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A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book or a similar source, created by fans rather than by the source’s copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the more notable films have actually been produced by professional filmmakers as film school class projects or as demonstration reels. Fan films vary tremendously in quality, as well as in length, from short faux-teaser trailers for non-existent motion pictures to full-length motion pictures. Fan films are also examples of fan labor and the remix culture. Closely related concepts are Fandubs, Fansubs and Vidding which are reworks of fans on already released film material. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_film
When was the first fan based film made? The earliest known fan film is Anderson Our Gang, which was produced in 1926 by a pair of itinerant filmmakers. Shot in Anderson, South Carolina, the short is based on the Our Gang film series; the only known copy resides in the University of South Carolina’s Newsfilm Library. -Various amateur filmmakers created their own fan films throughout the ensuing decades, including a teenaged Hugh Hefner, but the technology required to make fan films was a limiting factor until relatively recently. In the 1960s UCLA film student Don Glut filmed a series of short black and white “underground films”, based on adventure and comic book characters from 1940s and 1950s motion picture serials. Around the same time, artist Andy Warhol produced a film called Batman Dracula which could be described as a fan film. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that the popularization of science fiction conventions allowed fans to show their films to the wider fan community.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_film
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Cinematography Director (film) Photography Screenplay Writer
Caden Butera, a North Idaho local, is a filmmaker who has wielded his passion for the craft since a very young age. It is his life goal to succeed in making art that conveys unique perspectives, spurs complex imagination, and above all...entertains. Caden is the founder/owner of Paradox Studios, a multi media business that creates original film content, and available-for-hire photo & videography.
I’ve been making amateur films since I was 8 years old.
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Moon Knight has been my favorite Superhero since the 8th grade, when I bought “Moon Knight #1 1980” in the back issues of a local comic shop. The complexity of a character like Moon Knight with 4 separate identities really stuck out to me and spurred my imagination. This was the ultimate detective of all time! He never took on huge Earththreatening villains or huge Avengers-sized threats; this was a guy who operated in his own small corner of the world, hunting for information that would lead to his personal vengeance/agenda. I’ve been making amateur films since I was 8 years old. When I was 19, I founded my own production company,
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Paradox Studios. Now at age 21, I am pursuing my passion full time. The past few years, I’ve written original comedies, sci-fis and everything in between, but a couple of months ago I realized I am at a very unique part of my filmmaking career! I have no studio telling me what to do, I have no executives managing what content I create...why don’t I make my DREAM project while I still can! So I sat down and went to work creating a movie that I would most want to see myself: MOON KNIGHT. I brought on my good friend and collaborator Joe CruzaedoWagner and started crafting the world of Marc Spector for the screen. I knew that the super limited budget we had would barely allow something past the 15 minute mark runtime, so we had to be very strategic in what we could actually fit
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and put into the short. Moon Knight has YEARS of amazing publication history to pull from so it was quite the challenge to come up with a story that could fit into such a small runtime. Eventually, I ended up landing on what aspects of the character are most interesting to me personally: this was a smallscale story about a broken man who tears his reality apart everyday to be a detective of self-vengeance. After I wrote the script, it came time to find my Moon Knight. I live in a very small city where bumping into a super herolooking actor is a very rare circumstance, haha. But by the luck of the universe, I found my Marc Spector: actor Tim Altevers, a local martial artist/ fitness trainer at my gym! With little to no acting experience, I was weary at first, but after his audition came in I was
blown away. What this hunk of a man lacked in experience he made up for in utter talent and dedication. After his official casting, Tim Altevers was able to bring so much of his own personal martial arts experience to the table as well as his personal thoughts on the character (of whom he was already a huge fan). It was a match made in heaven. Tackling the costume was probably the largest challenge of the production. We knew we
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had to give Moon Knight his signature hood & cowl look, the question was how? With barely a budget, it forced Joe and I to get creative. First off, we knew the tone of our project was going to be classic film noir, from the themes, to the nighttime sequences, down to the music, so we pulled from that to help inspire the costume. We wanted the signature cloaked look the character has from the comics, but we wanted to stray away from capes. Capes are awesome
