About PROBED:signals

The Story

There are signals everywhere. Our planet is covered with TV broadcasts, radio waves, cellphone connections, and broadband transmissions... at least, those are the ones we know about. Carter Fox stumbles upon a mysterious signal that he thinks is foreign to our planet. Though he's always had his suspicions about paranormal activity, his friend, Chrissy, dismisses it as his overactive imagination. But with this signal growing stronger, and the looming fear that someone is watching him, Carter can't help but think that it's all connected to a significant, paranormal event from his past. As he searches for proof of a connection, he'll soon realize... there are signals everywhere.

The Story Behind the Story

Inspired by the TV series The X Files, writer/director Joel Cranson created a short screenplay, where he explored the same character archetypes and situations as the show, but used the setting of a high school. Enlisting the help of award-winning cinematographer/editor Webb Pickersgill and a top-notch cast and crew, they created the short film PROBED. Although the film had a limited run at film festivals due to its somewhat longer running time (20 min), it was always enjoyed by audiences and even was honored with "Special Achievement in Cinematography" at the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival. This is when Joel had an idea...

The new concept of Webisodes was emerging. With this new format of web-based TV show, anyone with the capabilities of creating a show could get their shows distributed using the Internet. This time, Joel enlisted the help of actor Kevin Herrmann (Carter Fox) to write a 5-episode web series. After several re-writes, and months of shooting weekends, production was complete and post production was quickly underway. With attention to quality over speed, the producing team decided on a deliberate release schedule that would begin in January 2010, which would give time to promote and market the new web series.