As an Ohio native who has been a fan of Full Moon pretty much since the company began, it puts a smile on my face to hear that Full Moon founder Charles Band sees the future of his company in Cleveland. The Akron Beacon Journal reports that Band recently purchased a 7,476-square-foot home in the Cleveland suburb Cleveland Heights, and Band believes this house, which he calls Full Moon Manor,
might just be the answer he's been looking for to keep production costs down and the turnaround fast. He said the cost of real estate and studio rental space is astronomical in and around Hollywood — complicating his business formula. … "I've been looking for another home away from home," he said. "You can't even buy a decent garage in a good neighborhood for $326,000 [the price he paid for the house and property]."
… He plans to rely primarily on Northeast Ohio for the talent and technical wizardry for his future projects.
There are several talented independent genre filmmakers based out of Ohio and a huge horror fanbase in the state, so I'm sure Band is going to find it very easy to find people who are willing to help him out there.
As we reported last week, the first Full Moon production to film inside Full Moon Manor was William Butler's Demonic Toys: Baby Oopsie, which was shot on a five day schedule last month and may be streaming on FullMoonFeatures.com by the end of June. As Band says, "We really pound these out. We keep the content moving."
There are a lot of rooms in Full Moon Manor, and Band says the place
can be transformed from a creepy ol' manor to a suburban home with just a coat of paint and the right furnishings. The 2,000-foot basement can be anything from an institutional hospital ward to a dank dungeon with the right lighting and a prop or two.
"This [home] is a living, breathing movie set."
Band is already looking forward to the winter, when the Cleveland snowfall could allow him to film some kind of Christmas special. He said, "I can make movies for all eternity here."
The Akron Beacon Journal article featured some behind-the-scenes images from the making of Demonic Toys: Baby Oopsie, and you can see some of those below. Click over to their website to see more.