While we have unfortunately had to spend the majority of our time this summer, and even after this summer working on completing the final portions of the Barton Police online comedy series, it should be noted that Barton Ct. Productions Inc. is now celebrating a full 10 years of company history. No one who was a part of the original company line up would have suspected that Barton Ct. Productions Inc. would blossom into the increasingly professional organization it is today. Stephen Wolfe, who founded the company in 1999 and has continued making dozens upon dozens of different short films under its name since that time, considers Barton Police to be a milestone and a marker for the first 10 years of his film making career.
“When we talk about a film making career, we are really talking about stuff that has stretched back into years worth of effort, starting in childhood,” Company Administrator Scott Lee says and points out correctly that a career starts before you have a job, a role, or a title. “It’s really about what you’re learning and how you’re progressing as an artist.”
Scott Lee entered the company years ago too, and has been around for more than half of the company’s total existence. Scott Lee collaborated with Stephen Wolfe at first on a project known as Howloween 4:Evolution and later served as a developmental expert for the group of young film makers as they continued to progress toward better and better films. Howloween 4:Evolution was the first film in the company’s history that attempted to use digital compositing - combining artificial elements produced off screen with live action components. The scope of the project was unheard of for the group at the time, and the project was canceled when the cast schedules’ came into too great a conflict. Still, the experience of working on the film continued to lead director Stephen Wolfe, and others, into creating many more short films over the course of the coming years.
James Monaghan, who starred in Howloween 4:Evolution and will be making a special guest appearance in Barton Police, eventually produced Midnight Blue: Dark as Night and won the recognition and support of his peers at the company’s own house party award event: Oscar Night 2004. Stephen Wolfe produced three more Doomsday films and eventually began working again with Scott Lee on a new project of massive scope and difficulty: Doomsday:Triumvirate, which was to feature Paramount Pictures and New Line Cinema characters Jason Vorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Barton Ct. Productions’ own: Makuska - a demon from hell bent on world domination. The project was canceled during production and suffered a similar fate to Howloween 4:Evolution.
Above: A video segment put together for pre-production, showing choreography for various fight scenes in Doomsday:Triumvirate.
Eventually, Scott Lee began taking his own approach to film making and produced a number of his own films, including The Midnight Kids, A Good Thing, Daydreams, and Open Silence. He also put together a total of 12 different comedy skit/sketch segments as a part of Barton Ct.’s old online series: Kite Show (some episodes remain unreleased). With the ongoing success and spreading word of Barton Police, Scott seems fit to finish the first nine episodes of the series and even go on to be the producer for the possible future projects of Barton Police 2 and Barton Police 3.
The true celebration in terms of an actual party for Barton Ct. will probably come a bit late in comparison to the real anniversary, which was in July of this year. Instead, the group will intend to focus its celebratory energies, fancy decor, and money on the release of the 9th episode of Barton Police, currently intended for release in November of 2009. Stephen Wolfe will be busy during the coming months wrapping up Barton Police production and post-production wise, as well as taking his annual trip to Orlando, Florida to get video coverage of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios.
“Things have never felt more legitimate than now. The ninth episode’s release of Barton Police gives us something to look forward to, to work toward, and something to motivate us. To celebrate the completion of the biggest project we’ve ever done while simultaneously celebrating our company’s 10 year anniversary will be like a dream come true,” Scott Lee says.
Coming in October we will see a special theme for the Barton Ct. website to suit the company’s love of Halloween as a holiday and a special section for the coverage of Halloween Horror Nights. This will be the company’s third year in a row to get coverage of HHN and may just be the best year yet.
