Sask.-born man with no formal training makes career of creating award-winning sci-fi web series

A man originally from Saskatchewan left a lucrative legal career to journey into the farthest reaches of space, sort of.

Davin Trent Lengyel has launched his latest project in a career of creating award-winning, digital science fiction series, despite having no formal training in the industry.

"I sort of stole into this career by fun," Lengyel said.

Lengyel, originally from North Battleford, Sask., directed, edited, co-produced and co-wrote Deep Six, a "hard science" sci-fi series that launched in Canada on YouTube on Sunday.

It portrays a crew of astronauts on humanity's first deep-space mission 250 years into the future and stars the likes of Michelle Morgan (Heartland), Kristian Bruun (Orphan Black) and Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica).

Lengyel, who now lives in Toronto, has no education in film or television production.

He earned degrees in mathematics, education and engineering physics at the University of Saskatchewan before graduating with a law degree from the University of Toronto.

While he was studying law, Lengyel said he was approached by a friend working on a digital show.

The show was Pure Pwnage, and the creators needed someone to choreograph a battle scene between two gamers on keyboards.

The break

They turned to Lengyel, who had overseen several battle sequences in "goofy videos" he had been making on camcorders with friends since high school.

It was just before the world became aware of YouTube, and Lengyel said the series was so popular it was causing websites that hosted it to crash.

"We started learning that it was millions of people trying to download these episodes and that's why it was crashing these websites," he said.

Lengyel was articling at a Toronto law firm, but left his legal career behind in the summer of 2007 to try to make it as a digital producer full-time and to help grow Pure Pwnage.

The way I describe it is that I'm the only person stupid enough to try and make a career out of this.- Davin Trent Lengyel

"I had a degree in engineering and I had a degree in law and a degree in math and I had a degree in education," he said. "And I bundled up all four of them and threw them in the trash."

The show would eventually become a Gemini-nominated television series that Lengyel would co-produce.

He and the series creators eventually started brainstorming for the next idea of a series that could make it to television.

Space Janitors

Lengyel said they came up with 12 possibilities.

One of them was Space Janitors — which ended up being a web series, not a TV program — about two janitors working on a "gigantic, evil space station."

He said they were partially inspired by the idea of someone needing to clean up Luke Skywalker's severed hand after his lightsaber battle with Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.

Space Janitors would win a Canadian Screen Award for best original fiction program or series produced for digital media and a Canadian Comedy Award for best web series.

Lengyel said he only decided to attend the Canadian Screen Awards at the last minute, because he and his crew were so busy producing the series. Also, he didn't think they would win.

He said he borrowed a blazer from the costume department and had someone from make-up "hide the huge bags under my eyes because we haven't slept in a month" — and arrived 10 minutes before it was announced the series had won.

Lengyel said after accepting the award, he went backstage and cried.

"At the same time that I'm standing up here on this podium, there's 50 people working for peanuts busting their arse trying to make this content to make people laugh and entertain them," he said.

"No one there is doing it to get rich."

Lengyel said he's had to rely on crowdfunding to produce digital shows.

"The way I describe it is that I'm the only person stupid enough to try and make a career out of this," he said.

Others in the industry have noticed his knack for raising funds and have approached him for help.

An Indiegogo campaign he managed raised $3.2 million for Stephen and Robbie Amell's sci-fi movie Code 8, a sum that Lengyel believes is a record for a Canadian film.

He also managed a Kickstarter campaign for Corner Gas: The Movie.

Into the director's chair

With his latest project, Deep Six, Lengyel assumed the role of director.

Mika Collins, who co-created, co-wrote and co-produced Deep Six with Lengyel, said a director they had lined up became unavailable after the production schedule got pushed back.

"So we were working under a really tight deadline to get it done," said Collins, who also acts in the production. "And so Davin was the next person available to do it and so he just went for it."

Collins said Lengyel's approach was "really collaborative" with his crew and cast.

"These cast members were way more seasoned and experienced than he was and he was really drawing on their knowledge and their ideas," she said.

"And I think that created a really great environment because they felt really respected and that their voices mattered."

Low-budget experiment

The series has won awards at some smaller film festivals, but Collins said she was encouraged by the feedback of people in the industry who appreciate how much shows cost to produce.

Collins said a single episode of a television sci-fi series will usually cost millions, but they managed to produce an hour's worth of content, in six 10-minute episodes, with a budget of about $400,000.

With that money, they managed to build their own set, build a spaceship, create special effects, use original music and costumes and bring in experienced cast members known for other work.

"Our experiment was, 'How far can we make this tiny budget go?'" she said. "And I think a lot of people thought we went really far with it."

Lengyel has recently landed a role producing a handful of web series for Toronto-based television production company Shaftesbury Films, which produces Murdoch Mysteries for CBC and other networks.

"There is an actual opportunity to make a career and to be a professional in this field," he said. "And I'm counting my lucky stars because I think I'm one of the few that's actually landed in one of those spots."