker.” 

What’s the 45-minute film about? “A host of a monster-themed college radio show that gets herself and her friends wrapped up in an investigation after the mysterious disappearance of two of their classmates,” according to the short film’s crowdfunding campaign YouTube video. 

The script was written in summer of 2021 by co-directors Jackson DiCarlo, a senior video production major, and Ben Anderson, a senior audio/radio production and video production double major. The pair wrote the story for their COMM-464: Fiction II capstone project  involving nine students. The project has grown to encompass over 30 students involved in  directing, producing, acting, sound design, makeup, costume design, score composition, publicity and more. 

DiCarlo and Anderson went into the script with realistic expectations. “A lot of student scripts and projects are extremely ambitious … [they have] a lot of production value or a lot of unattainable stuff. So we said, ‘What can we do that would be possible within our grasp?’”

DiCarlo continued, “Well, we have access to a radio station. We have access to a junkyard. We have access to a college campus. And we went from there and from putting it all together we kind of got this image of a ‘Goosebumps’-esque campy TV show, sort of like a monster hunting ‘Scooby-Doo’ looking thing,” DiCarlo said. 

Not only were the settings inspired by the co-directors’ life, but so were the characters. 

The lead character of the short film, Kate Blair (played by Gemma Vodacek), is a radio show host of the Cryptid Cast. Similarly, DiCarlo is the Station Manager of Fredonia Radio Systems and has produced several radio shows. 

“Kate is funny because I see her as a hyperbole of parts of myself. She’s an extremely extroverted entertainer that’s always looking for adventure with her friends,” DiCarlo said. “I see the ever reliable Ron [played by Joseph Marciniak] as who I strive to be, but even he isn’t perfect. And Alex [played by Shawn Adiletta] is largely based off of my best friend from home. He’s the heart of the group but quite anxious,” DiCarlo added. 

When creating the characters, DiCarlo and Anderson put thought into what kind of classic roles and archetypes they wanted to fill. 

“Something that we think needs more attention in film are stronger female leads who are not just sexualized or just reduced to the fact that they are women. Kate is funny, she’s outgoing, she’s outrageous and she wants to fight a monster,” DiCarlo explained, adding, “And we wanted Ron to just be a reliable friend.”

As for penning the short film title?  

“The title was one of the last things we came up with,” DiCarlo said. He explained he thought titles with “vs.” in them were “fun.”

“We have this group called the Cryptid Cast. What is this monster they fight? And then just through a joke, the words ‘goopy ganker’ came out of my mouth. And I said, ‘Okay, what if this was honestly called ‘The Cryptid Cast vs. the Goopy Ganker?’’ And Ben [Anderson] said ‘no.’ I [jokingly] said, ‘Okay, I guess that’s what we have to go with then.’” 

Pre-production for the short film began December of 2021. On Jan. 16, 2022, DiCarlo started a GoFundMe page to raise money to spend on a goopy green monster costume, a big cave set, makeup, props and other production supplies. According to DiCarlo, most video capstone projects raise $500 to $600 for a budget if students are lucky or pay out of pocket. As of May 1, 2022, “The Cryptid Cast vs. The Goopy Ganker Short Film” fundraiser has gathered nearly $2,500 in donations. 

“I could not see us doing this film without the budget we had, and I’m incredibly thankful for it,” DiCarlo said. 

Come the beginning of spring 2022 semester, the short film crew wasted no time; their first group meeting was the second day of classes. A casting call was sent out on Jan. 17. Thirteen people responded within the first hour. Twenty-five auditioned.

DiCarlo describes the casting process as “hell only because it was full of talent.” Though the selection process was difficult, DiCarlo describes the cast selected as “all star.” 

“[Vodacek’s] performance as Kate is incredible. She’s brought so much character and she’s really made [Kate] shine as a sympathetic and irritating character — but that’s by design. [Kate] really has a great art arc throughout the film,” DiCarlo said. 

A surprising choice of casting was Adiletta for the character Alex. “Originally, we were having Alex cast as a female, but we had [Adiletta] come in and he was so incredible that we had to have him.”

