It happened somewhere in the night, in the rain-drenched streets of Seattle where two brothers run 2 distribution companies. My guy, Bill, was the one who discovered 2 fairly good 35mm prints of Ghostkeeper in a film storage place in NYC.
Ghostkeeper as most of you who read the blog know of, was my first feature film. In 1980 I wrote and directed it and the film was done under my company, Badland Pictures. In the last 5 years a somewhat dubious cult following began; some people liked it, some didn't and some didn't understand it.
So what goes on now?
Well, to try to sell as many copies as is possible. Since this isn't Avatar, the distribs went with a run of around 500 dvds, to be sold "direct" from their website called Code Red. They're known for horror pics and they added mine to the catalog.
DVD's now are somewhat at the edge of the cliff, streaming has gained tremendously and many industry people think dvds might last another 2 years or so. Same goes for Blue-Ray which is just a more expensive dvd. It'll hang around for a bit more, but technology will soon make it as useful as a VHS cassette.
In the meantime, Blu-Ray can play standard DVDs so no need to upgrade movies. Ironically Blu-Ray failed to take off as much as the studios wanted. I think consumers got tired of having to renew movies from VHS to DVD and now to Blu-Ray. Most people I know don't really care about that extra quality. Hell, I don't.
If they sell 500, that'll pay off their investment and I might get a few bucks from it. I don't really know what the costs were, nobody ever knows that but I assume around $3000. Those costs consisted of paying the storage fees, then making a copy on Digi-Beta which is an industry standard digital file.
It's used as a "Master", and it allows copying to DVD or any other format. This way the actual 35mm print doesn't have to be run through the scanners anymore than they have to. Film scratches easily.
We did a commentary on it, Riva Spier, the lead, Murray Ord, the male lead and me. I'd never done one before but it went okay. We sat in a music studio of Pico Blvd, in a big house that used to be a Korean brothel.
Yes, I began getting ideas for a movie; Revenge of the Hookers? Hooker Zombies? The mind reels.
All three of us enjoyed seeing each other after just over 30 years and surprisingly remembered a lot about the filming.
But the real treat was Georgie Collins, now 86, who played the "crazy old lady", her interview is also on the Ghostkeeper dvd. She is sharp as a tack and has great stories.
I also edited and included a short interview with John Holbrook, the cameraman who was the DP who filmed it.
So what does any of this matter? In the big scheme, nothing. Just another movie that, 5 billion years from now, will be destroyed with everything else.
But in the meantime, I'll enjoy a little attention from the fans who liked it and those who didn't. And everybody likes a little attention now and then.
