UNSUNG HEROES - EPISODE FIVE: HERE COMES REVENANT LAD

Hi fellow comic book and movie geeks, my name is Devin Peacock, and I've created the webseries, Unsung Heroes. Now just in case you haven't read any of the other articles I've already written about this project, let me briefly introduce myself once again. I am an actor from New York City and was inspired to create a series based on 2nd rate superheroes. This lovable bunch of screw-ups have the best intentions when it comes to helping others, but unfortunately, have the hardest time getting it right. The story follows five wannabe superheroes that attempt to “save the day”, but keep on messing up, one by one, despite their powers.





Episode five of Unsung Heroes features the hero, Revenant Lad, an Indian transplant who has no clue what his “damsel in distress” has been through minutes earlier, namely, her prior interactions with the other heroes (please check out the other episodes to understand more fully). Even though episode five is really funny to watch, so too was all of that “behind-the-scenes” stuff!

There was a homeless woman on the street corner watching the action take place but had no idea she was “in our shot”. This means that she was standing so close to the performers, that she was also being seen by the camera. You can't see it in this pic (I had to write over her face to protect her identity) but she's smiling at the action playing out in front of her eyes. This was pretty cute, agreed, yet eventually we had to politely ask her to step to one side, so we could continue filming.

Another “behind-the-scenes” fact is that when you see the woman get knocked into the air, well, it's because we used a trampoline for her to jump on. Our director for the episode, Sussan Cordero, had it available, so she decided to use it for the visual effect. Yet what she didn't take into account, was that in-between filming, most of the cast and crew would play on it, just to pass the time, which drove me nuts as the producer, Ha!

Now to give you a bit of information about Jatin Saraf, the actor who plays Revenant Lad, I would just like to say that his audition for Unsung Heroes was incredibly memorable. As “sassy” as Jatin is in real life, his portrayal of Revenant Lad was very lighthearted, warm, and naive, which is great for Unsung Heroes. He even made the choice to spin around to signify that he was teleporting while reading the script in the audition, which was something I didn't even think about. Unfortunately, between filming his episode years ago and now, the present day, he has permanently moved back to India.

Yet another fun fact about the series relates to episodes two to six being filmed on the same day and in the proper succession. I found that by doing it like this, both the cast and crew were more informed about what happened in the prior episodes. For instance, when the woman (as portrayed by the actress, Tracy King) begins to angrily attack Revenant Lad, all of those scenes were just filmed prior. Her anger in this scene is palpable and the fact that it was 100 degrees that day, probably didn't help!

Here, check it out and see if you can tell...

This article was brought to you by the actor, singer, and all round man about town, Devin Peacock, and remember, if you wish to continue this conversation about Unsung Heroes, please use the hashtag #SuperheroesWithSwag, especially via his twitter, facebook, and instagram pages.