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on the page, but don’t always translate well in a gritty liveaction piece. So we took to the long sweeping trench coat look instead. It gave you the feeling of a cape but with a bit more sense of reality. Next was the color, would we go full white? As any Moon Knight fan would know, Mooney’s signature outfit is a pure “jet-silver.” So, we made just that! However, after we were done we came to the horrible realization: we just dressed up a dude in a full-on white hooded outfit….and he
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looked like a member of the Ku Klux Klan, which was NOT what we were going for to say the least. Eventually we landed on a compromise that consisted of white *highlights*- primarily the white mask and gloves. It made us sad we had to depart from the iconic comic book look, but overall we were satisfied to what it brought to the realism and film-noir departments. After the rest of the casting and pre-production was complete, it was now on to filming. We shot in several local locations around my hometowns of Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho and Spokane, Washington. We took a couple days driving around sketchy alleyways and street corners, but we eventually narrowed it down to the places you see in the film. We shot this production over the course of about 8 filming days with a small skeleton crew made up of local passionate artists. I’ve never had more fun filming on set in my entire life. I got to see my childhood superhero walking around IN FRONT OF ME as I directed and watched the story unfold before me. Our last day of filming was by far our biggest and most challenging: the smack-down fight sequence in the rain. Because we couldn’t wait on it to rain in real life, Mystery Ridge
Movie Ranch provided a water truck and made it pour down in the middle of that alleyway! The only downfall: it was 1:00am and it was 24 degrees fahrenheit. The moment the water fell onto the actors it FROZE onto their wardrobe. Icicles formed instantly on the truck in the scene, and towards the end the water pipe froze and halted filming for a bit. Despite all of that, my cast & crew were amazing. They maintained a genuine positive mentality throughout the entire experience and made my director stress dissipate by tenfold. I could not be more thankful to everyone involved
who came together to make this piece of film. A special shoutout to my musically-talented 18-year-old brother who wrote the original score.
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I, along with all the other Moon Knight fans out there, have been dying for the character to get his debut on the big screen. He’s such an awesome & complex character; I hope one day he’ll hit the limelight in the MCU. A huge thank you to all the fans who are supporting this short and are helping Moon Knight become more of a mainstream hero every day!
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Wasssuupp! To all those who know me and to those who don’t, I am Dashawn Bedford and I am a husband, and a father of 3 kids, 2 boys and 1 girl. They are very talented kids, and my wife is the best cook ever. I grew up playing basketball, that was my first true love and a lifesaver, and I have to say that basketball was something that kept me out of trouble. And because of basketball this is how I got into video production. One day I was at a basketball tournament and my basketball shorts had a hole in them, so every time we would go to get something to eat when I got the change back I would put the coins in to my pocket and they would fall through the hole in my pocket, and so one game I was playing and this guy came up to me and asked if that was me with the change in my pocket, because every time I went up and down the court the coins in my pocket would go ching ching ching. Then he said, “That was really cool, you should patton that.” and so the whole ride home I was thinking about how I could make clothing and how would I advertise it. My best friend Kris, who thought that the idea was cool as well, said that we should start making commercials for the clothing line. At that time, he was going
to school for photography, but we always together kind of played around with video cameras, we would go to the public access TV station back around in 2004-2005, so I’ve always kind of liked the thought of video production, but at that time I was so focused on playing basketball and I never thought about making a career out of it. One day Chris said that I should buy this Canon XL1, and that was one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made. That camera was the coolest camera ever. Three months after purchasing that camera for $2500 a friend of mine gets a call for a job for $20,000, and he remembered that I had recently bought a brand new camera. So, we get the job, and after finishing that project that was over 300+
hours, it definitely was a great introduction to production. I got a great experience from that because it showed me what it takes from start to finish and what type of mindset you have to have to finish a project of that size and nature. My first 5 years was training myself, I like to call that self motivation, and I had bought a final cut pro 7 tutorial based that came with 13 tutorials, and then I was hired at CMTV, that’s when I like to say that’s when my professional career began.
