You never know what to expect from Fostoria filmmaker Matt Erman.
Sometimes you’ll get a trippy sci-fi-influenced journey through the cosmos like his short film Universal Drift, shown at the recent Glass City Film Festival. Or you may encounter his berserk film Mental State: Revelation, a touching story about a deranged priest who electrocutes a teenage girl to make her sweat so he can mix it into a tea to sell in stores.
Yet, the affable, soft-spoken Erman is not some eccentric David Lynch-wannabe— he’s a professional.
Reel well-rounded
Erman owns the professional media production company Capture 1 Studios, and is often hired out by TV studios, event promoters, and producers to cover various conventions, sporting events, and trade shows. To date, Capture 1 has filmed events with Arnold Schwarzenegger and professional athletes such as Pittsburgh Steelers icon and Ohio native Ben Roethlisberger.
Through it all, his first love is filmmaking and telling stories. “I’m trying to be as diverse as I can possibly be, which is why I can make a film like Mental State: Revelation and then turn around and make Universal Drift, said Erman from the Capture 1 offices in Fostoria. “A science fiction guy might watch Universal Drift, then watch Mental State, and be surprised that the same person made both films, saying to himself, ‘Wow, I want to see what else this guy made.’ That’s how you create a fan.”
Erman’s Universal Drift was inspired by his love of space and the life-changing event of seeing Star Wars as a kid.
“George Lucas is the guy who got me thinking about space. Like millions of others (Star Wars) opened a whole new world for me and I just became obsessed with the stars.”
Erman first turned his fascination with astronomy into a cool hobby, taking photos of celestial bodies with his camera. All the stars featured in the six-minute Universal Drift are actual images taken by Erman of the Ohio night sky.
Outside in
As he grew up, Erman maintained a healthy interest in the outdoors, eventually enrolling in Hocking College to train as a park ranger. He soon discovered that a career in forestry was not what he had envisioned.
“I just realized that being a park ranger was not going to be up my alley,” said Erman. “But one day at school, as I was walking down a hallway wondering what I was going to do with my life, I saw the TV broadcasting and production classroom.”
Inspiration struck like a shot from a Han Solo blaster. He changed majors immediately to TV and Film Production and after working for
several years as a graphic designer, he founded Capture1 last January and now produces media full-time. When he’s not filming a special event, he’s hard at work making movies.
Erman is currently shopping Universal Drift to other film festivals around the country. He is also in post-production for his upcoming thriller The Legend of Holcomb Road, a spooky film based on a stretch of road in Wood County that is home to dozens of urban legends about ghosts and strange creatures in the woods.
“This is literally a dream come true to be able to do what I love full-time,” said Erman. “I’m a blessed man.”
Matt Erman’s films can be seen on the Capture 1 Studios YouTube channel and at www.capture1online.com