What drives a filmmaker from capturing simple moments with friends to crafting intricate documentaries and high-profile series? Meet Scott McCambridge, a local filmmaker and video editor, whose journey is nothing short of inspiring. In this episode, Scott takes us from his early days in Traverse City, Michigan, filming with a Sony Handycam, to the profound influence Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead" had on his passion for storytelling. The friendships and experiences in his hometown laid the foundation for his creative endeavors, ultimately leading him to collaborate on major projects. Recently he edited the award-winning DEER CAMP '86, a made-in-Michigan comedy-thriller released in select theaters around the country and eventually to be released on streaming platforms.
Scott recounts the exhilarating yet grueling process of creating his first professional project, "Exploring Kaman," a reality TV show featuring NBA star Chris Kaman's adventures, which aired on AXS TV. With no initial storyline, Scott and his colleague Caleb Slain spent years meticulously editing raw footage into a captivating narrative. We also delve into his ambitious documentary on tobacco pipe making, a project that expanded globally and evolved over nearly a decade, highlighting the importance of collaboration and external feedback in bringing a complex story to life.
In the latter part of the conversation, Scott sheds light on the multifaceted challenges of film distribution and marketing, especially for documentaries. He shares his experiences working on a high-profile animated series based on League of Legends, emphasizing the crucial role of audience feedback and collaboration. For aspiring filmmakers, Scott offers invaluable advice: cultivate passion, practice relentlessly, and surround yourself with a supportive network. Tune in to learn the intricacies of editing, storytelling, and the creative process from a filmmaker dedicated to his craft.
What drives a filmmaker from capturing simple moments with friends to crafting intricate documentaries and high-profile series? Meet Scott McCambridge, a local filmmaker and video editor, whose journey is nothing short of inspiring. In this episode, Scott takes us from his early days in Traverse City, Michigan, filming with a Sony Handycam, to the profound influence Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead" had on his passion for storytelling. The friendships and experiences in his hometown laid the foundation for his creative endeavors, ultimately leading him to collaborate on major projects. Recently he edited the award-winning DEER CAMP '86, a made-in-Michigan comedy-thriller released in select theaters around the country and eventually to be released on streaming platforms.
Scott recounts the exhilarating yet grueling process of creating his first professional project, "Exploring Kaman," a reality TV show featuring NBA star Chris Kaman's adventures, which aired on AXS TV. With no initial storyline, Scott and his colleague Caleb Slain spent years meticulously editing raw footage into a captivating narrative. We also delve into his ambitious documentary on tobacco pipe making, a project that expanded globally and evolved over nearly a decade, highlighting the importance of collaboration and external feedback in bringing a complex story to life.
In the latter part of the conversation, Scott sheds light on the multifaceted challenges of film distribution and marketing, especially for documentaries. He shares his experiences working on a high-profile animated series based on League of Legends, emphasizing the crucial role of audience feedback and collaboration. For aspiring filmmakers, Scott offers invaluable advice: cultivate passion, practice relentlessly, and surround yourself with a supportive network. Tune in to learn the intricacies of editing, storytelling, and the creative process from a filmmaker dedicated to his craft.
That was a really rewarding one to work on, for sure. Got to learn a lot and also it's just pretty a little bit more high profile too, yeah, and so it has like a built-in audience already, where you kind of already know that like millions of people are going to watch it, hey guys welcome back.
Eldon Palmer:Today we have Scott McCambridge, local filmmaker, friend, video editor, film editor with a strong emphasis on storytelling. He's here to share his origin story and some of the cool projects he's been working on. Welcome, Scott. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you're welcome. So how did all of this get started?
Scott McCambridge:Well, so for filmmaking, it was the thing that I really gravitated towards as a kid, where that really started when I was in high school even before that, probably, junior high um, my friends and I would get together and make, we'd just film everything basically. You know, even if it was just us like hanging out on a friday night at my parents house, you know we would always have the camera rolling and doing dumb stuff kind of thing. So, um, but we would also that kind of evolved into us actually trying to write sketches like sketch comedy and which you know, I don't know, wouldn't say where any of us are hilarious or anything, but uh, we we came up with some pretty funny things.
Scott McCambridge:But um, yeah, we would, uh, just yeah, make little characters, film stuff and then try, you know, experiment with like the camera and try to like do cool stuff like that.
Eldon Palmer:But um, so when was this? Like? What time frame? Like age, uh, like what kind of? Equipment were you using back then?
Scott McCambridge:yeah, probably I had a little like um sony handycam like a, one of those like eight millimeter sony handycam things, yeah, like eight millimeter Sony handy cam things, and that was my first camera, um, and that evolved into I bought a Canon GL two when I was in high school and it was, I think, relatively new at the time and I uh, I actually took out a loan to buy that camera. I think it was like three grand or something like that.
Eldon Palmer:Wow, now, what is it like that? What is a GL? Two Is that?
Scott McCambridge:uh think it was like three grand or something like that. Oh wow, now, what is it like that? What is the gl2? Is that? Uh, it's like a mini dv, uh camcorder, basically, um, so it just shoots to tape, you know, okay, and then yeah, um, but that was at that time, like, I think, pretty high on the line you know for prosumer yeah and uh, once we got that, we, you know, yeah, we would just film all the time with it, basically.
Scott McCambridge:So, um, one of the things I would say that I that really inspired me to want to make movies and things like that, even if it was just sketches with my friends was, uh, uh, there's a movie called the evil dead okay, came out in the, I think, late 70s um, that my brother introduced me to.
Scott McCambridge:I have an older brother, so you're kind of young for evil dad you know but, yeah, he introduced me to that, uh, probably when I was in junior high sometime and, uh, I really loved the movie, but I also loved the the story behind the movie of how it got made.
Scott McCambridge:Okay, it was basically a group of friends from michigan, um, around detroit lansing area, somewhere in there. Uh, they, like a bunch of them, dropped out of school at michigan state, I think, to go and make this movie and they, uh, if I remember right, they raised enough money at that time to go shoot this thing, um, and they put everything they had into it, essentially, and then it ended up becoming really successful and they launched their careers and that filmmakers his name is Sam Raimi and he obviously went on to do like huge movies, you know, but I was really inspired by that and that's. I always thought that was just such a cool, like uh, path to take, you know, um, and there may be something to that about taking your uh, or at least trying to take your own life into your own hands and, like you know, do it, follow your passion, follow your dreams and uh, yeah, I found that really inspiring.
