During a recent interview with Canadian Filmmaker, Morgan Muscat, we asked him what was upcoming. Aside from the Stephen King script he is planning to work on, his next imminent project is Cold Dark Mirror which is an animated feature length project already underway. Morgan will be producing on this gig.
 Photograph by Bruce M. Walker

Written by animator/writer/director  David T. Krupicz,  the story for Cold Dark Mirror follows the adventures and travails of a young Witch-Hunter, Lydia, who stumbles upon the dark secret of the Unseen World, a shadow world just beyond the mirror's edge. Lydia must face the Shadow Council, out their secret, the evil power known as the Time Shadow and avenge the death of her mentor, the Maegis Acheron.
This ambitious project  is hoped to be released in 2014.Poster by David Krupicz

This is is not the first time Morgan Muscat and the multi-talented David Krupicz have joined forces. Previous projects include animated features Archon Defender,  released in 2009 and Origin: A Call To Minds released in 2013, both written by David Krupicz.

Morgan's involvement on these previous projects included being both a voice actor and producer, as it is with Cold Dark Mirror.

The cast for Cold Dark Mirror are
Ryan Barrett, Sandra da Costa, Morgan Muscat, Astrida Auza, Christopher Lee Grant, Paul Nicholls, Caleigh Le Grand, Laura Collu and Daniel Wyse.

Palpably excited about Cold Dark Mirror, Morgan told us that they would be going into a recording studio to record the script very soon, and invited us to  come to one or more of these sessions to do some still photography as well as some video footage of the "behind the scenes" action. Recording the voices in an actual studio was an exciting innovation from what they had done previously, basically recording in David's basement. We thought this sounded intriguing and agreed to come out when they began.  As good as his word, Morgan got in touch with us a few weeks ago with a date and time.

The 01 System Studio is located in the heart of Toronto's entertainment district, near Queen and Spadina Roads.  Parking downtown can be a nightmare, so after a nightmarish trip across town during rush hour, we were relieved to discover a multi-level parking facility almost opposite the studio.  The studio is located in a street-level, narrow townhouse.  As one comes in the door the recording room for the actors is immediately on the right, with a corridor directly ahead leading to the control room and console.  Space is limited to say the least.

We got there ahead of Morgan, and were met by a cheerful David Krupicz,Photograph by Bruce M. Walker

clipboard in hand, at the door of the recording room. That room was filled  to capacity with microphones. music stands for the scripts, cables and voice actors.

Recording today are Ryan Barrett,

Photograph by Bruce M. Walker
Sandra da Costa,
Photograph by Bruce M. Walker
Morgan Muscat,  
Photograph by Bruce M. Walker
Caleigh Le Grand

Photograph by Bruce M. Walker

and Laura Collu. Photograph by Bruce M. Walker

The remaining cast will be recording the following day.

We could see that we would have to be rather inventive about getting pictures and video. Getting into the recording room with the actors would be out of the question due to space constraints, and physical obstacles  such as cables and stands. We also had to be mindful not to obstruct the movements of recording engineer, James Meiers. Fortunately, at the far end of the recording room, was a large plate glass window which allowed the people in the control room to see the actors and vice versa. Although not ideal for taking clear pictures, we would be able to get some images through it,
Photograph by Bruce M. Walker
.

 
and the control room window

Photograph by Bruce M. Walker

One of our major challenges was the lack of proper lighting. Although pleasant enough for those recording, for taking photographs or recording video it was pretty dim. Photographer Bruce Walker cranked ups his ISO levels and played with F-stop settings to let in as much light as possible, and used very slow shutter speeds, while I made limited use of my LED video light when filming through the recording and control room doorways. It would not be possible to use either a flash or a video light while filming through the glass because of reflections, so we had to make do with the shadowy somewhat indistinct images that resulted.

Once Morgan arrived  (having also endured the drive from hell to get there) he introduced us to the actors. and we got a few candid shots of him in the control room,  Photograph by Bruce M. Walker

and mugging for the camera with David.Photograph by Bruce M. Walker

It was an interesting and fun evening, and although we would have preferred to get better shots, all in all we were not dissatisfied. We are looking forward to seeing the finished film.

Photographs shown in this article by Bruce M. Walker