If you’re a regular reader of Sci Fi Scoop you’ll be aware that every Monday and Thursday we tune in eagerly for an episode of Zerks Log (and post each episode here for your viewing pleasure).

Zerks Log is a really cool and top quality sci-fi comedy that follows the mysterious disappearance of Captain Zerks Ganymedewski and his ship the Venturi 553.

The story begins with the discovery of the Venturi’s ‘black box’ floating in space upon which all of Captain Zerks’ log entries are recorded.   Zerks Log holds the only clues as to the fate of the Venturi and her crew, and over a scheduled 18 episodes we get to see what the investigators see as they play each (humorous) log entry one by one.

Zerks Log is the brainchild of creators Steve Lettieri, Rob King and Chris Conway.  The talented Ben Alpi plays Captain Zerks, who has since become one of our favorite alien characters in a long long time.

With the series having just past the half way point of Season One, Executive Producer/Co-Creator Steve Lettieri took some time out of his busy schedule to chat with us and answer a few questions.

How did the idea of Zerks Log come about?

Steve Lettieri: Chris Conway, Rob King, and I have known each for quite awhile and we’d often discuss projects to collaborate on. When we decided to form a company together, Zerks Log was one of the initial ideas that StoryForge Labs could produce. The initial concept was something I came up with entitled Commander’s Log — From Zerk of the Space Cruiser Bredlwix. It’s come a long way from that first kernel.

Was StoryForge Labs formed for the purpose of producing Zerks Log?

As I said, we bounced around a number of ideas when we were first starting StoryForge. Since we knew it would be self-funded, we wanted to come up with something that would showcase our Killer Minnow visual effects talents, be fun, but somewhat easy to produce. And we always knew it would be sci-fi, since that’s the focus of StoryForge Labs. Producing original, online, sci-fi entertainment.

What can you tell me about the vision for StoryForge Labs?

As far as vision is concerned, I think our main principle is creating shows that entertain us first. Since we’re big genre fans, we figure if we like it, so will the audience.

Were all eighteen episodes filmed at once?  Are they all in the can now?

We shot all 18 episodes back in December of 2008. There were originally 20, but we cut out two at the last minute because of on set time crunch. These things always take longer than you think to shoot! Since then it’s been all post-production work.

Your makeup effects artist is Ben Chester who also worked for a time doing costumes on Star Trek Voyager.  How much of Captain Zerks’ face and costume design is Ben’s?

Thanks for bringing up Ben Chester (we actually have three Ben’s working on this project! Chester, our DP Ben Insler, and our actor Ben Alpi!). And yes, he did do work on Star Trek, interned at Stan Winston Studios, and a lot more. He’s wicked talented. And he’s right here in our backyard! However, the Zerks designs, at least to start, were Rob King’s. He drew a number of different character sketches before we settled on the final look for Zerks (character and costume). Ben Chester then took the 2D illustration and sculpted the head to make the amazing prosthetic Zerks head. You can see those initial designs and stuff on our site. The fun thing about the Zerks character and project in general is that it’s been a great collaboration. From the initial idea, to working with our writers Patty Pino and Jason Brow, to the actual production, and post work—it’s become much bigger and better than anything I could have imagined.

Zerks Log is an impressively professional independent production and obviously that level of quality doesn’t come cheap. How have you managed to fund the series?

Well, we did fund Zerks Log ourselves, but we’ve also been lucky enough to get some investors for our two companies StoryForge Labs and Killer Minnow, so that’s helped us pay the bills. The visual effects work we’re doing in house, so that’s an expensive piece that isn’t a ‘hard cost’ for us. If it was, I’m not sure we could do it. The professionalism of the production is a testament to the talents of Rob, Chris, the Bens, and everyone else that worked on this.

You’re also producing a Zerks Log companion comic titled ‘In the Engine Room’.  How many issues of the comic do you intend to release?

We had originally planned on releasing ‘In the Engine Room’ weekly, but the workload from Zerks and the work we’re doing at Killer Minnow has made that impossible unfortunately. It’ll probably turn out to be posted fairly erratically. Issue 2 is in the works now though! We are also planning another comic that will bridge Seasons 1 and 2 of Zerks Log.

Do you have any intention to feature any of the comic characters in live action?

Yes, we have always envisioned that in Season 2 we’d bring in some of the characters that are mentioned or heard from in Zerks Log or in the comic. So definitely.

Personally I think you’re really onto something great with the whole concept and the characters of Zerks Log. What are your intentions with the Zerks franchise going forward?

We appreciate your enthusiasm for what we’re doing! Initially I think we just thought it was going to be the first show StoryForge did and then move on, but it became bigger as we went along. So we do intend to keep growing the Zerks universe. We’re in some initial talks to distribute the show overseas and are beginning to work on Season 2 ideas.

I have to ask about the hand reaching through a portal in 1.08 ‘Misunderstandings’ that touches Zerks on the shoulder (his reaction was hilarious by the way.)  Was that moment significant in respect to what ultimately happens to the Venturi 553?

The temporal portal…it is actually something quite integral to the whole show. More will be revealed in the comic and Season 2. I won’t say any more than that though!

Ben Alpi is excellent as Zerks – he really does command the whole screen as a one man show.  Can you tell me more about him and how you selected him for the role of Zerks?

Yeah, Ben Alpi is great. He really inhabited the role. It was amazing to see him transform into the character on set. A lot of fun. Ben is someone I knew from a documentary project I had worked on, so Ben and I are friends. I also knew he was a pretty good voice actor. So when we started the casting process I thought Ben would be someone we should have try out for the role of Zerks. He jumped to the front of the pack pretty early on. I think we’ll be posting his original casting video soon in the Behind the Scenes section of zerkslog.com. So keep an eye out for that!

What are your thoughts on the response to your series so far?

We’ve been really pleased with the reception so far. Our distribution partners at blip.tv have really embraced the show and are doing their best to promote it and distribute everywhere they can. I’m not sure we thought it would be this hard to grow our audience numbers, but they are growing slowly but surely. We work at that piece every day. And we’ll keep working on that. We’re hoping to hit some sci-fi conventions this summer with Ben in character if possible. That’ll be great if we can pull it off.

We do have a couple of other shows we’re going to produce and release prior to Season 2 of Zerks Log, but we’ll definitely be visiting the Zerksverse again—with the bridge comic I mentioned and other things that we’re cooking up. He’s just too fun a character to keep him quiet for too long!

- end of interview

THE VFX OF ZERKS LOG

Steve Lettieri was also gracious to provide us a few exclusive stills from behind-the-scenes production.  Here’s a brief glimpse at how the visual effects of Zerks Bridge are composited – the gallery below includes images from the creation of a scene in the latest episode (1.10 ‘Clearing the Air‘), which can be watched online now here.  Click the images below to view them.

Visit: Zerks Log Official Website for more.

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