“The Collector”

- Rural Washington County, USA

Milos Novak is a man of will. Some in local bars and stables know him as a lover of glory. To misbehaving children, he is a cautionary tale.

In the deep woods of rural west county, has Novak spent his summer nights exhuming a quarry of obscure artifacts: petrified wood, old bird bones, and the silky husks of caterpillar cocoons. And so much more. Recent reports have him with a trove of rare volcanic ash. A strange museum lines the dank archive that is his shed.

To the world outside of his — to those who merely know of him, Milos Novak is a collector.

But to Gibson, a man carrying around more than fleeting interest, Milos has transcended the bounds of simple curiosity. He’s followed lurid tales of the old man as he’s traveled the dubious fringes of rural societies, from Mendocino County on north, trying desperately to cobble some sense of what sounds to the naive ear like a children’s bedtime story. However far Gibson goes afield, he finds traces of Milos — in the newspapers, in the air, on the ground. What chills him at first are the things he knows Milos to have extracted with his bare hands from the earth.

What changes him forever, irrevocably, is what he witnesses him putting back in.

The Production of The Collector

The Collector is a short film, currently in pre-production by Longbranch Productions out of Portland, Oregon. It is slated to shoot in August of 2008. Based in part on actual events pulled from the back pages, the script combines elements of forgotten local news and colorful touches of Lovecraft convention. Together, they tell a surreal tale: on one hand, The Collector is the story of a man consumed by an inward burn to perform ritual. On the other, it is a chronicle of the man who is equally compelled to attain understanding of him.

Set in the wooded hills on a hot summer evening, The Collector unravels in the moments leading up to Milos Novak’s personal culmination. It’s time to complete his circle. Gibson arrives unannounced. He thinks his visit will play out as an easy confrontation, merely to satisfy his yen — what he soon realizes is that his presence makes for catharsis, interrupted. The inwardly panicked Milos can’t stop this close to the end though; he needs to render this intruder, however driven, harmless. Unwittingly, Gibson is led down the path, part of Milos’ ritual.

Written by Erick Mertz, and produced in conjunction with local artists Stefan Perkins and Joel Minkin, the tale is presents as a carefully woven enigma. Slated to shoot the 12-page script is Portland area filmmaker, Larry Johnson. Tentatively set to play the role of Milos is Ted Roisum. This website will offer a variety of information relevant to The Collector as it progresses from its neophyte stage of pre-production, to shoot weekend, into the dark, unknowns of the festival circuit. Currently there are places to view (and comment on) a copy of the shooting script, read author and actor biographies, links to their sites, hear music from the production, see production stills as well as view story boards and artists renderings of scenes.

When it is done, of course, links to trailers and perhaps the film in its entirety. Wherever The Collector goes, this site will be its chronicle. Enjoy.