Eldon Palmer:So did it matter, was it partially because he was from Michigan, so it was kind of like you can connect with that more yeah, that was part of it.
Scott McCambridge:And then also just that, that story of just going for it. You know like go out and make the thing and see if that translates well for other people, or yeah, at the end of the day maybe you'll hopefully be proud of yourself, I don't know, but right, but I still love that movie obviously. And then, uh, yeah, that's kind of where it I even did like a whole paper on them. Uh, when I was in gosh I was probably ninth grade or something like that I did like a whole like book report okay, but it was basically on, uh, the making of the evil dead.
Eldon Palmer:I wrote like a whole paper on it don't think anybody else probably um did that same paper back then.
Scott McCambridge:So no, probably not. Yeah, I was a bit of a nerd.
Eldon Palmer:I still am.
Scott McCambridge:Oops, sorry.
Eldon Palmer:All good. So you grew up in Traverse City.
Scott McCambridge:I grew up yeah, I grew up in Traverse City, Michigan, which is a great place obviously. Back then it felt much smaller, even though it's not a huge place today. It's just way busier now, obviously. But, um, yep, I went to high school, at central high school, um, in traverse city, and that's where I I met my good, my good buddies that, uh, you know we would make these videos and stuff you still keep in touch with these guys or I should do that more better, obviously, but uh, I still love them to death.
Scott McCambridge:I mean, they're still my best friends. You know, I would still consider them my my best friends, you know yeah um, but yeah, that's kind of where where that all started um so next step, um film school.
Eldon Palmer:Did you start making your own stuff um? You start working, or?
Scott McCambridge:yeah, there was a period of time after film school where it kind of felt like all that slowly went away, just because everyone drifts apart a little bit, you know, and people move, move away, and I think I was not really sure what I wanted to do and I, I applied, I got accepted to columbia in chicago for film school, but I I think the price of it just kind of scared me away, if I can be honest with you, and I was like, oh man, I don't know, I mean at that time I was working, you know, a job that paid probably I don't know eight something an hour, you know, kind of thing like uh, just, uh, um, and I was like there's just no way I'll ever be able to pay this off and plus, going into a film or a career like filmmaking is, it can be, you know, it has its ups and downs, of course, you know.
Scott McCambridge:But uh, high risk, high reward, yeah, I think if I had known how risky it was back then, I probably would have maybe picked something a little safer or, right, expanded my studies. But uh, I did not, um, I uh, yeah, but anyways, there's a period of time there where I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do.
Scott McCambridge:So I went to community college in traverse city and then I eventually, um yeah, went on to film school, which was like a one-year program type thing okay and uh, that experience um is really was life-changing, and the fact that I met some really great people that took a chance on me and they continue to do that um and yeah, they kind of just threw me in to, you know, this world of filmmaking and for some reason they trusted me. I always kind of referred to it as like a um, kind of like a baptism by fire, you know, because you're just thrown into this like thing. That's like a little overwhelming, um at times, but um, what kind of things did they have?
Eldon Palmer:you wouldn't throw you to what. What were your responsibilities or projects?
Scott McCambridge:so right after film school I ended up moving back to Traverse City for a little bit and I was just kind of working up there and I remember I got a call one day from a really good friend of mine, uh, named Caleb Slane, who's a very, uh, very talented filmmaker.
Scott McCambridge:Uh, he's, you know, I would say, probably the best filmmaker I know personally. But uh, he, um, he called me one day and I had gone to film school with him briefly and he said that he was hoping to hire, or you know, bring me onto this project that he was working on with a company named Gorilla here in Grand Rapids. And I was like you gotta be kidding me, that would be great, you know. And I didn't know Gorilla or hadn't met those guys yet. And so he was like, yeah, if you can, you know, he, he believed in me as an editor back then, and so I ended up kind of quitting my job and just moving to back to Grand Rapids and doing that with him, and that ended up being a reality television show which starred Chris Kamen, who played for the Los Angeles Clippers, and some him, and that ended up being a uh reality television show, uh, which uh starred chris cayman, who played for the los angeles clippers and some other nba basketball local guy yep, uh and uh um.
Scott McCambridge:The guys at gorilla had when they were friends with him and they went and filmed this whole uh show with him and basically it was about uh, in the off season he would take uh his, his fishing yacht down to mexico with the hopes of catching a blue marlin okay which is a you know, if you're yeah it's a very sought after like sport, fish kind of thing.
Scott McCambridge:So, and of course, these guys had no clue what they were doing, uh they and which lends itself to some pretty interesting uh conflict for a for a show. But yeah, that's how I really cut my teeth on like professional, um, storytelling and film editing was that we had this, just all this footage without really like a story, yeah, plan, and we we kind of had to like come up with that stuff as we as we went.
Scott McCambridge:So so after filming, or you know kind of while you're filming okay yeah, it was already filmed, um, but the story wasn't really figured out, you know, it was just kind of like they had some brief hopes of like, oh, we could like kind of do you know, uh, make these scenes into like pillars of like you know, uh, storytelling essentially and then build around it. But a lot of it was found in the editing room, you know, of how to tell the story and like manipulate it in a way that would be entertaining and interesting for an audience, and so we ended up, uh, really, um, creating it, you know, and really like, uh. There's a great saying I've heard a few times over the years with filmmaking is that you, uh, you tell lies to tell the truth for sure, and so you, essentially you're, you're over exaggerating something that happened to make someone feel something more, uh, you know, um, emotional or something like that you know so, um, that's what we did on that show pretty much.
Scott McCambridge:We just kind of like figured it out as we went and it wasn't always pretty. It took us a long time to finish it up. But then I think uh, chris started playing for the dallas mavericks, um, at one point, and he uh got to know mark cuban who was the owner of that team, and he uh, I think was the owner of access tv or something like that. And then so the show, I think, eventually ended up being picked up by access tv through that um you know connection there.
Eldon Palmer:So that's your big break. That was yeah. If you want to, yeah.
Scott McCambridge:Well, that's the start you know like it was? Yeah, it was uh. It was the first sort of thing that we had where we were like oh, wow it's out there. You know that's cool. Someone will see it hopefully, but now it's just on youtube now, but it's called exploring cayman, by the way, I don't okay, I have to check it out, but yeah now, how, how much of that?
