- Ezra speaks out on Return 2
A look at the calendar tells me it's March 2007. Yes, yes indeed. We are now a year and a half out from the release of the original Return: A Warcraft Motion Picture, and we've decided to finally sit down and share the particulars as to why there is still no Return 2. We've kept the details of our journey under wraps until now, but today we'd like to give you the whole story ...
- Return at BlizzCon
When Return went from fan film to cult phenomenon after receiving a finalist honor at Blizzcon in 2005, it drastically changed our old hobby filmmaking group over night.
- Ezra and Terran, 1993
Rufus Cubed, a close circle of friends from a small town in eastern Washington that was used to a humble audience, was suddenly in the spotlight of millions. We found ourselves in disbelief, as one unexpected triumph led to another...
- Ezra and Terran, 2005
Plans were laid for continuing the Return series right away, but first we engaged the promotion of the original Return aggressively and then pursued recognition in the Machinima community as a whole.
"We must make our way ... "
- Outside the 2005 Machinima Film Festival
In November 2005, our initial efforts ultimately landed us in New York, being spotlighted at the 2005 Machinima Film Festival, receiving nominations for Directing, Writing, Editing, and best "Off the Shelf", a category designated for pieces that take place completely within the host game's world and visual assets.
- Terran speaks on a panel at the festival.
Return came through in one of the nominated categories, and received a "Mackie" award for best "Off the Shelf" Machinima, regardless of the fact that if you'd asked us two months prior what Machinima was, we'd have responded with blank expressions. It was here that things really started to heat up....
- Ezra and Terran unpack the Mackie
Managing to attend the New York event through our last-minute prayers being answered, Terran and I were interviewed at the festival by an HD Television Network about our award nominations, and subsequently a copy of Return made it to an executive in that company.
- Ezra Interviewed at the 2005 Machinima Film Festival
Virtually overnight we were in negotiations to produce a nine part series of 10 minute Return episodes for television. However we were not going to jump into our first professional syndication opportunity lightly, and our first order of business was to become a certified and legal production company, "Rufus Cubed Productions, LLC". Thereafter we wasted no time in involving the folks at Blizzard in the epic discussions about to commence...
- Rufus Cubed Productions: Business as usual
"Mark my words ... this is madness"
Early signals from Blizzard were positive and enthusiastic. We dove headlong into an intense period of organizing our business, discussing Intellectual Property concerns with Blizzard, writing the nine episode story arc, refining our visual technique, and otherwise preparing the series and hammering out the finer points of a behemoth contract with the network; all the while working to keep our day jobs and families intact.
- Ezra's son Isaac oversees the production of Return 2
By mid-January 2006 we found ourselves geared up and ready to tackle the challenge ahead: to bring the next chapter of the Return series to life, and beyond. Our pens were out and we were ready to sign on the dotted line. While the deal was not so astronomical as to free us from our daily grind of our prior employment, our hearts were in the game 100%, and we had every intention of rolling out 10 minute segments at the soul-rending and neigh improbable rate of one episode every three weeks. But it was not in our fate to be tested at this juncture ...
- Rufus Cubed Productions LLC is born
"To what end, we had long since forgotten ..."
On January 23rd 2006, it was rescribed to us by a sympathetic Blizzard that after long deliberation, it had become clear that the time needed to oversee this monumental project could not be drawn from their resources, and that as much as they would like to see the series brought to life, the plug would have to be pulled on the television deal. We saluted our hosts, understanding that the decision was delicate. But being this close to seeing the series fly only to crash land was devastating.
The blow the project suffered had lasting ramifications, and for the next few months our motivation was severely impared. To add injury to injury, Terran and his entire department were laid off from the day job he had held for 5 years, precisely one month after the deal was canceled.
- Terran working at Atari Tech Support just before it's closure in February 2006
"...it cannot be understood by those who did not suffer it ..."
In our state of unemployment and dismay, we were glad when a little good news came around. First, we gathered that continuing Return on the web was not out of reach and secondly, the offers for other professional video opportunities started to roll in from the resounding acclaim that Return had created so many months ago. Again, not fat sacks of cash, but certainly enough to keep the candle of our fledgling business burning.
"...to mend, and find reunion ..."
