Posted by Neil Oseman on Feb 10, 2020 | 10 comments

Ren: The Girl with the Mark is an award-winning web series remarkable for the high production values it achieves on a micro-budget. A newly released video gives a behind-the-scenes view into filming one of the show’s biggest sequences.

Day 10 from the Archives

Most filmmakers on a tight budget would shy away from crowd scenes, especially crowd scenes in a medieval village. But not director Kate Madison and the team behind Ren: The Girl with the Mark, a short-form fantasy series with over eight million YouTube views.

Currently crowdfunding new episodes, the team have released a rarely-seen video going behind the scenes of their first season. The video visits the incredible medieval village set which the filmmakers and an army of volunteers constructed in the parking lot of a disused factory. Additional volunteers donned authentic costumes and portrayed the villagers who witness the trial of Ren, the show’s title character.

This video was originally produced as a ‘daily diary’ for the Kickstarter backers of Season One. Backers of the new Kickstarter campaign – currently live at kickstarter.com/projects/mythica/ren2 – can get access to similar videos which will be filmed as production of Ren continues this summer.

Closing Thoughts

We at the Ren team are always keen to share our knowledge and experience of filmmaking so that others can learn from it too. If you’d like to support us in creating new Ren episodes and producing informative behind-the-scenes content at the same time, please take a look at our Kickstarter page and contribute if you can.

Neil Oseman

Neil Oseman has 20 years’ experience of independent filmmaking. After making two micro-budget features as director/producer in the early 2000s, he focused on cinematography. His DP credits include Netflix’s The Little Mermaid, and on Amazon: cult horror Heretiks, multi-award-winning comedy road movie Above the Clouds, and multi-award-winning fantasy series Ren: The Girl with the Mark. Visit Neil’s Instagram feed to see lighting diagrams from these productions and many others.