Filmmakers

 


Truth is stranger than fiction when writer/director J.J. Barmettler was creatively inspired by the unusual life of offbeat but serious UFO investigator Brandon Scott. Together they teamed up to produce a unique film loosely based on the exploits and adventures of Scott’s investigations. “Let’s face it, most people are intrigued by anything that has to do with aliens and UFOs really being here”, says Scott. Both Scott and Barmettler have shared a fascination with the phenomenon for years; Scott has been an avid UFO investigator since childhood and Barmettler had been researching the subject matter for the film “The Silencers” released on DVD in 2004 by Universal Music and Home Video.

 

A brief history of Alien Secrets:

It began in 1998 when Barmettler and Scott joined forces with Richard Smith of Bindu Films, to produce a film that would expose a unique phenomenon in the UFO genre: humans who have encountered aliens and had hybrid alien/human children by them. They even interviewed a woman who claims to be an alien/human hybrid. The subject matter and the people were so unusual and intriguing that the filmmakers thought it would be better to create a feature length film and take it beyond the standard doc faire…. Thus, the film ALIEN SECRETS was born; inspired by Brandon Scott’s adventures as a UFO investigator and the intriguing alien/hybrid phenomenon.

This film captures the life and times of a wacky UFO investigator on the trail of alien/human hybrids and the trials and tribulations he endures to find them. He encounters people who suspect they are real victims of this phenomenon, women who believe they have been shown their alien/human hybrid children (Pamela Stonebrooke), and experts (Robert O. Dean, Budd Hopkins and Dr. J.J. Hurtak) who shed light on the phenomenon while at the same time giving insight into Brandon’s quest. ”We experimented with blending genres of a reality-based style with dramatic story structure in order to produce a film that is truly unique. Some credits have called it a cross between “What the !#@! (Bleep) Do We Know” and “X files”.

Barmettler and Scott wrote the script over a period of several months and proceeded to shoot the film as an independent production funded by private investor and UFO enthusiast John Fromberg. A recurring problem presented itself during the development and production of the film: capturing the character’s likeable humorous side within an arena that is taken extremely serious by UFO experts and Abductees. We put real UFO experts in the film and didn't want to offend the UFO community”, says Barmettler. “Nonetheless, we trusted in our creative judgments and shot the bulk of the dramatic scenes in four weeks”.

By the end of summer of 2004, we had a cut, trying to integrate everything we had done so far – the documentary, the cutting edge web site, and the original movie we set out to do…. We acquired 3D animation from friend and effects artist Steve Neill, alien images from renown artists and archival footage available to us with the intent of creating something unique and innovative”. It’s a hybrid story genre of itself, presenting a narrative adventure story that meets a gumshoe mystery, blended with reality based/documentary story telling.

The film stars Brandon Scott, Tracy Erickson, Spike Steingasser, Paul Raczkowski and features popular UFO experts Robert O. Dean, Budd Hopkins and Dr. J.J. Hurtak.
Alien Secrets is Produced by J.J. Barmettler (TV series L.A. Heat: Feature films; The Silencers, Rage, Pure Danger, Riot), Brandon Scott and Richard Smith; written by J.J. Barmettler, Ayers Baxter and Jay Cotton; and is Directed and edited by J.J. Barmettler.