By BRENDAN deROODE WEST
Evening Sun Reporter
After six years of research and five months of shooting, Fairfield-based Exspiro Productions wrapped their first film, "The Other Side."
The 90-minute documentary deals with the relationships between different aspects of paranormal investigations.
"We talked to people who run ghost tours, tour guides, people on the tours, skeptics and psychology experts," said Tonya Keyser, of Fairfield.
Keyser and her husband, Andy, founded Exspiro to produce the documentary.
While there's a lot of interest in the paranormal in Adams County, Keyser said she is not sure if the phenomena people report are because of that interest or the area itself.
"That's one of the things the film explores," she said.
"The Other Side" does not draw any definite conclusions, and Keyser does not know if it will add anything to the paranormal community.
"But it will open a dialogue," she said. "People have their beliefs in place. (They) have the tendency to look at evidence through the eyes of their belief system. If you go on a ghost tour and you believe (in ghosts), any story they tell you, anything that may happen, you're automatically going to attribute it to a ghost."
Likewise, skeptics on tours assert anything that may happen to them is just unexplained.
"Even if Casper the Friendly Ghost came up and shook your hand, you're going to say there's another explanation that maybe you don't have an understanding of yet."
But if people watch the film and find they've encountered something similar, they can contact one of the experts featured, Keyser said.
Keyser said she and her husband have never made a film before, but have been interested in the paranormal for a while.
"Both of us have had things happen we weren't able to explain," she said.
Ghosts are a big part of how the Keysers met.
"I was living in the Philadelphia area," Keyser said of when she first experienced a paranormal encounter. "So I went to a local research group, and (Andy) was working there at the time."
Andy's background as a history professor was helpful during the six years of research, Keyser said.
"(Andy) was able to spot some of the inconsistencies between history and ghost stories," she said.
The Keysers plan to submit the film to a number of film festivals, including the Slamdance Film Festival in California.
"We'd like to get the money we invested back, but? ." Keyser said, adding they do not anticipate making a lot of money on the project.
The film was shot on a budget of less than $10,000, which included the editing software and equipment, Keyser said.
The company traveled as far as Missouri, New York and Virginia for interviews and tag-along investigations.
"We went to St. Louis to investigate and film with members of a paranormal research team," Keyser said. " We went to Amherst (N.Y.) to interview Benjamin Radford, managing editor of The Skeptical Inquirer. And we went to Richmond (Va.) to interview members of the Center for Paranormal Research and Investigation."
Exspiro also interviewed people from Ghosts of Gettysburg, Ghostly Images and a tour on the Comedy Ghost Tour.
"The Other Side" was not originally planned to come out as a film, Keyser said.
They had planned on writing a book on the subject, but opted to use film because of the impact of that medium.
"I think it will reach a wider audience," Keyser said. "As a book it would come across as kind of dry. When you have people explaining it on film, and visual evidence to back it up, you can show the point a person is trying to make. It drives the point home."
Exspiro is currently looking into locations at which they could screen the film sometime this fall. A trailer for the film is available at the company's Web site, www.exspiro
productions.com.
Contact Brendan deRoode West at bwest@eveningsun.com.
ABOUT HIM
Name: Joe Dougherty
Position: New police chief in Gettysburg
Hometown: Reading
Family: Married four years with one son and one stepson
Education: Bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Southwest University in Louisiana, graduate of the FBI National Academy
Military service: 27 years in the U.S. Army and the National Guard
http://www.eveningsun.com/localnews/ci_4500270
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