The Ethereal Plane (2004 Film)

"The Ethereal Plane"is a A 2004 feature film directed by Clarke M. Smith.


 * Produced by TimeAxis Media
 * Written and Directed by Clarke M. Smith
 * Starring Ron Rogell and Gene Gabriel
 * Music by Troy Sterling Nies
 * Cinematography: Scott Connelly
 * Edited by Clarke M. Smith
 * Production company: TimeAxis Media
 * Distributed by Inferno Motion Pictures
 * Release date: June 22, 2004
 * Running time: 74 minutes (pilot version 45 minutes)
 * Country: United States
 * Language: English
 * Budget: $8 thousand

The Ethereal Plane is a 2004 American cult science fiction drama film starring Ron Rogell and Gene Gabriel, and directed by Clarke M. Smith. Revolving around the brutal murder of Harrison (Gene Gabriel) as witnessed by bystander Damon Taylor (Ron Rogell), the story unfolds as Damon locates a hidden time machine that may enable him to go back in time to stop the murder before it happens.

The film was Clarke M. Smith's first time directing a full-length feature. It was produced by film and media company TimeAxis Media.

Almost entirely shot in downtown Stamford, CT, The Ethereal Plane production was created entirely from volunteer efforts of local talent, as well as actors from New York and New Jersey.

Shot on a shoestring budget, and right before HD became the norm among independent filmmakers, The Ethereal Plane had its world premiere at the Director's View Festival in 2001, and was later screened and won first place at the Big miniDV Film Festival that same year. In 2004, The Ethereal Plane was picked up at the American Film Market and sold to a Thailand distributor, as well as a contract with Amazon for sales and rentals.

Plot
The film begins with an exterior of a building in Area 51. Uncle Clarence (Gregorio de la Pagiano) greets an armed guard, and his card allows his entry into a highly secured lab. The guard goes about his business, when suddenly lights flash, a sonic boom fills his ears. Then a strange thing happens. Everything freezes. The guard's sugar packet draining into his coffee cup freezes in mid spill. Soon after, Clarence walks out of the lab, the guard still frozen in place.

Stamford, Connecticut, 6 months later. Damon Taylor (Ron Rogell) goes about his dull work routine attending door to door computer software sales meetings with his female partner Danielle (Bennie Jablonsky). His latest clients are not very friendly or cooperative, and have him wait while the wife is much more interested in talking on the phone to someone who found her earrings in a dressing room. Clarence's nephew Harrison (Gene Gabriel) minds his own business in a downtown area, when a sinister SUV pulls up and confiscates him. Two agents question the whereabouts of a device that his uncle stole, and they want it back. Harrison does not cooperate, and ends up stabbed in the stomach. He manages to escape their grip and runs away.

During his lunch break, Damon stumbles upon the bleeding Harrison in an alley. Harrison is near death, but he manages to plead with Damon to "find the device and come back for him". Grabbing Damon's pen, he quickly jots down the name of a woman named Kayla (Elizabeth Gallo), and her phone number. Before he can do anything else, the two agents show up. Harrison quickly gives him a password to tell Kayla. Damon is about to call 911, when they shoot the phone out of his hands. Damon flees, but the agents run up and shoot Harrison in the chest multiple times, killing him.

Shaken severely and bloodied, Damon finds a phone booth to call 911, when the agents find him and chase him in their SUV. Damon eludes them, ducking into a pizza parlor. He eventually makes his way home, where he decides to call Kayla.

Damon and Kayla meet at her house, and he informs her of his death. He brings up what Harrison had said to him, and the password. Kayla promptly brings out a small device with a knob that resembles a clock and gives it to him, as per Harrison's instructions.

In the anonymous safety of a park, Damon decides to take the machine and turn the knob counterclockwise. After a brief shock, Damon enters the ethereal plane, and time slows down fin the world around him. After some wandering around, and also briefly freezing time, he returns time to normal.

The agents once again find Damon. With the machine, he figures out now to reverse time. He does so, just as they are about to shoot him. Following his reverse-self back to the scene of the crime, Damon is able to find Harrison before the stabbing, and change the outcome. Together, they go back to Kayla's, where they are shot dead by the agents. Uncle Clarence shows up, having shot the agents and went back in time to save everyone.

In the end, Clarence and the group try to figure out what to do next with the machine. The agents show up, and the group touches the machine...sending them back into the ethereal plane.

