The tale of Westender began long ago in a distant land. Well, up in Canada anyways. Distant enough.

Director Brock Morse was up in Vancouver B.C. attending Vancouver Film School where he met director of photography Matt Molitor and lead actor Blake Stadel. For a project proposal, he wrote a short script called "Darrington North." The script was the tale of a young boy and his medieval fantasy world where he meets a noble knight and mentor, Darrington North. Brock never ended up producing the script, but his ideas began to evolve after meeting Blake and envisioning his new friend as a medieval hero. The seeds of Westender were planted.

Over the next few years Brock and Matt graduated from V.F.S. and returned to their respective state-side homes, while Blake stayed in Vancouver. In Oregon, Westender continued to grow. Through hours of meandering discussion with many of his close friends and many exploratory trips through the Oregon wilderness, a massive story began to develop in Brock's mind. He had many details and ideas, and with the help of his friends, a short script was written.

The script didn't feel quite right though. Through further discussion and pondering, Brock decided to pawn the script off onto his old partner, writer Jefferson Brassfield. Jefferson was entrenched in work down in Los Angeles at the time, and after several attempts to finish and doctor the intial script, he decided to start over.

The new script was closer to Brock's vision. Some of the detail and backstory was gone, but the tale was more focused on the character of Asbrey of Westender, and that was what Brock really wanted. It was to be a short film, perhaps 45 minutes in length.

Later that year, Jefferson returned home to Oregon to begin pre-production with Brock for a summer shoot. Arrangements were made, costumes and props were cobbled together, a crew was brought on-board. At the zero hour, a couple of days before the 3-week shoot was to begin, Blake was stopped at the border, accused of having a mistress and attempting to create a double-life in the states and a myriad of other bizarre falsifications. None of that mattered though. Blake couldn't come across. Blake was the movie. The movie was sunk.

Subsequently, Jefferson returned to L.A. to work, producer Hans Hlawaty took up the reins, and the shoot was re-scheduled for the fall. Plans were more thorough, more time was put into the details, and everything was shaping up well. It was looking like not shooting in the summer had been a good thing. The project was stronger. This time Blake made it across the border with no trouble.

The shoot began well, but some of the logistics were underestimated and inclement weather took the production literally by storm. Many important scenes and sequences were in the can, but the shoot fell apart in the end and they were not able to get what they needed. Their planned 3 week shoot was over, and they didn't have a finished product. Everyone was crestfallen.

But not for long.

The footage that had been shot was good. Damn good. Good enough to get more financing.

So Brock and Hans upped the ante. Jefferson came back and the script was expanded. Everyone still wanted to be a part of it, so the whole shebang was a go. Westender was now a feature film, and a 6 week shoot scheduled for the fast-arriving summer.

The rest of the tale can be found in the production journal...