By WKTV Staff
It was a simple question from one of his students that helped Clayton Veltkamp rekindle his passion to become a filmmaker.
Veltkamp graduated from Western Michigan University with a broadcasting degree and then earned a master’s in Film and TV Production from the academy of Art in San Francisco all with the goal of becoming a filmmaker. He would embark on a freelance career that has spanned a decade.
Returning to Michigan for family reasons, Veltkamp continued to do freelance client work, and took a summer job teaching Digital Movie Making to teenage students as part of Ferris State University’s Kendall College of Art and Design’s Continuing Studies Program.
In the summer of 2017, one of his students asked him “Have you ever made a movie? No? How come?” And, that was all the inspiration Veltkamp needed. Veltkamp’s one time dream of becoming a filmmaker became an overnight obsession.
The result is the film “Dark Justice,” set to kick off WKTV’s Midnite Movies on Friday. The movie airs at midnight on Nov. 9.
The story is of a detective investigating a series of vigilante murders that threaten a shaky truce between rival criminal gang leaders. The detective must solve the case before the outlaw plunges the city into chaos. But, when confronted by the corruption and injustice that motivates the killer, the detective joins their righteous quest seeking revenge of his own.
Working within a strict budget of $7,000 and drawing off his love for comic books and fantasy, Veltkamp spent the next few months developing his feature film script, scouting locations, and networking with potential actors. On March 26, 2018, principal photography began.
With a skeleton crew of eager helpers, a 4k cinema camera borrowed from local public access station WKTV, and a single building from the 1800s that he managed to gain free range of; Clayton spent the next month and a half getting all the shots, wrapping up production on May 12, 2018.
Drawing on his years as a freelance editor, he locked in the picture within a month and enlisted the help of a local sound designer and recording studio Trulogic Media to handle the final sound mix. The goal was to have the film finished by July so he could begin the process of entering film festivals and preparing for AFM where he will seek distribution and networking opportunities.
The film features Vernon “Chip” Wienke III as Detective Murray and Ms. Michigan Brittany Styles as Murray’s partner Detective McMaster. Also in the cast are Michael Gordon as Morretti, Dirk Hughes as Savator, Tom Black as Chief Pickett, and Laine Fleszar as Marry.
The film is currently available through Amazon Prime. For more on the film, visit www.cultivationcinema.com.
