It was a couple of years later when we finally had time to pick The Matrix Fugitive back up. One of the primary agents from the first version had entered the military at this point, and things were pretty different. We now had a camera that could shoot in widescreen. I also had a deadline for school, plus a mandate that all footage be new. My friend Tony and I decided to take a new route, one that took the best idea from the original, and made him into the most powerful of the agents.. the final one. Not only would he be battling the main character the entire time, but we’d use a real sword and he would be jumping place to place as well. We also shot the ending of the film as part of this round.
There are some shots in the trailer where you can see the trampoline we used to achieve some of the shots that we wanted. That will be removed when / if I can get the footage all captured again and put the story together into the final version of the film.
Another thing is that I was then growing my hair out as part of a contest. “He who cuts his hair first, loses.” So the story would pick up a few years later. The main character has now been on the run for a couple of years. We had much better costumes this time around, which included a suit for the agent and a set of scrubs for the main character, which would have looked better with a blackbelt in hindsight. We also had some really great props.
We also managed to find some really great locations to shoot, and this included a rooftop in downtown Grand Rapids.
We had a lot of fun doing the choreography and putting this thing together. I got it ready just in time for my presentation, which was the next morning. I also had a friend of mine named Katie Smith draw a poster for us, which is the anime style image in the top right. I had a goal, as you can see, of releasing this in winter of 2005. Obviously that did not come to pass.
All of that work, and there is a lot of footage that has not been seen in about eight years. My life is about to get very busy, and I’m moving into another stage of life very shortly. But I still would love to finish this and release it to the world. There is too much good stuff, including bloopers, that simply must get out there.
And now you know the story of The Matrix Fugitive, behind the scenes. I hope to eventually post an article that announces its’ completion. Hopefully it doesn’t take another six years.
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