The company is filming and producing its own series called "Dark Currents". The first episode, "Dark Currents, Vol.1," is out in about 70 video stores state-wide.
"We've been doing it(filming "Dark Currents") for about two years," Knight said, "but we've been writing it longer than that."
The "we" Knight refers to are his colleagues, Bruce Flemming of Medway who works in promotions and sales, and Frank Welch of Mattawamkeag, the Mattanawcook Academy senior acts, produces, directs and writes.
Knight said all the taping is done locally, most of the time in his store, with local people acting. He said cast and crew usually make up about 30, mostly family, friends and a few aspiring actors, and the hardest thing to do is to work around everyone's schedule.
"We do all the shooting in the Mattawamkeag area, mostly at the store." Knight said. "We did do a shoot at Mt. Katahdin for the first episode. You have to write for you locations, you can't do a city scene here.
"We've been working on the latest episode for about a year, it's the toughest one yet. Conceptually it's been the easiest because everyone's in one spot and the actors have a feel for the characters and we have a feel for them, but we've had the most difficulty getting everyone together." Knight continued.
He said "Dark Currents" is a "Twin Peaks" type soap opera located in a small Maine town, that takes it's story lines from Maine legends. The first episode deals with the "Legend of the Gold Boulder in Mattawamkeag Stream."
"Ideally what the shows are supposed to be about are legends," Knight said. "We've been studying legends and we try to make them fit this time and place. The more I got into it the more I got interested in Maine legends and making them interesting for today's audience.
"A great source is the older people around, that's where the Golden Boulder on the Mattawamkeag River in episode one came from. I remember an old man talking about it. You can find information in libraries too," he said. Knight, who works part-time for Maine Public Broadcasting System, said his production company did everything on Dark Currents except making the copies for distribution. He said they were able to persuade a company in New York to do that. It was hard to do because his order was so small.
"We only have about 100 (tapes) out," he said, "they're all over the state. I threw them in the back seat of my car and road around to video stores. I had to talk them into taking it" Knight said he was also able to get "Dark Currents" on Bangor Cable, Mattawamkeag Cable and State Cable in Auburn.
"I just wrote to them and kept bugging them until they did it," he said. "Then after it ran they said whenever I got new ones to send them in because I guess they had good response to them."
He said video rentals had tapered off since "Dark Currents" was first released, however, he said it still had a cult following.
"There's a video store in Portland that has it," Knight said, "and there's a waiting list for it. A friend of mine tried to rent it and they told him he had to put his name on a list. That was quite a rush."
Knight hopes to get the same kind of rush when his first feature film comes out sometime around Halloween this year.
"We're going to continue to do ('Dark Currents')," he said, "but our next film is about a $30,000 film, a horror anthology, like 'Creepshow,' called 'Twisted Tales.' It's going to be 90 minutes, but it's not for cable because it's going to be quite graphic."
It's Edge's first film project since "Dark Currents" and Knight said he had no idea what to expect in the post production. He and Welch finished the stories and script, three years of off and on writing, and were currently building the set.
"We're supposed to start filming this month," he said, "because we need snow for the beginning, at least shooting the exteriors."
The three stories in "Twisted Tales" are "Frostbite." "After the Beep,"(in which, according to Knight, the main character is an answering machine), and "Seasons of Gray," which he hopes to film in the fall.
Knight said the townspeople were supportive and curious about his work.
"They always ask how things are going and when the next project is coming out," he said "When 'Dark Currents' came out it rented out like a new release."
Although horror seems to be the genre that Knight is most interested in, he said he would eventually like to do other projects and other types of film.
"Horror is easiest to break into," he said, "there's a big video market and it generally has a loyal following. Even if it's bad people will watch it
"It's easy to film, Kayro syrup and food coloring make special effects easy, and you can fake most anything with camera angles." Knight said.
Right now Edge Productions is not only a hometown production company, but its hometown financed as well. Knight said all the money to run the company comes from his pocket. He said he'd like to find some investors, and he'd put up the rest of the money himself. But Knight said he didn't mind the financial struggle, it's all part of paying your dues and it makes the final project that much more rewarding.
"I'd like to find some investors for 'Twisted Tales.' but it's difficult," he said. "I kind of like being a struggling filmmaker, it's all part of the process. When you see a video in the store and you know you did it all, it's quite a feeling."
