Mothman 2008
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 24th, 2007
While nothing will ever match the David Grabias 2002 documentary Search for the Mothman, now bundled in the Deluxe DVD/The Mothman Prophecies, production companies keep cranking out ones filled with interviews with old eyewitnesses. Of course, there is no footage of Mothman, so they all are following the same path here.
Black River Films has a new doc in production, and you can get a preview of its beginning at their site.
The number of documentaries specifically for television about Mothman also continues to increase. News of an another being taped in Mothman country for the 2008 season is noted in the highlights from the following Ohio news item about the production company’s plans:
Cameras are in Point Pleasant again to film about that popular red-eyed creature, Mothman.
The Biography Channel, a channel associated with A&E, began filming Wednesday [September 19, 2007] for a new paranormal series that will feature the Mothman documentary as its pilot episode.
Filming will continue throughout the week, and on Saturday [September 22, 2007], starting in the late morning and continuing through much of the day, Main Street will be shut down. The crew intends to take the present Main Street back in time to 1966 while they film re-enactment scenes.
The street will be lined with vintage cars, and extras will be sporting clothing from the 1960s. Visitors are welcome to watch the filming as long as they do not interfere with the crew and cameras. Visitors also are asked to keep their distance as they watch and move all present-day cars off the street in order to fully transform Main Street to 1966.
Dave Porfiri, series producer, said they chose Mothman for their pilot episode because of its interesting and mysterious story.
“The Mothman is really intriguing to us. It is such a compelling story, especially when you talk face to face with the eye witnesses … when you put a face with it, it has more of an impact, and that is what we are doing,” Porfiri said. “We are really glad we came here first.”
…He is trying to make the Mothman legend come alive with a series of re-enactments and discussions with eyewitnesses.
In addition to the Main Street scene Saturday, the crew intends to turn Convention and Visitors Bureau chairman Denny Bellamy’s backyard into a 1966 party, which will be a re-enactment of Dottie Campbell’s UFO sighting on her street. The party extras also will be decked out in 1960s clothing in order to achieve the full effect of the time period.
Other re-enactments include the car chase that Tom Ury experienced in November 1966. Porfiri said they will be using vintage cars for the scene and will be filming in almost the exact location where Ury was chased, which was right outside the TNT area. A re-enactment of Faye Dewitt’s experience, as well as Linda Scarberry’s, also are in production plans.
Porfiri mentioned that the majority of actors and extras being used for re-enactment scenes were chosen from a casting call at the Ariel Theatre in Gallipolis.
“We had a great turnout at the casting call, and everyone that showed up was chosen to be an actor or an extra,” he added.
The Biography Channel crew plans to interview other eyewitnesses, such as Dewitt, in addition to Ury and Campbell.
The new series is expected to air in 2008… by Hope Roush“Biography Channel pilot targets Mothman,” Gallipolis Daily Tribune, 9/21/07.
I’ll mention new Mothman 2008 book news in a future blog.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
nice article about the mothman. thanks bill green
The mothman rendering looks like something by the swamps in Mississippi. I drove up on it with my lights on it. I was more leathery though.