Volkonir (2008 film)

Volkonir is a canceled 2008 short American tokusatsu film by Dozerfleet Productions. After being shelved for two years, it was finally canceled as a part of the Gerosha universe. Renewed interest in Volkonir-related content in the future would require a separate continuity. There are currently no plans for this film to be made, at least not using the original script.

Plot
Cassie Helm is a college student who exits a movie theater, only to find that a stranger from the alleyway is talking to her. The stranger turns out to be the legendary Prince Volkonir, an alien prince from 400 years ago who is now imprisoned within a stuffed toy and is telepathically begging Cassie's assistance to break the spell and change him back into a prince.

Cassie, initially reluctant to believe what Volkonir is telling her; picks him up and puts him in her bag. She tells him that she wants to head to the nearby barber shop to justify spending even more time downtown getting her hair done. Volkonir warns her to avoid the shop; stating that "great evil" lives in the shop.

Before she can clearly make up her mind on her next move, two of the "Gwirdons" that Volkonir claims are responsible for him being a toy show up, and he urges her to run. She grabs the talking toy and flees, with the hostile-but-hilarious Gwirdons in hot pursuit. Cassie and Volkonir get acquainted while they flee the Gwirdons, and when Cassie makes it to the Granger Building and Volkonir is changed back finally, a swift-but-violent battle ensues.

Volkonir as a prince initiates his magical sword Selshon, and after defeating the Gwirdons, he promises Cassie a reward. He leaves without explaining and Cassie stands in the distance, completely confused by what just happened. Some time later, Cassie is visited by a stranger who appears to have a romantic interest in her. She immediately assumes this was Volkonir's promised reward, and lets the stranger into her residence hall room.

Influences

 * The initial conversation style between Volkonir and Cassie is inspired after the nature of the Caller and Stu in Phone Booth.
 * Volkonir's embittered toy voice is modeled after Kiefer Sutherland's voice in that movie.
 * The movements of the Gwirdons was largely inspired by the motions of several grunt creatures in several tokusatsu programs, and the dynamic of their walk is a tribute to the art of suitmation.
 * Cassie as the reluctant heroine is a common theme in literature. The girl is named Cassie for her dark hair.  A similar dark-haired protagonist with the name Cassie exists in all three of the tales of the Meshalutian Trilogy.
 * Both Cassie Helm and the Cassie in the Meshalutian Trilogy are named after Power Rangers character Cassie Chan, as played by Patricia Ja Lee.

Inception
The reason for the creation of Volkonir was because of a class that at Ferris State University: TVPR 343: Video Production Part 2 w/Nick Kuiper. Time for production of both this as well as two shows for the studio class TVPR 345 would cut into time normally spent for the making of Ciem 2.

Planning
Volkonir's toy form was a stuffed object from Wal-Mart, originally of the smiley face in a New Year's celebration helmet. The toy was altered slightly to make it more generic. The props and costume for Prince Volkonir involved a far more involved set of shopping extravaganzas. The boots would be those of the Dozerfleet Founder, kept dry for use by John. The pants and shirt, as well as a prototype for the cape, were purchases from the Big Rapids Goodwill store. John would volunteer to find a cape for his own use. Finding volunteers to play the Gwirdons would prove the biggest challenge.

Development History
The production schedule for Volkonir was an on-and-off one of many setbacks that would ultimately result in the movie being shelved and the prequel being shot instead. The prequel, Volkonir Journals: Attempt , would become the project shown in the Video 2 class.

Concept
The concept for Volkonir was developed right away, as early as January 20th of 2008. The idea for it was simple: a modern-day variation of the Frog Prince fairy tale, told in a tokusatsu form, with a telepathic stuffed toy in the place of a frog and with a Kamen Rider-esque fight scene at the end instead of a wedding. The character was originally going to be named "Volkri," until that term resulted in pornographic pop-ups on Google searches. The term "Volkonir," however, turned back no results.

Props
The script was completed about a month later. On February 12th of 2008, the costume for Prince Volkonir was purchased from Goodwill of Big Rapids, along with the sword (later named Selshon) from one of the toy shelves at K-Mart of Big Rapids.

Advertising
MySpace promotions for Volkonir began on the 22nd of that same month. Also on the 22nd of February, shooting began for the Volkonir teaser trailer. Since John DeBruyn, the actor playing the prince form of Volkonir, was out of town on other business, the toy form narrated the mostly human-subject-free footage for the trailer. It was this trailer that helped establish much of Volkonir's history and the geography of his universe. The trailer was then released on YouTube at 3:45 AM EST on March 5th, 2008.

Cancellation
Later on, as part of a montage assignment, a second trailer was to be shot, showing Volkonir in the height of his glory as a prince saving women from Gwirdon foes. The Brophy Hall basement was used with permission for this project. Unfortunately, this project was canceled due to running out of time and the fact that two girls who knew the camera operator, mistaking the project for a porno shoot, began making numerous sexual taunts to the cast and crew.

The humiliation of the sexual taunts by Jessie and Jasmine proved too much for John, who then quit his role as Volkonir. After several failed attempts by the producer to get in touch with Bethany Haase and Jacob Hardy for shooting schedule talks, those two actors were "fired" and the project of the final movie called off. There was particular frustration that not one theater student was willing to volunteer time for the project. According to John, this was because "nobody's interested in tokusatsu anymore. The genre's gotten a bad rap; and that's all there is to it." Because of this, the project was sent to Development Hell, while it's prequel Volkonir Journals was instead made for a grade.

Music
The music that was going to be used for this movie was primarily some pre-recorded specially-licensed music by Gene Michael Productions, designed for use by students of film. The tracks "Seaside Getaway," "Wondering About You," and "City of Sunshine" were all lined up for use, but only one of them was used for the Volkonir trailer. The other two were never used.

Also intended for use were "Capture the Flag" and "All Those Miles" off of Burning Death Machine's album Capture the Flag. The song "Capture the Flag" would ultimately become Volkonir's theme song, and would be used for Volkonir Journals: Attempt #43.