Sine Fine Films

Destiny, later known as Destiny I: Chance, was the very first production of SFF. Filmed with a commercial VHS camera over the summer of 1996 and edited using two VCRs, Destiny demonstrates a surprising level of sophistication given the fact that nearly everyone involved was under the age of 18. It tells the story of Ketlan (Chris Hutchens), a young peasant who suddenly discovers he is heir to the throne of Traldon. However, he throws away all royal claims for the love of a beautiful gypsy girl named Melantha (Annamarie MacLeod). With the aid of his servant and mentor, Esteban (Tanino Minneci), Ketlan fights to win Melantha and defeat the man who killed his parents.

The following winter, Stasheff and the cast of Destiny discovered they had caught the movie-making bug, and filmed Destiny II: Fate. In this prequel, Esteban (Tanino Minneci) tells the story of Ketlan's parents, King Ferdinand (Keith Segovich) and Queen Lavinia (Annamarie MacLeod). Like many second installments of trilogies, Destiny II is by far the darkest film of the three.

Rounding out the by-now inevitable trilogy was Destiny III: Free Will. Balthazar (Jacob MacLeod) kidnaps Ketlan's (Chris Hutchens) two children. This film is by far the longest, at 192 minutes, and also the most complex. Not only do most of the characters from Destiny I make an appearance, a slew of new characters join them for all sorts of shenanigans. The satisfying (and often humorous) conclusion to this ambitious trilogy demonstrates the evolution of Stasheff and company's skills and the consistency of their unflagging enthusiasm.

In June of 1999, armed with professional editing equipment, Stasheff remastered, re-edited, and extended the Destiny trilogy into a 12-episode miniseries, which aired on a couple local television stations in Illinois. The film quality is markedly improved, and the additional scenes provide continuity where portions of the story had been glossed over due to a lack of a special effects equipment.

The completion of Destiny served as a milestone for Sine Fine Films, both as a solid first project and as a glimpse of things to come.

1998 was a very busy year for Sine Fine Films, releasing four feature-length video movies within six months. First out was The Dragon and the Unicorn, a fantasy tale spanning the centuries about the eternal battle between good and evil, represented by two sisters: Leona (Nina Samii) and Asarai (Annamarie MacLeod). Both hope for victory, both in their personal war and in the heart of a young man named JJ (Danny Skirvin), also destined to be reborn again and again into the fray.

Summer of that same year brought three movies of wildly different genres: the fantasy musical The King of Elflin's Daughter, based on Celtic legend; the madcap spy comedy The Perfect Combination; and the somber drama about the afterlife, The Vigil. This last is the first SFF movie to have been written by someone other than Stasheff herself, using a script by Joel Pierson.

Stasheff once again collaborated the following year for the science fiction thriller Mind Games, written and co-directed by Edward Stasheff (brother of Eleanore). When a scientific experiment goes horribly wrong aboard the spaceship USS Specter, Tilia Del Rosa (Rachel Anderson) and Captain Vesper Browning (Annamarie MacLeod) find themselves fighting for their lives. This was a ground-breaking movie for SFF. Unlike previous productions, Mind Games employed multiple cameras and shooting angles, special effects, unique sets, and additional on-set lighting (as opposed to natural light). Though shown publicly only once - in the Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland College - Mind Games remains to this day one of SFF's best feature films.

Switching gears once again, Stasheff wrote and produced her first television series, Pandora's Box, in the spring of 1999 and completed the show in December of 2000. Unlike the Destiny mini-series of the year before, Pandora's Box was specifically written as a collection of 24 half-hour episodes. The story, which was aired on a few local stations in Illinois, introduces the viewer to a post-apocalyptic world where the advanced exists alongside the primitive, and a small group of rebels plan to overthrow an evil empire.

Stasheff's love for fantasy and period costumes shows through once again in The Gift Bearer, a 21-episode series completed in 2002 about three time-traveling sisters. After receiving a strange package in the mail, the Silverstone sisters travel back in time to meet their time-traveling Aunt Camilla. Their adventures span the globe and the centuries as they attempt to bring their aunt back to the present day. The Gift Bearer, which aired on two local stations in Illinois, features a wide variety of sets, costumes, on-location filming, and special effects.

The story of Maria Sanchez is played out in the shared universe of three miniseries: The Curse (2001), Dream Chasers (2002), and Eidolon (2004). The Curse begins when physical anthropology student Zandra Anderson (Liz Schafer) is cursed to encounter the ghost of any human or animal bones she touches. With the aid of her best friend Cory (Michelle Chapman) and co-worker Maria Sanchez (Morgan Thomas), Zandra embarks on a journey to get the curse lifted.

Dream Chasers, the prequel to The Curse, reveals Maria Sanchez's previous experience with the supernatural when she is cursed after throwing a temper tantrum on an Indian burial mound. With the help of a demon hunter (Holly Simons), she embarks on a journey to personal redemption. Eidolon continues Maria's tale as her ward, Zelda Graves (Brittany Whalen), manages to get herself cursed as well; this time the girl is condemned to wander the world as a spirit while her body lies in a coma. The tale of Maria Sanchez encompasses a fascinating and multifaceted tale of ghosts and gods, demons and dreams, magic and mayhem.

In addition to traditional movies and television shows, Sine Fine Films occasionally experiments. The first nontraditional film, Frumpy Gets It, was a venture into impromptu theater. Though the mystery behind the murder of cantankerous old Mrs. Frumpy and her squabbling heirs scrambling to claim her fortune is hilarious, it's lost in technical difficulties. Frumpy Gets It is the only SFF movie never to have been shown publicly.

In honor of the 10th Anniversary of Sine Fine Films, Stasheff wrote and filmed a short parody in the spring of 2006. After being cursed by stock footage, the Silverfeather sisters receive a magic box that lets them travel through time. Soon they're collecting extras in a race to end the movie before it turns into an endless TV show. The Cursed Destiny of Pandora's Gift Box is not only a spoof of SFF's previous films, but of fantasy adventure films in general.

More recently, SFF combined the talents of several of its members to create Quatrain, a film experiment wherein four directors, four writers, and four actors produce sixteen short films. Scene 1 is a monologue performed by the same actor with the same words, but in four different scenarios; Scene 2 is a two-person scene performed by the same two actors with the same words, but in four different scenarios; Scene 3 is a two-person scene performed in the same location but with four different pairs of actors in four different scenarios, each with identical dialogue save the final line; and Scene 4 is a two-person scene with the same dialogue but four different scenarios where the actors and scenarios are the director's choice. Though challenging to bring together, Quatrain explores the horizons of scriptwriting, acting, and film-making in general.

SFF's latest project is a collection of short films entitled Twisted Tales. Written by multiple screenwriters and filmed in a variety of locations, this selection of retold fairy tales is sure to be a fan favorite. Also be on the lookout for a special surprise to celebrate SFF's upcoming 15th Anniversary in 2011.