Production lasted for two months with shooting locations including Arkwright Falls, Fredonia Radio Systems, TaQo/The Big Cheeseburger restaurant and more. There were around 12 to 14 shoots on “almost exclusively weekends” in order to accommodate the cast and crews’ busy schedules. 

For a shoot to happen, between two to five actors and six to 12 crew members’ schedules needed to line up, according to DiCarlo. Furthermore, the weather needed to be favorable, the crew had to have approval to shoot at a location and the crew needed to have access to all of the equipment they planned on utilizing.

Along with the adventures of scheduling, interesting challenges and solutions have appeared in other departments.

Kai Guilds, senior double major in audio/radio production and video production who is the sound designer of the short film, said “Something we’re struggling with is the goop right now.” Goop by itself “does not make enough sound to have what we need.” Thus Guilds is currently tasked with finding something to make the goop sound more goopy, similar to how the sound of rain can be created by dropping rice on a sheet of paper. 

In order to make boulders and stalagmites, the crew needed to make a lot of paper mache. “We sent six people out to get every single issue of The Leader that was left on campus. And I think we used a few hundred of [the newspapers],” DiCarlo explained. He clarified he knew a new issue was scheduled to be released the next day and Guilds added they returned the extra copies of the paper to the respective newsstands. Some untouched copies of The Leader can be seen sprinkled in the cave set. 

As can be seen in the “CCvGG March Production Update” YouTube video, the cast and crew of the short film have had a lot of fun working with people who are just as excited about the project as they are. Many of the members knew each other from previous projects and were able to bring in peers in ways that would utilize and showcase their talents “to the extreme,” DiCarlo said. 

For example, the surf-rock soundtrack is co-written by music composition major Michael Redmond, who worked on other short film projects “The Barber” and “Carpe Diem” with DiCarlo and Anderson. Music industry major Cameron Bunch is the other composer: DiCarlo met Bunch at Fredonia Radio Systems, and Bunch is involved in local bands Tsunami Tsurprise, The Burkarts and The Wired Band. Furthermore, Jay Gleason, a video production major with a theatre arts minor, utilized the connections from his minor to round up actors for the casting call, which is why the turnout was so high. Gleason is the co-director of photography and plays the Goopy Ganker in the short film. 

Another common theme discussed in the video was students using the project to prove to themselves that they can do things they weren’t sure they could do.

“I don’t think there’s been a moment where I said ‘I can’t do this,’ and there hasn’t been a person who said, ‘Okay, let’s sit down and work through it together,’” Guilds said. 

“None of this could have been done just by one to nine people. I’m extremely grateful for everyone who has come to answer the call, and I’m just so excited for everyone to see it when it comes out,” DiCarlo said. 

“The Cryptid Cast vs. The Goopy Ganker” is currently in the post-production stage. When it is completed, it can be seen at the Spotlight Cinemas on Bennett Road, Dunkirk, N.Y. on May 20 and 21. The film’s rating is PG-13 due to violence, brief alcohol use and language. The estimated length of the film is 45 minutes. For updates on showtimes and ticket information, follow @cryptidcastfilm on social media. 

“The Cryptid Cast vs. The Goopy Ganker” Social Media

GoFundMe Page: https://gofund.me/00365123

Instagram: @cryptidcastfilm

Facebook: @cryptidcastfilm

TikTok: @cryptidcastfilm

YouTube: The Cryptid Cast vs The Goopy Ganker Film

Cast and Crew

Jackson DiCarlo – Director and Writer

Ben Anderson – Director and Writer

Nicolas Dohre – Producer, Gaff, Set Design

Ryan Champlin – Producer, Assistant Director

Alec Wright – DOP (Director of Photography)

Jay Gleason – DOP (Director of Photography), The Goopy Ganker, Casting

Gemma Vodacek – Kate Blair

Joseph Marciniak – Ron Andersen

Shawn Adilleta – Alex Quincy

Luke Varacek – Jesse Peterson

Matt Neary – Charlie McAdams

Kaelyn Hadley – Makeup, Set Design

Skyla Cedeno – Casting, Costume, Cinematography

Dominic Vasapolli – Fight Choreographer

Kai Guilds – Audio Director

Kasimer Clark – Audio

Hunter Halterman – Audio

Mike DeLand – Logo Designer, Production Assistant