The Withers Trilogy is a set of three short films done for fun by Scape Films members under the production company name Touch My Turkey Productions.
The three films are:
1. Old Man Withers
2. Revenge of Withers
3. Withers 3.0
How it Began
It all started one night back in November 1999. Steve was home from college on Thanksgiving break and the four of us were sitting around the house bored and looking for something to do. I had just gotten my new digital video camera (Sony TRV900) and we decided to mess around with it and shoot something ridiculous. It’s difficult to remember all the details as it was ten years ago. But I can tell you we had no idea what we were doing or where we were going. This should be pretty obvious from watching the first film.
After completing the first film we showed it to some friends and they thought it was funny. Jokes had gone around about a second film. By the next November we had plans to shoot the second Withers film, once again when Steve came home for thanksgiving break. But this time it had to be bigger and better then the last. We added some new cast members and went to work. After showing off the second film to friends it was considered the best Withers film yet. By then our fan base for the two films was growing. A lot of people were interested and excited to see a third film.
Withers 3.0 was shaping up to be the biggest Wither production ever. We shot in multiple locations with more props and a much bigger cast. The film ended up being twice as long as the previous two and the tone of it was slightly different then the original two. The comedy had gotten much darker and more risky. But we were happy to have completed the trilogy.
A couple years past and Steve and I had looked back on the trilogy and realized that generally speaking the second film was the best of all three. Although we enjoyed the third film, it was technically better looking and had its moments, we felt that we had lost a little control on it due to the amount of people and locations involved. We got it in our heads to once again shoot another Withers film. But this time we were going to dial it back some and try to recapture the magic of the second film. This included shooting it all in the original location the first two had been shot. What we lovingly called “The Withers House”. We started shooting on March 16th, 2005 and shot a couple of scenes but then stopped. I don’t remember why, but it was never finished. However we’ve included those never before seen clips here for your enjoyment.
-Mike
Original Website: http://www.scapefilms.com/withers/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/WithersTrilogy