Eldon Palmer:um, like, I've dabbled in some fun projects of vlog style things and, um, I, I stopped doing them even though I really enjoyed them. But, uh, because it takes a huge amount of editing time to put the story together. Afterwards, I can't imagine, yeah, like, like I had a rough idea even but to to scrub all that footage, to clip it down, put it together in a, in a pace and timing that's just right. Yeah, just like. I can't imagine that on something that's actually going to get distributed among a lot of people.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah, it was crazy and it was really uh, caleb and I uh person kind of doing that yeah, at first, it was really just us like, uh, putting it together more or less, and then we had, uh, help from, um, the producers as well, of course, but, um, you know, it was kind of our job to just there wasn't like a ton of money or anything like putting into it, it was more of like a oh, we'll just kind of do this, as we, you know, have time, sort of thing, and then, um, it we took it very seriously, though, cause we were like, oh, this is a great opportunity, and um, and so we yeah, it was pretty much just the two of us, and Caleb Slane smartened up and moved on with his life, and said I'm not doing this anymore and I stuck it out for a little bit longer, and then I think yeah, how long did that go, or how many?
Scott McCambridge:episodes or went on for an embarrassing amount of time, probably like four years, of like, uh, on and off, editing here and there, and then, uh, it got shelved for a while, I think, and then eventually got kind of picked back up and and really finished, you know, with some other people, kind of like came in and got involved with it and like got it across the finish line, essentially. So it's that was a kind of a project at Gorilla that I think a lot of people kind of cut their teeth on. It wasn't just me or Slane or anybody like that.
Eldon Palmer:It was like you know kind of strengthen your muscles, um, in a sense it really.
Scott McCambridge:I think for me it really one. It showed me how difficult it can be to be a film editor, you know, and like how those like decisions that you have to make are not always easy to figure out. You know, and you kind of beat yourself up about it a little bit because you're like I should be able to figure it out, but, um, it really taught me, uh gave me a lot of confidence in storytelling and my abilities as a storyteller. Um, just through some of the things that we, we just created essentially, you know, and we're like wow, we kind of surprised ourselves in some some ways, you know. So, um, yeah, that was definitely a big catalyst for me to figure out that I could do this and maybe I could make a career out of it. And it wasn't going to be easy all the time but it could potentially work. You know, I felt like I was good at it after that you know um so and we all need that kind of thing.
Eldon Palmer:Yeah, you know, you struggle something, you get something positive. Happen that you get a little bit of payoff. Yeah, it's like golf when you hit the one shot, or right.
Scott McCambridge:You know, he keeps coming back again.
Eldon Palmer:I'm like, okay, I'll, I'll come back and take the punishment some more and, you know, struggle through what was the next you?
Scott McCambridge:know, is it projects?
Scott McCambridge:From there, I would say I, I started to actually um work on like smaller commercials and things like that and shorter documentaries, and I started to uh, it started to become steady, more steady work, you know.
Scott McCambridge:But it was through that experience and that I, I think, because I stuck it out a little bit it showed that I I cared in a way that I could be trusted with, like you know, I cared in a way that I could be trusted with, like you know, more, um, yeah, just more projects that are coming in through like actual clients, you know, not just like a passion project kind of things, you know. So that kind of was good, um, obviously, um, but then, uh, yeah, I would say it was like around 2012 or so, my friend, chad terpstra, and I, um, and uh, jeremy rush, um, started toying with this idea of making a short film about tobacco pipes. Okay, basically, and I think, uh, now did you have probably gonna blank on some of the details just because it was so long ago, but uh, uh, but uh, but yeah, sorry, what were you going to?
Eldon Palmer:say oh, I was just gonna say, did you have? Uh, so you wanted to make a short film? Uh, did you have like aspirations for it? Was it more of a passion project you were trying to?
Scott McCambridge:festival or I think it was definitely more of a passion project that we thought, oh, this could be an interesting subject matter, yeah, and um, yeah, kind of be like a festival piece, you know kind of thing. None of us intended to spend like a few years of our life trying to figure it out, yeah. But basically I think um rush had uh a friend through a friend of a friend or something like that he um learned about a pipe maker up in the um, up in upper peninsula, michigan, and um, he would just seem like a really interesting guy. He made really cool uh tobacco pipes and he was accessible to us, you know, through a friend of a friend, and we thought, well, he's probably got a really interesting story and we could go film him, make a pipe and show us a process from start to finish. Sure, and um pipe and show us a process from start to finish, sure, and um, yeah, he, we went up there as a group and filmed for a couple days and our intention was to come back and create a short film out of this, and then that just never really materialized.
Scott McCambridge:I think we were kind of like not really sure where to go with it or how to start it or how to end it. His interview was great and everything, but we just weren't really sure and I think maybe we just all kind of felt like there's just more to this, you know, that we might want to explore. And then it did slowly balloon out to be let's go make a featured length documentary about this subject matter.
Eldon Palmer:So that's a big undertaking, yeah.
Scott McCambridge:From short film to feature length doc yeah, we had made a uh, a trailer out of it, essentially um, and I think back then we were gonna maybe use it for like kickstarter or something like that to raise some money. Sure, I can't remember exactly, um, but some people saw the trailer that we made and it had a really interesting vibe and tone and all that to it and they were like, man, this could be really cool if you expanded on this and really, you know, went for it and you know, when you're young and you think you can do anything like this, you don't even think about how much money or time it's going to cost. And we kind of dove into it full blast. And then I think we very quickly found ourselves like drowning in this massive ocean of footage and not having any clue of, like, what the story was essentially.
Eldon Palmer:You know we were trying to find that um, but yeah, I'm trying to it's like duck dynasty vibes here, like I'm yeah, I'm trying to think of what was back then. That might have been kind of similar.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah, I think um cause the people.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah, it really became more about the people than the like tobacco pipes you know, obviously that's the vessel into this the world, um, but we were in um through who we filmed up in the in the upper peninsula. Um, we were encouraged to come to the Chicagoago pipe show that was held every year. They always said it was the biggest one in the united states and there we met pipe makers from all over the world and started to learn their stories and interview them and things like that. And then, um, we were able to raise up some money and go over to europe and do kind of like the pipe tour. I guess is kind of how we referred to it. But, um, is that a?
