Have you ever wanted a DC Comics superhero series that features Nightwing, Kid Flash and Red Arrow and follows them as they try to defeat a powerful underground druglord? Now imagine if this dream came true, with the series being brought to you by former Carmel High graduates, including recent Padres Cameron Poletti as director, Zane Saddy as Red Arrow and Andrew Good as Kid Flash.
Poletti, a 2015 CHS alumnus, with the help of Salinas High School graduates Raleigh Welch and Jake Yoneda, has started a Kickstarter campaign with the goal of raising $21,000 by Sept. 30 to launch his own non-profit TV series, “Titans.”
As of Aug. 31, the campaign had raised $4,316 toward the goal.
“I’ve written the first season of ‘Titans,’ and the next seasons are only known to me, Cameron and Jack,” Welch says. “I have a minor role in the series and will help in any way I can, but Cameron is really the muscle behind ‘Titans.’”
Poletti, currently attending Saint Mary’s College, came up with the idea during his freshman year at CHS and says that he and Welch has always talked about doing a movie series on DC superheroes. Their first attempt during their freshman year wa
s a flop, however, because the footage they got from an eight-hour shoot at a church was unusable.
It wasn’t until Poletti’s senior year, when he tried again, that he and his friends regained the motivation to pursue this idea.
“I made a video, ‘Kid Flash,’ and since then it has gained over 2 million views [on Youtube],” he says. “This motivated us to try again.”
Riding on this new excitement, Poletti and Welch saved their own money and shot the first episode of this series, which is available to watch on Poletti’s Kickstarter and YouTube pages (see end of article).
“We’re trying to present it online as a web series,” Welch says. “It’s the only way we can envision it. I want each episode to feel like a chapter in a novella. Each episode should leave you with a better idea of the bigger picture, but you should be able to watch them in whatever order you want.”
Although inexperienced acting has been a problem for Poletti and Welch during their high school filmmaking efforts, they have made sure that they will have quality acting in this series.
“We have cast a bunch of our actors now, a bunch of whom have gone [to CHS], like Zane and Andrew,” Poletti remarks. “A lot of them are down in L.A. pursuing legit acting careers, so I think that we have some good talent.”
The funding from the Kickstarter campaign would secure a location for all of the moving parts to come together.
“Our biggest obstacle is scheduling and getting everyone together,” Poletti says. “Everyone is spread across the state or like our composer, who lives in Oregon. Once we have the funding, we can get a location, which would make me more comfortable to set a date to shoot the series.”
The filmmaking pair emphasize that it is the entire crew’s passion that makes this project worthwhile to support.
“It’s a pretty amazing feat for people as young as us to try and tackle a project this size,” Poletti says. “We are so passionate about it, and we know what we are doing. All of us are just pouring everything into this project.”
You can visit Poletti’s Kickstarter page at www.kickstarter.com/projects/cameronpoletti/titans-the-series and look at Poletti’s YouTube page at www.youtube.com/user/darthcampo?spfreload=5.
-Ryan Lin
