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For the town of Bright Falls, see: Bright Falls

Bright Falls is a 6-part live action mini-series prequel to Alan Wake. The series was announced 22nd April 2010 and the first two episodes were officially released on the Bright Falls Website on 27 April 2010. The series is co-written and directed by Phillip Van.[1]

Cast[]

For a full cast list, see here.
  • Christopher Forsyth as Jake Fischer, a novelist/journalist who comes to Bright Falls to interview Dr. Hartman about his new book and to get away from his home life for a while.
  • Allison Lange as Ellen Adams, an old colleague of Jake who lives in Bright Falls.
  • Bruce Katzman as Dr. Emil Hartman, he has just written a book, which Jake interviews him about, but has a mysterious side to him.
  • Cooper Huckabee as Sam Smith, the man in charge of the Motel.
  • Robert Peters as Deputy Mulligan, one of the town's deputy sheriffs.
  • Merette Bartles as Rose Marigold, a waitress at the diner, who is also a big fan of Alan Wake, and apparently loves writers, hence being flirtatious with Jake.
  • Ilkka Villi and Matthew Porretta as Alan Wake.  The protagonist of Alan Wake, Ilkka Villi is the actor shown as the character of Alan Wake for live action appearances within the game, while Matthew Porreta is the voice of Alan (both during playable portions of the game and the live action scenes performed by Villi).

List of Episodes[]

The series is based around Jake Fischer, a writer who comes to Bright Falls to get away from home and interview Dr. Emil Hartman. As he stays in Bright Falls, weird things begin to occur which he cannot explain.

Episode No. Title Description Release Date Length
1 Oh Deer Set before the events of the video game "Alan Wake", Jake arrives in Bright Falls. He begins experiencing weird events starting with hitting a light-sensitive deer on his way to town... 27 April 2010 5:18
2 Time Flies Jake begins experiencing gaps in his experience of time such as having no memory of writing down things during an interview with Dr. Hartman. 27 April 2010 7:19
3 Lights Out The next day, Jake wakes up and finds himself in the woods with his hands covered in red mud. He goes to see Ellen for comfort. Meanwhile, strange things are going on at the motel. 4 May 2010 5:39
4 Local Flavor Jake arrives at the local diner, where a woman seems to be acting crazy, trying to destroy the lights in the street. He then loses track of time and has strange visions. 11 May 2010 4:21
5 Off the Record After finding himself in a body bag, Jake heads over to see Dr. Hartman and asks for his help. Later, he decides to video record himself in order to see what happens when he is no longer conscious. 14 May 2010 5:18
6 Clearcut Jake starts packing his bags after he realizes what he did during the night. He is questioned by Deputy Mulligan and then rushes to Ellen to ask her to help him get out of the town. 14 May 2010 6:37

Opening Titles[]

A full summary of the intro of each episode, including the many easter eggs, can be found here.

Production[]

The following information comes from two interviews with Bright Falls director and co-writer Phillip Van, one by G4TV[2] and one by Engadget.[3]

Concept and filming[]

The Bright Falls series started as an idea to make an ad campaign for Alan Wake that was also a story of its own, developed by agencytwofifteen on behalf of Microsoft Xbox, who were the producers of Alan Wake (and IP owners at the time). Phillip Van, the Bright Falls series director and co-writer, was introduced to the project by his manager at the company which represented him, Little Minx, who sent him a concept outline by agencytwofifteen in December 2009. Van grew up in Oregon and was familiar with the feel of the Pacific Northwest; he felt "something immediately personal" about the project. Van wrote the first drafts for the six episodes based on the outline, then flew to San Francisco and worked with the agency (producer Joyce Chen, co-writer Mat Bunnell, and art director Ben Wolan, plus art director Nate Able after production began) to finalize the drafts over a three-day period in January 2010. He supplemented the concept with various photos and video footage of the woods around Oregon that he took over New Year's 2010, some of which ended up in the final series as establishing shots.

Van described the pre-production period as "fast." Filming for the series occurred over a one-week period in February 2010, well into the development period of Alan Wake itself. Filming occurred mostly in the states of Oregon and Washington (the latter of which being the setting of Alan Wake). Some filming locations included Battle Ground Lake, Washington; the communities of Zigzag and Welches, Oregon; and a stretch along Washington State Route 26. Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood, Oregon, which was also used as the exterior setting for the Overlook Hotel from The Shining, was used to film the Cauldron Lake Lodge.

The team worked with Remedy Entertainment to make sure the series fit into the established world of Alan Wake. Every element of the series was cleared with Remedy before it was allowed to enter filming. The production team did not get access to the full version of Alan Wake during production, but they received access to "big portions" of it, including all elements of Bright Falls itself. Speaking about Remedy's involvement in the series, Van said:

Quote1 Because the series had to fit into a longer fiction that already existed, it was important to work with the Story Bible for Alan Wake and to view scenes from the game for an idea of setting, tone and characters. Remedy generously supplied us with everything we needed and cleared each round of development. Creatively, as long as we stayed away from the heart and center of the fiction they had built, we could roam - this spawned great developments. I think they understand the nature of creativity and writing pretty well, having spent years focusing on it as the central topic of their game. Quote2

Inspirations[]

Inspirations for the Bright Falls series included Twin Peaks and the other works of David Lynch. However, rather than emulate Lynch, the series was filmed with the goal of "walking the line between the supernatural and psychological." Van also cited the European art house directors Roman Polanski, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Ingmar Bergman as influences, in particular Bergman's 1966 film Persona. One further influence was the original version of The Twilight Zone, which ran from 1959 to 1964.

Casting[]

A number of characters in Bright Falls are also featured in Alan Wake. With the exception of Alan Wake himself, who was played by Ilkka Villi and voiced by Matthew Porretta like he is in-game, other "returning" characters were recast with different actors. (The most notable examples are Rose Marigold, Emil Hartman, and Deputy Mulligan, although cameos are also made by Ben Mott and Deputy Janes.) Phillip Van acknowledged this, saying:

Quote1 Our major challenge for the supporting roles was to find actors that not only looked and felt like the in-game characters but were also good. The actors our amazing casting director Mary Vernieu helped us gather, like Bruce Katzman (Dr. Hartman), suited the characters they were portraying but were cast more on strength of performance than style or look. There wasn't a lot of force-fitting going on, allowing them to focus on their motivations in the scene. I think when the performances are strong and there's an honesty to them, the small differences between in-game and real characters become less of a concern. The exception to this was Ilka Villi, who of course, is actually Alan Wake. And yes, hanging out in the woods with Alan Wake at 3AM in real life is a little surreal. Quote2

Possiblity of a sequel[]

When Van was asked about a possible season two/regular series. He said: "With all my brain and soul, yes. If fans keep on it and there's a constant demand, it may come together. I've been up nights thinking about how the story could progress. The project is personal for all of us involved and I'm attached to these characters and this world. We shot in and around my hometown and you can even find my lovely mom in one of the episodes. It doesn't really get more personal. With any luck, and the continued and awesome support of our fans, we’ll be able to keep going."

Trivia[]

  • The scenario of a distracted driver hitting a deer with their car is very similar to the first line from Max Payne 2's track Late Goodbye by Poets of the Fall, "In our headlights, beer cans, deer's eyes".

Videos[]

Full Episodes[]

Extra Videos[]

See Also[]

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