Thursday, February 15, 2018

My First Film

Back in the 70's when young filmmakers made motorcycle, horror and T&A flicks I did the opposite and made a G rated goofy comedy, The Man From Clover Grove. As a first time film director, I was blessed with a great cast, Ron Masak, Rose Marie, Buddy Lester, Cheryl Miller, Richard Deacon, Paul Winchell, Stu Gilliam, Jed Allan, Spencer Milligan, Joe Higgins and Billy Hillman. The all union crew were fantastic. It was a union/guild challenge, (NABET, SAG, DGA and WGA) to make a film for less than $50,000 all in and delivered. As a testament to young filmmakers we brought the film in and delivered it for distribution for less than $45,000. So, as it turned out we made what has become a classic. It's corny fun the kids loved then and still love today. We even had a World Premiere in Houston Texas at the Tercar Theatre in the Mayor’s Limousine and a full police escort that led the entire cast to - at the time - one of the largest theaters in town. We shot in 35mm and after 1,500 plus theaters played the film in the U.S., it enjoyed a theatrical foreign run before finally being released on Beta and VHS. Now for the firs time, the film has been digitally re-mastered with a soundtrack in Dolby Stereo The Dove Foundation gave the film 5 Doves. As a young filmmaker I had no fear. The things I didn’t learn in school I discovered on the set. I made every mistake a young filmmaker can make and the cast and crew helped me reach the goal line. I wanted Children of all ages to enjoy a clean silly movie and as history proved we made a film that is ageless and has outlived all the biker, horror and T&A films made back then. From Leomark Studios and available on Amazon worldwide, you can get the official Dolby Digital re-mastered copy as: www.amazon.com/dp/B079MK9S2T