Eldon Palmer:is that bigger?
Scott McCambridge:over there is there a lot of yeah there's a lot of the the more well-known uh pipe makers are from europe, especially like denmark and the danish style of pipe making I think sherlock holmes or whatever, the guy you know, yeah I don't know, yeah, what kind of pipes were these are?
Eldon Palmer:they like all different shapes and sizes yeah, they they vary but they're.
Scott McCambridge:They're, uh, primarily made out of briar wood. Okay, there's a special type of wood, uh, that's used for specifically for tobacco pipes because of the way it doesn't really burn.
Scott McCambridge:Okay, it's more of like a wood won't burn yeah so and they do some special stuff to it as well, like curing, oil curing and things like that to help. But so yeah, through that we decided that we were going to try to go visit these people at their you know, the shops that they have, or the studios that they work in make these pipes, or the factories. You know a lot of pipes are made through a like a factory setting.
Eldon Palmer:Large factories. Are we talking like small little shops with? You know a lot of pipes are made through a like a factory setting um large factories. Are we talking like small little shops with?
Scott McCambridge:you know, half dozen people, pretty large, and in its heyday, uh, probably in, like you know, I don't know, a century ago or whatever, it was huge. I mean they would have just like thousands and thousands of tens of thousands of pipes being made like in a day, pretty pretty much. Now even the factory, I think, is a smaller operation. We were kind of exploring both the factory-made pipes and the artisan pipes. The difference there is that the factory ones are made through more machinery, obviously, and still handmade to a certain degree, but more processed, if you will, and the artisan pipes were far more like, more intimately handmade sort of finished one piece at a time, you know.
Scott McCambridge:So very different process. Either way, both very interesting and both were, you know, obviously high quality products, but the the main thing was that the themes that kept emerging as we talked to these people were very much so of like family and legacy and leaving something behind okay a big part of the.
Scott McCambridge:You know, what kept drawing us back into the film was that you know, like you know, oh, maybe you have your dad's pipe or your grandpa's pipe, or like you can kind of have that image of you know, kind of like a bygone era. You know of this like image of uh tobacco pipe and uh, that just became this like kind of charming thing of like you know, oh, uh, what are we leaving behind? Or like what are we uh doing with our lives? You know, that is like interesting for the next generation kind of thing. And uh, we just explored some those themes got pretty heavy through some of the people that we interviewed and talked to and how they felt about these things.
Scott McCambridge:And uh, you know, pretty soon, it's not about the pipes at all, it's about the person. You know their feelings about life and what their legacy. You know whether they had kids or not, or like something to hand something down. Who's going to? Is anyone going to dig one of these things up in a hundred years and look at the stamp on it and say, oh, who made this? You know that kind of thing Right, and it became, yeah, just kind of like a yeah, a very like, I don't know, just romantic. So is this the?
Eldon Palmer:people making the pipes. Making them, okay, yeah.
Scott McCambridge:We filmed some stuff that I don't think ended up making it into the final film. That was a little bit more about the user, but yeah, we had a lot of stuff that didn't make it into the film. You know obviously we can get into that too about the more challenging aspects of that.
Eldon Palmer:Yeah, I mean, it sounds like quite an undertaking. Was this something happened over a few months or?
Scott McCambridge:Oh no, this happened over like almost a decade.
Scott McCambridge:I could have become like a doctor or something with the amount of time I put into this movie. No, we started in 2012 and I think we finally released it in 2018 or 2019. Okay, I can't remember now, but we would work on it on and off. You know, basically in 2012, we got the idea and then, by 2014, we were going to Europe to film with a lot of these pipe makers, to film with a lot of these pipe makers. And then in 2015 was when we really started editing and had more of a plan that we were trying to execute. So there was a few three or four years there where we were like Not sure what we were doing. We were just, you know, amassing a lot of content.
Eldon Palmer:Basically, so didn't have a solid understanding of where it was going to go.
Scott McCambridge:You had an idea, we had an idea and we tried really hard to find it, you know, yeah, and we got really close. It felt like a lot of times, and so basically Chad Terpstra and I were the ones that were really putting it together and he's a really good friend of mine and we've worked a lot on stuff together and we had a great time working on this. I mean, it was like two buddies just like trying to figure it out, kind of thing.
Scott McCambridge:But I think we just eventually hit a point where we were like we could just use some extra help, you know, and maybe get outside of our own heads with this and like, uh, get other people's opinions, because I think you can work on something and think it's amazing yeah, and then show it to somebody and then, all of a sudden, as they're watching it for the first time, you see, you just feel like you've made the biggest piece of crap ever because, like you know they don't react to it.
Scott McCambridge:The way you've done that, yeah, yeah and it's like, oh, and we had I mean I speaking for myself, like when we'd show people like what we'd been working on it just you could just tell they weren't like getting it or it wasn't. It was just really long and like, uh, maybe, yeah, it felt like, oh, this section was great, but then why are you talking about this over here? You know, so we had a lot of structural things that we were trying to fit everything in there and, uh, it just wasn't like getting to an end point. You know, it just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and then it was harder and harder to figure out and uh, so, but, uh, but yeah, I mean, without taking all those risks and going out and getting that stuff, we we wouldn't have had anything to make in the first place.
Eldon Palmer:So this is all on your dime. Nobody was we raised.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah, we raised some money to do it through some sponsorship type stuff of people in that, in that like type world you know, oh nice yeah, which was help, that kind of paid for our trip to Europe. And then we did pour some of our own money in here and there.
Eldon Palmer:How did you? I'm kind of interested in that, like how did you raise that money from those people? Was it the hope?
Scott McCambridge:I think it was your. Well, part of it was like oh, we're going to come film at your factory that kind of thing and in exchange for that because it's kind of could be kind of considered like advertising for them or something like that they would give us some money or, uh, in other ways they might have helped out with, you know, whatever travel costs or whatever. But uh, um, and then part of it too, I think, was having like um, a certain credit in the actual credits or on the actual uh film itself, like you know, having their name, yeah, on it, basically, um, which in a sense is advertising for them too, because they were taking a chance on the film actually being maybe successful or something, or yeah.