Realizing the Script
When independent filmmaker Clarke M. Smith met actor Ron Rogell in a temp assignment in Stamford, CT, they discovered they had similar interests in filmmaking and science fiction. Clarke had written a treatment, which at the time was called "Dimensions", and he showed it to Ron. Ron, subsequently got excited to work in a Smith film after viewing a short he had just recently completed, called “Distant Echoes” (1999), which had also screened at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in May 2000.

At the time, Smith was not entirely ready to take on a new project, having just finished "Distant Echoes". But Ron liked the treatment so much, he encouraged Clarke to finish writing it as a feature length screenplay. Within a few weeks, Clarke hammered out the first draft, and the title changed to "The Ethereal Plane," a title thought up by Clarke's wife (and eventual co-producer of the film) Leilani L. Smith.

Shooting Details
Shooting lasted for 15 months, beginning in August 2000, ending November 2001. Ironically, the film’s storyline takes place in one day, specifically a 6-hour period. One of the challenges of the film was to maintain hair lengths, clothing, goatees, etc. Ron had to put on the ‘bloody shirt’ several times throughout the year, and of course, it could not be washed. Also, much of the film takes place in a grungy alley, and during the course of shooting, things changed.

All of the actors and crew in the film had ‘day jobs’ to attend to, and could only shoot one day a week, which was usually Sunday. But it became a scheduling nightmare, because several shoots required all or many of the actors to be present. Getting a group of volunteers together a few times is one thing, but the shoot required this to happen many times, and many times, not all were available. “Filmmakers complain about having such a low budget,” one crew member explains. “We had NO budget. The film cost roughly $5000, and that was for the camera, and the editing system.” This of course doesn’t include the gas used to get there (much of the cast lives in New York, one in New Jersey), and the food courtesy of Leilani running over to Subway or Dunkin’ Donuts.

Director Clarke M. Smith explained that he "wanted to prove, among other things, that it's possible to have a really good-looking movie with no money. I dare say that nothing as ambitious as The Ethereal Plane has ever cost so little. However, I don’t necessarily ever want to make something this big again without money behind it - the hard working cast more than deserves to be paid. Thank God they believed in the script and the project as much as I did.” Yael Martinez adds, “Being paid – not that I would have turned it down.  But we all did if for the love of the art and a chance of being part of something unique.    But most of all, because it was a blast, and I can’t wait for the next one.”

As shooting and editing would bring scenes together, Yael started working on the electronic score. “Music is my first love, and Ethereal Plane was my first acting gig. I’ve done a lot of R&B, and background vocals, but working on my first film score was a great experience. I could easily do this for a living.” Casting the film was an interesting process. After Rogell and Smith agreed to do the film, with Ron playing ‘Damon Taylor,’ they started thinking about who would be a good ‘Harrison.’  At the time, Ron was co-starring in a community theater production of “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” with actor Gene Gabriel.

Ron mentioned to him about this movie he was going to be in, and Gene took a look at the script and instantly loved it. Before anyone knew it, they had their ‘Harrison.’  Clarke and Leilani came to the show to meet Gene, and the deal was done.

When it came time to find the agents, Ron had an acting buddy named Tom Shay, and Gene had a high school buddy named Yael Martinez, who could also do music. The last principal cast member to find was ‘Kayla’. Rogell and the others had several possible ideas for an actress, but Smith had his eyes on Elizabeth Gallo.

“I cast Gregorio de la Pagiano as Uncle Clarence. He was in the last 3 short films I had made, and I thought he would be good in this supporting role.”

Gregorio's sister (Gallo) has had various film and television roles. “I thought Liz would be a great Kayla. I thought she could pull off the sort of sadness necessary to show what we don’t get to see in the film – that of her and Harrison’s friendship. We only learn of their relationship in exposition, and I needed someone who could make the audience feel her sorrow over his death, without ever seeing how or when the 2 characters knew each other.” Midway through shooting, the production had to shut down for 5 months for several reasons, namely because winter set in, and the film takes place on a ‘sunny summer afternoon.’  But it was also during this sad time that Smith’s stepfather Ande Felix, who for the past year had been battling an incurable case of melanoma cancer, passed away on New Year’s Eve of 2000. “If there’s one thing I wish about this movie,” Smith explained, “its that Ande could have seen it. He would have loved it, and been proud. I hope he’s proud right now.”  Mr. Felix had appeared in 5 of Smith’s short films over the years, during his college days. “You’ll see the dedication I put at the end of the film for Ande. He was always so encouraging and supportive of my work. For a while after he died, I didn’t care much about The Ethereal Plane, and we almost shelved it, especially when it was getting increasingly difficult to schedule actors at the same time. “In the springtime, all of a sudden it seemed, a bunch of them got acting gigs that they signed up for. “But as soon as the weather got warmer, we were back in the swing of things, determined more than ever to finish this movie.”

