As a child, Brett McGinnis often commandeered his father’s video camera to make stop-motion movies with his Legos.

These days, the equipment is a little more sophisticated and his work is not just for family viewing.

McGinnis, a 2007 Moniteau High School graduate, premiered his film, “The Staring Man,” last month in New Jersey.

“It was crazy,” the Butler man said of the movie’s premiere. “I think it’s something that everyone in film school wants to do.”

“The Staring Man” is a true story about a young boy who has several paranormal experiences, according to the 26-year-old McGinnis.

In the 42-minute picture, Bruce Tango, a retired New Jersey police officer, recounts several times when, as a young child, he awoke to find a red-faced man standing at the foot of his bed.

The sightings came at a time when there was turmoil in Tango’s strict home, McGinnis said. Tango’s sister also reported seeing the red-faced entity.

McGinnis met Tango at an event in New Castle several years ago and, after the pair became friends, Tango told McGinnis his story.

When the New Jersey man told McGinnis he was going to sit with a sketch artist to try to construct an image of the man, McGinnis saw an opportunity.

“I said, ‘Cool, can I film it?’” McGinnis recalled last week.

Although hesitant at first, Tango finally agreed, going on to write the script and help with casting.

“I thought it was good,” Tango said by telephone from his Linden, N.J., home. “It was a lot of work.”

The cast and crew filmed for about two weeks in November, McGinnis said. The preparation included a visit to Tango’s childhood apartment in a dangerous section of Elizabeth, N.J., that required the crew to have a police escort, McGinnis said.

“It was very creepy,” he said. “I was really happy to get out of there.”

After filming concluded, McGinnis had two months of work ahead of him and spent many late nights in the editing room.

“It was basically my baby,” he said of the low-budget picture. “We really had to make the money we had work.”

It was only after the picture was completed that it finally dawned in McGinnis what he’d done.

“It was driving down the road and I said, ‘Hey, I made a movie,’” he recalled.

McGinnis said, since those early days with his dad’s video camera and his Legos, he’s always been interested in film. A visit to Universal Studios when he was 12 cemented his plans.

That led McGinnis to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where he graduated in 2011 with a degree in digital media production.

Six months later, a California-based production company saw some of McGinnis’ work, including a documentary of the Old Stone House near Slippery Rock, and contacted him about directing some locally based Walmart commercials.

“I was very nervous, but it was it good, too,” McGinnis said of his first commercial. “I felt lucky that I had that opportunity.”

That first shoot led to 50 more commercials for the retailer.

Since then, McGinnis has kept busy filming spots for Yellow Pages, AOL and overseeing music videos and promotional shoots.

“I do it all,” he said.

Tango and McGinnis both say they have other plans in the works, and Tango is anxious to work with the Butler man on another project.

“Brett does a fantastic job,” Tango said. “He’s a talented young man.”

McGinnis said he’s always been interested in the paranormal.

“I’ve always been into weird stuff,” he said, remembering checking out books on the paranormal out of the library as a child.

When he was in college, McGinnis applied to, and was accepted on a SyFy channel reality show called “Ghost Hunters Academy.”

It was there that he met Dave Tango, the son of Bruce Tango, who ultimately introduced the pair.

Today, McGinnis is a member of the Western Pennsylvania Paranormal Hunters, a ghost-hunting organization based in Pittsburgh and has started his own business called, GhostN’at, which will take amateur ghost hunters into places where paranormal activity has been detected.