Author Archives: badland
Wow, what a ride it’s been! As I write this, we’re about 2/3 through our shooting schedule and we’re way past exhaustion. In all honesty though, it’s been such a fantastic experience, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I don’t know what else to say; things are going well and I think we’re making a good movie. What more do you need to know? I could take up a bunch of this page with a lot of funny and embarrassing stories from shooting, but since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll let them do the talking. Here are just a few assorted production stills that folks have snapped along the way. Enjoy!
Matt, Sam, and Scott and Chandler’s Deli
Some double date action at The Half Barrel
Hannah Margaret and Emily
Erik, Scott, Sam, Matt, and Ben Murphy on sound
Is your pack on?
“Are you guys dating in real life?”
I do also want to extend my most sincere thanks to the people and places of Knoxville who have been so cooperative in helping us out with locations and personnel for the film. Big shoutouts to Vladimir of Agave Azul, Joe and Ken of the Half Barrel and the Bearden Hill Fieldhouse, Charlie of Chandler’s Deli, Caroline of Church Street UMC, and Bobby and Brandon of Advent Electric. This movie wouldn’t be possible without your help, so thank ya’ll so much!
Keep checking in for more updates while we get this sucker done!
-Matt
As you get yourself in the holiday spirit, we thought we’d give you some good news of our own.
First and foremost, if you’ve been keeping up with us, you know that we’ve had a feature film in the works for some time now called Anvil Electric. Rather than rush into production and try to get this thing done, we’ve decided to slow down and make sure we have a script that best showcases the story we want to tell. Although no script is ever truly done, we feel really good about this draft (you can read the first 30 pages here), and with the coming of the new year, it will be time for cameras to roll at last.
Not only do we have a great script, but we’ve been blessed with a very special and talented cast. Rehearsals are in full swing and going great, and we couldn’t ask for more from a group of young performers. You can read a little more about them in the Anvil Electric section.
The cast of Anvil Electric
As you may have noticed on the homepage, we’re currently seeking donations to make Anvil Electric a reality. You could be instrumental in not only funding a feature-length film, but also in jump-starting the careers for some talented young people. So, get in the spirit and donate!
In other news, cameras are currently rolling for a new music video for our good friends, The Dirty Guv’nahs. The song is Fairlane from the album Somewhere Beneath These Southern Skies (listen here!), and the video features two faces from Anvil Electric, Matt Dearman and Hannah Margaret Allen.
There’s lots to be excited about over here at badland, so as always, stay tuned for updates, and if the spirit takes you, feel free to donate to the cause! Thanks!
Well, we said we had big news, so here it is. Rehearsals for our first feature film, Anvil Electric, have begun! We had a cast meeting last night which just further convinced us that we have the best team we could ever ask for.
Shooting is set to begin in January, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be on this journey with this group of people. We won’t give away much about the story just yet, so you’ll have to keep checking up on us.
On another note, our first short Case: 2233-04 was reviewed recently by the Bootleg Film Festival. Case took the Indie Award at Bootleg 2011 in London, and we’re incredibly honored to be so appreciated by those folks across the pond. Thank you Tom Wilton! If you haven’t seen Case: 2233-04 yet, please check it out, and keep an eye on the Bootleg Film Festival which is gonna be in Edinburgh, UK in March 2013.
Oh, and one more thing: look out for Streetwise: Burn the Night premiering this month!
As the weather goes through its annual fall cool down, let’s take a look at one whirlwind of a summer.
Our summer started off on the road with some of our best friends, the Dirty Guv’nahs, in the middle of music festival season. We journeyed up winding paths through the Ozark Mountains to catch the last day of Wakarusa accompanied by a pretty wicked hail storm. No worries though, we survived and headed back east to Manchester, TN for the absolute madness that is Bonnaroo.
The Guvs opened the festival and played several shows afterwards. It was a blast. Afterwards, we were fortunate enough to have Friday and Saturday to just go out and soak in the sights and sounds of the festival. It was our first time, so talk about sensory overload. Pure. Craziness. Anyway, as the weekend went on, we had the pleasure of running into a couple of LA-based filmmakers from Anonymous Content, Matt DeRoss and Phil Montgomery.
Aaron Hoskins, Phil Montgomery, Matt, Scott, and Matt DeRoss at the ‘Roo
They were there promoting their newest film, ReGENERATION, and we ended up hanging out with them the whole day Saturday. We all went to the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert together and had a 5 person mosh pit. It was nuts. Those guys are amazing. ReGENERATION is a great documentary, and it’s narrated by Ryan Gosling. Please check out all of their work. We’re happy to call them close friends now. Bonnaroo: Bringing people together.
After Bonnaroo, we settled into editing our latest music video for The Dirty Guv’nahs, 3,000 Miles. This video was very special to us because it was the culmination of years of touring around with the Guvs. Hundreds and hundreds of hours were collected and sifted through. And we couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out. The word we continue to use to describe the video is “heart,” and it’s got a lot of it. So, if you haven’t seen it, go check it out!
Sounds like a busy summer, right? Not so fast. After 3,000 Miles was released, we settled back into the editing bay to finish a project that we shot well over a year ago, Cryin’ Ryan. We had so much fun making this short, but it just had to spend a little time in the oven.
