Scotchworthy Productions, Inc. (S.P.I.) was founded in 2005 by independent filmmaker Tony Wash.  Based upon the desire to see movies filled with the excitement and “magic” that was abound in the “classics” of the 70s and 80s, Mr. Wash decided to take his artistic passion and revered dedication to create movies that cater to the cravings of the fans.  “My friends and I were sick of leaving the theater disappointed asking ourselves, ‘Why didn’t they do this or what the heck was the point of that?’  Instead of waiting for another director to satisfy my palette, I decided to tackle the task of creating a feature length movie myself.” 

The name Scotchworthy Productions spawns from a bet between friends Tony Wash and Cinematographer Bill Balek.  “Bill and I worked for a sales company the summer before our senior year of college and during one of the large sales pushes, two competing district managers bet a $1500 bottle of scotch on whose reps would sell the most product.”  Soon after, Mr. Balek and Mr. Wash bet a bottle of scotch on the quality of movies they were seeing in theaters.  “There were a lot of crappy movies, especially in the horror genre that were coming out in the early part of the 21st century” said Mr. Wash.  “I bet Bill a bottle of scotch that we wouldn’t see a good horror film until we made one ourselves.”  Laughing, Tony states, “Though our bet was for a bottle much cheaper than $1500, the principle of the wager is what caused me to give my company its name.” 

After a stint in the “real world” as a marketing manager for an architectural firm, Mr. Wash told himself that he would never be truly happy unless he were to pursue his passion of filmmaking.  “I’ve loved movies since I was a kid and ever since I worked at a video store in high school, I realized that filmmaking was the only occupation that I could truly enjoy.”  With that mindset, Tony picked up and moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he spent the next sixteen months attending Tom Savini’s Special FX School.  “I went to the school mainly for its networking potential, but also because I’ve always enjoyed and been amazed by the physical FX that make films so much more believable.” 

In the summer of 2005 the creation of Scotchworthy Productions was the result of the completion of two feature length scripts, Contained/Lot #449 (working title) and It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To.  “There was a guy who went to school with me who was renting an old funeral parlor to live in.  My friend Nathan told me to bring my camera over and explore the house with him as a potential location for a movie.  After touring the place I knew it was too good of a set to ignore.”  Both Nathan and Tony decided to work on separate stories using the location as a basis and thus became the inception of Scotchworthy Productions.    “I realized that it would take too much money to create Contained the way it deserved to look so I sat down and threw together Party in a month or so.”  With the help of fellow Savini Special FX School student, Christopher Patrick, Tony put together the stories that led to both scripts and began the tedious process of bringing his first feature length movie into fruition.  The development of It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To began with lighting and camera tests followed by auditions and the search for a perfect crew.  “The school allowed me to use one of the classrooms to hold auditions and after six days, I found my cast.”  Though a majority of the supporting cast were fellow special FX school students, It’s My Party’s three main actresses were from a nearby college.  “Adrienne, Darcy and Danielle all came in on the last day after I’d already picked out a cast that I was happy with, but not ecstatic.  I figured that it couldn’t hurt to let them try out and I got really lucky.  It was as if I had written each of the characters off of these girls’ personalities.”  Next, Mr. Wash held meetings to find both his crew.  “We went through a lot of people who said they wanted to help and then never showed up.  But as things began rolling the handful of dedicated crew members emerged and stuck with the project until the final ‘cut’ was called.”

Though Mr. Wash credits his time on the set of It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To as some of the best in his life, it wasn’t all fun and games.  “First off, we were shooting in February and the house had no heat.  I bought a bunch of space heaters, but unfortunately the house had poor wiring so we were constantly blowing fuses.  We had to ration the use of heaters so that we could run the lights while shooting.  The rooms were also too large to heat so we had one room with the heaters going non stop and the rest of the house was freezing cold.  There also wasn’t any running water in the house.  When the actresses had to use the restroom, we had to drive them down the street and we had to bring in bottled water for the make-up and such.”  Climate and the poor conditions of the location were not the only problems to plague the set of It’s My Party.  “There were constant scheduling conflicts because everyone still had class or work.  We really had to scrounge together on most aspects of the production because time and money were at a minimum.  Regardless of how many negatives were shoved down our throats on a daily basis, we managed to muscle our way through the difficulties and finished shooting a feature length horror film.  I honestly cannot thank the friends who believed in the project and stuck with it until the end.  The cast and crew of It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To are my family and will be invited to work with me on every production I create from this point forth.”

