‘Straight Into Darkness’

Published 9:37 am Wednesday, June 7, 2006

For filmmakers Jeff Burr and Mark Hannah, the arrival of their movie “Straight Into Darkness” in video stories yesterday caps a creative struggle which began in 1999.

That’s when Burr, who grew up in Dalton, initially discussed the idea of a “a war movie” with his longtime pal and Dalton native, Hannah.

Burr is the veteran director of more than a dozen films, many in the horror or fantasy genres. The self-described king of the sequels (“Stepfather 2,” “Pumpkinhead 2” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3”), he directed his first feature film “From a Whisper to a Scream” (aka “The Offspring”) in 1985. Much of that movie, which featured horror legend Vincent Price, was filmed in Dalton.

Hannah, who had been friends with Burr since junior high school, worked on “Whisper” as the first assistant director and associate producer. (He even has a brief, but painful cameo as a Confederate soldier who takes an all too realistic tumble after being shot in a battle scene.)

Burr has remained active on the filmmaking scene in Hollywood for more than 20 years. He now lives in L.A.

Hannah spent several years working in the film industry in California and North Carolina before returning to Dalton to run Hanpost Productions, which makes commercials and corporate videos. Hannah also writes short stories and film scripts.

Burr and Hannah re-teamed in 1999 to make “Straight into Darkness,” a World War II era film set in an unnamed European country being abandoned by retreating German forces. The original idea for the movie was Burr’s, whose father William served in the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II. One of the two main characters in the movie is a member of the 82nd.

Working on a tight budget which they wanted to maximize, the filmmakers decided to make most of the movie in Romania, with some “flashback scenes” done in the United States.

“There were three main reasons for making the movie in Romania,” said Hannah. “First, it would cost a lot less because of the economy. Second, the story is set in Europe and filming there provided some great locations. Third, it gave us a chance to work with a Romanian director of photography named Viorel Sergovici, who is extremely talented. He and Jeff had worked together before and they have a great rapport.”

Hannah said the movie was basically shot in approximately 40 days, but because of the tight budget and other problems it took well over a year to get all the footage shot and edited.

“Straight Into Darkness” was then entered in several prestigious film festivals, including the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, and the Atlanta Film Festival. The movie won awards at the Milan Festival in Italy and the Avanca Festival in Portugal.

“‘Straight Into Darkness’ was a challenging shoot. Making an action packed film on a small budget is difficult enough, but doing it in a foreign country is a special challenge,” Hannah said.

Hannah was the film’s producer. That meant it was his job to solve the myriad of problems faced in getting the movie on screen.

“It has been a long, hard struggle,” Hannah said. “We’ve had a lot of things go wrong, but now that the movie is finished we can laugh about most of the problems.”

Hannah is pleased with the finished product.

“It’s a gorgeous film,” he said. “I am still amazed that we were able to do an epic battle

film on a small budget. We didn’t have a lot of money, but it’s all up there on the screen.”

Hannah gives Burr much of the credit.

“For Jeff this was very much a work from the heart because of his father,” Hannah said. “He was determined to make the best movie he could.”

The DVD of “Straight Into Darkness” hit video stores on Tuesday. It’s available locally at Movie Gallery and Blockbuster. It can be purchased at Amazon.com for $14.99.

The DVD has several special features, including a documentary on the making of the movie and a commentary track featuring Burr and producers Hannah and Chuck Williams.

“One of the best things about the DVD is some additional footage of our ‘flashback scenes,’” said Hannah. “Those were filmed in Dalton and Chattanooga and featured a couple of local actors who are really good — Whit Davies from Dalton and Rebecca Denton, who plays the girlfriend of one of the soldiers.

“A lot of their scenes got cut out of the movie so I’m glad the DVD includes more of their work.”