National Vampire is a documentary about people living “the Vampire Lifestyle” all over the USA. Geoff Harkness is a Chicago-based documentarian. Following, he shares some details about how National Vampire came to be…

Making National Vampire
by Geoff Harkness

The idea for National Vampire came to me in a dream. In the dream, I was buying a six-pack of beer at a convenience store. The clerk — a vampire replete with a gleaming set of fangs — somehow knew that I was a filmmaker and told me, “You should make a documentary about us. We’re everywhere. Nationwide.” The next day, I Googled the web for vampires and happened upon Dnash, a fangmaker from Connecticut. I e-mailed and Dnash agreed to do an interview if I was ever in the neighborhood. As it happened, I was going to be in New York City in a few weeks and arranged a meeting. As luck would have it, Dnash had a client coming in the day of our interview. The client and her husband graciously agreed to let me shoot the fang fitting. National Vampire was born. I spent the whole day hanging out with Dnash, who turned out to be a funny, smart guy with a gift for gab. During an interview that lasted more than three hours, Dnash regaled me with stories and filled me in on the various subsets of the vampire culture: the role-playing gamers, the bondage and fetish crowd, the goth-music scene, the vampire tours, Halloween, blood drinkers. I knew it would be a great documentary — now I had to put it together. All of this occurred in December, 2002. At the time, I was living in Lawrence, Kansas and getting a master’s in sociology.

A few weeks before the vampire dream, an old friend came to visit from Chicago. He liked what he saw of my documentary work and he told me that if I ever had a great idea for a documentary, that he’d help finance it. Enter Paul Marinescu, the producer. Paul and I go back a long way — almost 20 years. When I told him about the vampire idea, he gave it an immediate thumbs up and agreed to invest in the project by supplying new cameras and lighting equipment (a first!). I had the financial backing and the idea, now all I had to do was find some vampires.

The first step was to become a vampire scholar of sorts. I had very little background in vampires, although I did play Dracula in the fifth-grade play, had read Anne Rice books and seen the more popular vampire films. But that didn’t prepare me for the vast subculture that was out there. In the early stages of research, I came across the writings of Katherine Ramsland. Her book Piercing the Darkness seemed similar to the project I was undertaking: searching for the hidden world of vampires. Ramsland’s study was inspired, in part, by the unsolved murder of a journalist who was researching the vampire scene, the connections between seemingly disparate worlds. At first glance, it seemed that a mild-mannered Anne Rice fan had nothing in common with blood drinkers or role-playing gamers. But they’re interrelated — all of these people are attracted to vampires, but for completely different reasons. The various subsets form a loose network, a six degrees of vampire separation if you will. That’s what I wanted this documentary to be about.

I Googled my brains out looking for vampires and found them everywhere. I sent dozens of e-mail inquires. Most didn’t respond but some did and I started putting together a loose summer “tour” of vamp-related events. Live-action role-playing gamers in Dayton, Ohio, blood drinkers in Houston, Texas, vampires all over New York City. Katherine Ramsland even agreed to do an interview, a coup for the project. I decided to go on tour.
With new equipment in hand and the go-ahead from Paul the Producer, I hired a couple of buddies to help me start shooting. Enter Jeff Roos and Eliott Reeder. I had worked with Jeff and Eliott several times in the past, and knew it would be fun to go on the road with them in search of vampires. In summer 2003, we rented a van, loaded it with equipment, and hit the road. We drove hundreds of miles during the day and stayed in cheap motels at night. Eliott and I waged on ongoing Scrabble war, with Eliott kicking my ass on a regular basis. We drove to Houston, Dayton, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and back again. Returning home a few weeks later, I was thrilled to have more than 50 hours of footage, more than enough to make a documentary. But not this documentary. I needed more.

Being a graduate student means being up to my ass in work 9 months of the year. On breaks and holidays, I did rough edits of the footage we’d shot over the summer. Friends who saw it said it was hilarious and urged me to continue. In the summer of 2004, I decided to go “pro” and really finish this thing. By this time, I’d relocated to Chicago and needed to find a new crew. I placed an ad on Craig’s List looking for help.

Hundreds of responses poured in. I couldn’t even read them all. I interviewed dozens of candidates, looking for people who “got” the project and seemed cool to work with. One of the best responses was from Kjirstin M Leach, who went on to play a large role in the project. In my notes, I wrote: “One of the better e-mails I’ve received. Seems cool and knows what she’s doing but not a pro which is good.” Kjirstin was hired. I also tried a few other people, eventually setting on Sarah Metz, whose own documentary on Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans made her a perfect fit. During the summer of 2004, we shot a torture show and a suspension show in Minneapolis, a goth-themed night held in a Chicago church, and several interviews, including Marty Riccardo at his Vampire Studies Center, and Ron Fitzgerald and his lovely assistant Deb Web. While attending a sociology conference in San Francisco, I filmed a vampire tour as well as a fascinating interview with two 20-something blood drinkers from San Jose (sadly, this interview did not make the final cut). I also started making plans to shoot during Halloween, when vampire activity is at its peak. In October, 2004, we returned to New York City to shoot Long Black Veil, a yearly vampire ball. We shot Marty Riccardo’s vampire “hypnosis” in Midlothian, Illinois, and we went back to Houston for a second and more in-depth interview with Vlad and Cattarina, the blood-drinkers. We also went to New Orleans on Halloween weekend, where there was a ton of vamp-related activity going on. By November 1, 2004, I finally knew I had all the footage I needed. It was time to edit. It took more than six months to go through the hundreds of hours of footage we’d amassed. Having two cameras shoot almost everything meant double the work. But the footage was pure gold and National Vampire slowly began to take shape. The documentary that came to me in a dream was a reality.

National Vampire DVDs and T-shirts are now available at www.passimstore.com.