WILMINGTON — The film industry may be trying to leave Wilmington, but that doesn’t mean the people of Wilmington will allow it to go out quietly.
Wilmington native Mike Roberts is one of those working to keep the Port City the “Hollywood East.” His company, D-Mentd Entertainment, just wrapped production on the pilot episode for a new show called “Vaughan,” working with actors from other Wilmington shows like “One Tree Hill,” and “The Vampire Diaries.”
“Vaughan” is Roberts latest project, one of many in a career has covered many facets of the entertainment industry.
“I got my start in the industry when I was 17. I toured nationally for 13 years as a hip-hop artist, I toured with some big name guys, ‘2 Live Crew’, ‘Ice-T’, ‘Wu-Tang Clan’, you know, this was the beginning,” Roberts said.
In 2007, Roberts took his first steps towards film when he was approached by a person within the industry about making a music video for one of his songs.
“I got asked about doing a music video, and I told them if I’m going to do a music video, I want some Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’ type thing,” Roberts said. “I want it to be this long video, like 14-15 minutes. I want to turn into a werewolf, I want zombies, I want to go all out.”
After bringing his script for the video to the director, they decided to take a different approach.
“When I brought the script back, the guy was like ‘OK, let’s just forget the music video…I’ve got some people I can put you in touch with, let’s hash this out into a full script and make a movie.”
Roberts said this led to his very first film project, called “The Artifact”, which was shot here in Wilmington almost 11 years ago.
“Vaughan”
Out of all his projects, Roberts says this one is his favorite, “This one here has got to be by far the most fun project I’ve been a part of.”
“Vaughan” stars actor Vaughan Wilson (“One Tree Hill”), playing a character Roberts says is “loosely based off his own acting career.”
“Basically he’s an up and coming actor who, in the meantime, he’s trying to give off the impression that he’s a big celebrity,” Roberts said. “He’s spending more money than he’s making, and eventually his financial adviser tells him, ‘at this rate, you’re going to have to sell the house.’”
“He was telling him to sell the house, and everything will be fine…but to an actor, appearances are everything,” Roberts said. “And honestly he’d gotten the house from his grandmother and didn’t want to lose it. So his only option is to take on a new roommate.”
Vaughan quickly finds that none of his candidates are working out, but then, he runs into an old rival. A rival so far on the opposite end of the spectrum, it can only work in a sitcom.
“Stefan, the way this character is and the way he’s played by the actor really reminds us of Carlton from the Fresh Prince,” Roberts said with a laugh.
“He’s had a rivalry with this actor Stefan since elementary school, competing for the same parts in school plays.” Roberts said. “Now this actor isn’t the greatest actor and his parts were mostly paid for by his rich parents money, so he’s never really earned his roles.”
Ultimately, the meeting results in a confrontation, and Stefan, played by actor Ryan Williams (“On The Air”), “decides he’s got something to prove, and he wants to make it on his own,” Roberts said. “He wants to get away from his parents money, and you have Vaughan who is in desperate need of a roommate and has to take on the least likely choice he would want to take on.”
“So now you have these two competing actors who are rivals and complete opposites of each other, living in the same house,” he added.
From there, the show really comes to life, going through the trials and tribulations associated in a “buddy comedy” style sitcom. Roberts describes “Vaughan” as a “Seinfeld/Big Bang Theory/Entourage style show.”
Keeping it local
According to Roberts, the idea for the show was the product of timing, and a well placed pitch by Wilson “5 or 6 years ago”.
“Back in November, I sat down and thought, ‘I want to put together a simple sitcom,’ ” he said. “And the reason for that is with the right resources, it’s the most entertaining and least overall cost to shoot a sitcom. It takes place in like three rooms!”
“When you’re trying to get something started and you don’t have a whole lot behind it, the easiest way to do it is to make it cost efficient,” Roberts said. “That’s essentially what we did. We shot the entire pilot spending $40 on craft service, and we bought some batteries so I think we shot the pilot on like 65 bucks.”
He’s quick to note that the lack of funding, “doesn’t speak to the product.”
D-Mentd Entertainment owns all of their own equipment, so there was no need for expensive rental equipment typically associated with a project like this. But after shooting 28 pages of script in 3 ½ days, the pilot episode for “Vaughan” was born.
From here, Roberts says they’ll be doing “a pretty heavy crowdfunding campaign” through Indigogo. They have five more episodes to shoot for season one, and are already planning ahead for season two. Roberts has already worked out the logistics for distribution, and is planning to launch the show on the major streaming networks like Netflix and Hulu.
“We’re really working to rally people together.” Roberts said. “We’ve got the ‘One Tree Hill’ convention next weekend, and we have a lot of actors from (“One Tree Hill”) there who will be promoting it.”
Once funding is secure, Roberts said they plan to shoot the rest of the show through Screen Gem Studios.
“We’re looking at taking on a sound stage and building sets and everything,” he said.
Sunday evening, the crew had their pilot wrap party in Wilmington restaurant “Hell’s Kitchen.” “When it ended and everybody started clapping, and I was going over to disconnect everything…and I kind of noticed the clapping had been going on for awhile,” Roberts said. “The patrons in the restaurant who saw the show gave us a double standing ovation!”
“Vaughan” stars Vaughan Wilson (“One Tree Hill”), Ryan Williams (“On the Air”), David Schifter (“Check Point”) and Tim Ross (“Surface,” “The Vampire Diaries”). For more information, visit their IMDb page at IMDb.com.
If you’d like to contribute to the crowd sourcing campaign, visit the “Vaughan” Indegogo site.
