Page Created: 09/18/10. Last Updated: 10/27/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 02/06/08.
ROLFE KANEFSKY
Video: There's Nothing Out There
Films:
The Alien Files
Corpses
The Erotic Adventures of the Invisible Man
The Hazing (aka Dead Scared)
Jacqueline Hyde
My Family Treasure
Nightmare Man
Pretty Cool
Pretty Cool Too
Rod Steel 0014: You Only Live Until You Die
There's Nothing Out There
Tomorrow by Midnight (aka Midnight 5)
Screenplay Only:
Blonde and Blonder
Mr Kanefsky's official site is: http://www.rolfekanefsky.com/.
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: May 8, 1993.
Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Official Attendance: 35.
Meeting Program: Video screen and question & answer with film maker.
Notes:
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted by permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 1993 Philip J De Parto:
It wasn't smooth, it wasn't pretty, but anyone who spent the day with us at the May, 8, 1993 meeting got a look at what we project for the future of the S. F. A. B. C. For the first time, we were able to synchronize the five primary pre-meeting activities of the group and make them happen at the same time.
Turnout for the individual activities was mixed. The U. S. S. Asimov had a strong showing. Unfortunately, the officers were in Executive Session to draw up a constitution. This locked out any non-officer from attending. Hopefully, this may simply be part of the growing pains of any new group. In any event, there were certainly enough of the officers present and willing to get involved to bode well for the future.
At the opposite end of the spectrum was the Chess Tournament sponsored by the Dumont Chess Mates. Only a few people attended the event. The club has decided to abandon this activity. Another chess club, the Elmwood Park Chess Club, has agreed to step in in their stead.
Finals and other conflicts prevented most of the Markland Sword Fighting group from joining us. When Alan Reid, Lissanne Lake, and Richard Dotter finally arrived, they soon had an appreciative audience and a couple of venturesome souls willing to give things a try.
Bill Molendyk finally had enough people to run a game of Dungeons and Dragons. Steven Ferrara, Dawn Pikaart, and Denis Verdecia were later joined by Joel Ryerson to get the adventure started.
Charles Garofalo, James La Barre, Patricia Nash, and Thomas Pope comprised the May Writers' Critique Group. Pat read another chapter of Chuck's YA fantasy, THE THREE OLD CATS AND THE HORRIBLE WEEK. Chuck read an excerpt from Thom's QUEST FOR MAYAN POWER, an sf/occult novel in progress. There were also discussions of narrative hooks, alternate and revisionist history, and the mechanics of working backwards when you know the beginning and end of your story but not all the steps in between.
All of these activities were complicated by a major construction project on the Church in progress while we were there. This necessitated a hurried rearranging of our room allocations. By 3:00 PM, everything had pretty much settled.
The meeting started about 20 minutes late as a result of the dinner group's late return and because the screening of "The Chip Vs. the Chess Master" episode of NOVA brought by Roy Greenberg was behind schedule. The usual preliminaries were hurried through. Then we sat down to watch the main feature.
THERE'S NOTHING OUT THERE is a horror-comedy which spoofs the horror monster/slasher school of movie making. A group of oversexed teenagers goes away to a remote cabin in the woods and horrible things start to happen.
What makes the flick work is clever writing and serviceable acting. The hero is a horror movie fanatic. Every rustling bush, every creaking floorboard must have some ominous message. He is resourceful, making weapons out of cans of shaving cream and armor out of sports equipment. Along the way there are allusions to the HALLOWEEN movies, the cat scene in ALIEN, and a number of other creature features.
After the break, Mr Kanefsky showed a blooper reel which contained an unused MTV-type video and also showed how certain scenes were blocked. He told stories of behind the scenes events, brought in movie stills, and displayed one of the latex models of the monster.
Mr Kanefsky revealed that he had been making movie shorts since he was a boy. He was born into the right kind of family for this kind of business: his father made documentaries and his mother had been a theatrical dancer.
He wrote the script to THERE'S NOTHING OUT THERE during a three week period while in high school. He was not especially a horror buff, but chose to make a horror movie because it would be marketable. Originally, he tried to do a "serious" horror movie, but the more he learned about the genre, the harder it became to do it straight.
He decided to shoot the script while in college, figuring that he could get some "hands-on" experience and a few college credits, credits the school was loathe to give (the attitude was no one could learn anything from a horror movie.)
The movie debuted at a film festival at the Angelica Theatre in New York. It was shown on the last day of the festival and got rave reviews. He was unable to swing a deal for a long time because he cast unknowns in all the roles. Distributors are reluctant to take on a starless vehicle because they are hard to market. They also feel that they can afford to out-wait a cash starved independent and get the product for next to nothing.
Rolfe continued to screen the movie at a number of film festivals where it continued to make fans. He was trying to promote it into a ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW type of cult film with midnight showings in LA when the riots came and curfews along with them. He finally struck a video deal with prism for VCR rentals and with HBO for airing later this year. He will soon be relocating to LA where he will work on developing a sequel.
After the meeting was over and the cleanup completed, about 18 of us went to the Horizon Diner. John Upton and Jacqueline Hecht were among the first to arrive and were able to persuade the manager to allow us to be seated at one long table. Jackie also arranged to have a slice of cake brought to Phil with a candle on it. The table sang one verse of "Happy Birthday To You" to celebrate Phil's 39th birthday.
The gathering did not break up until after 1:00 AM.