Independent filmmakers and cousins, Don Hatton (Rockford, IL) and Nick Snow (Brooklyn, NY) got together in New York City in 2009 to talk about formalizing a production company that, in 2010, became Dashford Media.

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At the time, Nick was finishing up at film school and Don was starting to wind down his active music career. Nick had shot a short film that Don had checked out and was overly-impressed. It sparked an interest in checking out what else was going on and to find out what Nick's goal was by attending film school and working on various film projects.

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A couple of visits to NYC and involvement in the sketch comedy web series, The Shorts Show, was enough to clearly recognize that there was an ultra talented group of filmmakers in their immediate circle. All with similar interests and wanting to take things to the next level.

 

In 2012 most of the tight-knit group got together to shoot the feature film, Wilt. Nick co-directed the movie with Grant Lancaster, who also wrote the script while Don was on the project as a producer. This endeavor helped to solidify the desire to shoot a bigger budget feature film that would incorporate an ensemble cast to better highlight these talented actors and crew. 

 

The next few years led to more content development for The Shorts Show and a couple of more short films. The short "Bliss" stood on its own and did very well at various film festivals across the country. Then the short "Logic" was shot as a segment of the feature Prism that started as a fun project for a bunch of filmmakers. The anthology centered around the concept of "love" and the affect it can have on people. It did very well in festivals winning "Best Ensemble Cast" at the Art Of Brooklyn Film Festival and ended up on Amazon Prime. While this was happening, Nick and Don had begun shooting test scenes for feature film ideas. Through this process they came to the conclusion that they should focus their efforts on what is now titled, The Blacklight.

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The Blacklight's script was written with very specific people in mind for the cast. Nick and Don approached everyone with the idea to get a general take on the overall project. All of the key cast members were onboard and in late 2016 they shot, what was then, the opening scene for the movie. And so the journey began. 

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The years 2016 - 2020 were spent securing locations, pulling together funding, and shooting as schedules allowed. The team finished up principal photography in March of 2020, just as the world shut down. However, 2020 did allow the team to focus on the sound design for the movie where they brought on Ryan McTear to compose the original soundtrack. Ryan had access to the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and his style of writing fit very well with the desired mood of the film. The contrast of the dynamic boroque-style of classical music with dark, comedic humor and quirky characters was a perfect fit.  

 

2021 brought pockets of film festivals that allowed Dashford Media to screen The Blacklight. Although screenings were minimal due to the state of things, limited viewing brought attention to the feature film and landed the team discussions with various agents and distribution companies. The decision was made to move forward with Porter Pictures where Jeff Porter had recently teamed with industry veteran and Disney executive, Keith L. Craig to form Porter+Craig Media & Distribution. The partnership between Dashford Media and Porter+Craig has The Blacklight gearing up for its theatrical release with AMC theaters that kicks off in Rockford, IL (where some of the movie was shot) late March 2022.