Mars Redux

It became clear after filming the early lot of episodes that a lot of changes had to be made, not just in story telling but in presentation as well. That stemmed from a lack of experience at first, a budding group who had a cool idea and just wanted to get it down and see what it looked like.

Now that we know where we want Mars to go, Redux was born to show a cleaner and more logical story progression in the way it was originally intended. Future episodes will follow a similar style, though more emphasis will be placed on Jake and Alana’s conversations with each other.

Some of the changes made were easy and some were a lot harder. Removing two characters isn’t something anyone wants to do, but having looked back at it, the progression of each story didn’t make as much sense as I wanted. Editing it together into a longer form meant trimming areas that, for the time being, aren’t needed to tell the story. Both Jen and Tash, and a host of other characters, will be re-introduced in some form at a later stage, but for now I wanted the focus to be squarely on Jake and Alana.

You’ll also notice a few scenes have been added in, some from alternate takes and others not seen before. Alana’s job search sequence (intercut with original footage from ‘Episode 8’) was originally filmed but unused due to a technical difficulty. With the magic of black and white, I decided to reuse these scenes anyway, since it made perfect sense from a storytelling perspective.

You’ll also notice a few sequences have shifted back and forth along the timeline, specifically Episode 7 and Jake’s storytelling moment. That in itself was always the prefect way to end an introduction episode, especially with the sad but still somewhat hopeful expression on Jake’s face, so moving that to the end made perfect sense.

And that’s what this was, an introduction to two characters and their lives. We could have been more elaborate if we really wanted to, but that’s not always our style. Moving forward to new episodes, we will be filling in a lot of the missing pieces, specifically how Jake and Alana first met, their families and the implications of Alana’s job hunting.

Trust me when I say Mars has only just begun.

– Mark