Your new series On
the Trail of UFOs - in a few words, what is it about?
It’s
a fairly in-depth exploration of the UFO subject across centuries told
through the eyes of an investigator and storyteller (Shannon LeGro) that
acts as much as a study of the culture surrounding the subject as it does
a study of the subject itself.
What
interested you enough about UFOs to dedicate a whole series to the
subject? And why do you think so many people are actually this fascinated
by UFOs? I’ve
always had a fascination with UFOs and we’ve made documentaries that
delved into the phenomenon but had never really been able to dive deep
into the whole thing. I was excited with having the opportunity - given
the episodic nature of On the Trail of… - to be able to do a
really intensive look into the history and ongoing nature of the subject.
And also, being able to take a look at where UFOs are as a subject today
and how we got here. I think we’ve reached a critical point in the study
of UAPs due to the amount of mainstream press being dedicated to the topic
today. What can you tell us about your research on
UFOs prior to filming? Most
of my time looking into UFOs was spent researching historical cases in
locations like Point Pleasant, WV and the Chestnut Ridge in Pennsylvania
or the Flatwoods Monster case from central West Virginia. I think the
biggest takeaway from those cases was just the constantly evolving nature
of the phenomenon and how weird it can get. Especially with cases along
the Chestnut Ridge where various paranormal occurrences seem to blend
together to the point where you have people claiming to see UFOs and
Bigfoot together. Just really bizarre stuff that stretches the limits of
what we think we know about these topics.
UFO documentaries are really a
dime a dozen these days - so how did you approach the subject differently
from others, what do you think makes yours stick out of the crowd? I
think the biggest takeaway from reading reviews and listening to feedback
over the years has been that Small
Town Monsters just tend to approach these topics much
more rationally than similar content. Particularly the stuff on
television. Our end-game is never to convince anyone of the existence of
the subjects we cover but to give a good overview and maybe uncover some
aspects that have never been considered or looked at before. What
can you tell us about your directorial approach to your story at hand? I
tried to approach this series in a way that would blend the classic
PBS-style documentary format with modern storytelling techniques.
Particularly, in the way the series is edited which is very fast and
at-times almost chaotic while also conveying massive amounts of
information in short spans of time. During the actual shoot all I can
really do is film where we are, conduct interviews and try to control as
much of the chaos as possible. It’s hard when you’re shooting across
half the country and filming an 8 episode series on a micro-budget in less
than a month, but we managed. On
the Trail of UFOs is hosted by Shannon Legro - so what made her
perfect for the job, what was your collaboration like, and how did you two
first meet even?
Shannon
and I have known each other for many years now and we met due to our
various paranormal interests. She was involved in On the Trail of Bigfoot
last year and we had such a blast on that shoot that I was really excited
and eager to get her involved in creating a series that would use her as
the storyteller. She’s a natural interviewer given her background in
podcasting, and she’s probably ten times as knowledgable about these
topics as me. Honestly, she made the entire process of making this
series just so much easier than it should have been, and we’re all really
excited to dive back into some more On the Trail of…
filming. Do talk about some of your key
interviewees, and why exactly them?
Well,
I think the ones that really stand out are guys like David Weatherly and
Greg Bishop as well as my good friend Eleanor Hasken. We really were going
for subjects who knew a ton about the topic and might have a different
approach to the topic than the typical talking heads you see on network
television. Eleanor is the perfect example since she’s a folklorist and
she has a completely unique perspective on subjects like this.
What can you tell us
about the shoot or shoots as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
There
were three different trips that were spread out between July and November
of 2019. The first was centered around the Southwest and consisted of
multiple filming locations between Arizona and Nevada and a number of
interviews and night-ops events. That trip was intense since it consisted
of so much work crammed into five days. The second trip took place in
early October and was basically a road trip that began in central Florida
and ended in New Hampshire. It was spread across 15 days, making it the
longest continuous shoot we’ve ever done. It was completely draining but
really fun and eye-opening.
The
final shoot was in Los Angeles and was probably the simplest
scheduling-wise of the three trips since it consisted of simply shooting
interviews at our Airbnb and running out for b-roll in random spots.
All-in-all the entire crew maintained such a great attitude and really had
a blast together. It was work but never felt like work.
With
the series done, have your experiences at all changed your views on UFOs
as such, and are you any more or any less a believer?
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Oh,
I don’t have any doubt that UFOs are real, in that there are definitely
objects in our skies that we don’t understand or know what their origins
might be. As for my own theories and thoughts on their origins, I’m less
convinced of any one particular theory today than when we started. I have
no answers as to what is behind most of what is seen in the skies today. Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of On
the Trail of UFOs? The
audience reception to both On the Trail of Bigfoot
and On
the Trail of UFOs has been among the best we’ve experienced. There really seems to be
a lot of love for the way we approach these subject and the ways in which
we tell the stories and capture this history. Reviews have been phenomenal
thus far, as well. I’m not sure I’ve actually even seen what I would
deem a “negative” review for On
the Trail of UFOs. I’m honestly just
really glad people are responding to it and finding an escape during the
midst of this pandemic. As far as I know, you intend
to do a second season for On
the Trail of UFOs - so what's in the cards for future episodes?
And other future projects you'd like to share?
We
have the entire second season mapped out and even a blueprint for where
we’d like to go after that. There might be some changes to the
formatting of On the Trail of…
as a brand coming to where the
episodic format might go away and the series would become feature-length
films so “season 2” of On
the Trail of UFOs may or may not go along
with that new concept. I’d prefer to keep it episodic but we’ll see
what happens. Also, On
the Trail of UFOs will be seeing a much wider
release coming in the not-too-distant future, so keep on eye out for that
announcement. Your/your
movie's website, social media, whatever else?
Smalltownmonsters.com and
onthetrailof.tv,
and you can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Anything
else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Not really, I think that
covered it! Thanks
for the interview!
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