Steve's Webseries - The Portal

Episode 1: "Into The Unknown"

After going through an interdimensional portal, Steve Sutton finds himself in a hostile alternate reality, populated by people who happen to look exactly like him.

Production Notes: Some of the effects, particularly the "green screen" effects, look rather cheesy. This is due to the fact that I don't have a decent green screen yet, plus I'm still learning (shadows against the green screen are not good). Also, keep an eye out for when Doctor Lovoski first greets Keen. Notice anything peculiar?

Episode 2: "Survival"

While pursuing a Black Widow ship, the Firewing is shot down over the forests of North Carolina.

Production Notes: I'm having a little trouble with the green screening, as you should be able to tell by the Lieutenant's fuzzy appearance. There's a scene near the end that looks kind of crappy. A transitional scene was needed, so I threw one together. I tried to make it look decent, but couldn't. Also, you can hardly hear the Firewing's interior hum in the scene after it. I used the original hum from the first episode and forgot to replace it with the louder version.

Episode 3: "Canned Spam"

Members of the crew of an orbiting defense station begin to mysteriously disappear, and Kren involvement is suspected.

Production Notes: Having more problems with shadows on the green screen. Dang, I wish I had some decent equipment. If you listen, you can hear a hair dryer going in the background during the shot with the three Kren. Someone was drying their hair in another part of the house and I didn't notice the sound until the scene was finished.

Episode 4: "The Morpheus"

A battleship, supposedly patrolling the asteroid belt, suddenly appears in orbit around Mars, heavily damaged and deserted.

Production Notes: In the scene following the ensign's and Nelson's chat, Keen is seen trying to open a door. At least, that's what he's supposed to be doing. As it turns out, I didn't make the corridor narrow enough and it looks like he's standing in the middle of it, doing something...else. Ahem. This was TOTALLY unintentional. I wanted to fix that, but that part was very brief and probably not easy to spot, unless you knew what to look for, plus it would've been too much trouble just to fix that one thing.

Episode 5: "Offensive"

After discovering the vibrational frequency of the Kren's dimension, Omega Defense launches its first mission into Kren space.

Production Notes: Nelson appears a little blurry in the last scene of this episode. I thought the camera was focused, but I guess it wasn't. Also, the last shot has reverse-image video of Nelson. I wouldn't have reversed it if it weren't for him glancing in the wrong direction while talking to Lieutenant West.

Episode 6: "Dark Tidings"

Lovoski receives a Kren computer disk. Meanwhile, Keen investigates a shaft at the Kren's North Pole.

Production Notes: I flubbed a line during Nelson's speech in the Briefing Room, so I inserted a crappy-looking shot of Keen, then added non-flubbed footage where the flubbed footage was.

Episode 7: "Doomsday"

As Earth disintegrates, the group rushes to retrieve a scientist who has been experimenting with temporal folds, and could conceivably save it.

Production Notes: For the scene at Simon's home, I had to move the whole computer into my livingroom, in order to film it, because the webcam is attached to it. The scene where Simon and Keen are leaving was shot from my bedroom window. The porch's door actually creaks like that when you open and close it. That wasn't an added sound effect. It's annoying, sometimes.

The Portal: Behind The Scenes

A behind-the-scenes look at the series.

Episode 8: "Downtime"

After a ceremony to mourn the destruction of Earth, the group joins Station 314, while taking time off, as it makes its way to its new location around Jupiter.

Production Notes: I wanted to reduce the need for green screening in this episode, so I cleared out a corner of this room to shoot part of the cafeteria scene. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do much about the window, except cover it with a dark blue blanket to try to disguise it, but outside sunlight still managed to make its way through.

Episode 9: "Phobetor's Mirror"

A frequency offset sends the Firewing into an unknown dimension, where alternate versions of Omega Defense personnel practice cannibalism.

Production Notes: Originally, this was supposed to be a less darker episode, with guest stars, but they became unavailable, so I had to come up with another idea. Due to poor lighting conditions during filming, compositing this episode was a major nightmare, so the quality of some of the green screen work is unavoidably poor. Conditions weren't good during most of the days that I was able to film.

Episode 10: "Fold"

After installing a temporal fold generator, Omega Defense attempts to send the Morpheus back in time to prevent the destruction of Earth.

Production Notes: This episode took almost a year and a half to finish, which is a lot longer than most. Because it was taking so long, I decided to carry the storyline over into the next episode, in order to finish it. It would've taken much longer to complete, if I hadn't.

Episode 11: "Boarded"

As the Morpheus approaches the Sun, the Kren plan to use the temporal fold generator for their own purposes.

Whole Version - Split Version - Partial Script

Production Notes: After making the part before the title sequence, I abandoned this episode for two years, then continued working on it with a better camera, which is why the resolution changes. The title sequence was remade from scratch to fit the new resolution. Even though the quality is better than previous episodes, there are still some green-screened parts that look rough, because they gave me trouble.

Episode 12: "Sutton's Day"

While Keen and West are out on patrol, Sutton explores the possibility of returning home.

Production Notes: None at this time.

Episode 13: "Game Over"

When the Kren abduct the President's ship, Omega Defense launches a rescue mission and initiates a plan to bring about the Kren's destruction, once and for all.

Production Notes: None at this time.

Watch the trailer for the series