"The friends who became family..."
The Eagle’s Nest Limited Years
1991-1999

The production group "Eagle’s Nest Limited" was officially established in October 1992 with production of the instant classic Remote Wars. Although this marked the first major project to come from the Eagle’s Nest, the group’s origins actually go back to the fall of 1991, where the two remaining members of the soon-to-be disbanded G.I. Wellington Limited crew (Eric Dela Cruz and Michael Scanlon) were looking to "plant seeds" in a new St. Thomas-based production crew.

A New Beginning

Thus, while post-production work on Agent Avarice was still in progress, "Five Cretin Grace" began in October 1991 as a new Trans Collegiate Pictures group formed around the residence hall communities of 5th Cretin Hall and 5th Grace Hall.

Besides MCS/TCP veterans Eric Dela Cruz and Michael Scanlon, who had brought their curious filmmaking hobby to South Campus, Five Cretin Grace also included two new "core" members. Randall Hanson was a former claymation buff and computer animation expert, and Cameron Christo was a creative writer with some previous filmmaking experience. The rest of the Cretin crew also included Brady Clapsaddle—the 5th Cretin resident assistant and enthusiastic spiritual leader of the floor, Joel Vogel, and Michael Adamson. Cameron began writing a script revolving around the floor’s fascination with Star Trek. Taken to a satirical extreme, the opportunities for comedy in the story began to emerge. The production was appropriately named Star Trekker’s Syndrome.

The 5th Grace cast introduced Pamela Mathiowetz, Rebecca Klein, and her roommate Miriam Johnson, a theater major. All proved to be a wonderful addition to a group of highly creative and talented residents.

Star Trekker’s Syndrome would turn out to be Five Cretin Grace’s only production, and proved to be both an achievement and a hard-learned lesson. The video itself was quite a success, and it was the first of many activities which brought the 5th Cretin/5th Grace residents together. However, the road to its completion had been marred by scheduling difficulties, clashing opinions, and a lot of unnecessary production stress related to a tight completion deadline. Following the release of Star Trekker’s Syndrome the group was inactive for the rest of the year. At the end of the semester, Cameron Christo graduated and moved on, and Five Cretin Grace was dissolved as a production entity. The other group members remained, but felt that a new identity was in order for their organization.

The Birth Of A Phenomenon

In the fall of 1992, Eric and Mike felt that the effects of Star Trekker’s Syndrome had finally washed over, and that it was possible to start the gears of production up once again. Ideas began to form around a film-based project, involving a remote control with special powers. An interested newcomer to the group was David McKoskey, who had been a late addition to 5th Cretin the previous spring semester. In searching for someone suitable to play a brash, power-hungry main character called the Bully, Dave’s volunteering for this role was a significant moment for the group. His natural presence in front of the camera showed the rest of the group that they had discovered a highly capable actor! With Randy cast as the Hero, Remote Wars was officially on the table as the group’s next production. Most of the Star Trekker’s Syndrome alumni, including Brady Clapsaddle, Miriam Johnson, and Rebecca Klein, were enthusiastically lining up to join in the production. From the ashes of Five Cretin Grace, Eagle’s Nest Limited was finally born in October 1992.

Shooting for Remote Wars was completed just before Christmas break, and the film was edited in January 1993 in one swift session. Its release would be withheld for nearly three months to allow Randy the opportunity to produce what would become one of the film’s trademarks: a computer-generated reproduction of the famous Star Wars opening scroll sequence, cleverly rewritten to reflect the Remote Wars storyline.

The 1992-1993 school year was truly a phenomenal year for the Eagle’s Nest. Remote Wars, which had started as small as Star Trekker’s Syndrome, became the hit of South Campus. Its April 1, 1993 premiere in Grace basement drew an audience of well over 50 residents, staff, and friends—more than any other MCS/TCP production since 1986. The audience response was overwhelming. Unequivocally, the group decided to produce a sequel. A mere five days after the Remote Wars premiere, The Bully Zaps Back was already in production.

The Bully Zaps Back was a production symbolic of the incredible response given to Remote Wars. The film had the eventual participation of over 20 people, twice the cast and crew size of Remote Wars. Even Joel Vogel, who had been one of the "victims" of the Star Trekker’s Syndrome backlash two years prior, offered his enthusiastic participation. The Eagle’s Nest group was no longer comprised of merely 5th Cretin and 5th Grace residents. It involved the entire South Campus community.

Despite the graduation of most of the cast and crew in May 1993, shooting for The Bully Zaps Back went on throughout the summer. Simultaneously, word of the group’s success reached the St. Thomas Department of Residence Life. While continuing production on The Bully Zaps Back, Eagle’s Nest Limited was contracted by Residence Life to produce a video designed to recruit students to live on campus.

