Recently, a local filmmaker embraced one of the most challenging projects of his career to show just how far fans will go to make a difference.

Travis Carlson, a 2009 graduate of Cassadaga Valley High School, owns a film company called Pan-American Film Division. On May 20 and 21, Carlson organized and directed a fan fiction video featuring 60 crew members to help bring his vision as a film director to life. The crew shot a video, four minutes and 13 seconds in duration, to promote an adventure book Carlson created, titled Mafia: Buffalo vs. The Multiverse.

“In order to launch that campaign, we put together a video that really sets the tone of the story — a fun adventure with a lot of imagination and creativity,” Carlson. “Our team is a group of filmmakers, so it’s more natural for us to make a short film. We’re more in our element there.”

The book depicts the 2022-23 Buffalo Bills season, recreated with the Bills as the heroes and each week’s opponent was the villain. To promote the book, Carlson rounded up super fans from across the region to dress up as super heroes and villains in a video, shot at Buffalo RiverWorks, on a single-shot drone piloted camera.

A crew of 60 volunteers came together to film a Buffalo Bills fan fiction video with Pan-American Film Division at Buffalo RiverWorks to raise money for the Pancho Packs initiative.

The book was designed to benefit the Pancho Packs initiative — which donates packs of school supplies to children in need, in honor of Bills super fan Ezra “Pancho Billa” Castro. In order for the book to go to print, Carlson set a fundraising goal of $10,000, with 50% of donations benefiting the Pancho Packs initiative.

“It made the most sense to share some of the profits with a Buffalo Bills related charity,” Carlson said.

Less than a month after the video was released on June 1, the fundraising goal is more than $1,400 beyond its initial target. The video has surpassed 25,000 views across multiple platforms.

“We don’t want people to see that we hit our goal and think we’re done,” Carlson said. “We want to keep going and raise as much money as we can.”

The process of shooting the video took two days — with the first day spent doing a walk-through of the video, shot on multiple stories of the Buffalo RiverWorks site, which was made available to shoot the video over two mornings in mid-May before opening to the public. The second day, the video was shot on the single-shot drone camera, directed by Carlson, who coordinated the shot and its 14 different cues via walkie talkie.

“It’s a lot like a sports team, where 60 people were working together on a single play, Carlson said. “… We did eight takes, and we got it. It was a huge relief to get it done.”

Of the 60 members involved in the video, only the drone pilot was paid for their services. All actors and other crew members volunteered for the project.

“We put the call out to people we’ve worked with in the past, and said we were going to do the biggest, most fun, single-shot motion movie we’ve ever done,” Carlson said.

This project was not the first time Carlson has been connected in some way with the Bills through his career. After graduating with a degree in film from Buffalo State College in 2013, Carlson worked for the Buffalo Bills as a cinematographer. He created marketing videos, social media clips and documentaries on players. In 2020, Carlson started Pan-American Film Division. Carlson’s first feature film, titled Mother’s Day, was shot in his hometown of Gerry, and aimed at reducing the stigma surrounding mental health. Mother’s Day was released in 2021.

Similar to Carlson’s first feature film, his latest venture was a rewarding experience.

“In the best possible way, it rejuvenated my love for filmmaking. It’s definitely the most complex thing we’ve ever tried to do, so we felt very challenged. Through luck and willpower, we accomplished it. It worked out, and we’re thrilled,” Carlson said.

To view the video and to donate, visit panamericanfilms.com/billsmafiafanfiction