In the creation of my mobile series Potter’s Field, just recently removed its run on Sprint Power Vision and gearing up for a DVD release this year, I delved deep into the Southern Voodoo traditions. The story carefully worked with the concepts of possession, iconography as a stimulous for spirit interactions, and blood sacrifice. These weren’t the only themes plotted for the show though. I initially saw this as a first chapter in the wider adventures of Dorian (the lead character).

Dorian is a psychic plagued with flashes of future events, typically terrible. This places him in a situation where he tries to do good. At the start of our story, Dorian, due to his inability to change the events he sees, as been branded as a mass murderer. On the run with his skeptical, but loyal, adopted brother Alsoomse (played by J LaRose of Saw fame) Dorian has taken refuge in the South to lead a quiet life as a laborer.

The basis for how Dorian sees events and the principals he holds to about how the universe works are based in large part on the spiritualist movement. In fact some scenes of the show were filmed in Cassadaga, Florida, a spiritualist camp founded in 1894 by medium George P. Colby.

The main location house in Florida was believed to be some type of brothel house or place for prohibiton rum runners to have liasons due to a large cash of antique condom tins recovered from the ceiling system. The house itself was plagued by several incidents of haunting including a light stand being tossed across the room while the crew spoke in the front area.

As director of the project I wanted as much as authenticity as I could muster. As a person who’s experienced the prescence of apparitions for my entire life I wanted to tell an interesting story about these phenomena without leaning too far in any one direction. It’s a sticking point with me that so many people who experience the unexplained fall in to the new age “answers” no matter how absurd they sound. I needed the portrayal of the characters to be open ended enough that anything was possible. Maybe Dorian is insane. Maybe the protagonist isn’t possessed, but suffering from some kind of post traumatic stress. I believe in a world of possibilities and if you want to be truly open-minded you need to entertain the idea that it’s all in your head. I personally don’t think it is, but until we can find ways to prove otherwise it’s something we have to keep on the table.