Want to make a movie? Oklahoma filmmakers look to Bartlesville

In the upper loft of the newly opened Palace Rooms Lounge, a small group of movie buffs, civil servants, business owners and community members gathered to hear about the latest opportunity for the ever-growing sector of the Oklahoma movie industry.

The filming of the Martin Scorsese movie 'Killers of the Flower Moon' in 2019 brought in more than $19 million in economic development and magnified Bartlesville's recognition in the film industry.

Producers Chris Butcher, a Bartlesville native, and Steven Patchin plan to shoot their next feature film, 'Creator,' in Bartlesville and are seeking a $1.2 million investment to make that happen.

'Creator' is a horror film they hope captures a little bit of nostalgia for the old classics that "scares the s*** out of audiences long after they've left the theater."

Nick Sanford, writer/director of the project, began the evening talking about his desire to recreate the magic and emotion that an audience experienced when watching 'The Exorcist.'

"I'm just fascinated by the reaction that this movie caused, you know, all the stories about people fainting, the people passing out in theaters, ambulances being there, Boston tried to ban it," said Sanford. "Whether you loved it or hated it, you were alive."

Sanford's passion for making films started from an early age by flooding his parent's sunroom to recreate a scene from 'Titanic' and remaking 'Hook" by sword-fighting his father with an umbrella. He made 45 short films from elementary school through high school, attended the Oklahoma City Community College film program and has completed two feature-length films available to stream online.

These three Oklahoma filmmakers recently released 'Elusive,' a comedy about the hunt for Bigfoot in the backwoods of Oklahoma, with screenings around Oklahoma, including Bartlesville. The movie is available for streaming on Amazon Prime and Tubi.

Patchin believes the experience gained and success with 'Elusive,' with a cost of only $35,000, is proof that they can make a higher budget feature-length horror film.

"The first $25,000 in finances is called development financing," said Patchin. "What that's going to allow us to do is going to be able to get casting."

Once securing development financing, they can land the talent, and the talent they seek could build enough excitement for the project to get them to their funding goals.

The filmmakers have their eyes set on Andi Matichak of the "Halloween" franchise, Rory Culkin, who was in 'Signs' and 'Scream 4', and finally, Crispin Glover, who is most known for his role as George McFly in 'Back to the Future' but has seen much more recent success in 'Willard' and the TV show 'American Gods.'

With a strong genre cast of known and marketable names in the film, they hope to establish a buzz about their movie that they plan to carry into a word-of-mouth and social media engagement strategy to market the film in a more organic approach that no amount of money spent on marketing could buy.

They admit that films are a risk and there is never a guarantee of profit, but in the end, it's about telling stories that the filmmaker and investors what to see.

"Very excited to see an opportunity for a punk rock indie style local independent film being made in Bartlesville," said Josh Wright, a local videographer and social media marketer.

The ideal plan to start filming could be as early as January of 2023, with an eight-week production schedule and a theatrical release in October of the same year.

Even with this movie being considered small, it could still impact Bartlesville's economy.

Visit Bartlesville estimates a film like this could bring in $20,000 in sales tax and $344,000 in local spending, which would have a ripple effect of almost $800,000 in economic impact.

"We have a really rich growing film industry. It's good for us to cultivate Oklahoma filmmakers," said Maria Gus, executive director of Visit Bartlesville. "We may not be able to have a major motion picture every year, but smaller ones are a great stream of economic development."

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Want to make a horror movie? Oklahoma filmmakers look to Bartlesville