Eldon Palmer:So yeah, or just completed, they probably don't know any difference, but you know how many projects you know die on the vine. Oh yeah, you know, over six years, like was it pretty steady or was it kind of like you put it on a shelf for a little while at a time and pick it back up?
Scott McCambridge:yeah, we would put it away for chunks at a time and go do other work. That was more obviously like yeah, exactly so yep, and then when we'd have free time, you know, we'd kind of try to get back into it a little bit here and there and um, we even rented a cabin at one point and went there and set up like a whole editing station there and stayed there for like a like a week and just worked on it, you know Nice.
Scott McCambridge:So we had. It was a lot of fun too, you know, it wasn't, yeah, it was like a passion project, but it was kind of like where your hobby and your career choice really meets in a sense.
Eldon Palmer:You know so but no promise of commercial success at all?
Scott McCambridge:no, we had none. I mean, we were always hopeful, obviously, but we were like, yeah, you know, you have no idea where it'll end up, you know, or what anyone will think of it, obviously, but um cool, yeah, I uh so what's the?
Eldon Palmer:what was the final result there?
Scott McCambridge:so, yeah, we had like a film that was, I think, like nearly three hours long at one point, which is just going to be way too long.
Scott McCambridge:It just didn't quite work, you know what I mean, as it was, yeah so, um, through our friends at gorilla, um, eric mashila he's one of the owners of that company and he's a very, very talented writer and director and producer and, uh, editor, filmmaker, you know all around kind of thing and he, um was really gracious enough to like come in and sit with us in the editing room and uh kind of explain to us, like, you know, why he thinks like some of these other things aren't quite working and why maybe let's just do a version of this, without that Not saying we have to get rid of it completely or anything like that, you know, or whatever.
Scott McCambridge:But through it was really through him and ourselves that we were able to kind of come together on like a finished product. You know that we screened at the Chicago pipe show I can't remember what year that was now, but, um, so that's kind of the audience that it's made for essentially and uh, that went, went well, and then through some things that we learned at that screening, that kind of informed what other decisions we might make to really finish it up, you know. And so we ended up, yeah, getting the finished product done and submitted.
Scott McCambridge:I think we got into the Chicago International Film Festival, which is a pretty bigger festival and that was an interesting experience because I definitely had never been in a film festival that big before you know, and one of the things that they did there was they had uh distributors there that were coming and shopping for films that were premiering there, just playing there, right, and they actually uh had it set up almost like speed dating. So if you had a film there that they were interested in, you were invited to come and uh, you would uh go from table to table and meet with these other distributors and and then if any of them some of them weren't interested, and then some of them were, and they, you know, they kind of outlined what they could offer you to get the film out there and things like that. And then we ended up through those meetings picking like well, maybe we will work with these guys if they're that interested you know so that was like our big first time.
Scott McCambridge:We were like, wow, we actually not only did we finish the film, but now it's actually going to get help in the distribution world, which, um, huge, I would think. At the time it was like, wow, this is great, you know getting much better than this, um, but yeah, and then you know there's some pitfalls and other things like that with the distribution process. That is you have to be, you have to have a pretty like savvy business mind, I think, because you can kind of I'm not saying like we got taken advantage of or anything by any means, but because it gets distributed doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be successful.
Scott McCambridge:that's a huge thing to take away, you know, obviously. But also, um, once it's plugged into like a distribution thing, like that, it's not necessarily marketed at all. It just goes into this like system that gets pushed out there and, yes, you'll sell some copies of it and all that kind of stuff. But you really want to probably try to partner yourself with someone that's going to put something in Sure.
Eldon Palmer:Marketing partnership. Yeah, emotion.
Scott McCambridge:Yep, you want them to have some, I think, financial stake in the game with it too. Otherwise it just gets plugged into the system and then it kind of gets forgotten, you know. And then it's you're kind of stuck in like a this weird in between place of like well, we can't. We're kind of locked into this deal, but it's also like it's still going to be up to you to do all the legwork of marketing and all that kind of stuff. And I think after a while you just kind of like move on with your life. And then you know you're like, oh, okay, maybe does that expire, type of thing yeah, yeah, it does it, yeah, um.
Eldon Palmer:And then now, when something like that happens, you know so what do you do? Your is that like a five, six year thing?
Scott McCambridge:uh, I think it was a six year thing, yeah, and then it'll. I think that's coming to an end pretty soon here. I'm not really sure you could potentially take you would.
Eldon Palmer:rights would be revert back to take it somewhere else or do something else if you wanted to, yeah, exactly. Now was that being distributed in terms of like CDs, dvds on streaming networks, cause this is 2018.
Scott McCambridge:um, in terms of like cds, dvds, on streaming networks, because this is 2018, uh, yes, it was. I think they try to get it onto like the streaming services and it just kind of depends on where they can plug it into. I think, in our case, it ended up just being like a digital release, basically so through um gosh, I don't know, like itunes and like things like that, you know, um, and then I think, even even through like our own website and things like that, I think you could, and then they did a, a series of digital or, uh, sorry, physical copies as well, blu-ray and and dvd type thing. So, um, so yeah, that was kind of what that looked like, but, um, mostly digital, definitely they, they were really pressing the digital side of it, which is, yeah, I mean everybody, less overhead, as long as you can.
Eldon Palmer:You know, high profit margins?
Scott McCambridge:yeah, exactly, in fact, our director, um cinematographer, um chad terpstra, was he was really pushing for like blu-ray type stuff because, um, he did a remarkable job like filming this thing. It's gorgeous. You know, it's probably the prettiest looking documentary you might ever see. Honestly, it's really really really well done from the just the actual cinematography standpoint. Um, and I mean, it's definitely worthy of like a blu-ray release that you can really capture like the depth of, uh, you know the sheer size of it is so quick time out here, like we will link to you know how you can see this or how you can purchase it um in the show notes.
Eldon Palmer:So check the show notes out if you're on um audio only or youtube.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely yeah, it's out there still.
Eldon Palmer:Yeah, I'm curious to check it out. Is there a trailer out there too?
Scott McCambridge:There is a trailer. Yep, you can find that just on YouTube, I think. Okay, probably on our. We have a website too fathertheflamecom. Father the.
Eldon Palmer:Flame or Father of the Flame.
Scott McCambridge:Fathertheflamecom. Father the Flame, I think that's. Yeah, you might have to fact check that one, but I'm pretty sure that's okay, uh, the name of it.