Shooting finally wrapped in November 2001, just in time to beat the cold weather. “Well, we didn’t beat the cold weather,” Ron said. “That awesome scene when my character is walking around the backwards world with nothing more than a shirt and pants, was freezing! After every take, I scrambled to put on my heavy coat.”  That was the last day of shooting. Smith said. "I have literally put my life on hold to finish this movie. The shooting was one thing, but with all the complicated special effects and action scenes, this was a killer to edit.  It took such a long time.  I haven’t exercised, haven’t done anything to the house we moved into 4 months ago, I stayed up half the nights, been pulling my hair out to finish what seemed like an endless battle. And I've developed what I call 'mouse elbow' - inflamed joints in my elbow, because editing is all mouse work.  Creativity mixed with stress and burnout is a ferocious combination of emotion. Yes I love my movie, but I don’t want to see an editing console for the next 6 months.”

Film Analysis
The way in which the time machine controlled time was slightly confusing to some viewers. The 3 o’clock position is neutral; the machine was essentially off. Moving it counter-clockwise (to 1 or 2) makes forward time slow down. The world continued to be normal, but the user (anyone touching the machine) was in the ethereal plane and could witness the world in slow motion. When the user moves the dial further counter-clockwise to 12 0’clock, time pauses. Back to 3 o’clock, time resumes normal speed, and if the user were to move elsewhere, anyone witnessing the user would see him/her suddenly move with lightning speed and resume normal speed once its turned off. This never happens in the film because Damon goes to slow motion at the bench, then freezes, and then turns it back off at the bench. The girl on the bench notices something odd happened, but can’t tell what. If she had been looking at him, he would have done some very odd looking things in super fast motion for just a moment.

When the dial is turned to the 9 o'clock position, time reverses. This is what saves Damon’s life in the elevator room. Time for his ‘backwards self’ goes in reverse, and his ‘forward self’ is there at the same time and in the ethereal plane. The user can also go further counter-clockwise, and reverse time speeds up. What was unexpected for Damon, is that when he finally turns the machine off (3 o’clock) his reverse self wormholes to wherever his reverse self was at that exact time. Time resumes normalcy, but he carries with him the knowledge of what happened in the future (which is why he remembered the phone call with Filene’s).

As stated in the end credits of the long version, there are a number of loose ends humorously explained:


 * Damon called his neighbor to take care of "Bobcat" while he is away. He will be fed.


 * Danielle did get picked up by a company car, and after things settled down, Damon brought her car back to her…but explaining what happened was a bit difficult.


 * Damon never did get his cell phone back.


 * No one really knows how the agents found them at the park at the end.

Smith received a slew of emails when the film was on Amazon Prime, since he stated in the end credits to “email me at ClakeMSmith@aol.com and say hey if you are reading this”.

Aftermath
With the movie finally done, the producers put on a huge premiere party. “We decided to go all out, “ explained Leilani, co-producer of The Ethereal Plane. “After all that work, the least we could do for the cast was have a huge party to say thanks.”  A huge party indeed. Leilani was able to get a video projector and screen, and they turned the basement into a terrific screening room. “Yes, the party cost some money, but it was worth it, “ she says. “All that work truly deserved a party of this magnitude, and it was a full house full of fans!”

“Even though the film is done and over,“ Smith said, “its now really just beginning. It's not my field, but we all want to get the film seen and distributed. We want to present it to several film festivals, of course, but also see what kind of market there is for distribution of this kind of production. I mean, if Blair Witch can do it, why can’t we?”

After its AFM distribution deal occurred, Smith was very excited about doing another feature and attempt more distribution success, especially if a more polished film could be made. However, getting another feature off the ground proved to be more difficult as the years went on. Smith wrote and developed the pre-production for a script he wrote called Wandering Shadows. While coming close to being greenlit in 2014 after an exhausting Indiegogo campaign, only enough money was raised for a short film. That film ended up being “Stover Hill”.

Only short films followed “The Ethereal Plane”, but Smith never gave up on doing another feature. He is currently shooting “Mystery Highway”, a feature that utilizes his own short films (and some others) in the context of the narrative. Some scenes have been shot, but to date, shooting is not complete.

