Sorry it took me so long to check back in here!
It would take more than one lousy experience, to put me off of filmmaking! Anyway, I knew going in, that Attic Expeditions might not "pay off," for me, other than earning the cult following I wrote it to attract; director Kasten and producers Gold and Griffiths were always shady characters, even when we were in school at Emerson together, and Kasten was always a very shaky filmmaker, as I knew from making student films with him, circa '89-'91... in fact, the reason Attic Expeditions is about "madness" in exactly the way it is, was a dodge I devised to cover Jeremy's raging weaknesses as a director - I knew the narrative was going to end up pretty close to completely incoherent, because Jeremy wouldn't know where to place the camera (despite having a BRILLIANT cinematographer, for the house scenes!), or how to cut the stuff he shot... but he WOULD have pretty dream sequences; dream sequences and hallucinations are all Kasten ever did right, in his Emerson student films, so I figured, you know, if the whole movie, it's one long hallucination or dream sequence, maybe it'll turn out okay, visually... it will (I figured then) cover his problem with narrative coherence, too, if it's all a dream or a hallucination - people will think the incoherence is intentional, that it's SUPPOSED to be disorganized and hard to follow... (It seems to have worked, though I suppose The Attic Expeditions works better, if, as the writer, I keep quiet on this subject, and let people think genuine madness crept into the script!)
I did write several more Hollywood movies in quick succession in 2000-2001, right after Attic; one was produced (the director was one of Attic's ancillary producers, Melissa Balin), a comedy called Freezerburn. Freezerburn unfortunately hasn't come out on DVD yet (its release has been held up by, um, some legal / rights issues, that I may not be allowed to mention). It's smaller than Attic, and even weirder, if you can believe that... (But don't get it confused with two OTHER "indie" comedies called Freezerburn, that are out there!) As of this writing, you have to come over to my house, to see it... or, I guess, Melissa's...
Mainly the reason I've been so quiet, is a serious illness. In 2001 I was more-or-less stricken down by a condition called ankylosing spondylitis; like any chronic crippling illness, it's a long story, the relevant bit of which, is that I've only been able to write a very little bit, in the years since then. Lately I have reasons to hope it'll be getting much better soon, and I have taken up writing regularly again, though I guess I won't drop names, or hint hints, regarding my current projects, outside of private correspondence, as I don't want to jinx anything, or get myself in trouble with anyone's representation...
So although I'm too ill to keep my nose to the grindstone twenty four seven, I haven't died or retired, or (as Attic might lead you to wonder) gone totally insane or succumbed (entirely) to the drugs; I've just been "out sick" for the last eight years. Hopefully that will change, soon, and when it does, I hope to be making "bigger" movies, with a little more polish, a little more money in them, a little more confidence. The creeping cult success of Attic has "qualified" me to... You never know, though: Hollywood is a wild weird place, and you have to make the movies you CAN make, which is how and why I got tangled up with skanky filmmakers, who made a wildly uneven little movie, to begin with. If you want to write Hollywood movies, you have to shove your foot in the door, the second anyone opens it a crack, even if they just opened it so they could ask you to bend over... metaphorically speaking...
If you want more details than I can get into relating here, look me up at Facebook (or Myspace, I guess, though the place is a ghost town, lately); there aren't too many Rogans in the world, so I'm easy to find. It's always a pleasure to talk to Attic Expeditions fans; even if the movie turned out only so-so, compared to the script, and the production never paid me, it's still a fun strange movie, that I'm very proud of my involvement in.
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