A couple of weeks ago I told Nancy and Maureen there might be something exciting happening in Mattawamkeag and I'd like to check this contradiction out. A video dealer up there named Lucas Knight had gone rogue and was attempting to produce his own television series called DARK CURRENTS, which has appeared twice on the local cable channel. A Gothic thriller using local actors and on zero budget. Kind of a DICK STACEY'S COUNTRY JAMBOREE meets TWINS PEAKS thing. Cutting-edge stuff. And since I doubt if the cutting edge of anything had ever visited itself on Mattawamkeag before,I should lay in a stock of Cutters and go up country.
Someone,of course, asked to be refreshed on the general vicinity of Mattawamkeag. Well it's up there. North of Lincoln and very close to the edge. Better to ask what Mattawamkeag is instead of where. Desriptive:It's small. Flippant: It's the last place in the western hemisphere where Sha Na Na on an eight-track is still a hot item. Historical: I think it's where rust was invented. Condescending:A failed prototype for Rumford. Truthful: Great fishing, a beautiful thousand-acre park and campground, wildlife and nice humans. God's country.
Well,probably to make up the reprimand they dished me out on the misdirecting baggage story, the editors said I could go to Mattawamkeag and talk to Lucas Knight about his ongoing television project, DARK CURRENTS.
I met Lucas at Keag Video, in the heart of the outskirts of downtown Mattawamkeag. We discussed his project and the hubbub it's created.
PREVIEW:HOW'S THE SHOW COMING?
LUCAS KNIGHT:We're just finishing the editing on the third episode and have one major scene to film in the fourth. Getting the actors together in the summer has been hard. 'This one can make it, but that one's busy'type problem. So I tried writing an episode that takes place in one setting,so I could film the whole thing in done fast. Then everyone would only have to be here once, but even that hasn't been possible.
PVW:HOW'D YOU GET THE IDEA OF DARK CURRENTS?
LK:The initial idea for the show was a novel. I'd wanted to write a novel but never sat down and done it. I've written a lot of short stories,but I wanted to go to a longer,richer format. But I never sat down to write the book. So I got the idea of filmmaking and learned about the cable access laws. I learned how easy it is to get on cable. So it kind of went from there.
PVW:WITH THE AVAILABILITY OF VIDEO CAMERAS AND CABLE ACCESS, DO YOU SEE PEOPLE MAKING THEIR OWN SHOWS AS ONE OF THE FUTURES OF VIDEO? KIND OF AN EXTENSION OR NEW FORM OF COMMUNITY THEATRE?
LK: Yes. Yes, I do. And even more with the five hundred channels we're hearing so much about now. I mean, what are they going to put on 'em? With five hundred you can have your own. Anyone that's interested in any form of production can put whatever they want on there. That's another booster to us and this medium. To be able to show what we produce.
PVW: INFLUENCES?
LK: Well,obviously,the films of David Lynch(WILD AT HEART,BLUE VELVET).I read a list of geniuses in a magazine last week and all the ones automatically assume were in there-Mozart,Einstein-and there's David Lynch. Out of everyone in comtemporary entertainment, Lynch was on it. Up there with Mozart and Einstein. I don't know who created the list; obviously it was a David Lynch fan. But still he made it. Got me thinking even more about him.
Other influences were Stephen King-his books more than the films.Other people's interpretations don't get to the base of what he's talking about. As far as the characterizations.
And soap operas have a lot to do with it. Just regular old soap operas. A lot of the cliches we have in DARK CURRENTS come from everyday soap operas. They're easy to fill up the time of it, by putting them in there. 'Cause when we first sat down to write the first episode, we said, okay, we're going to try everything very interesting, everything right to the point. We did that and ended up with a fifteen-minute episode. So then we started adding these soap opera subplots. Filler.
PVW: HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU HAVE INVOLVED?
LK: Forty or fifty.
PVW: THAT MANY?
LK: Yeah, if you're talking actors, writers, everyone.
PVW: HOW"D YOU GET THEM ALL TOGETHER?
LK: Through various ways. Some people heard about it... people call me all the time. I put in an ad for actors and writers. I got good response on the writers, so-so on the actors.
PVW: SO PEOPLE HAVE SENT YOU SCRIPTS?
LK: Yeah, I've received a couple, and since met with three or four people who are doing scripts for future episodes. I liked their writing style and felt they had a good idea for what I'm trying to do. But I need actors.
PVW: HOW'S THE COMMUNITY SUPPORT OF YOUR EFFORTS?
LK: Really strong. I don't go a day without someone asking what's going on with the show. I've got a lot of support that I didn't expect. For some reason I thought they'd just blow it off but it hasn't been like that, the whole town seems really into it.
PVW: ZERO BUDGET?
LK: The whole object is to get it done using anything we can find. Basically it's a 'beg,borrow or steal' thing. We adapt the stories or situations to fit what's available. It's frustrating and fun.
PVW: DO YOU HAVE A CORE GROUP OF CAMERA OPERATORS, SOUND AND PRODUCTION PEOPLE?
LK: Everyone does a little bit of everything; htere's not really any set jobs except the actors. People get excited when they first hear about the show. They come on excited, but after the thirieth take they kind of lose their interest. They don't show up the next time.
PVW: THE THIRTIETH TAKE. DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE GUY THAT DID EL MARIACHI-SHOT EVERYTHING IN ONE TAKE AND USED HIS FRIENDS FOR ACTORS? MADE A MINT ON A SHOESTRING.
LK: Yeah, that's a great story. Borrowed $9000 to make a feature film and had $2000 leftover when he was done. Paramount bought it for a million and gave him a four-picture deal.
PVW: DO YOU PUT YOURSELF IN THAT KIND OF CATEGORY?
LK: As to what?
PVW: LIKE THE GUY THAT DID EL MARIACHI. AS TO BEING ON THE CUTTING EDGE.
LK: Yes, actually I do. For this area I do. I mean we're doing it and treating it like film, with all the camera angles and such. We could just set up the two cameras and have the actors say their lines, but we're much more inventive.
PVW: WHAT'S THE FUTURE OF DARK CURRENTS?
LK: I'm going to keep doing it. I mean, I've said I'll keep doing it until it can keep going on without me. Right now I'm the one who's pushing it all the time. So if I'm the one that's going to be developing and pushing, I guess DARK CURRENTS will go on forever. I love it.
Jack Raymond lives in Trenton, another magnet for all types of strange characters.
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