By STACEY MORRIS Contributing writer
GLENS FALLS, N.Y. The subterranean studio of the Ravacon Collective is in temporary repose, its collection of artifacts awaiting the next assignment.
On one side of the room, bunkers of plastic crates containing scenery and sundry objects needed for set design are stacked floor to ceiling. Nearby is an embankment of television screens in all sizes and from a range of eras.
Next is a display of marionette-sized lizard aliens and wide-eyed zombies standing in rows on a tabletop like an encroaching army of ghouls on pause.
“They’re rod-puppets we used in a music video for a band called Starset,” explained Max Van Scoy, one of the members of the collective.
The progressive metal band, he said, commissioned Ravacon to help make a futuristic video titled “Toksik.” At last count, the video had racked up more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.
Ravacon’s oversized room in the basement level of The Shirt Factory — a former mill building that now houses offices, galleries, studios and retail shops — might at first glance seem like a desolate storage area. But on any given day, depending on the group’s rotation of projects, the space comes alive with production energy.
Among the collective’s members are Van Scoy, his brother Lucas, brothers Christopher, Jonathan and Stephen Phelps, and Ryan Fitzgerald and Joel Barlow. All are childhood friends who graduated from South Glens Falls High School, just across the Hudson River from their studio headquarters.
The scope of their projects ensures no two workdays are ever the same. Max explained that each project — whether it’s a video, feature film or a script — bears the indelibly unique imprint of the collective’s behind-the-scenes creators while also reflecting the input of the actors, musicians and artists with whom they work.
Family garage to local TV
The Phelps and Van Scoy brothers grew up in the same South Glens Falls neighborhood just a few blocks from one another.
Their bond as childhood playmates solidified over the years, and as teenagers they found themselves convening in the unofficial studio space of the Phelps family garage, where they would immerse themselves in experimental film projects using the family camcorder.
They were joined there by classmates Fitzgerald, Barlow, Nate Wright, Jared Phelps (a cousin of the three Phelps brothers), Laura Hajek and Jade MacDuff.
The group’s interest in art, music and film intensified throughout their high school years, and they made their first cinematic mark when South High officials asked them to put their skills to use by recording the school’s annual charity dance marathon.
After high school, many of them pursued studies in film, theater and related fields: Max and Christopher attended film school at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla.; Stephen studied art and technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy; and Jonathan as well as Fitzgerald, Wright and Hajek studied film and theater at the State University of New York at Purchase. But being scattered around the country proved only temporary.
In 2003, Max landed a job as cameraman at a local broadcast television station, WNCE-TV8, whose studios were in Glens Falls at the time. The station soon hired Barlow and Christopher as well, and the three spent their days shooting live news broadcasts, talk shows, cooking segments and the like — until one day in 2005, when station manager Jesse Jackson offered them the chance to create their own half-hour show.
“Jesse heard about some our side film projects and liked what we did,” Max recalled.
Since high school, members of the group, who now range in age from 37 to 47, had amassed a body of short films, made largely in the Phelps garage, which the guys had dubbed the Ravacon garage. The chance to produce content for a regular half-hour television slot took their creative work to a new level.
“Jesse gave us free license to do what we wanted,” Christopher Phelps recalled in a phone interview from his home in Brooklyn. “We spent the summer of 2005 just filming and working off each other’s energy.
“Sometimes it got weird,” he added with a laugh. “It was a lot of fun.”
The TV8 trio, along with the rest of the crew, produced and starred in sketch comedy segments that made up the Ravacon Show, which soon had a cult following. And thanks to an unplanned encounter with a police officer while filming, the show got a surge of national attention.
The encounter happened during a sketch on a street corner for the character Banana Boy, played by Christopher in a full-sized banana costume. The star found himself in police custody after menacing the villain in the sketch, played by Lucas, with a plastic knife while Jonathan filmed.
“Suddenly there was a cop ordering us all
to the ground, and Banana Boy was put in handcuffs and placed in the squad car,” Max recalled. “The next day, we woke up to a flurry of national news coverage. People remember us to this day as the Banana Boy people.”
He smiled as he pointed to the yellow costume, still preserved in suspension from the studio’s ceiling.
“Some of our sequences were only a few seconds long,” Jonathan recalled. “It wasn’t an easy show to produce, but it was great creative experience. So many times, when you try for the perfect thing, it doesn’t work. But when you get some talent together and flesh out ideas, the spontaneity of it is awesome.”
Brooklyn-to-Glens Falls link
Although some of the group’s members moved to the New York City area to pursue acting, set design, and directing, the Ravacon Collective remained intact, moving its headquarters from a family garage to The Shirt Factory in 2008. It was around then that the group gained its newest member, Tim Oakley.
From the city, brothers Christopher and Stephen and Fitzgerald made inroads into
the feature film industry, sometimes seeking assistance from the upstate crew. Stephen’s initial work as prop master and later as a production designer on feature film sets helped to build the collective’s cache of contacts.
Work requests for music videos and short films increased. Soon, the collective’s clients included nationally known performers ranging from The Black Crowes to Addison Rae.