Scott McCambridge:but um, yeah, we get that a lot the father of the flame or father the flame, right, and it's actually a cute story about where the title of it came from, so yeah um, at the time when we were talking about making this thing, uh, well, obviously chad had had it in his head pretty early on that he wanted to make this film about tobacco pipes. Um, I think if you asked him he would say that he was like walking past a pipe store or a tobacco store on, like, uh, fulton street or something like that, okay, and he like saw one in the window and and went in and got it and all that stuff, and he uh also was, um, uh, he and his wife stelita, who's actually also a producer on the film um and has that's interesting yeah, done a ton of work on like that side of it, keeping us trying to keep us organized or whatever.
Scott McCambridge:But um, um, they were expecting their first child at the time and uh, I remember chad and I were at a party together and he was. I had never like smoked a pipe before or anything like that and he was. I guess there's like kind of a trick to lighting one you know you have to kind of more of like a feel kind of thing, but it often will go out on you Like the flame will go out if you're not, like you know, sucking on it or input in there.
Eldon Palmer:Yeah, exactly, but a pipe sucker in there, yeah exactly.
Scott McCambridge:Um, but uh pipe sucker Sorry.
Eldon Palmer:No, no, it's all good.
Scott McCambridge:Um, but he was lighting his pipe and, like he was, he was like fathering the flame of the the match and his mom was just trying to light it and he, he was saying, oh yeah, he was kind of joking, but he was like you got to father the flame and I was like I said I think that should be the title of the of the film, you know, cause that's, that's pretty cool. It has like such a strong like thematic element to it, you know, and so we actually kind of had that title in mind before we even really started filming a bunch of stuff.
Scott McCambridge:So I think we always kind of had that angle of like you know there's something about. You know I can see the romantic side of the pipe and the image of the you know the grandpa smoking the pipe.
Eldon Palmer:That kind of just was like oh, it's kind of kind of cool, you know um, I like it yeah, I like, I like the story. I mean, it makes it yeah like I can just picture that being the theme in the film and I haven't even seen it, you know, yeah, yeah, definitely check that one out, if you.
Eldon Palmer:Yeah, get some time. Yeah, I will definitely want to. I want to see that. I mean I appreciate the cinematography stuff and the storytelling and all of the. I mean I've you know casual film buff. I've watched thousands of movies and and um, a little bit from a critical eye, untrained, but um, I just enjoy it.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah, yeah, I love, yeah, I love watching movies. I mean even uh. I don't even yeah, I don't know, Sometimes I don't even like put on that like hat of like critiquing it. You know, you just get lost in it and then you're like that's the best.
Eldon Palmer:I even watch. I prefer watching them alone most of the time. Yeah, yeah, me too. You just get into it. Yeah, yep, definitely.
Scott McCambridge:So, moving on from there, like next things like, so you've done, you've done like commercial stuff, um, and you're still with gorilla you freelancer with them, I freelance, but I work with them quite a bit, um, and I I have an office over there, uh, that I work out of um, and then I work from home too, obviously. But yeah, I've worked with those guys for a long time now so it's been great, definitely great partners, and probably the reason I stuck with it is that they have trusted me, you know, to keep going with it, which is helpful, you know.
Eldon Palmer:We just all need that in our life, kind of Like people that trust us. You know, we just we just all need that in our life, kind of like people that trust us, you know, encourage you. Um, the common theme over some of the recent podcasts I've done is that, yeah, and we kind of need to be that for each other sometimes, you know yeah, definitely.
Scott McCambridge:I don't. You know, we really wouldn't be who we are without the people in our lives. Certainly, and it really I mean, everyone needs like someone to believe in them, you know, at some point obviously.
Eldon Palmer:So, right, I'm very fortunate to have had had that, definitely, yeah what are some of the things you've struggled with over the years, like what it's been a common theme, maybe that you've gotten through yeah and dozen years so um man, yeah, I think the struggles that I feel with filmmaking is really just the um it can.
Scott McCambridge:Obviously it's a field that, uh, you have to financially plan a little, probably more than like someone that has like a you know um and you stay busy um with you know other, other people see the work that you've done and then they'll want to hire you to do stuff. And yeah, perfect world that just keeps going and going. You know, obviously but, the struggles there.
Scott McCambridge:I would say it's like um, definitely project by project, like you always are working on something different kind of you know, and so some you kind of have to constantly uh, keep up to date with, like, how to do things the most efficient way or um, you know, just, some projects are so different, they'll like demand a certain style that you might not be used to editing, you know, sure, something like that. So you have to be kind of adaptable, and that can be kind of hard sometimes, obviously. Or if you just flat out don't know how to do something and you're like I should know how to do that. I've been doing this for a long time, but yeah, you just always have to keep learning. You know which is challenging and then also rewarding at the same time.
Scott McCambridge:So then also, just the the storytelling aspect of filmmaking is very can be very difficult. You know, uh, sometimes you film stuff that you are so sure will work and it just doesn't. You know, it just turns out like it just, yeah, did not work the way you wanted it to, and then it's really hard to make those decisions, to finally cut ties with that thing, and then all of a sudden the project works and becomes better, even though you really wanted that one aspect of it to work. You know, that can be a challenge, obviously, to you know, kill your darlings as they, as they say.
Eldon Palmer:How often are you involved from the editing side anyway in the storytelling and the um production of it where you can kind of have a voice, um in that, like in shooting to edit?
Scott McCambridge:yeah, yeah, there's definitely I mean definitely times where I can go on set and be, you know, helpful and involved with the actual filming process, like we we've done a couple feature films now where I've had the opportunity to do that and then, uh, lend some input basically into like, oh, I think maybe you could go get a shot like that, cause you know the sequence might need that sort of thing, um, commercial stuff. I've done that sometimes, but that's not always very necessary, just because a lot of times they're storyboarded beforehand and you kind of show up on a day with a, hopefully a pretty solid plan of what you're going to capture and then in the editing that becomes more about just executing that plan, uh, which is obviously very different than editing like a documentary, you know or something like that commercial or something versus yeah it's still challenging and, certain ways, if things don't like quite work out.
