THE MOOSHIANS ARE COMING...OR HOW A LATE NIGHT RADIO TALK SHOW INSPIRED ARMAGEDDON.

Making a feature film on the cheap is a daunting task at best. At worst it’s late nights starring at a computer monitor, eyes burning, trying to get that one edit just right or standing in the freezing cold rain for hours on end trying to get that one shot perfectly captured on film. Hot Rod Girls Save The World is my first (and hopefully not my last) attempt at making a feature length indie film. It incorporates all the elements of my favorite film styles. Black & White, Film Noir, Exploitation, Horror, Car Chase and Sci-Fi. Films like The Day The Earth Stood Still, Eraserhead, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, The Birds and even the campy 60’s TV Show- The Munsters.
The screenplay for Hot Rod Girls Save The World clearly reflects these influences, but one of the not so obvious inspirations for my film was Coast To Coast AM- a late night radio show hosted by George Noory on week nights and Art Bell on the weekends. Coast To Coast is all about the world of the paranormal. Subjects can range from UFO Abductions, Ghosts and Exorcisms to NDE (near death experiences) and Remote Viewing. They also have open lines where anyone can call in and say their piece. It's unbelievable how many people swear they saw a UFO, Ghost or Angel. Some may be faking, just to talk on the radio, but more often than not, it sounds like the caller really believes they saw something very out of the ordinary. If that many people believe this stuff is real...well...you do the math. Something very real is going on. I also think Coast To Coast has become one of the most listened to radio shows of all time because Art and George are very down to earth radio personalities.
They also seem to have a love the medium of itself. Sometimes Art will mention his affinity for Ham Radio Operators and the hobby. My common law step father had the same affinity. He had been wheel chair ridden all his life, and found Ham Radio to be a form of liberation. He could communicate equally with people all around the world with out discrimination because of his handicap. He later went on to become a senior dispatcher for San Bernardino County, helping to save thousands of lives over the course of his career. He was also the first person I knew that used the precursor to the internet. This was back in the mid 1980’s. He had a little Commodore 64 that he would log on to local BBS and chat for hours. Ham Radio is, in my mind, very similar to the internet. Anonymous yet personal instantaneous communication. Anyway, back to Coast To Coast.
I have been listening to the show faithfully since the late 90’s. Sometimes I have trouble falling to sleep and there is something very relaxing about Coast To Coast. Keeps the mind occupied until the dreams come. Trouble is, I always fall asleep half way through the night, so I miss a good deal of each show.
When I was developing the screenplay for HRGSTW I was having trouble coming up with a reason why the Mooshians (alien characters in the story) would want to destroy our little planet. There was a guest on Coast To Coast talking about the distance between the stars and how long it takes light to travel across the universe. He mentioned the film Contact with Jody Foster and how the aliens had returned copies of our very first TV transmissions (scenes of a speech by Adolph Hitler- the first televised event) back to us. I was very familiar with the film and I started thinking about the noises we are broadcasting into deep space. Years and years of our world culture, sometimes artistic, sometimes mundane, blasting through space forever. But what if this radio and televised Earthly personae was not welcome. What if it were seen as interfering noise, a problem, like the air pollution we inadvertently create in the name of progress. What if we were seen as an intergalactic annoyance, like roaches or aphids. This became my inspiration for a Mooshian inflicted Earthly Armageddon. As our media waves hit the planet Moosha Maa, they started screwing with the Mooshian version of Television. I saw this scene in my head played by Honey Mooner Jackie Gleason, in Mooshian make-up and a beer stained wife beater yelling, “Alice...the TV’s on the fritz again!” What if that was how we met our Earthly demise. Like Marvin the Martian (I love that guy) destroying the Earth because it “obstructs my view of Venus.” Pretty funny idea- huh. -D.A. Sebasstian (Writer & Director of Hot Rod Girls Save The World)