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What are a few films or projects you worked on in the past? I did this music video back in 2008 for a group named Certified, that was one of my first music videos that I’ve ever done, and the song was called “That’s What’s Up”. It was the first video that I’ve done that had over 100,000 views it also gave me a sense of confidence that I could produce something that was entertaining, artful, and fun to make in the process. Then my next project was “Pilates & Performing Arts Aesthetic” that won Best Pilates DVD. This DVD was one of my biggest challenges because I wanted to bring cinematography to a workout DVD. One of my favorite projects I have done was for the Boys and Girls Club in 2015. It was my favorite because I was doing it for a good cause and I was helping the Boys and Girls club out, and that year the President of the Boys and Girls Club asked if they could show it at their national conference. Why do you think Caden reached out to you? Actually, he didn’t reach out to me, I reached out to him, because he would come by CMTV and get equipment from Community Minded Television (the place I work at) for some of
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the short films he was working on, and I told him that if he ever needed a DP that I would love to come out and help. He asked me if he could see some of the work I’ve done and asked if I’ve ever done any narrative work before, I told him that I have been on set for narrative work, but I’ve never been the DP. But I had confidence in myself that I could do the work. What was your part in the fan film Moon Knight? My part was to be the DP/ CoDP with Caden to help achieve the look that we wanted. I believe as a DP my job is to work well with the Director and others. To me that’s what makes a good DP. I can’t say that without saying this knowing and having the knowledge of what it will take to make a shot happen with the understanding at some point and time you just have to say let’s try it even if I don’t think its going to turn out the way I think it should but because of that let’s try it thinking I have had some beautiful things happen. At the end of the day its all about giving the Director what they want. When you were approached by Caden to work on this project what were your thoughts?
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I wasn’t really approached by Caden to work on this project, what happened was we had shot this short film called Recursion and it turned out so well and I was so impressed that I was like “Man if you have any other short films that you would like to shoot, please let me know” and he was like “ Well Dashawn, I have this other project called Moon Knight that I wanted to shoot if you would like to work with me again.” so I was like “Yea! When do you want to pop it off?” How do you think the fan movie short came out? I had the confidence that the look and quality would come out good, but I didn’t think the film would have the response that it did. What Marvel or DC character would you like to work on next and why? I don’t think I have a character I would like to work on, but I like working on characters who don’t get that much shine, because maybe what we do to characters like Moon Knight, it might make big production companies see that there is a market for characters who aren’t as popular as others.
Tim is personal trainer specializing in injury rehab and special needs.
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What was your part in the creation of this fan made of Moon Night? I played Marc Spector/Moon Knight. When you were approached by Caden to work on this project what were your thoughts? When Caden asked me to audition for the role I thought “What the hell, but there is no way I will get the role”. Did I mention I have zero experience? How did you think the movie came out? I thought we hit a home run with it, I would love to go for a Grand-Slam if we were to do a sequel. What Marvel or Dc hero would you like to work on next? I don’t know about another super hero, but I would love to play a Sith Lord. Not one bent on power or revenge, but one tormented by the Dark Side, and his inability to understand the nature of the Force.
He was in the Army Reserves for about four years and in college he majored in psychology. He has a great fondness for working on films and for creating cheap, unnoticeable alternatives to expensive things and objects. He also likes cats and black tea.
