Category: Out of State A Gothic Romance Backstory

Victoria and Charles Bugbee met through a mutual friend who worked on Broadway. Turns out the two were distant cousins whose fathers played together as kids. Charlie’s first feature “Just Off The Coast” won best first feature at San Sebastian Film Festival and Victoria wrote, produced and directed “A Surreal Soap Opera – Toxic Waste Meets Beach Resort” at Lincoln Center Out of Doors. The two decided to collaborate on an independent feature and Victoria’s parents offered the filmmakers the use of her childhood home in Pennsylvania as the location. To save money they decided on a family of shut-ins whose perfect symmetry is disrupted by an outsider. It’s a little Gothic, a little romantic, kinda funny and a little weird.

Everyone who read it thought it was a great property so Charlie took the screenplay out of LA to find production money. He get food poisoning and became very ill. He recovered and was back on Broadway as one of the most sought after soundmen. Charlie had worked on “Cats,” “Evita,” “Aspects of Love,” and many Tony winning shows. While working on “Carousel” he received word that he had an inoperable brain tumor and passed away in his late 30’s. His family and friends were devastated by his loss.

Victoria continued to write, produce and direct theatrical vehicles including producing a weekly show at The Village Gate, writing and directing the full length play “The Gas Station Project” and finishing the musical “Life and Death With Business In Between” with composer Joe Deihl. Her plays were well received but didn’t pay the bills. For 15 years she worked as a video producer at B Productions of NY. Her projects included GQ’s Mens Trend Report for their video wall at MAGIC in Las Vegas, Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the JumboTron in Times Square, CBS’s TV Special “The Making of Fashion’s Night Out,” AOL’s “MAC + Milk Fashion Week,” WGNS Trend Reports,” COTY “CEO Summit in Geneva” CFDA, FABB, Oscar de la Renta, Vivienne Westwood, Betsey Johnson, Burt’s Bees, Matrix, Hue, Spanx, Rowenta, and many more.

After 20 years now is the time to make “Out of State” a reality. In the interim a psychological thriller bearing the same title has been produced. Therefore, the subtitle “A Gothic Romance” has been added delineate Bugbee’s film from the other. Principal photography is complete and now post production begins. We are excited about the film and can’t wait to be able to screen it.