The Co-Writers and Co-Creators
Ilana Mackin and Vinny Carvalho

With differing backgrounds both personal and professional, the creators bring with them years of experience producing and editing a multitude of media.  Vinny had years before started a small, now defunct, business with Ilana’s older brother in 1994, at that time providing services for this new thing called ‘The Internet’.

Ilana, having been an editor, reporter and prolific writer of children themed stories was more formerly introduced to Vinny in 2004 when she began discussions within her existing network about taking one of her current works into the world of 3D animation.  Knowing Vinny’s background in CGI, Ilana’s brother put them in contact for his input and consideration of direct involvement in the production – supplying 3D models to later be used within Frame Forge – an industry standard tool – to create an animatic of the proposed storyline.

Ilana and Vinny discussed the project and although nothing came of it between them directly, they both agreed to someday work together on a project, seeing as they shared many common interests and thoughts about life – beyond their public ‘everyday’ personas.

On the subject of creating The Legend, Ilana took the primary role of 'Ms. Manners' or as Vinny likes to call her, ‘The Mother from Another Planet’.  Within the co-writing/creating process, she made sure that the story maintained a family friendly tone - from the pacing of events to the editing of dialogue, keeping the story and the characters as ‘child-proof’ and appealing as possible.

"I knew from our initial discussions that Vinny was big on science-fiction films and had a real passion for ‘Giant Monster Movies’ like Godzilla and Rodan, and being a fan as well I knew this was some pretty wild stuff and more than likely he was going to want to throw it all in!  I’ve always had a very adaptable writing style with all subject matter, but a big challenge for me was trying not to dilute the content we were creating, yet make sure it would be understood by even our youngest potential viewers,” recalls Ilana.

“Yup, it was a real challenge” said Vinny.  ”... for example, the villains.  It’s almost easy to create a bad guy if that is all he is.  But with Ilana's guidance we were able to create villains that weren’t bad at all, just with different goals and limits to what they would be willing to do to achieve them.  Sounds simple, but it really isn't.”

“Though a proud owner of a now 15 years old dog, I do not have children.  Ilana is a very proactive mom of two loveable little cherubs - and was quick to point out or suggest alternatives to other more traditional relationships when casting the anti-hero, rather than relying on wanton acts of destruction or selfishness – normally two of my favorites!”

But Vinny knew that from the onset no matter what project they were going to work on together that the final target audience was going to be younger children and their families.

“It just had to be sci-fi! That was the only limit I wanted to put on this – and oh yeah … no Time Travel! We went back and forth on that subject a few too many times.”

“When it was all said and done, together as a well balanced team, we created better characters.  As much as I pushed to keep things ‘child-proof’, Vinny was continually pressing to ramp things up - right to the edge,” continues Ilana.  “The funny thing is that I was always concerned about every little bit of the story, down to the very last detail of every scene, it’s what I consider a pre-requisite for children’s literature of any kind … even when we were just kicking around ideas.  But Vinny was always saying ' Hey relax- lets setup some storyline limits and guidelines and get started – just run with it and see where it goes -  sooner or later if we work up the characters properly and have a strong ending this thing will start to write itself! '.   So to say the least there were times we both came to one another with the same story element or scene, written completely different and then worked back and forth to morph the two versions into one palatable version we both could agree on.  Now three years later after its completion, I do have to agree that I feel we have created an excellent backdrop that could lead in almost any direction. A story line with almost limitless possibilities that could basically ‘write themselves’ with a solid foundation already put in place for them to unfold from.  I've come to really know these characters, what they have done and why - and just what their futures may hold.  It’s an excitement that’s difficult to describe when you’re working so hard to bring them to life for the world get to know them as well as you do.”