Scott McCambridge:You know, um, we had a commercial one time where, uh, the it was supposed to be, yeah, like a very you know 30 second commercial type thing, and it was storyboarded and all that. But uh, in the blocking of it things just took a little bit too long and they didn't quite get it like snappy enough, and then it was. So it became a challenge to actually fit it in the 30 seconds, but it had to be a tight 30, you know to be on tv and stuff like that so that's where you're like making decisions, where you're like you don't want to make this decision but you don't have much of a choice.
Scott McCambridge:You know you kind of have to just do it and hope no one notices.
Eldon Palmer:Yeah, you know, make the best of it. The continuity beauty if sometimes people don't know, you know the end user doesn't know, yeah, necessarily, what the plan was.
Scott McCambridge:So exactly, yeah, you might see it never think twice, but it was for a storyboarded, scripted commercial. It was like, wow, this should not be eyeballs looking at it. Yeah, but that happens, you know, it's just part of the process of creating something like that is never. It's never going to go like completely perfect, you know, or it's going to be something that doesn't quite work out.
Eldon Palmer:So um, just probably part of the, the charm and interest in it, and to me like always curious, always learning um, always something new. It's not factory work. That's the same over and over and over.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah.
Eldon Palmer:Um, yeah, but every yeah, but every everyday new challenge, which you can also probably get old sometimes or challenging maybe you're like I just want something that's like easy, for the same over and over yeah, but uh, I don't know.
Scott McCambridge:But yeah, I would say my favorite style of editing would definitely be um more in the either the narrative space, like uh, feature films or short film type things like that, like more definitely more, you know, story driven stuff, and I love, uh, documentaries.
Scott McCambridge:It's probably the most fun I've had. Editing is uh kind of like helping create the, the actual emotion, and like the, the timing of things and like the structure of it all. You know it's like even a narrative script. You're kind of following a blueprint, you know. But with a documentary you're not always really doing that. You have a little bit more freedom as a storyteller sometimes to just kind of like put your own stamp on it, you know a little bit. So, yeah, I really like doing the short documentaries.
Scott McCambridge:We do a lot of that kind of stuff for for companies, um, around that you know, to help them tell their story, or um, you know that kind of stuff. Or like, uh, for amway, we do these, um, they uh commission these videos each year for the amway heroes award, where they give a, an award to someone like a, someone that's done something pretty special in their life, you know kind of thing, or given back to the community, and so we will tell that person's story in like a five to, you know, four to six minute video long video and those are really rewarding to work on because one, the person, the subject matter has done something you know pretty, pretty remarkable, and so to be a part of telling a story like that is pretty rewarding, you know.
Eldon Palmer:So yeah, um, what, what's? Uh, what are most of these run like? Um, you say shorts, like, is that two to three minutes? Is that 10 to 20 minutes?
Scott McCambridge:uh, yeah, I mean docs, I mean yeah, it can be.
Scott McCambridge:I would say like a yeah, anywhere from like the probably at two and a half to 25 minute range. I've done lots of things in that uh window, you know, and then I've done a few that are like more, you know, uh, over an hour long kind of thing. You know more feature length uh. And then I've done some stuff that's like actual episodic series, you know, where it's a documentary type thing. Chad Terpstra and I, who did Father of the Flame together with him, we did a behind the scenes series for a show that's on Netflix called Arcane. Okay, and it's an animated series.
Scott McCambridge:It's an animated series um, but we did the. We did a five part behind the scenes like making of that series called bridging the rift. Um the making of arcane nice and that was that was cool to work on, just because the animation style was so unique. Um, if you ever get a chance to watch that on netflix, it's like they did this like really cool mix of um like 2d and 3d okay it kind of looks like a painting, but then they they brought in these like 3d elements to it.
Scott McCambridge:Um, that are all. So it's kind of like very hand done yeah, but then it has that extra kind of element to it that um just adds like a really unique style, um, but it's very, very hand done. In fact, like. One thing that we learned while making that is that the animators like take an entire day animating just like a second or two.
Eldon Palmer:You know what I mean of like is that made here in the us, or is that the studio that?
Scott McCambridge:uh, the animation studio was in, uh, paris, france, and yeah, they're called fortiche, okay, um, but yeah, they did just a remarkable job on that.
Scott McCambridge:It was really really beautiful.
Scott McCambridge:But yeah, to be able to work on that was really cool because I got to learn a lot about the animation and then, obviously, the storytelling.
Scott McCambridge:I mean, these guys wrote this whole series, you know, based off of a video game called League of Legends by Riot Games, and there's a lot of different characters in that game, but they, you know, these guys have the guys the show runners for that show had worked at that company for since pretty early on in its, in its days, and they just kind of had this idea of, like you know, you can play as any of these characters, but like where do, who are they? And like what you know, like where do they sleep at night and what do they eat? In fact, the series, our behind the scenes series, starts with him wondering these things, and so they they took some of their more, whatever their favorite characters I'm not sure if they're, like, most popular for the game or not, but uh, from, they love these characters more than anybody, you know, and they kind of wrote a whole series to kind of like flesh out their backstory and why they are the way they are, essentially so that's super cool, like I love that kind of stuff yeah, it was.
Eldon Palmer:It's really a really cool show, and that's on netflix, the behind the scene one, or just the show's on netflix the actual animated series is on netflix and then the behind the scenes series is on, uh, the.
Scott McCambridge:It's on riot games youtube channel and it might be on netflix youtube channel.
Eldon Palmer:I'm not sure, but you can get a link to that, and yeah, I could I could send you links to that for sure.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah, but that one that was a really rewarding one to work on for sure, got to learn a lot and also it's just pretty a little bit more high profile too, yeah, and so it has like a built-in audience already where you kind of already know that, like millions of people are going to watch it you know, yeah, that's and uh cool, which is definitely cool, and then uh, and you can just it.
Scott McCambridge:It's really nice to go through and read like some of the comments and stuff because people are they really loved it and they loved getting to. They're such fans of the game that they really loved being able to see this like behind the scenes. Look at it, that was uh, that we, I think, did a pretty good job crafting and so it was cool to actually see um, like an audience response, I guess if you will, you know a lot of times we make commercials and stuff that people are skip.
Eldon Palmer:can't wait to skip, you know. Scroll on by this one you can't skip.
Scott McCambridge:That's a bummer, but yeah. So it's like a very different muscle that you get to work when you work on something like that, versus you know more commercial stuff.
