I’m a person that appreciates the imagination,” Gary Lee Vincent says. Gary is a West Virginia native, born in Clarksburg and growing up in a small West Virginia town. While in high school, his interest in music led to becoming a musician and he’s released three albums, each reflecting different genre. Gary’s eventual career in Information Technology provided a respectable profession but it didn’t allow him much creativity. Needing a creative outlet and wanting to write some edgy stories, he launched Burning Bulb Publishing in 2009.
“It’s a really hard process for an unknown author to get published by one of the traditional large trade publishers. Many try the route of going through a vanity press tied to a bigger publisher in hopes of getting to the big one. Rather than trying to compete with the traditional publishing model or creating a printing company (such as the vanity presses), I created what is basically a writer’s cooperative to help authors. The group of authors reviews the books and provides oversight and help with commercial appeal.”
Gary began by publishing a few nonfiction books about real estate and information technology. In 2010, Gary’s coworker Rich Bottles Jr. wanted to create an edgier line of horror. They agreed that each of their books should be set in West Virginia. Gary’s book, Darkened Hills, was a reimagining of ‘Salem’s Lot, set in Salem, WV, and Rich wrote Lumberjacked. Both were released at the West Virginia Book Fest that fall. Darkened Hills was named Foreword Review’s book of the year for horror. The series eventually expanded into six books and built a dedicated fan base.
Around 2011, Gary met John Russo and George Kosana while representing Burning Bulb’s books at the Pittsburgh Film Festival. John was the co-author of the Night of the Living Dead (NOTLD) screenplay and is a published author with a legacy of best-selling novels; George Kosana acted in NOTLD. Gary ‘s goal was to attract writers for a horror anthology, The Big Book of Bizarro, and approached John and George. They both submitted a story for the anthology. “I was kind of fanboying at the time, that we got Jack [Russo] to submit a story,” he laughs.
A few years later, Gary ran into John at another local convention, HorrorRealm. John asked if he was still publishing, Gary confirmed, and John shared that he had a historical thriller called Dealey Plaza his current publisher didn’t want as, “it didn’t have any zombies in it.” Gary agreed to publish Dealey Plaza and it eventually became Burning Bulb’s first audiobook. Gary had just finished his third Darkened series book, and he and John agreed to begin touring together. Burning Bulb would also look at John’s catalog and publish some of his out-of-print books.
At a convention where no one was buying any books, Gary mentioned that it seemed pointless to be there, since everyone just wanted posters signed. John suggested that Gary should become an actor so that he could have posters to sign. Although Gary had no experience in film, he told John, “If you write a screenplay, I’ll produce it, we’ll cast ourselves in it, and make our own movie.”
Just a couple weeks later, John sent Gary a screenplay for My Uncle John is a Zombie. “I couldn’t believe it. He called my bluff,” Gary says. “Here’s this brilliant writer wanting to make this goofball movie. It was so ridiculous, but it was fun. I didn’t know at the time, but it would lead me down a very different path.”
Because Gary had no filmmaking experience, he began volunteering to help others with their movies to learn as much as possible. “I was applying for extra parts, acting roles, and sponsoring movies as a producer, just to be on set and learn the craft so that I would know something about producing a movie when the cameras rolled for ours.”
In December 2015, they filmed the movie. The premise? A zombie from NOTLD has spent the past 40 years hidden with his family and has become rehabilitated, and after being discovered becomes famous. The movie filmed, in Pittsburgh, Evans City and in Greene County, with some Greene County actors, like Michelle Bowser and Alex Shields.
In the original NOTLD, there is a scene in Evans City Cemetery with a 1968 Pontiac LeMans. For the film, they wanted to have Gary’s character drive the same car, but the owner of the original car said no. “Michelle [Bowser] found a guy in Waynesburg, John Riggi, with a 1968 LeMans that he agreed to let us use.” Gary remembers. “I drove the same route through the Evans City Cemetery for our movie like was done during NOTLD, and while filming that scene the car caught on fire several times and we had to keep putting it out. But it was such a cool scene,” Gary says with a laugh. “That same day one of the bystanders in the distance was Tom Savini. It was surreal.”
The movie took two years to get a distributor. Gary continued to act to gain credentials to help sell the movie. He has now worked on over 100 films and television projects, including landing small roles in major shows and movies, like Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, and Black Panther. “I found that I genuinely liked filmmaking, and it became this really cool hobby. I began treating it like a career, and I was applying for about 30 roles a month to land one role. One became two, and then three, and it kept going.”
Gary had met Michelle Bowser before her work on Uncle John and published her memoir, Don’t Yell at the Damn Desk Clerk. He suggested turning her Desk Clerk novel into an audiobook and, “As I heard her act it out vocally for the audiobook, I saw the movie come together in my head,” and they filmed it in 2019.
John shared with Gary that he had been trying to get his film Midnight remade for decades. “I told him that I was willing to make it if he was willing to let me try, so he agreed, coming onboard as executive producer of the remake.”
For Midnight, Gary and his crew once again turned to Greene County. They needed a good location and decided to set the film on Michelle’s father’s farm near Spraggs. Michelle plays the central baddie, Cynthia Barnes, who runs a satanic cult. Local talent (look for a cameo by Leigh Shields!) was used again, and other Greene County locations like Shields Demesne Winery and Clay-Battelle High School can be seen in the film. “We even filmed a chase scene filmed along Spraggs Road, that cuts up by the mine that goes through Kirby.”
Gary’s film work has taken him all over North America and Central America. When asked what he enjoys the most when working in film, Gary says he enjoys acting the best. “Acting is another way to create and you can take on another person’s life for the time that you are in the role. One day you can be a federal agent, another day a teacher, and another a monster.”
One of the most rewarding things Gary has experienced was on a project called Godsend, about a homeless man with a head injury befriended by a dog. The group showed the movie to a group of approximately 200 to 300 homeless people at a mission/church, and during the showing, DVDs were given away, and a plate was passed around for donations. At the end of the presentation, a massive jar of change had been donated with more than $700 of change inside.
“I was humbled by the warm response that we got from the group. I was speechless. I realized that we made something that struck a chord with that group. That night they got to see their life on the screen and they like someone understood them. [The change] was like a biblical miracle with the fish. It drove home that I might be on to something,” Gary says. “So many of them came to us afterwards and said how much it meant to them. That was one of those moments I will always remember as a filmmaker.”
“I believe that the force behind things that makes life enjoyable is the creative imagination. Burning Bulb’s logo is a light bulb lighting up, reflecting a person’s bright idea. The thought was that if the light bulb going off in your head shines bright enough, it will reach the rest of the world.”
“Pursue [your dreams]. Do not let the negative opinions of others dissuade your dreams,” Gary recommends to others. “Ignore them. Do your thing. Make your art. And be respectful enough of the work to make it good.”
Gary’s most recent projects include Shoulder Down, a body builder documentary that he is working on in Canada, and two films: Faded Memories, a horror comedy, and the just-released Strange Friends filmed in Tucson AZ; Strange Friends has a sequel in the works to be filmed locally. FMI, visit www.garyvincent.com or www.BurningBulbProductions.com.
