Horror on a Shoestring: Belmont Filmmaker Using Crowd Funding to Make Feature Movie

There was always a moment in a Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland movie when the pair look at each other and declare: "Let's put on a show!"

Now before scoffing at the notion that show biz inspiration can be as spontaneous as deciding whether to watch the Red Sox or the Patriots, first talk to Belmont resident Greg Stone.  

Stone's moment of movie motivation came in 2010 while in a van driving back from Baltimore after filming at John Hopkins Hospital for his long-time client, Stop & Shop.

"My cameraman said, 'Let's make a movie," said Stone.

"So I said, 'OK. What sort of movie do we make?'" 

"Let's make a horror movie!" came the reply. 

"And that was it and it has gone from there," said Stone, who is know for this time as an investigative reporter at WBZ-TV and as the host of the Friends of Belmont Education's annual Spelling Bee. 

From that throw away suggestion, today Stone has a script, camera and sound crews, a "spooky" location (Thatcher Island off the coast of Rockport with twin lighthouses) and 11 professional and amateur actors ready to film his first feature, a small-budget horror movie titled "Tidewalkers."

See the movie trailer here.

After seven drafts of the screenplay and a thousand hours of his own time invested in the venture, Stone – the film's producer, writer and director – is currently at the "business" portion on the "show business" process: raising the dough to make the movie a go on the big screen. Stone sees "Tidewalkers" budget at $100,000 which is enhanced by state tax breaks.

"It's a small project but so many are giving up their professional time for free that the true 'cost' and production value of the film is more than triple that amount," said Stone.

And while he is seeking traditional financing through selling equity shares of the film to investors, Stone is also drawing on what has become the latest "go to" source of funding small (and recently quite expensive) independent art projects and business dreams: online crowdsourcing.

Stone has made his movie's pitch on the site Kickstarter, where fellow first-time movie makers and such established stars as Zack Braff, James Franco and Spike Lee are using to find the money to make their next film. 

After a week on the site, Stone has raised a bit more than a fifth ($5,326) of his goal of $25,000 with 18 days remaining.

Stone is not your recent film school graduate hipster seeking to transform the median. He's just a middle-age man who wants to tell a scary story that doesn't rely on a circular saw cutting off limbs and rats in a bag placed over some scream victim's heads. 

Think "smart" horror in the genre of Hitchcook, Polanski and Wes Craven.

"Horror is both fun and commercial. I love all type of movies but I always loved horror. What's better than 'Psycho'? What's better than 'Rosemary's Baby'? 'The Shining'? So the idea is not to make a gory pic. There is sex and violence, to be for sure, but we are all aiming for a classy picture everyone can be proud of," said Stone. 

Here is how Stone describes it: "The story centers on a TV crew in search of the paranormal. They quickly experience much more of the supernatural than expected. Trapped on rugged Thacher Island, they meet their demise one by one in ever more mysterious circumstances. The movie is a thriller, a whodunit and the sort of ghost story that could take place only in New England." 

And unlike many - if not most - novice movie makers, Stone comes to the project with a life-time of practical experience in film and the media. 

Starting as a writer at Time Inc. in New York, then at WBZ-TV in Boston and as a freelance correspondent for Public Broadcasting's Nightly Business Report (earning three Emmy nominations), he founded Stone Communications in 1989, writing and directing hundreds of projects ranging from 30-second commercials to corporate videos to features.

And with that experience, Stone has formulated a shooting schedule in May and June when the weather is the best on Rockport. Until then, Stone continues to fine tune the script.

"It was alway in the back of my head to one day have everything available; a crew, actors and a script, and make a movie. And I can finally see it being done. It's very exciting," said Stone.