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| Don Dohler's Amazing Cinema magazine, which often plugged his own films. |
Before Don Dohler had ever picked up a movie camera and directed his own feature-length micro-budgeted science fiction-horror films, he was already a "do-it-yourself" legend. He had published underground comics in the 1960s, and in the 1970s he released his influential magazine, Cinemagic, which was a primer for aspiring filmmakers to create their own special effects. His first feature, The Alien Factor (1978), shot for a paltry $6000, proved he was a trailblazer for another medium. This film with such a small budget had the good fortune in being sold to cable. Those who saw it were inspired, alerted to the possibility that "Hey, I can do this too".