The Curse of the Del Garria

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The Curse of The Del Garria is a short Doctor Who-esque film made by Doctor Who fan Andrew Merkelbach. It made its cinematic debut on February 4 2004, and was subsequently made available until early 2006 as a self-distributed mail order DVD (possibly DVD-R).

Curse of the Del Garria forms part of a loose series of productions by Merkelbach, all of which feature "The Traveller". Prior to Curse, Merkelbach produced a direct-to-CD audio play entitled Land of Hope and Glory (also self-distributed), as well as an unreleased short feature, "Vortech: The Traveller". Though a final cut of the latter was completed, various rights issues stemming from Merkelbach falling out with certain members of cast and crew led to a partial remount of a number of sequences. Ultimately, Merkelbach decided to abandon the entire project despite the possibility of its being completed. (An unconfirmed amount of material from the project was made available on VHS to a limited circle of potential buyers for a brief time, but is now unavailable. According to Merkelbach Films PR, no complete version of the film is now known to exist, but it is rumoured that some version of it has made underground appearances since its production in 2003.)

Since Curse, Merkelbach has produced Red, which made its own cinematic debut in July 2006. Like its predecessors, it was shot on single chip MiniDV. Land of Hope and Glory has recently been re-edited and, in the wake of the successful animation of missing Doctor Who episodes for DVD, married with reportedly primitive Flash animation for a pending release of unknown nature.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Technical 3 Premiere 4 Cast 5 Credits 6 Production Trivia 7 Traveller Continuity

[edit] Synopsis

The Traveller one of the last great Guardians of Time and his delightful companion Jenny visit the small town seaside town of Caster's Bay. It's two days until Halloween and strange things are starting to happen... Behind the scenes an old enemy is manipulating events and setting a deadly trap for The Traveller. What is the connection between an old spell book and a creature called the Del Garria? Can The Traveller save the town's residents before all hell breaks loose? And why is Jenny behaving so strangely... (Sourced from Merkelbach Films PR)

[edit] Technical

Filmed on a single chip Sony MiniDV camera.

[edit] Premiere

The film premiered at Reading Cinema Waurn Ponds on February 4 approximately a hundred people attended, most whom were family or family friends. Only notable guests were former Sale of The Century model Nicky Buckley and local member of state parliament Michael Crutchfield. Members of the press both print and television were invited but never attended. Reaction was decidedly mixed as most struggled to hear and understand the dialogue.

[edit] Cast

• Andrew Merkelbach
• Joanne Rose
• Lawrence Cumming
• Nicholas Cameron
• Chris Tsorotes
• Sam Mellor
• Maureen Lesjak
• Steve Simpson
• Renee Powell

[edit] Credits

Written by Mark Robert Ritchie

Based on a short story by KG Redhead

Post Production by Jonathan Blum

[edit] Production Trivia

• In the early stages of production, this film went under the title "The Wicker Man". When the unwanted connotations of this title were pointed out to Merkelbach, the film's name was changed to "Curse of the Depraved", before shifting to the final title during production.
• The film's running time was initially estimated at approximately 30 minutes. Following principal photography, Merkelbach revised his estimate to 60 minutes. When Jon Blum's rough cut came to approximately 21 minutes, Merkelbach reportedly shot filler material to bring the production up to its final 28-minute length.
• According to the Merkelbach Films web site c. March 2006, the film was to have been re-edited into two 15-minute "episodes" as part of a package for potential television sale. Ultimately, nothing came of this attempt, and the announcement no longer appears on the web site.

[edit] Traveller Continuity

The role of the Traveller is portrayed in this film by Andrew Merkelbach. He also played the part in every production except the unreleased "Vortech". That production starred Nicholas Alexander Cameron in the lead role, playing a very different type of Traveller who did not seem to be modelled on Doctor Who and who was given an extensive back-story possibly at odds with other Traveller productions. A project featuring surviving footage from "Vortech" married with new material was mooted during 2004, and was (according to Merkelbach) set to explain why there appear to be two separate Travellers with clashing backgrounds. Nothing came of this, and "Vortech" itself has gradually faded from official mention in online Merkelbach Films circles.

(A Traveller short story, "The Mission" (c. 2004), does not specify which version of the character is featured. However, it directly contradicts the continuity established in "Vortech", so it can be safely assumed that it features Merkelbach's variation on the role.)