“Stephen and Ryan work on feature films and pull the rest of us in for various jobs when it works out,” explained Christopher, who spends a fair portion of his time producing and directing videos for the YouTube crowd.
“It’s where music videos are watched nowadays,” he said. “Most of the videos are shot at The Shirt Factory. We’ve maximized the space there, and it’s very affordable. It’s also nice to go up and get a break from the city.”
The Van Scoy brothers are based in Glens Falls, as is Jonathan, and they handle much of the animation and scenic design for the music videos.
“We all do different things and have varying areas of expertise, but what drives us more than anything is good storytelling,” Max said.
Lucas works as head vegan chef at Rock Hill Bakehouse & Cafe, just down Curran Lane from The Shirt Factory, and he also leads the local rock band William Hale.
“I’m the guy called on for building monster puppets, miniatures, sets, … whatever they need me to build,” he explained. “In the collective, I’m also the musician. Depending on the project, I cull from my skills and do what’s needed. I love showing up.
“A lot of our collective is built from absolute trust of one another,” he added. “It’s rare in showbiz. But because we all grew up together and formulated vision together, we have something that’s particularly special.”
The camaraderie shows, and members are quick to point out other members’ strong points.
“Ryan Fitzgerald is a production master, an incredible screenwriter, and is just as talented in front of the camera,” Lucas said. “And Jonathan is an amazingly prolific artist. He is certainly a major factor in pushing my interest in making films.”
Sci-fi, horror films
One recent project was the 2021 short science-fiction film “Odyssey,” directed by Christopher and designed by Stephen, with the rest of the crew assisting with things like green- screen puppet animation and set design. The sets required a herculean collaboration that included creating more than 30 city buildings and skyscrapers, in addition to a spaceship cockpit.
“Odyssey,” which won Best of the Fest at the Adirondack Film Festival, has a dystopian storyline. To the viewer, the action takes place, Star Wars style, in a spaceship hurtling through a beleaguered galaxy. It was shot in-studio, mostly on a small scale, with a handful of actors rounding out the action.
“I’ve built a few spaceship cockpits in my day, but this one took the cake, it was so elaborate,” remembered Jonathan, the group’s eldest member, who also owns Ghosts Books, an esoteric bookstore at a separate location within The Shirt Factory. “Those moments when you create something unique and exciting make it all worth it.”
Often, they’ll undertake a project for the sheer creative challenge, as with 2014’s experimental horror film, “Lake Nowhere,” directed by Max and Christopher and shot on Great Sacandaga Lake in Saratoga and Fulton counties. With a script co-written by Christopher and Ryan Fitzgerald, the weeklong shoot took place in a rented lakeside cabin.
“We did it for ourselves,” Christopher recalled. “It was very low budget, but it turned out to be a steppingstone.”
The finished product was sent to various festivals and ended up being distributed on streaming services. It’s still available on Amazon Prime.
Matt Funiciello, the owner of Rock Hill Bakehouse & Cafe, recalled seeing “Lake Nowhere” and being impressed.
“I was astounded that a bunch of kids we know made that film,” he said. “I’m not a horror aficionado in any way, but what they did with almost no budget and everyone working together and believing in the project was pretty amazing.
“I’ve gotten to know most of them from coming into the cafe, and it’s great they have space here at The Shirt Factory where their creativity can be unleashed,” he said. “And it’s heartening to see young people driven by the motto that it’s important to make art and keep doing it.”
Sharing an Oscar
In 2010, the group formed Ursidae Parade productions, the umbrella under which it produces short films, music videos, commercials, trailers and feature films.
And this year, Ursidae Parade got an unexpected catapult into the stratosphere for its members’ work on the 2024 feature film “Anora,” a romantic drama that was nominated for six Academy Awards. It took home five: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing.
The film stars Mikey Madison as Anora, a Brooklyn strip club worker who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. It was written, directed, produced and edited by Sean Baker.
Stephen Phelps was the film’s production designer, responsible for its art department, which means, “the entire look of the film … everything but acting and costumes,” explained his brother Christopher, who was set decorator for the film. Fitzgerald was its art director.
“We had the feeling we were working on something pretty special during the filming process,” Christopher recalled. “But never did we think it would do as well as it did. It was great that my brother got to be there that night.”
Christopher said he, Fitzgerald, and the rest of the crew of “Anora” watched in jubilation from Brooklyn as Stephen took the stage as part of the ensemble that accepted the Best Picture award in March.
After this dizzying and validating accolade, followed by a bit of celebrating, members of the Ravacon Collective have gone back to work on their myriad projects. These include more music videos as well as in-production and future feature films.
“Nothing that we can talk about now,” Christopher said. “But things are in the works. What I love most about what we do is being able to tell an interesting story, … whether it’s through a music video I’m directing or working on a film set’s art department, where you tell a story through how a room is designed and what’s in it.”
Across three decades and countless creative projects, the bond among this band of classmates seems stronger than ever.
“For me personally, it’s my passion and my family,” Lucas said. “I can’t imagine doing it with anyone else. There’s always the struggle of vision when we start on a project, but we trust one another deeply.”
Visit www.ravacon.com or www.ursidaeparade. com for more information about the Ravacon Collective and its members’ production company.