- Daniel Hubbard, Matt Dearman, Sam King, and Scott Murphy behind the scenes of Ryan’s Press Conference
Thanks to you guys, it’s been really well received. It’s like people are actually laughing. We’ve gotten so much positive feedback from it already, and we can’t say thank you loud enough, but we’ll try: THANK YOU!!!! We plan on submitting Cryin’ Ryan to several film festivals around the country and maybe even venture abroad. We couldn’t be more excited about the summer we’ve had and what’s to come in the fall.
There’s certainly more news to come (*cough STREETWISE 2 *cough ANVIL ELECTRIC), but you’re just gonna have to wait till next time. Keep tabs on us through FACEBOOK, TWITTER, VIMEO, and of course right here.
-Scott and Matt
Ryan (Matt Dearman) and Mark (Erik Schiller) in the war room.
We’re not dead. We promise. We’ve just been sleeping.
But we’re back, and here’s what we have coming up:
New short, Cryin’ Ryan (pictured above).
New website. Currently under construction.
Plus, news on new music videos and our first feature. Yes, feature. <gulp>
All coming soon. Stay posted.
-badland pictures
Since the last time we updated this, a ton has been going on for us.
First of all, we attempted a marathon session of writing and producing for a project called, “Bad Guy Stoppers.” It was by far our most ambitious project to date and had a great cast, including Matt Dearman, Daniel Hubbard, Sam and Joe King, and Emily Blocher. The cast was great, but ultimately the project was not at the point where it needed to be, and therefore, it was put on the shelf. That doesn’t mean I don’t still believe in it, but I think it just needs more time dedicated to it, which is impossible for the moment. Hear this though, one day we’ll come back to it, and it will be awesome.
Now that we have the bad out of the way, let’s get down to the good. The really good. First of all, we released the music video for The Dirty Guv’nahs’ “Baby We Were Young.” The Guv’nahs are our closest friends. We’ve been working together now for over a year and a half, and we’re always happy to help them out in any way possible. The video itself took over 8 months to complete. The idea came about in late March, filming started on June 12, and the video was released the last day of November. It was a lot of work scheduling and doing everything, but it was totally worth it. Out of all the things I’ve ever done, I think “Baby We Were Young” is my favorite.
There are a ton of deleted scenes and B-roll footage from this video. At some point, we’ll release a compilation of the funniest stuff you didn’t see, as well as myself and Justin Hoskins talking about how we pulled everything off without getting arrested or dying.
The other good news is our short film, “Case: 2233-04,” is getting ready to begin its festival circuit for 2011. We could not be happier about this. “Case” was something that we shot over a year ago and spent forever cutting it down, in order to make it right for festivals. I honestly didn’t think it would get accepted anywhere, but we’ve already been invited to screen at two different festivals in the past two weeks. WHAT?! The first one is the Bootleg Film Festival in London. Never imagined “Case” would screen for an international audience, but it is. Crazy. The second one is the Green Bay Film Festival. We’re so pumped for this and will keep you updated if we, fingers crossed, get into any more. If you still haven’t seen “Case,” check out the final festival cut here. (Note: this is new version than what was previously posted. It’s shorter, tighter, and better.)
Finally, I just spent the last week in New York with The Guv’nahs. We had a blast, and it was amazing to see my friends play with one of their biggest idols, Levon Helm. So many good times, I can’t even begin to tell about them. If you want the scoop, check out Cozmo Holloway’s blog about it here. We even visited “Big Pink,” the house where Bob Dylan and The Band wrote a ton of music. The amazing Ashley Hoskins snapped this picture of us leaving the house.
We’re going all in during 2011. We don’t really have a choice. Thanks to everyone for their love and support. We couldn’t do it without you.
- Scott Murphy
Badland had a big day yesterday. Understatement of the year.
By a miracle and some heavy collaboration between Bristol Motor Speedway and Scott, Justin, and myself we were able to set up this shoot after months of trying. The ‘Baby We were Young’ video had been in production since June 12, but we refused to wrap until we got the Blue Bullet racing around Bristol. Our persistence finally paid off.
Once we were able to navigate ourselves to the main office, we checked in with Crystal, one of the events coordinators at Bristol. She was super helpful in all of this and led us right through the main gates, across the back stretch, and into pit road. We cleared out the back of the 4-runner so Scott could film out of the hatch, and Daniel filmed out of the sun roof. Safety first right? I drove the 4-runner, and Chris Doody drove the Bullet behind me. The bankings are ridiculously steep, and the track is much more narrow than you would think. If you’re not a fan of Nascar, I recommend taking a lap or two around the World’s Fastest Half Mile
.
After we took a few laps, we had to goof off a little bit; we had Bristol Motor Speedway to ourselves. James and Justin took turns waving the flag around, while Jenkins and Doody took turns racing the van, seeing who could go fastest through turn 2.
All in all, this was a once in a lifetime experience, and we took full advantage of it. I think we all had a good time, and that’s really what the video is all about.
Big thanks to Wade Rackley for coming out and taking such awesome stills. You can see his full gallery here.
Be on the lookout for The Dirty Guv’nahs ‘Baby We were Young’ music video in the next month.
- matt
Badland’s first short film Case: 2233-04 is now online under ‘Projects’.
Case premiered at the Screenfest Film Festival in March of 2010 where the film received an honorable mention and earned Matt Dearman a Best Actor win.
Check out this short article on Badland in TNJN!
Welcome to the official Badland Pictures website. We’re still working out some of the kinks, but feel free to click around. Check out our past work, Facebook, and Twitter pages!