Making Nothing at the Age of 20 (hardback)
Making Nothing at the Age of 20
by Rolfe Kanefsky
424 pages
6x9 size, hardback
ISBN 9798887712987
WHAT’S INTERESTING ABOUT “NOTHING”
In the summer of 1989, aspiring 20 year old filmmaker, Rolfe Kanefsky began production on his first independent film, a horror/comedy entitled, “There’s Nothing Out There”. Despite the fact he was majoring in film at Hampshire College at the time, his college advisers did not want to give Rolfe any credit for making a “horror” movie because they had no respect for the genre and point-blank told him upon reading his original screenplay, “You’re not going to learn anything from making this film.” Rolfe was annoyed to say the least and after shooting, he wanted to prove to his college that he had learned quite a lot and thus began the writing of this book.
Although it started as an assignment to get college credit, Rolfe decided to write his (mis)adventures aimed at other aspiring young filmmakers to show how he pulled it off at such a young age. Starting by giving a bit of perspective of what got him interested in making movies, Rolfe devoted much of the book to explaining the whole process of writing the script, find the money, pre-production, production stories, and all the post-production work it takes to completing a feature length film shot on Super 16mm in the late 1980s.
The first pass at this book ended with the completion of the film and the hope to find a distribution deal. Rolfe did get some credit for all of his work from his college but never officially graduated. Anyway, ten years later, Rolfe and some of his friends decided to put the book on-line for a while so at the age of 30, Rolfe, now a working independent filmmaker in Hollywood, California, updated the book to continue the story of what happened to “There’s Nothing Out There” from 1990-2000.
Upon finally making a deal with Bear Manor Publishing in 2023, Rolfe once more updated the book to conclude (as of now) the last 23 years of “Nothing” from the perspective of a now “seasoned” filmmaker of 54 years of age with over 80 produced movies. Adding hundreds of photos, this tale now tells the story of a little film that became a “cult classic” and a footnote in the horror genre which may have inspired the Meta-universe six years before “Scream” and later “Cabin In The Woods”. But that is something you can judge for yourself upon reading this book and hopefully watching the film as well.
As a bonus, this book also includes Rolfe’s unproduced sequel called, “There’s STILL Nothing Out There”. Since the passage of 35 years has made it impossible to produce this script in his opinion, Rolfe thought it might be fun for those interested to be able to see how the story might have continued. Now, this doesn’t rule out that he may make another sequel one of these days and in fact, he does have a new script but that’s another story for another time in another publication.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rolfe Kanefsky is an award-winning writer/director/producer who has been working professional in the film industry for the past 35 years. Prolific in almost every genre, his work includes the horror flicks; “There’s Nothing Out There”, After Dark/Lions Gate’s release of “Nightmare Man”, “The Hazing” starring Brad Dourif, “The Black Room” starring Natasha Henstridge and Lin Shaye, Warner Brothers “Jacqueline Hyde”, “Art Of The Dead”, thrillers such as “1 In The Gun” starring Steven Bauer and Robert Davi, and “Tomorrow By Midnight” starring Carol Kane and Alexis Arquette. Comedies such as “Blonde and Blonder” starring Pamela Anderson and Denise Richards. The western “Doc Holliday’s Revenge” starring Tom Berenger, Lifetime thriller premieres “Watch Your Back” starring AnnaLynne McCord, “Deadly Sorority” with Greer Grammar and Moira Kelly, and “Pool Boy Nightmare”. Family films include “A Dog & Pony Show” with Ralph Macchio and Mira Sorovino, “Puppy Swap” with Margot Kidder and the animated “Space Dogs 2: Adventure To The Moon” among many, many more.