Press Kit

THROUGH THE BLACK DOOR

A four episode animation for a mature audience, following the investigations of small time podcaster, Steve Stephenson, into the strange world of the paranormal. His adventures, becoming increasingly surreal, leave him feeling unhinged and fearful for his life.

Episode One – The Book That Wasn’t There. You hear about a book that randomly appears in a Brighton book shop every five years. Anyone who reads the book is driven mad or disappears. Your first thought is “I need to find that book!” You deserve everything that happens to you.

Episode Two – The Paradox of Doctor Strange Loop. Steve Stephenson did not expect reality shifts and demons when he interviewed a mathematics genius in a supermarket store. Still, at least he got to use his loyalty card.

Episode Three – A Private Members Club. Eli Hoffman arranges for Steve to experience real magic although it looks suspiciously like S & M role play! Is Max Marshall the real deal or just a sleazy, balding, Aleister Crowley knock off? His clothes are nice…when he wears them.

Episode Four – Last Dance on Brighton Pier. Steve Reluctantly agrees to meet his sister, Karen, on Brighton Pier after decades apart. It turns out not to be his best decision. It turns out Karen may be the key to all the recent strangeness.

Steve Stephenson, as played by Carl Anderson, originally sprang to life in a video experiment with green screen and 3D generated environments. He came to a grisly end but refused to disappear from my dreams, forcing himself back to reality in what became the audio drama The Book That Wasn’t There. He wasn’t satisfied with two stories, however, and the remaining episodes appeared in further dreams forming the series you are reading about now. The central question being, why does he pursue paranormal stories?

In an effort to capture the vibrancy and colour of the dreams, I then started working on a motion comic that tells the same story but with additional dream sequences that I received but couldn’t translate to an audio drama.

Finally, I made the decision to focus my efforts and just make an animated series with two edits available for each episode, a tight YouTube Cut and The Extended Cut. The Extended Cut can be downloaded from this website or Gumroad for $1. The Extended Cut includes dream sequences that contain clues to the mystery of Steve Stephenson and deleted scenes.

The $1 cost for the episodes is passed directly to the creative team who all provided their talent free of charge.

Download directly from studiophantom.online