Sports/Entertainment
Scary success
How Entity Productions Inc.’s Edward Douglas redefined a musical genre.
By Abby Cymerman
Smart Business Akron/Canton | September 2006
Edward Douglas talks fast — and it’s not because there’s work to be done to meet the demand of his company’s peak season.
It’s because he’s genuinely excited about his company, Chardon-based Entity Productions Inc., his band Midnight Syndicate and the projects that have taken over his world.
Entity Productions launched a decade ago as a film production company, but eventually it changed course. When the music industry didn’t understand Midnight Syndicate’s dark orchestral movie-style music blended with professional sound effects, Entity took over as the band’s record label.
“Everything we’ve had to do has gone against convention, to not be held down by the constraints of the system,” Douglas says. “It’s always about trying to keep an open mind.”
When Halloween grew to be the second largest retail holiday, and consumers had few choices for modern, high-quality Halloween music, Douglas discovered his company’s niche. Today, Midnight Syndicate’s original music CDs are sold worldwide, and the band supplies Halloween mood music to the haunted attraction and amusement park industries.
Midnight Syndicate’s music has appeared on national television shows, radio and regional television spots, horror films and as pre-concert music for a horror-metal band. Douglas teamed up with Hasbro Games and Wizard of the Coast in 2002 to create the first official soundtrack for the role-playing game “Dungeons & Dragons,” and Midnight Syndicate’s scores will be featured in two upcoming horror movies “Sin-Jin Smyth” and “The Rage.”
Networking with his new movie industry connections and having access to a larger budget, Douglas soon will be directing and producing a horror-suspense thriller, “The Dead Matter.” It’s a remake of a movie he directed and scored after he graduated from college, and, still fighting the system, he plans to film in Northeast Ohio with local talent.
“We’re always trying to find ways to increase productivity and be more efficient and all that other stuff,” he says. “But really, our livelihood is all about being innovative — finding new ways of getting our product out to the people who want it and finding new opportunities.”
HOW TO REACH: Midnight Syndicate Soundtracks, (440) 286-1494 or www.midnightsyndicate.com
