By Shawn Skager-The Courier Herald

For Seth Martin, the horror movie bug bit early.

“I’ve had problems sleeping all my life and have had to deal with insomnia. And when I was 5 or 6 years old, my mother let me watch Stephen King’s “IT” and I was fascinated by it. I liked being scared. I liked that it brought out certain emotions. I think that’s why I wanted to go into that genre. Plus my parents got my name from a horror movie, “Hell Night.”

A 2002 graduate of Sumner High School, Martin, 24, is currently working on producing his first feature movie, “Die-ner.”

The movie mines the same horror vein that Martin first found so interesting as a youth.

“Die-ner” takes place at a secluded diner where a sociopathic killer Ken has to deal with his victims coming back from the dead.

For Martin, his filmmaking journey first began in high school where, as a sophomore, he took a film appreciation class.

“That started the ball rolling,” he said. “I knew I wanted to be involved in some sort of creative aspect of filmmaking.”

After graduation Martin took the leap and started laying the groundwork for a career in movies and television.

“After high school I jetted down to California,” he said. “I started going to Santa Barbara City College.”

His time in the school’s film study program only cemented his path.

“I just got a more in depth focus on the whole aspect of what I wanted to do in film,” he said. “From there on I wrote, directed and produced many short films.”

After a year at the college, Martin said he started to become even more involved in the movie industry, becoming the president of the school’s film guild chapter.

But all the schooling in the world won’t help you in the movie business without contacts, however, Martin said.

“I started making contacts after working with different internships,” he said. “Typically if you are a hard worker, and they see that then they help you. My last year, I was driving an hour and half on Sunday, working Monday and Tuesday, and then back on Wednesday. Then I’d work those five days and go back on Sunday. You just have to keep working at it.”

Soon, Martin found himself working as a production assistant on reality shows, such as MTV’s “The Hills”, work he continues at the present time.

It was while working for a network reality show that he met his main collaborator on “Die-ner,” director and screenwriter Patrick Horvath.

“We met up on a production of a reality show on CBS called “Moochers,” Martin said. “It had Brett Butler and I don’t think it was ever aired. He’s (Horvath) a Chicago native and I’m from Seattle. We were both kind of new to L.A. and we got to talking abut this idea about creating vignettes, a series of short films like ‘Creepshow,’ five or six vignettes dealing with a truck stop.”

“We had four or five other people involved at first,” Martin said.

The idea did not come to fruition, though, but less than a year later Martin called Horvath.

“I called him because his was just the best script,” he said. “I told him, I’ve been thinking about and I want to make a movie. He said ‘hell yeah’ and had a draft for me in two weeks and we hit the ground running.”

Soon, Martin and Horvath, along with the other principles on the film, Dave Cummings and Mark Johnson, found themselves spending their evenings at a diner in Sun Valley, Calif., working on the film.

“We shot at the truck stop for nine crazy nights and one day for pickups,” Martin said. “So we shot a whole feature film in just nine days.”

“We assembled a great crew, raised some money and I chipped in some of my money,” Martin said. “Patrick had a great script going and I had a lot of faith in that. That’s where it all starts.”

Now the film is in post-production, Martin said.

“We have a rough cut done and we’re fine tuning it,” he said. “We’re hoping to have it ready by mid-September and submit it for Sundance and Slamdance (film festivals).”

With the creative side of the film almost done, Martin said now it’s up to him to handle the business side and get a distribution deal for the film.

“I already had a pitch meeting with a company called Tri-coast studios and they were interested in our film,” he said. “Also a German company talked with us. We just need to have the film done so we can send out screeners. They want to see a cut of the movie before they make any deals.”

“The ultimate goal is to find distribution,” Martin continued. “We go to the festivals to get exposure so we can get distribution and people can see the movie.”

For more information on the movie visit www.die-nermovie.com

Reach Shawn Skager at sskager@courierherald.com or 360-802-8208.