"In creating the script for the Sam Bailey film, what was your inspiration?"

This discussion topic was posed by our 8 Sided social media guru Jamie Lee.

Answering this question is going to betray my nerdy origins far too early in my career. Well-laid plan, I lament thee.

Originally, Sam Bailey was a character I created for a "Werewolf: The Apocalypse" tabletop role-playing game I was running. If you're not sure what that is, here's a Wikipedia link.

"World of Darkness" games have a tendency to become top heavy with expectation - whenever the characters in the story meet someone new, they tend to assume that there's some big significance in the meeting. Probably this new character is some kind of world-consuming monster. Probably, this person wields the primal powers of the universe. When confronted with something they don't understand, the players tend to handle the new person with kit gloves.

Because my game was stretched over several historical periods and involved more than one set of characters, I thought it would be cool to have a character or two that existed in all the storylines. What's more, I wanted a character that was otherwise unremarkable... so the players could drive themselves into a panicked frenzy wondering what was so special about this person that he could live for hundreds of years. That's why I created Sam. While other elements of the story moved along unnoticed, the characters puzzled themselves over what mysterious and terrible power Sam Bailey possessed. In the end, Sam is simpler than that. There is no terrible power. He just won't die.

Not only did they fall for it, but we all loved the character. He's a really good guy, and is genuinely happy to help those around him. Sam Bailey became one of our nerd subculture touchstones.

One day, I started asking myself how I could make a great, compelling, modern fantasy film for less than a million dollars, on a budget and risk level where it's appropriate to debut myself as a director - and it hit me. Sam Bailey is a man people can't help themselves but try and understand, even when it becomes obsessive and unhealthy. That's a great conflict. If I take away all the vampires and werewolves and whatnot, if I just let Sam be the centerpiece of that story, I can tell a fun, riveting, deceptively simple modern fantasy story with no real need for special effects or car chases.

After all, werewolves aren't the only ones who can't leave immortality alone!

As a side note, I have written a few tabletop RPG's myself and I like to plug them! Anyone on this forum can have them for free: Restoration is my science-fiction time travel commando game, and Shardfall is my sword-and-sorcery war against the gods game. Enjoy!

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jameson Lee on September 23, 2010 at 10:24am

Role playing games can be great tools for creative exploration. It's a fantastic modern story telling device that has so much potential. When you're playing a well constructed campaign it can use much of your imagination as well, often revealing parts of yourself that you may not be aware of. I remember playing a merc-based RPG back in the day as a ballistics expert who mooned over lost loves and drank too much while the rest of his crew were busy getting into gun fights. I'm just not much of a fighter, I guess.

It's interesting that it proved so instrumental in the creation of Sam Bailey.

Permalink Reply by Tennyson E. Stead on September 23, 2010 at 5:02pm

Actually, it was the Werewolf game I played in high school that made me want to direct. I went to boarding school, and our storyteller was the husband of a junior faculty member. During that game, he got my friends, mostly non-actors, to give him so many fantastic moments, so many great emotions and so many captivating impulses that seeing it hooked me on the possibilities of doing that for a living.

Permalink Reply by Tennyson E. Stead on September 23, 2010 at 5:03pm

If you haven't checked them out, I'd love your feedback on Shardfall and Restoration. As time does on, I'm definitely hoping to develop them into 8 Sided content... but SkyChasers comes first. SkyChasers is too much fun, and far too needed, to wait.

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