Kettering filmmaker talks origins, remastered thriller now on Prime

KETTERING, Ohio (WDTN) — A local filmmaker spoke with 2 NEWS about his filmmaking roots in Dayton and the process of remaking his 2010 thriller “In My Sleep.”

Allen Wolf has been telling stories for a long time. That’s not to say anything about age, but rather experience, time put towards honing his craft.

As a student at South Dale Elementary School, Wolf performed marionette shows. Then his uncle bought him his first movie camera, which sparked his career as a filmmaker.

The young filmmaker proceeded to make shorts all the way through his time at Van Buren.

As a senior in high school, Wolf completed his first feature-length film, which was funded through Wolf’s selling of ad space in the program distributed at the film premiere. Wolf recalls his former orthodontist, a family friend and Dorothy Lane Market each bought marketing space in the program.

“I was so thankful that they helped me make that movie possible. And I’ve always been grateful for that and for my super supportive community that I have in Dayton,” Wolf said.

During that time, Wolf eventually became inspired by the works of Julia Reichert, who eventually mentored him as he ended up attending Wright State University for film.

“She inspired me as a filmmaker, she mentored me, she gave me advice over the years as I asked her questions about filmmaking and that is what encouraged me to start my study of filmmaking at Wright State,” Wolf reminisced.

After learning some foundational elements of filmmaking during his first two years at Wright State, Wolf decided to transfer to New York University to experience life in a bigger city. He was motivated by the many directors — specifically Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone — who call NYU their alma mater.

Fast forward a few years to Wolf’s “In My Sleep” and you have a film that Wolf said deserved a director’s cut.

“I felt like I’d grown as a storyteller, as a filmmaker and I wanted to go back and tweak some things, I wanted to change some things in the storyline, add some footage, take out some footage,” Wolf said.

To do that, Wolf took the film out of distribution and worked on it for four years. The culmination of that work is the version that is now available to watch on Prime.

“In My Sleep” is about a man who has trouble sleepwalking. One day he learns that he may have killed a friend while sleepwalking. More information about the film, labeled as a thriller, and Wolf’s other films, can be read here .

Outside of filmmaking (and personal life duties), Wolf is an author and board game creator.

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