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What was your part in the creation of this fan made Moon Night? I co-directed and was working in the arts department, but primarily I did work on the wardrobe and with set design. If an inconvenient problem or challenge arose I’d try to find a way to make it work. I often was camouflaged on frame operating the smoke machine, or setting up the helmet to make it glow a bright neon blue. I helped with the script and together Caden and I created the rough draft from the fight scene. I dressed each of the thugs and created some nonexplosive blood squibs for the gorier parts of the film. And if all was good and fine on set I was often seen taking BTS photos and videos of the cast and crew. During pre-production Caden and I went over much of the story and the narratives shared between characters. During postproduction I helped Caden with some editing and marketing for the film. When you were approached by Caden to work on this project what were your thoughts? I was excited to work on the project as Caden had spoken of doing a Moon Knight fan film a few years ago. With “Moon Knight” being a superhero I’d be able to have a shot at creating a story within one of my favorite movie genres. Being a comic book and movie fan in general it was exciting to piece together all my favorite things from both mediums and attempt to bring them to this short film.
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How did you think the movie came out? I think the film came out very well. If had a time machine there are many things I would have liked to have changed or tweaked. Hindsight is 2020. But luckily they’re all very hard to the see so long as no one is actively looking for them. After the film was released I thought it was rewarding to see everyone’s hard work finalized on the big screen. A decent amount of blood, sweet, and tears had gone into the project, and to have everyone come together to see the final project was a warm and deeply satisfying feeling. What Marvel or Dc hero would you like to work on next? Either a different approach to the Green Lantern origin story or a supervillain story focused on Doctor Doom. Both are characters that are rich in lore and in potential, and I think that with some time and effort they’d turn out great. Or a Prowler film.
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Originally from Everett, Washington, Pavel is senior at Eastern Washington University who is currently pursuing a Bachelors degree in Computer Science. e typically dedicates a large portion of his day to schoolwork, including writing code hours on end. Whenever he has free time and the opportunity arises to act, he will most certainly take it. Over the past year he’s grown his acting portfolio to include 21 student short films, 4 non-student short films, 1 music video and was also able to be apart of the cast for Sci-fi’s “Z-Nation”. This all became possible by learning how to maintain a good balance between knowing student life and my acting life. Discipline and hard work is all it took to make this possible. I would study ahead of time for midterms he knew that our crew would shoot til 3am in downtown Spokane the nights before the exam. His ultimate goal is to be financially stable where he can then be able to write and finance his own films and include people that he’s met along his journey, such as the incredibly talented director of Moon Knight himself, Caden Butera.
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What was your part in the creation of this fan made Moon Night? I played the role of a street thug who dared to threaten Moon Knight with a handgun. I confront Moon Knight in a dark alley and end up getting a taste of my own medicine. I would say that the alley scene is what really makes the movie set a dark, gritty and violent tone. We trained and rehearsed for almost 3 days to make that fight scene as good as it was. What only seems like 5 minutes on the screen is really 3 days of dedication and hard work from the other end. Everyone did such an amazing job and I can easily say that everyone’s contribution no matter how big or small elevated the film to another level. When you were approached by Caden to work on this project what were your thoughts? I was shocked. I knew that ALOT of pieces would have to fall Into place perfectly in order for it to be a success. I have never before heard of such a production in the Spokane area. I’ve heard of large scale
projects, but nothing regarding superheroes, especially with a budget like this one. I’m glad that we have comic book nerds like Caden Butera and Joe Cruzaedo-Wagner that can help bring a superhero film like this to life. And of course with a crew so hard working we were able to fit all of those pieces together perfectly! How did you think the movie came out? 140k. What’s that you ask? Oh, I don’t know... maybe it’s just the amount of VIEWS this fan film acquired over a span of 2 months on YouTube!! Commercially, this film was a huge hit! We received love from fans all around the world. Blogs such as ScreenRant, ComicBook and SciFi(just to name a few) along with multiple YouTube channels reviewed and shared our film. Overall, the reception was positive! Personally, after seeing all of the craze after it’s release, there’s simply no denying that the countless hours we spent working on this film paid off!
