Martins Ferry filmmaker’s “Memory Lane” finally hits U.S.
It is typically believed that in order to be successful in the film industry, one must be lucky enough to be born in a hub such as Los Angeles or New York, have the right connections, or the capabilities of taking a plunge and moving to a big, expensive city and slaving away waiting tables until the right person notices you. But a group of filmmakers and actors from Martins Ferry have broken the mold, reminding us that hard work really can pay off.
Shawn Holmes, a filmmaker who now resides in both Martins Ferry and Los Angeles, graduated from Linsly and then moved to LA to study film and television.
“Then I decided, if I want to write, direct and produce movies, I need to get out of the classroom and do it,” Holmes said.
And so he did. He moved back home to Martins Ferry, wrote a movie, and tried to raise $10,000 to support it to no avail. But still, he persevered.
He auditioned the theater department at Franciscan University, taking on all of the actors on a volunteer basis, and reserved the lead role of Nick Boxer for his best friend and roommate, Michael Guy Allen. Alongside Allen, Zac Snyder, who portrays Ben Haven, also hails from Martins Ferry.
The sci-fi thriller, “Memory Lane”, was inspired by Allen’s time served in combat in Afghanistan, tells the story of an orphaned war-veteran traveling between our world and the afterlife in search of his fiance’s killer by stopping and starting his own heart.
Holmes said 95 percent of the movie was shot in Martins Ferry, and one shot takes place in an animal clinic in Wheeling. Filming took place over the course of 11 weekends with a budget of $300.
“And that money was spent feeding volunteer actors. I shot and edited it by myself, there wasn’t really a crew. I spent a little money on fake blood I believe, but that’s it,” Holmes said.
On Nov. 11, 2011, “Memory Lane” surfaced on the Internet for free for 48 hours in an attempt to build buzz. And viewers must have thought it was the bee’s knees, because the film gained more than 22,000 views. The publicity continued to build, “Memory Lane” was picked up by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal. The West Virginia Filmmakers Guild asked Holmes to screen it at the Annual FILMmakers Festival. Holmes became the youngest nominee in history for WV FILMmaker of the Year.
Once distributors got ahold of the film; It enjoyed its official world premiere in London on May 6, 2012. From there, Holmes took the movie to Carne, then partnered up with Melbourne-based Monster Pictures, taking the movie to Australia and New Zealand. American-based Wild Eye Releasing caught wind of Memory Through the Australian press grapevine, and Memory Lane landed back in the states after a four-year-long trip to parts of the world most of us only daydream about. All in all, the film has been released in more than seven countries and screened in more than 20.
Still, Memory Lane remains almost entirely in the raw form Holmes shot it in. With some audio and color tweaks and a few professional touches, the movie is otherwise in its original form.
“It’s definitely a very raw movie. We’re used to $300 million movies, $300 movies; it’s a different experience to see something that basically relied on skill if we had a problem, because we didn’t have money to fix it,” Holmes said.
On March 24, 2015, Memory Lane was released On Demand in more than 30 million American households with nearly every US cable provider, including Comcast in the Ohio Valley. It’s also available in DVD form in Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, FYE and on Amazon.
Memory Lane has gone on to win many awards, including but not limited to: Shawn Holmes for Best Director and Best Action Thriller at the American International Film Festival, Award of Excellence at The Indy Fest, and Best Art House Film, Best of Fest and Best Screenplay at the Pollygrind Film Festival.
As for the future, Holmes is in talks right now about developing a televised version of Memory Lane with Legendary Pictures and writing two other feature films that will be circulated upon completion. And even though he’s been inevitably bitten by the LA bug in all of this, he’s still Martins Ferry at heart.
“Just from growing up in the valley, the valley is such a unique place. Everything that I write, the location almost seems to become a character, and I always set my stuff in or around the valley. In my upcoming projects, there will definitely be an Ohio Valley element to it,” Holmes said.
To order Memory Lane, visit www.memorylanemovie.com.
Courtney can be reached at hcourtney@timesleaderonline.com.