Meanwhile, while much of the crew began their post-college careers, work on The Bully Zaps Back continued through November. The film’s premiere in December 1993 brought back most of the Eagle’s Nest cast and crew, though in smaller numbers than the April 1st premiere of Remote Wars. A follow-up screening was held in February 1994 for cast and crew absent from the December premiere. The film’s reception was no less enthusiastic than its predecessor, and The Bully Zaps Back remains a remarkable achievement in creativity, scale, and community participation.

College Aftermath

Realizing the enormous precedent which Remote Wars and The Bully Zaps Back had set, the decision to embark on a third episode was put on hold. Following December graduations, the group had also lost a fair number of its extended members following the premiere for The Bully Zaps Back. The group decided it simply needed a break!

In January 1994—during this supposed "down time", the group, now composed only of core members Eric Dela Cruz, Michael Scanlon, Randall Hanson, and David McKoskey, chose to produce a video documentary based on the making of the Remote Wars films. Most of the original cast and crew were reached for interviews. As an added convenience, St. Thomas editing facilities, supposedly for post-production on the in-progress video for Residence Life, were used for post-production on the documentary. (This was a somewhat underhanded move by the Eagle’s Nest group which almost led to the project’s downfall.)

In any case, the documentary, entitled The South Campus Phenomenon, premiered to a small audience of Eagle’s Nest faithful in May 1994. Shortly thereafter, thirty-five video copies of the documentary, bundled with the two "Remote Wars" films, were distributed to the Eagle’s Nest cast, crew, and friends at the conclusion of the semester. Most of the remaining extended members graduated, bringing to a close a very memorable and successful chapter in the Remote Wars saga.

The Residence Life video was completed without much fanfare shortly after the end of the semester, and without another Remote Wars film on deck, the group sat at a crossroads. There had been an unofficial goal of putting a film project together which would feature Miriam Johnson as the "leading lady". The project had already been laid out and had a dubious working title of Midday Frolic With A Deadly Weapon. But, the summer of 1994 proved to be a busy one, and as schedules tightened, the group’s small numbers dwindled even further. Unfortunately, one of the departing members was Miriam Johnson. Following graduation, Miriam moved to Los Angeles in hopes of pursuing an acting career. Fellow graduate Rebecca Klein was already engaged to her longtime boyfriend (and Bully Zaps Back co-star) Derek Otten, and the two were married shortly thereafter.

Back to the Roots

With the hopes of featuring Miriam Johnson in a leading role dashed, the Eagle’s Nest group put its creative minds together and came up with a formula which Mike and Eric hadn’t seen the likes of since O’Gyver in 1991: a one-reel, one-shoot film.

As it turned out, the departures of Miriam Johnson and Rebecca Klein were offset by the induction of two new core members. Luke Taylor had become an instant fan of Remote Wars and made an on-screen debut as the Eater in The Bully Zaps Back. Also, Jothan Sargent, another instant Remote Wars fan, was invited to join the group. Both were natural choices as cast members in the new film short, along with veteran leading man David McKoskey. With a group of cheating, conniving pool players as the premise, the group gathered at the Hanson Manor pool room in late August 1994 for Suburban Cowboys.

Although the Eagle’s Nest group had not shot a single frame of film since July 1993, the shoot for Suburban Cowboys went extremely well. The film was edited and completed in less than two months, and was released in October 1994 to cast, crew, and a few interested friends. Although its circulation still remains fairly limited, Suburban Cowboys was the catalyst for the Eagle’s Nest second wind. The group didn’t realize it at this time, but this second wind would slowly but surely grow stronger over the next few months.

A Second Wind

During the summer of 1993, long before the release of The Bully Zaps Back, there had been loose talk among some of the Eagle’s Nest group about a plot for the controversial "third episode" of Remote Wars. As early as June 1993, ideas were being thrown around for a possible storyline. While the group’s initial decision was to put production of the third episode on hold, the majority of its members had expressed a desire of pursuing the project sometime in the future. The two exceptions to this at the time were Randy Hanson and Jothan Sargent. Both felt that a third episode would merely be the prolonging of an idea which had been presented so well in the first two films.

Beginning in January 1994, the discussions regarding the third episode, initially between Eric and Dave, grew a little more earnest. An initial story was put on paper and over the next nine months it slowly began to evolve into a more and more feasible idea. By October 1994, almost all of the Eagle’s Nest Limited crew had read and embraced the story. The last member in question was Randy Hanson. After hearing the story summarized to him at the premiere of Suburban Cowboys, Randy gave it a thumbs up. Pre-production and revisions to the script would continue until April 1995, but the controversy was over: Return Of The Remote would finally become a reality.

