Monday, March 19, 2018

40-YEARS AGO

40-YEARS AGO Magic happened.
Almost to the day, we had the World Premiere of our G rated film The Man From Clover Grove (c) at the Bellaire Theatre in Houston, Texas. It was a very big deal for us. The film was produced for $45,000 all in and had a full union crew, and was signatory to all 3 guilds SAG, DGA and WGA. Everyone worked for a lowest salary allowed at the time and in 12 days we completed the film. Most of the cast flew into Houston, rode in the Mayor's limo, had a police escort to the theatre and said hello to a packed theatre.

The next day our film went wide. In Houston we played at the Park III, Northwest 4, Town & Country 6, East Park and the Southgate. The motion picture everyone said couldn't be done then opened in 350 theaters across the country. Within the first month the number of screens increased to over 700. After the theatre run the film was transferred from 35mm to Beta and VHS and reached out to the home video market. When Beta and then VHS were phased out, so was our film. Now, via digital magic, the film has been re-digitized and mixed in Dolby Stereo - and for the first time is available on DVD and MOD. Amazon Prime approved the quality and the 40-year old classic has been given a renewed lease on life. It's a wonderful message for young filmmakers to keep their copyright alive and write subject matters that can live on as time changes and never have their films be considered dated or aged.