Asteria

For decades, working as a composer/songwriter in Hollywood, my energies have primarily gone toward supporting the creative visions of others. On the side I would record my own albums, but never had time or energy to support them. In addition, I had neglected a desire I had from childhood to make movies. Like many, I had a super 8 camera and from elementary school through college I'd made my own films with friends.

Over the years it has become more and more difficult to earn a living, even as busy as I am, for reasons very similar to what has brought on the recent WGA strike. This, combined with the mid-life crisis realization that I have neglected my own personal artistic side for far too long led me to attempt to find an audience for my own art, both to satisfy my soul, but hopefully to perhaps supplement my income by finding an audience for my music. So, I decided to make a film version of my album Witching Hour. My theory was to create sets in my garage, with the help of my friend Bruce Barlow who can work some real magic on the cheap. I shot two sequences and it looked promising. But, to make the long story short, the attempt was a total failure. I realized my script required a REAL (albeit low) budget which was far out of my reach.

Still, I was convinced that somehow I could make a feature film the way I made films as a kid, with a crew of just me, or just me and my sister Deidre. So out of the ashes of Witching Hour, a new idea came. One I could feasibly do on my own with what I had available to me (which now included the footage shot for Witching Hour and a great looking paper forest set that was still up in the garage). Then covid hit and, fortunately, my new ultra-micro-DIY idea was well suited for being created during lockdown. The cast was my family, plus friends brought in via zoom, plus one scene shot with just me (masked) and one actor in the garage. The crew was myself and my sister Deidre.