Though Rogell and Gabriel had desired to make more films with Smith, they never did. This is due in large part because Smith moved to California in 2008. However, before that, Smith and Tom Shay (Agent 1) did two projects together; one Shay produced (“Sweet Miracle”), and one he acted in (“Shutting Down”).

Release
After the film’s world premier at the Director’s View Film Festival, other festivals followed. The most notable was its first place award at the 2002 MiniDV Film Festival in Brooklyn, NY. Across the nation, its last festival screening was at the Arizona Film Festival in Tucson, AZ. However, no one connected to the film, or anyone Smith knew, attended.

In 2004, the raw footage was re-captured with a higher quality firewire connection, and re-edited from scratch. Smith was able to incorporate a number of alternate shots previously unused, as well as some improved visual effects. This included effects such as having 2 Damons in the elevator room in which one crosses in front of the other with rotoscoping, as well as in the alley scenes. Smith found a sales agent named Darlene Cypser. Her distribution company Inferno Film was interested in representing the film at the AFM, with the caveat that it get a new musical score. The company liked the existing one, but felt it would have more success with a more moody and tonal score, rather than the more beat-driven action soundtrack style that it was. Smith agreed to have it rescored, and found Troy Sterling Nies at mandy.com. Nies was very excited to give the film a new sound and took it on. The score is available online at Bandcamp. Once complete, Smith and Cypser were very happy with it, and off it went to the American Film Market. It was then sold to Taiwan distributor B&N Entertainment], garnering Smith his first ever monetary payment for the film. An agreement was also reached for Amazon sales and rentals. After many years there, it was removed due its peak ending. Other distribution outlets included GoDigital Media Group and Bifrost Distribution (now merged with Inferno Motion Pictures). Most recently, a much shorter and streamlined 45 minute pilot version can be found free on reveelmovies.com.

Reception
In his review at Microfilmmaker Magazine, Jeremy Hanke said that the film "has a lot of potential" and that "they did a whole lot with virtually no budget at all".

S. Michael Simms of IAJS Entertainment had this to say in his review on Facebook:

The Ethereal Plane: An Experiment in Fantastical IntrigueWhen an unlucky door to door salesman stops to help a stranger who has been mortally wounded and accepts a bizarre device from him along with mysterious instructions to seek out an unknown accomplice and "come back for him", he is suddenly thrust into an adventure story in the vein of "Enemy of the State" and "The Terminator". Where Clarke M. Smith's Sci-Fi adventure "The Ethereal Plane '' succeeds the most is in capturing the imagination of the viewer by placing an everyday average Joe in the shoes of a man on the run hunted down by agents of a secret government bureau who are trying to get their hands on the device he carries which turns out to be the most important invention in the history of the world.  The relentless pursuit and ensuing drama are real edge of your seat material, as well as a special effects extravaganza that will have you pausing and rewinding to have another look.

Some of the best moments in the film occur when the main character experiments with the device (which turns out to have the ability to move the person using it both forward and backward in time at any given speed!) as any normal person would, not in an attempt to alter reality or some other ambitious goal, but simply to play around with it and see what it does. This level of realism is surprising to see in a low budget film and really carries you through to the end— from the camaraderie of the everyman and the stranger he does eventually muster up the courage to go back and save, to the unexpected (and violent) ending, "The Ethereal Plane" succeeds where other films of its ilk fail by giving the time travel plot device a new spin and pacing itself as an almost real time drama. Not since Johnny Depp's box office thriller, "Nick of Time" has this been accomplished with such finesse. Smith's imaginative combination of fantasy and intrigue as well as a fine turn by all the film's players puts "The Ethereal Plane" way up on the list of independent science fiction film must-sees.

International Bootlegging
After the film was distributed in Thailand via Inferno Film Productions, as well as rentals and sales at Amazon, the film became bootlegged internationally. Below is a sample of places the film can be found.


 * The Ethereal Plane at Movie.Douban


 * The Ethereal Plane at Lost Film


 * The Ethereal Plane at Movie Session


 * The Ethereal Plane at Movie Jones


 * The Ethereal Plane at Celebri


 * The Ethereal Plane at My Film Guide

Video links

 * Official Trailer


 * “The Ethereal Plane" (2004) (Full Movie - Pilot Version)


 * “Inside The Plane” (2004)


 * "The Ethereal Plane" (2004) Bloopers Collection


 * Thailand Release of The Ethereal Plane (clip) (2004)