Godzilla vs Baragon

Godzilla vs Baragon is a Kaiju film, science fiction film, and Godzilla fan film; directed by Stephen Stelmach Jr. and produced by Monster Pictures Studios. It is also part of the Daikaiju Cinematic Universe. The film replaced Godzilla vs Cloverfield Monster as a repurpose, due to heavy production delays and outdated setting. It is the second installment of Godzilla fan films in the Daikaiju Cinematic Universe after Ultraman vs Cloverfield Monster and also a true sequel to Ultraman vs Cloverfield Monster. It is the only Godzilla fan film that has one real-life event, the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake ; but the earthquake was started by a giant monster, not a fault-line. The film was scheduled to be released on July 3, 2020; November 13, 2020; March 12, 2021; June 25, 2021; or November 19, 2021, but due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the filming days has been postponed to August 3, 2021 and moved the film's premiere and release date to June 24, 2022.

Repurpose of past cancelled films
Godzilla vs Baragon was made to repurpose three cancelled Godzilla fan films in Stephen Jr's film studio: "Godzilla Attacks Los Angeles" (cancelled on September 2007); "Aliens and Godzilla vs King Kong Attacks Los Angeles" (cancelled on February 2009); and "Godzilla vs Cloverfield Monster" (cancelled on November 2019). These three films have now been repurposed into Godzilla vs Baragon of the Daikaiju Cinematic Universe.

Conceptualization and pre-production
Conceptual ideas for Godzilla vs Baragon first initially began when the first earthquake hit Stephen Jr's hometown on July 4, 2019 at 10:35 AM when he woke up in the morning at that time. After that earthquake, Stephen Jr. discovered on the local news on TV that the earthquake was started in Ridgecrest, California; a small desert town in the Mojave Desert. Stephen Jr. was surprised of that earthquake, until a day later on July 5, 2019 when Stephen Jr. and his ex-girlfriend Brittany went on a date to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, he then felt another earthquake at Dodger Stadium, which then he found out from the news on his cell phone and heard from his ex-girlfriend's mother and sister that the earthquake was actually in the same desert town as the one, day before. So he then came back home that same night and watched local news updates on TV about the two earthquakes in Ridgecrest on July 4th and 5th. After watching news footage on TV about the two earthquakes, he then conceptualized a new giant monster film idea that would be the birth of the Daikaiju Cinematic Universe. The story idea for the new film is "what if the two earthquakes in Ridgecrest were caused by a giant monster?". He did look through other ideas for the giant monster's appearance for the earthquake's cause. He looked into Anguirus from "Godzilla: Final Wars", Baragon from "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack", and Behemoth from the 2019 film "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" for the earthquake-causing antagonist monster for his fan film idea.

On July 6, 2019; Stephen Jr. now officially titles that giant monster film, Godzilla vs Baragon throughout the production and release, because Baragon burrows underground and causes earthquakes, and it is a good antagonist monster choice to fight Godzilla. The other two monster ideas were off the table, Angurius does not burrow underground and Behemoth does not have it's own 15-inch figure. So Baragon was then settled. On July 7, 2019; Stephen Jr. officially began pre-production on the story outline for Godzilla vs Baragon, throughout the beginning of August 2019. By the middle of August 2019, the story outline for Godzilla vs Baragon was officially completed, and then began writing the screenplay on his third desktop computer on a screenwriting software called Trelby. Over the past month and a half, the screenplay for GvB was making great progress until by the beginning of September 2019 that he began to rewrite the screenplay on the online screenplay software called WriterDuet on the computer at LA Valley College throughout the month of September 2019. Also, he couldn't find a large-scale Baragon figure that's affordable and scaling with the miniature sets for the film, so decided to use Lizzie from the giant monster film Rampage to use as Baragon; because there's no GMK Baragon figure that's affordable and scales with the miniature city set.

By the first week of October 2019, Stephen met with co-screenwriters Nick Ayala and Xander Nini to help finish the pre-production of the film. Throughout the months of October and November 2019, the screenplay for Godzilla vs Baragon was making great progress. Nick Ayala came up with Ravagawar antagonist characters in the film and Stephen Jr. accepts the idea of the antagonist characters. By December 2019, the screenplay was completed and declared a final project for his Valley College Broadcasting 23 class, and his professor Dan Watanabe was pleased with the screenplay for Godzilla vs Baragon.

Production of Godzilla vs Baragon begins
During the months of October, November, and December 2019, Production of Godzilla vs Baragon officially began with casting underway at LA Valley College, of the first few actors from Stephen Jr.'s best friends Miguel and Jarod; the LAVC broadcasting club; and on campus at LA Valley College. During the casting process, the first actor to play as the main character Ivan Nguyen was to be played by his former friend Gian Segura, but he wasn't right for the part because his film acting skills were poor.

On September 2019, Miran Khacherian accepted the role of Mayor Eric Ridgway; Miguel Sanchez accepted the role of Joseph Ridgway; and Jarod Tio accepted the role of Andrew Takashi in the film. By October 2019, Stephen Jr was at the broadcasting club at LA Valley College and met an actress named Rebecca Herrera to play as the Twin Mothra Fairies and Secretary Rowena Nakagawa. On the same day Rebecca Herrera accepted the role of the Mothra Fairies and Rowena Nakagawa. During those same months, Steve Espejo and Alfredo Guzman were casted to play as Toshiya Kai and Peter Tatopoulos, but they weren't right for the part.

During the month of November 2019, Stephen Jr. met Taylor Gotbetter at the broadcasting club at LA Valley College to help scout out locations as a location manager for Godzilla vs Baragon suggested in the screenplay, but he was interested in the past week and a half and then he quit. Taylor Gotbetter did create the filming schedule for the film on Google Docs. By December 2019, Lexie Alter and Jacob Wiley both accepted the roles of the main characters Vanessa Hattori and Ivan Nguyen. They did do their first scenes at Stephen Jr's place in Van Nuys, Los Angeles; but a month later in January 2020, they quit acting in Godzilla vs Baragon due to their extreme busy schedules. That was the second actor to play as Ivan Nguyen and first actress to play as Vanessa Hattori, but declined. Stephen Jr. had to put that scene as a deleted scene off the film.

By December 5, 2019; Stephen Jr's best friend Daniel Luong accepted the role of General Hakate and then did his first scene on December 21, 2019 first day filming at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area for the scene of Baragon attacking the military fleet. Over the past two months between December 22, 2019 and February 1, 2020; there were no planned filming dates due to cold weather conditions, lack of actors needed, and the lack of time for the current actors available for doing their scenes.

By January 15, 2020 Stephen Jr's cosplay friend, Ryan Law accepted the role of Colonel Richard Martin in Godzilla vs Baragon. By February 1, 2020; the third day of filming happened at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area for the scene of the military stopping Baragon. Stephen Jr, Daniel Luong, Ryan Law, Miguel Sanchez, Jarod Tio, and Gian Segura all met at the location and filming of the military scenes went very smoothly and successful. On that same day Gian Segura was just a crewmember for the film. There were no planned filming dates for Godzilla vs Baragon between February 2, 2020 and March 7, 2020 due to cold weather conditions, lack of actors needed, busy beginning of spring semester at Valley College, and Stephen Jr got sick with a cold on February 21, 2020 up until March 8, 2020.

COVID-19 pandemic impact of production of Godzilla vs Baragon
During the week of March 9, 2020; Stephen Jr. was finally getting better from his cold sickness, so then he began to plan a precise filming schedule for Godzilla vs Baragon to begin in April 2020, but when Stephen Jr and his best friends Miguel and Jarod saw the news about the serious coronavirus pandemic about to hit society.