What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in a tense, frightening situation, with seemingly no way out? FRAMED, a new action/suspense web series written and directed by Jose Mojica – set to debut on August 1st, and each Thursday afterward if their kickstarter is a success – tells the story of a man who faces such a dilemma. Javier Santos (played by Don Klenk), a computer programmer who suffers the loss of his wife and son in a mysterious car accident, struggles to go on with his life after the incident, all while trying to seek the truth of what really happened.
Javier believes that the only way he can find closure is to join his family in the afterlife. He meets four strangers, played by Betty Adams (in a dual role as Emily, and as Susan Turner, in a major character twist), Chris Grimm (Ryan), and Salena Kountz (Larissa), who, together, form a suicide pact, with three simple rules: no personal details, no backing out of it, and finally, to commit suicide at the appointed time set by the group by drinking poison. The other members of the group pass into the next life – except for Javier, whose nightmare is just beginning. The cast also includes Brandon Goree as crooked cop Sean, Ben Blaesing as Ben, a co-worker of Javier’s (and conspiracy theorist), and Susu Tobia as Javier’s wife, Ana.
Framed – Trailer from iFilmFlops on Vimeo.
The show was inspired primarily by some of Mojica’s favorite films and TV shows of the suspense/action genre, from LOST, FRINGE, and 24, to some of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thrillers. Yet, he says, many of these shows have characters that most viewers can’t relate to – anti-heroes or weapons experts. Mojica wanted to depict his protagonist as a regular guy in an extraordinary situation. “Our hero is just a regular guy. He’s one of us. He’s not a superhero in disguise. He wants to do the right thing. He just happens to find himself in a very difficult position.”
Mojica set out to create a suspense web series that is not only entertaining, but also family-friendly, another key factor that sets FRAMED apart from other web series (and even broadcast series) of its type. “Most of us have families and young children and we’re proud of what we do. We really believe that the focus should be on the story and the characters and that we can tell a good, suspenseful story without adding sex, profanity or unnecessary violence. We want our stories to be about solving a mystery.”
There Will Be Blood
The cast and crew is known as iFilmFlops, a self-funded production unit “with the occasional help of Capitol One cards,” says Mojica, jokingly.
The group also includes his wife Laurel (the series’ producer), his son Alex (director of photography), and other members of the production team, who played multiple roles throughout the filming of the series’ first episode, which was filmed in a short time period. Yet, despite the progress they made, Mojica felt that there was still plenty of room for improvement. “The police uniforms did not look realistic, and they didn’t have guns. The blood wasn’t right. We hadn’t thought much about wardrobe, etc. So we threw away what we had done and split the shoot of the first episode into four days.”
During Mojica’s childhood years growing up in Puerto Rico, he was inspired to tell stories through film by watching Chespirito, a popular Mexican children’s television personality. “He had a group of actors who always made shows together for kids. The actors would take turns playing different roles. That’s always been my dream, to form a group of actors and crew who enjoys filming together and are able to tell stories full time. We hope that our series shows people what our team can do with a very modest budget. We’d like to continue making series as well as feature-length movies in the future.”
Overall, Mojica’s goals with FRAMED are simple: to produce a suspenseful web series that is not only entertaining, but also one that families can watch and enjoy together. “We want to bring people suspense. The kind of story that puts you on the edge of your seat trying to figure out what’s going to happen next, often ending in a twist. If you are a fan of TV shows like 24, Lost (at least the first few seasons), movies like The Sixth Sense, and old Hitchcock movies like Rear Window, then FRAMED is for you.”
ON THE WEB:
TWITTER:
@FramedTheSeries and @iFilmFlops
KICKSTARTER:
Totally dig the hand print logo Jose!