Lexington, KY - Michael Crisp admits there wasn't much of a business plan when he started making his first film.
"I figured no matter what I did, as long as I kept costs down, it wouldn't be a terrible business decision," said Crisp, producer and director of what is now known as ReMix Films.
He did manage to keep cost down on the filming and production of "The Very Worst Thing," a documentary about the tragic 1958 school bus crash in Floyd county that claimed 27 lives.
So at worst his film might be chalked up as an expensive hobby while holding out hope that a national distributor, such as a cable TV channel, would want to buy the film.
"The Very Worst Thing" debuted in February in Lexington and Prestonsburg, coinciding with the anniversary of the crash - the worst school bus accident in U.S. history.
Crisp is still shopping the film to potential buyers. But meanwhile, the project has been aided by what he calls "some unexpected successes in the short term."
Those successes have encouraged Crisp and his partners in ReMix Films to pursue other projects, two of which are near completion while many more are still in the idea stage.
An entertainer
Crisp's introduction to film making was as a teenager goofing around with friends and a video camera.
His parents grew up in Eastern Kentucky and from time to time he would hear them talk about the accident, even sharing newspaper clippings.
After graduating from Scott County High and Georgetown College with a business degree, Crisp spent time singing in rock bands and other aspects of the entertainment industry, eventually building up a small Georgetown-based business called Agency Entertainment -- providing deejays for weddings as its bread and butter.
Adding wedding videography about three years ago was a natural step for the business. So with wedding videos providing on-the-job training in shooting and editing, Crisp started entertaining the idea of making his own film.
The talk of the bus crash had remained with him. "A documentary seemed like an easier type of film to try," Crisp said, and after seeing an article on the 50th anniversary of the crash he found the inspiration for his first topic.
Crisp and Agency Entertainment deejay and videographer Andrew Moore tracked down survivors, news clippings and photographs, compiling and editing footage for the film. To add professional polish while keeping costs down, Crisp sought out help via the Internet.
In exchange only for being named in the film's credits, original music was composed and recorded by an instrumental artist in Cincinnati, some animation was created by a graphic artist in Philadelphia and a web page designer volunteered to create a site for the film.
"These people just wanted to be a part of something in hopes the exposure will be a good tradeoff," Crisp said.
After months on the project, Crisp rented the Kentucky Theater in Lexington and the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg for the initial screenings.
"We really only planned on showing it once or twice," Crisp said, with the next step being to hopefully sell the film. "But those two screenings went well enough that we planned others." The film was shown in a dozen or so small theaters around Kentucky.
A screening in Prestonsburg, the theater nearest the crash, may become an annual February event, Crisp said.
"The film hit so close to home in Prestonsburg," Crisp said. "It was just a huge experience."
Crisp got dozens of requests to buy DVD copies of the film, but a filmmaker can't sell DVD copies if they want to market it to a large distributor later.
To provide something for viewers to take away from the screenings, Crisp self-published a book about the crash and the making of the film.
"We may keep doing that," Crisp said.
And the screenings were successful enough that ReMix Films was able to donate money to one of the survivors of the crash who was struggling financially.
More ideas
The film also stirred up more ideas for other documentary projects.
Scott Hall is a filmmaker with experience in Los Angeles and Kentucky. While in Lexington, he heard about the bus crash documentary and joined ReMix for the final stages of the film. He suggested a project on Kentucky cave explorer Floyd Collins, who gained national attention in 1925 when he became trapped inside a cave.
In a case of what ReMix hopes is good timing, Hollywood actor-director Billy Bob Thornton announced plans to make a movie about the Collins tragedy. Crisp said he hopes the Hollywood movie will help draw attention to his documentary, which he hopes to release next year.
Another project near completion is called "Polterguys," a film about a company that leads tours of haunted sites in Key West, Fla. It was a tour Crisp had taken some years ago, and when he was back in Key West for a week on another one of his side gigs -- singing in a Jimmy Buffett tribute band -- he approached the tour company about a documentary.
Crisp said the "funny and interesting" look at the industry is a great departure from working on the more grave and dramatic bus crash and caving topics.
Other future projects will likely be closer to home and return to the historical genre.
"I have come to realize that even if you don't sell your film to a large entity, you can make enough to make it a business." But ReMix as a side business won't be driven by bottom-line numbers, Crisp said. "We'll just keep bringing light to stories that aren't incredibly well known."
The Very Worst Thing (Kentucky Historical Society)
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=123147841064799&mid=2bd24faG5c1b1343G1050145G7&n_m=jbeach3270%40aol.com Thursday, November 18 at 6:30pm Location: Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History