Who We Are:
Ponderdog Productions is a small two man production company located in the Greater Toronto Area. Our goal is to make creative idiosyncratic media content for people around the world to enjoy.
What is ‘Mythaps’?
Origins:
‘Mythaps’, was an idea that had its rough beginnings in our first year at film school. We originally made a TV pilot about three male cohorts and their day to day lives at school entitled ‘Welcome To The Party. However, it was terrible, so we retreated to our creative basement to reconstruct our idea from the floor up. Years of tinkering ensued before a night of wine and ephiphanizing in 2013 led to our ‘eureka’ moment where we finally settled on the concept for ‘Mythaps’.
Synopsis:
Thousands of days ago a portal to another world opened, unleashing all the creatures of myth, fantasy,and folklore into our realm. The human race, perceiving these invading forces as a threat, pool together their wealth, manpower, and resources to combat these foreign invaders using a cyborg army. However, once the animatronic army descend on the battlefield to confront these mythological creatures, the fantasy based beings surrender and the portal closes, stranding these refugees and curious wanderers. Our pilot takes place 6 years after these events. Most of the Cyborgs have been voluntarily decommissioned, and the individuals from the other world utilize their unique skills to try to assimilate within human society. ‘Mythaps’ follows four individuals, two from the Human world and two from the Mythological realm who are having a fair bit of trouble fitting in.
Characters:
Cymon:
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Cymon is one the few cyborgs who aspired to be something more than just a soldier, so he politely declined to be shut down. He now travels from audition to audition hoping to become the next great thespian actor. Although, there is a slight catch; he cannot express emotion.
Farrokhzad:
Farrokhzad is a Genie from the fantasy world, wherein Genies were considered great philosophers and revered thinkers. The wishes they granted had to be formulated and cultivated over years, so it could be refined to its truest and purest essence. Sadly in our world, Farrokhzad’s wishes are hawked on websites like Craiglist and Kijiji for the most basic shallow reasons to help our consumerist, materialistic society. Because of this Farrokhzad has grown bitter, causing many of his wishes to go horribly awry. Now in debt and disillusioned with his gift, Farry is suffering a severe existentialist crisis that threatens to consume him entirely.
Tessa:
Tessa is the only human regular of our show. Incredibly driven and career orientated she will stop at nothing to help advance her own life and career. However these Mythfits throw a cog into her plans, and she usually has to serve as the voice of reason when dragged into one of their insane and wacky Mythadventures. However, with that said Tessa is more then the stick in the mud trope that is popularized within media. Shows like 'Orphan Black' and 'Orange is the New Black' showcase that people are willing to watch shows with strong independent woman centric T.V. With that said Tessa encompasses many of these aspects, and will at times start and exacerbate these wacky plots and as the show expands so will Tessa.
Zach:
Zach is the only Unicorn that has made it through the portal, which at first made him a minor celebrity but after squandering opportunity after opportunity he now relies heavily on Farrokhzad for financial and emotional support. Most of Zach’s issues stem from a deep rooted insecurity complex that he externalizes into an overtly masculine physique . He hates being associated with femininity and daintiness, so he works out for hours every day and he hits on everything with two legs (and occasionally four). Even though he tries to be overtly masculine in every regard, he has a deep dark secret that, if revealed, would jeopardize the macho persona he holds himself to.
Styles and Influences:
We are major addicts of film and television and have studied it religiously since we were wee lads. It is therefore no simple task to describe our show without relating it to some shows that may have a similar feel, style, or themes. We want to incorporate the same high concept ideas and fantasy/sci-fi related plots as shows like ‘Rick and Morty’ or ‘Community’. Additionally, we really enjoy the injokes, well-planned narrative and story progression of ‘Arrested Development’, so we really want to adhere to that same level of developing every aspect of our show’s narrative evolution. In terms of characters , we love the dysfunctionality, chemistry and banter of a show like ‘Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia’. In the end we want our show to be its own entity, but drawing inspiration from elements of successful shows will help us to create a new and unique style of our own.
Where Will your Money Go?!:
Luckily most of our equipment, location, production design, costumes and makeup costs have already been secured. We are asking for $3 000 dollars to primarily pay for our lovely cast and crew. People who have put their time and effort into our pilot and shown dedicated day after day. After that we are hoping to put some towards hiring a composer, marketing, and festival submissions.
Director’s Statement:
Our ideas have always and will continue to be conundrum-causing. We don’t think in simple terms, and we don’t come up with basic ideas. Too many years of being screen-junkies during the blockbuster and saturday morning cartoon era have ruined that possibility for good. That said, we don’t have buttloads of money. But we don’t think that should hold anybody back from conceiving outlandish and un-ordinary notions and dreaming of otherworldly scenarios to put on film. ‘Mythaps’ is a show that aspires to capture that reckless and pretension-free spirit of adventure within all of us, the kid that would wake up early to watch cartoons, who would run around in the backyard pretending to be all sorts of fantastical things. That kid didn’t need millions of dollars and top of the line CGI to feel immersed, and we believe that if our show can’t replicate that sensation, we’re doing it wrong. We aren’t millionaires, or CGI-prodigies, or bearded bacon-eating frat boys. At the end of the day, we’re still just those kids. Our sticks and rocks and trees have turned into cameras and dollies and boom mics. But our goal in life has remained more or less the same: to get out there and play.
Support and Why Us?
Please have a look at our social media sites, and shamelessly spam our campaign to your friends and family. With your help we can try to fulfill our outlandish dreams and make a truly unique piece of television entertainment. Below you can view links to our previous projects and to the side you can check out all the unique and interesting perks we are offering.