In April of 2006 It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To wrapped on its principal photography and Mr. Wash moved back to Illinois.  “I’d just spent my life savings making a movie and had to dedicate a lot of time into editing it so I had to move back home.”  Mr. Wash spent the next year and a half editing the movie as well as putting together other Scotchworthy projects.  “We decided to do a series of pick up shots first in January of 2007 and then again in late June.”  A tremendous addition to the project through these pick up shots was the inclusion of genre veteran Tom Savini (From Dusk ‘Til Dawn, Grindhouse.)  “I contacted Tom and asked if he’d be willing to help us with the movie.  It really helps your chances of distribution if there is a well known actor in your cast.”  When asked how Mr. Wash felt about directing Tom Savini he said, “It was really great!  Personally, I’ve watched movies that this man has had direct influence on since I was a child and now he’s listening to me and for the cast and crew it was a great learning experience for us all.  Tom came on set and really dug into the excitement that has fueled our project from day one.  Everyone had a smile on their face while he was on set.” 

Other landmark occurrences throughout 2007 include the incorporation of Scotchworthy Productions in February as well as the introduction of both Mitch Martinez and Rhodrick Magsino to the Scotchworthy team.  “Rhodrick is the younger brother of a friend of mine from high school.  We ran into one another and he mentioned that his brother was doing sound design in college.  He contacted me and agreed to help give It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To a professionally polished soundtrack and I was all for the assistance.”  Mr. Martinez lent a hand with the pick up shots on It’s My Party and has since become an important part of the Scotchworthy Productions family.  “Mitch and I talked about him shooting my next feature, Sweet Dreams.  When we postponed Dreams, I mentioned that we would be doing pick up shots for It’s My Party and that I’d really like his help if he were willing.”  Without ever having met Tony or his crew, Mitch drove from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to spend a week making It’s My Party look as good as it possibly could.  “I will always appreciate the faith Mitch had in me and this project.  Not only did he take my vision and put it on tape, but he managed to organize and create a professional DVD as well.”

It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To was entered in twelve film festivals and became an Official Selection of six.  Party was nominated for Best Make-up and Special FX from the B-Movie Film Festival in Syracuse, NY and won the Audience Choice Award at the Illinois International Film Festival in St. Charles.  It’s My Party’s crowning achievement came at the Full Moon Film Festival in Little Rock, AR.  “I happened to be checking the movie’s myspace account the Monday after the movie played in three different festivals and figured on check the Full Moon’s profile out.  They had a bulletin up announcing the winners of the festival and to my complete and utter shock, we had won Best Feature!”  The news was a tremendous victory for the Scotchworthy team that had spent so much time, effort and passion to create It’s My Party.  “I absolutely couldn’t believe it.  Charles Band (President of Full Moon Pictures) and Stuart Gordon (Director, Re-Animator) had chosen our movie over all the competition to win the grand prize!” 

With It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To’s successes backing them up, Scotchworthy Productions decided to move forward and begin work on a handful of new projects.  Things That Go Bump in the Night, a five minute short film was Christopher Patrick’s answer to the Chiller TV channel’s Dare to Direct short film contest.  “The top winners of the contest would get their short films played on national television on Halloween night so I got a hold of Tony and told him that we should make a movie and enter it.”  Things That Go Bump was shot and edited in less than two weeks with Mr. Patrick and Mr. Wash maintaining control over all of the major aspects of the production.  “Chris wrote, produced and directed the short as well as created all the special FX and I shot, edited and composed the music” said Mr. Wash.  Things That Go Bump in the Night was one of the top fifteen finalists out of over 300 short films to be selected to be shown on Chiller TV on Halloween night.  “We were so freakin’ excited!  First It’s My Party was receiving acclaim and now our short film was going to be on national television!”  Though Things That Go Bump in the Night was never shown in its entirety, clips of the movie were shown in all three commercial spots advertising the Halloween special and a clip was featured in the opening sequence of the show itself.  “I was really disappointed to find that it was all a popularity contest, but we still got our work on national television which was really great to see.”
2008 and the years to come hold nothing but promise for the Scotchworthy Productions family.  Sweet Dreams is well into the final stages of development and everyone is getting marketing and merchandise ideas together for the upcoming horror conventions.  “We’ve been working on shirt designs, posters and all sorts of other stuff as well as getting the website up and running.  It’s great to see everything finally starting to come together and I am looking forward to continuing to make movies that fans enjoy for as long as they’ll continue to go see them.”