Staff Writer 

How do you create enough fake snow to simulate a real Maine blizzard without using expensive special effects or an indoor Hollywood movie studio?

With flakes from real Maine potatoes, of course.

“In the twenties and the thirties they used to use Asbestos,” J.B. Movies and Visual Arts Director and Producer John Bosley said. “Obviously for health reasons they had to stop.”

Making snow is just one of the tricks   Bosley, a former South Portland resident, employed during the filming of “Amnesia,” his most recent film, which took six years to complete. 

He described the film as post-apocalyptic with an ambiguous setting and a main character who has to adapt to unfamiliar surroundings. Bosley said he used black and white scenes with color accents to represent flashbacks as the film follows the main character and his struggle to adapt.

“The movie makes a statement,” he said. “Everything’s changing but if you’re determined, you can do anything you want to.”

For Bosley, coming up with innovative and inexpensive ways to make a movie are all part of a day’s work. He has been making movies since he bought his first camera as a child – a purchase made with two years worth of wages earned delivering newspapers throughout Presque Isle, he said. Years he and his brother spent tromping around the northern Maine woods wielding cameras taught him that it takes persistence to follow a career in filmmaking, he said. 

“Maine is tough and hard, it makes you tough,” he said. “If I’d grown up in the city or someplace where life was a little easier I would have backed away. In Maine, you learn to either stick it out or find a way to get it done.”

Bosley said lessons he learned growing up in Maine were more important than anything he could have learned in a classroom. Unlike many aspiring film producers and directors, he said he did not to attend an out-of-state film school, a decision he is proud to have made.

“You don’t have to leave Maine to do filmmaking,” he said. “My brother and I went to a film school in [Los Angeles, Calif.] and we were acing tests as sit in students. We were sitting in these classes asking ourselves ‘Why would we shell out enough money for just one semester that we could use to buy a house in Aroostook County?’”

Instead, Bosley returned to Maine and “buffed up” on filmmaking techniques on his own. He said he read many books that focused on incorporating unique and inexpensive methods to use to make a professional-looking film in less than ideal conditions. Bosley said many of his Hollywood role models, including Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Alfred Hitchcock, never attended film school either.

“It’s just one of those things you have to learn,” he said.

Bosley quickly discovered most Maine-based filmmakers focus on their surroundings, which isn’t necessarily the easiest type of film to promote, he said. 

“We do lobster, we do logging, it’s like you can only shoot a film in Maine that’s about Maine,” he said. “Mainers that are filmmakers are limiting themselves to a Maine audience.”

In 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bosely began working on “Amnesia,” a film he said upset the locally-focused trend of Maine filmmakers. While the movie was filmed entirely in Maine, he said the setting and content wasn’t necessarily what the industry was used to seeing.

“‘Amnesia’ is set in a town in rural America, you fill in the blanks,” he said. “I think it helps with the movie’s overall marketability.”

Bosley said the state’s diverse landscape made it easy to keep the setting of “Amnesia” ambiguous and provide some unique images.

“The variety of natural landscape that is available in Maine – you couldn’t create it if you wanted to. I didn’t know we had waterfalls until I filmed ‘Amnesia.’ I have people calling me and asking where I filmed certain scenes because they think the area is so beautiful they want to move there,” he said. “Why is it you have to have a Hollywood studio to do this?”

Financial incentives to stay in state are less provocative than the landscape, Bosely said. Maine currently offers filmmakers a 12.5 percent tax incentive for movies that are filmed in the state, a percentage Bosley said is a fraction of other states such as Michigan, which has a 40 percent incentive.

“Twenty-five percent is what everybody is pushing for,” he said. “The people in Augusta are really wondering how to bring filmmakers to Maine.”

Bosley said he is encouraging producers and directors to take advantage of other financial benefits to filming in Maine in lieu of the low tax incentive, methods he tested during the filming of “Amnesia,” a six-year project. He said he helped secure funding for the film by working with business owners throughout the state.

“If the people get behind the film – and the money has to come from people in Maine because who else is going to be loyal – it all works out,” he said. “There’s more than one creative way to help a film major chop his budget down than blatant advertising. Maybe you work with a bed-and-breakfast place where you shoot a scene or a car dealership that loans you a car.”

In return for the assistance, Bosley said local business owners are able to promote themselves through the success of the movie. 

“It’s free [public relations] for people who are involved,” he said. “It’s better than paying for advertising.”

On Sunday, “Amnesia” will be featured in “Rebfest,” a Web-based venue designed to promote talents of emerging filmmakers. Bosley said the site is already attracting viewers from around the globe and from within the film industry. He said some Hollywood professionals have estimated he spent upwards of $2 million filming “Amnesia” – which features several action scenes, a car chase and some special effects – while in reality the film cost less than $300,000.

“Everybody’s guessing numbers and they’re all way off,” he said. “There are ways to trim the budget but fake the audience out.”

Bosley said the most expensive part of creating the film was ensuring professional sound quality for the final product, a cost that could be significantly less should a sound studio – as has been proposed for South Portland’s vacant armory building – become accessible.

“That’s a huge thing,” Bosley said of the possibility of a Maine-based sound studio. “We spent a lot of time filming at the former Loring Air Force Base [in Limestone] because it was the only spot with the space and still affordable, but there’s still a certain amount of restrictions. If the facility already existed, I’d be making the trip down to Portland.”

To see “Amnesia,” visit www.rebfest.com between March 29 and April 4. To learn more about Bosley’s upcoming project, “House,” visit www.jbmovies.com.