Reworking our infrastructure from television series back to web distribution felt a little like making a pincushion of our pride, but we did what we had to to carry our torch forward. The only problem now is that we'd accepted and begun work on a number of side projects that were too good to pass up for the sake of advancing Rufus Cubed and our burgeoning multimedia careers. Return, as a creative narrative with little short term paying-the-bills potential, took to the backburner, but remained our fondest project, the one we would finish when the time was right. So passed March of 2006.
- Ezra and Terran record the "Woots" for "Billy Maclure"
"...or he can resolve to take action ..."
A little while after settling in to this new outlook, with the desire to drop everything and pursue Return everpresent, we pulled out every trick in the book to be the recipient of a video contract that would pave the path to E3 attendance. We had known from the onset that not only was this an awesome opportunity in its own right, but this would be another (and perhaps our last) chance to pitch Return face to face with Blizzard. All our pondering had led us to the conclusion that the only way to fully achieve everything we wanted to with Return would be to get Blizzard completely on board with the project, not just another idea in the wind. We needed something, something big, a proverbial bomb we could drop that would really show what we're all about and where we want this crazy journey to ultimately take us.
- Ezra, Johnny, and Terran at E3 2006
It took 3 weeks to construct, several gallons of mountain dew and sleepless nights, and our device, our Blizzard bunker-buster was born: The Return 2 Trailer.
"Mind your head!"
We must confess, the trailer was not crafted from a great body of completed audio-visual work on the project, but instead was specifically tailored, shot for shot, to create maximum buzz before E3, and exhibit all we'd learned since Return initially launched 7 months prior. At the time, we had fully expected to complete Return 2 within a couple months, but we had no idea what was in store for us. The trailer was a stunning success and had all the effect we'd hoped for and more: a deafening buzz, and Blizzard heard us. Come June, we got "The Call". Blizzard wanted us to come down to talk.
"...take me to them"
- Terran in his hotel before his "consultation".
This was it, our moment of truth. We'd blown the doors wide open. Armed to the teeth with dreams of Return: The Series, we set off for Blizzard HQ. Oddly enough we were to be "consulted" separately, but at the time it didn't seem terribly odd to us. We understood that this was the way of things. What we didn't anticipate, and were resultingly broadsided by, was that we were actually being brought in to talk about a specific job opening, hence the separation. They were looking for canidate Associate Video Editors. Return was not the primary topic as we had hoped.
This was a great and outstanding opportunity, but the trouble in all of this is that Terran is a cinematographer and video editor and I (Ezra) am not. Among many other things, I am a writer, sound-designer, production-designer, and co--director/producer of Return. A Blizzard job existed for Terran, for me one did not. Once again, devastation and heart-breaking disappointment on the verge of great success.
Terran, now carrying the burden of several months of unemployment rising high into a threatening tsunami, was offered a position in June. As we've both loved and adored Blizzard for over a decade, he could not very well turn down the job offer. We've been dear friends and comrades in creativity for nearly 15 years, a dynamic duo, inseparable; but a chance like this comes once, if ever, in a lifetime. It was at least a potential partial success for the series. Return would have to return to a simmer though as Terran set sail for California in July 2006.
- Rufus Cubed members at Terran's going away party, July 2006
"Separation was more painful than the many wounds of battle ..."
Despite all that has transpired, let us assure you of this: We have never once, during any trial, for a single moment, considered giving up on the series. We have continued to work in whatever capacities we have been able to from the series' inception until this very day.
- Recording lines for Return 2
The expectations for Return have grown so large that we approach production with all the care and detail of a feature film. We are stretched thin though, and we can't honestly say we're working on it with the same 50+ hour work weeks we did in the early days. It just simply isn't sustainable on top of the responsibilities of full-time employment, especially while we're a thousand miles apart and dedicating ourselves with all the focus that our day-time employers deserve. All we can do is steadily move the project forward with every precious bit of time and energy we can muster.
- Ezra and Terran at the Stanford Machinima Event, Aug 2006
"There is more to be written..."
Know this though: we love Return and as we said, it is our most beloved project, and as silly as it sounds, to us it is a true story: something we refuse to abandon. We hope beyond hope that somehow we will still find an avenue of full support that will allow us to engage the project with all the righteous fire it deserves, but until then, all we can do is take one committed step at a time toward the ongoing development of the Return series.
- My daughter Anika sharing Return Love at Blizzcon
Thank you for reading our tale, and here's to bringing forth that for which we share in longing: the next chapter of the story.
Ezra "Voldigar" Ferguson
Rufus Cubed Productions
I'll be looking forward to harassing you about this piece in your interview hehe.