In November 1994, with growing momentum behind the success of Suburban Cowboys and Return Of The Remote waiting in the wings, Luke Taylor brought the group together to present a project he was interested in doing. This was a pleasant surprise to Eric and Mike, to see that for the first time a member of the group was taking the initiative to put a project together on his own. The potentially dry premise of an instructional video for the Thea Holton "Thinking and Writing Process" turned out to be an intriguing change for the group. So, as pre-production meetings for Return Of The Remote continued, shooting for Thea’s Way was underway in January 1995, with Luke Taylor making his producer/directorial debut.

For Thea’s Way, Luke chose to cast Randy, Dave, Jothan, Eric, and himself in the main roles. Mike, as always, was the main crew and cameraman. Thea’s Way also featured a few new faces in the supporting cast, all recruited by Luke. Chuck Tombarge, Kevin Gellerman, and Pati Todd all made their debut as fellow students in Mr. Learnwright’s classroom. Overall, production went relatively smoothly, but it was a tell-tale sign of the scheduling challenges in store for future projects. Although cast as a main character, Dave’s presence in Thea’s Way was noticeably diminished, mainly due to his overburdened schedule and weekend job hours at the time. Luke was later able to pad Dave’s constant absences with filler footage and edits in post-production. In spite of this, the crew pressed on, and production rolled through April.

While production of Thea’s Way was in full swing, the group had been hammering out the main plot and characters in the Return Of The Remote script. It eventually became apparent—much to the surprise of the group, that a large extended cast wasn’t quite the pipe dream that it was at the project’s conception. There were still a fair amount of people from the old Remote Wars cast who were either still in the Twin Cities or within a respectable distance. Since the new film would not be under such a strict timetable, the script was designed so that available supporting cast members could be readily added to scenes.

Although the plot still had some major details left to fill, it was decided in that these unresolved plot issues were isolated enough that they could be dealt with at a later date. The group had already recruited their first two supporting cast members: Bully Zaps Back alumnus Martha Leary, and long-time Remote Wars fan Susan Spanovich. With the spring semester rapidly diminishing, the decision was made to commence production. Old props and costumes were pulled out of of storage and dusted off, and the first shoot for Return Of The Remote was underway in May 1995. Meanwhile, Thea’s Way post-production would be completed in early summer, and the video was well-received by both Luke’s teaching colleagues and even Thea Holton herself.

The Five-Year Journey

For the next three and a-half years, the Eagle’s Nest crew’s only focus would be production for Return Of The Remote. This project proved to be a massive logistical undertaking for cast and crew alike. The goal of including much of the original cast often called for constant postponement and rescheduling of shoot dates—in some cases scenes had to be completely rewritten due to a sudden scheduling conflict. Over the course of production many members of the cast and crew had either changed jobs or residences, moved to a new state (or country), gotten engaged and married, or had started their own families. The crew also had to endure frustrating "shooting droughts"—going for three months or longer without filming, particularly during the summer and holiday seasons. As production grew ever closer to completion, the droughts became a more frequent occurrence, and patience began giving way to heightened frustrations, manifesting feelings of doubt among the crew as to whether Return of the Remote would ever be completed. But in spite of the ever-tightening schedules and the ongoing life changes, the crew doggedly soldiered on. The hard work would pay off: Return Of The Remote would eventually feature 17 returning cast members, plus two new St. Thomas faces making their onscreen debut.

Finally—after a nearly four-year journey, the day which the crew thought would never arrive, came at last. The 20^th and final roll of raw footage arrived from processing without incident on August 11, 1998, and the announcement was made to the crew the following morning of August 12 that production was complete. The longest production phase in the history of Trans Collegiate Pictures came to a close, and it was now official: Return Of The Remote was at last a reality. The Eagle’s Nest crew had much to celebrate.

Editing began immediately soon after, plus a "bonus" 21^st roll of film was started for some additional, minor pickup shots required for scene embellishment. As editing progressed it became apparent that sheer film length would become a factor for the first time, approaching close to 600 feet! Editing for the film spanned three and a-half months, and the Return Of The Remote rough cut was completed on November 28, 1998. After the holiday hiatus, Mike and Eric spent the first months of 1999 consolidating the nearly 800 feet of edited scenes into four 200-foot rolls, and performing final cleanup and tightening of scenes. The announcement came on March 13^th that the final cut of Return Of The Remote was complete.

With the final cut spanning four reels, it became obvious that a "traditional" screening with a projector and accompanying cassette-based soundtrack would be unfeasible for the release. After some internal discussions it became clear that the best option was to add the soundtrack digitally. Utilizing the latest in desktop digital-video editing technology, Return Of The Remote would be the first TCP film to have a digitally-mastered soundtrack. Together with the final titles and credits from Randy Hanson, the full film was at last rendered to tape on November 27, 1999.

Journey's End