Personally, since we have already tackled a Marvel character, I think that it wouldn’t hurt to try and create a film based off of a DC character. If you’re somewhat familiar with Batman’s allies throughout the universe then you might just be familiar with my favorite DC hero- Nightwing! I think Nightwing has a lot that he can bring to the screen. With super human strength and agility along with fancy gadgets roaming through the night, I can already see all of the fun we can have with this one!
What Marvel or Dc hero would you like to work on next?
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Written & Directed by Caden Butera Steven Grant: Intrepid millionaire stockbroker, taking down organized crime from the top of the ladder. Jake Lockley: Late night taxi driver who listens to the chatter of guilty as means of gathering intel. Marc Spector: Retired mercenary and seeking revenge. Moon Knight: a mask-dawning punisher of the night. Caden Butera, the writer and director of the fan film, says “I, along with all the other Moon Knight fans out there, have been dying for the character to get his debut on the big screen. He’s such an awesome & complex character; I hope one day he’ll hit the limelight of the MCU.” Director Caden Butera, along with a skeleton crew of passionate fans of the character, came together to make this film for existing fans of Moon Knight and to hopefully spark new ones.
*DISCLAIMER* The following short film is fan made and is neither endorsed nor affiliated with Marvel comics or Marvel studios. All names and references are copyright and trademark of their respective owners. “Moon Knight” is a Non-profit fan film made for fans, by fans.
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Click the Big Screen to watch Moon Night
Click here to watch Bloopers 30
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If at first you don’t succeed set up again, again, and again until no one can keep a straight face!
Cast & Crew Marc/Moon Knight Tim Altevers Joey Charles Fletcher Frank Stephen Morton Taxi Passenger 2 Mark Butera Frankie Kyle Ross Thug Bill Bill Bancroft Thug Max Max Jordan Thug Pavel Pavel Chernichenko Thug Risky John Risky Boltz Thug Jerry Jerry Buxbaum Thug Micah Micah Swet Thug Cecil Cecil Douglas Trail Thug Ben Ben Burke Thug Mathias Mathias Oliver Boardroom Leader Morecedes Brown Marlene Shannon Stroup Boardroom Man 1 Kenny Powell Boardroom Woman 1 Junko Cruz Boardroom Man 2 Dane Larson Boardroom Man 3 Teo Damitio Boardroom Man 4 Matt Higgins
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Boardroom Woman 2 Carly Williams Boardroom Man 4 Erik Jackson Boardroom man 5 Josiah Hoffman Homeless Man John Gessner Street Teen Cade Richardson Fake Shemp Joe Cruzaedo-Wagner Bushman Morecedes Brown Edited by Caden Butera Costumes & wardrobe Joe Cruzaedo-Wagner Co-Cinematographer Dashawn Bedford Co-Cinematogapher Caden Butera ON-Set Sound Evan Olsen Erin Wolf Hunter Scheidt John Gessner Sound Mixer Erin Wolf 1st AC/Grip Cade Richardson Grip/PA Ben Burke
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Stunt & Rain effects Jerry Buxbaum
Villainous
Make-up Madison Murray Halle Schmitt Gabby Anderson Dani Linehan Joe Cruzaedo-Wagner
Prop Shops’s Red Hood Rebirth helmet Taxi provided by Yellow Cabs Special Thanks to
Production Manager Mark Butera Craft Services Jackie Butera Wardrobe Department Joe Cruzaedo-Wagner Kathy Swanson Jackie Butera Mask Printer Grayson Cross Set PA/Boom Op Josh Bentley Crescent Blades by Clay Williams (ThorHammers.com) Helmet by: Peter Snyder(Killonious) of
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North Idaho College Stan Lee nnovation Collective Mystery Ridge Movie Ranch City of Spokane Marc Harvey Abbi Rose Productions Abundant House Productions
A film by Paradox Studios Moon Knight created by Doug Moench & Don Perlin
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