Eldon Palmer:When you're doing that, did you feedback from uh anybody else uh outside the production team during that process? Um, in order to kind of move that along, or did you guys pretty much make all the editorial decisions?
Scott McCambridge:yeah, we were pretty well trusted, um, to do it, but we definitely leaned on people's input, you know, to you, to you know, as sure. I think that's such a crucial part of the filmmaking process is to just see how people react to what the story is and if it's. And we had some moments in that too, where it was like, you know, we were kind of beating our head against the wall because we wanted to put stuff in, you know, but everyone else was saying like it just doesn't work. You know it does, it's taken too long, it just needs to be more to the point. You know that kind of thing.
Scott McCambridge:and yeah but you know even someone that's done this, you know for a while now. You get caught up in trying to make something work so much when really the only way to make it work is to just not include it just right it has to be cut out or move to a different area, you know, to make it work.
Scott McCambridge:But but that's where the feedback, you know, uh, the constructive criticism, really is helpful to get to a finished product. Because I don't really know if probably most films aren't really made by just you know, I think even like most seasoned filmmakers probably get advice or get people's input at some point. Tons of collaboration. I think they're trusted collaborators, you know that are even in the scripting phase. I'm sure they're like yeah, I think I feel good about this, what do you think? And then they'll tear it apart probably.
Eldon Palmer:And you know writing and rewriting and writing and cutting and yeah exactly, some more yeah that's what's fun, I.
Eldon Palmer:So, before we get into what I think the last segment here, um, we're going to talk about one of your more recent projects. That's yeah, I'm kind of big. Uh, I do have another question what, like, what would you do differently, like if you were starting over? This is 2012 again, knowing what you know now, or me, or, and in turn, what would you? What kind of advice would you give it, like a young filmmaker or somebody kind of like you? Where do you start and what's some good advice? Oh, man.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah, I think it really is kind of about well one. The passion that you bring into it is definitely very important, but also the people around you. You know, I got very lucky in that I was very like, well accepted into this like group of filmmakers here in grand rapids, you know, and uh, we all had very similar passions and were very like-minded and had similar tastes, you know, in movies and things like that, and uh, it would not have really been possible without that. I don't think, you know, um, just because that what started off as oh, this is just kind of fun, we're hanging out, we kind of just evolved into like no, this is actually working sort of as a career, you know, here, here and there and um, so I guess my advice there would just to be I hope that they can find those like-minded people and kind of gravitate together.
Scott McCambridge:Cause, you know even if you look at the, the best filmmakers of all time, you know, like Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, they were all kind of friends, like they all kind of knew each other, you know, and they were peers and um, you know they didn't start like, uh, being these like incredible filmmakers, they were just making stuff.
Scott McCambridge:You know what I mean and uh, so I think it's that's an important thing to just have those people you can rely on and, you know, build trust with. And yeah, I mean it takes a lot of people to make a movie. You know any size movie kind of take can take, you know, more than one person usually.
Eldon Palmer:So so so far I think, out of that. I mean, I'm I'm finding like three takeaways there. One surround yourself with good people, and that's kind of a long-term. You know, you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with. You need that support. Kind of going back earlier, the support encouragement yeah, um, that network is your net worth. It's another you know business axiom that you hear over and over and over yeah and um. So that's two. I don't know what the third one was I had it well.
Scott McCambridge:I think just the passion that you bring into it too, it's really important, like you have to, I think. I really do think that if you are really passionate about something and have a pretty good understanding of what it is you want to do, you'll probably end up making something pretty good. You know what I mean. Um, I think you know we all make stuff at first that doesn't quite work. You know, if I went back and looked at some of the things that I made, you know, when I was younger, I would be like, oh, you know, probably, uh, certainly, I think everyone has. Even today I make some stuff where I'm like I don't know if that one's gonna, yeah, make the I don't know if that's gonna go on the website or whatever, but, um, I still think it's uh.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah, it's very important to find the what makes what inspires you. You know what I mean? That's what I'm trying to say.
Eldon Palmer:That'll get you through the hard times. Yeah, like the grind when you, when you got to grind and you don't have the money and you got to do it, like the passion kind of you know, you know, get you through. Yeah, that's the energy draw from the other one. I was thinking another takeaway from that is just make stuff, do stuff, because you're you're saying some of the stuff you might not be proud of now, but at the time you might have been very proud of it and you kind of learn, as you continue to stack, stack projects, that okay now yeah you don't go from, you know, day one to day 1000, right um, and in a day, yeah yeah, exactly I mean from that skill level.
Eldon Palmer:You don't. You don't 10x your skill um overnight, so you just have to make stuff, do stuff yeah, definitely yeah.
Scott McCambridge:The act of actually putting you know, getting the practice in, is definitely important you know, yeah.
Scott McCambridge:So, um, yeah, I remember like I would even get like really nervous like before I would if I was hired to do an edit for somebody or work on something with some I'd. You know it's like kind of nerve-wracking, like I don't think I'm qualified enough or I'm gonna embarrass myself or something like that. You know, um, and I think those that feeling just over the years of doing it changes, it's still kind of there. You know, it's still like I don't want to let anyone down, kind of morphs into that, yeah but it's uh.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah, I think when you sit down to edit something you know or tell a story like that, you don't always know it's going to work out. You know what I mean. Pretty much every single time you're kind of like I have, there's going to be, I'm going to stumble upon, know it's going to work out. You know what I mean. Pretty much every single time you're kind of like I have there's going to be, I'm going to stumble upon something that's going to be cool. I just don't even know what it is yet. You know, putting two shots together in a certain way, with the right sound effect and the way the music happens, or the way you, you know the way you end the first act and start the second act, like all things that, um, you don't necessarily know right away and you know what I mean, but that's going to be. That'll never not be there. Probably you'll always kind of feel that right, but it becomes more exciting than nervous, I guess, or something, maybe.
Eldon Palmer:I don't know. I think you'd probably get bored if you didn't have that yeah keeps you on your toes, shows you care definitely yeah yeah, if not, what's the point?
Eldon Palmer:right yeah, okay. So now let's get into the more recent project you've been working on and that is Deer Camp 86, which releases a full feature length film kind of horror comedy genre releases tomorrow as the date of this recording, so that'd be May 31st and 150 theaters around the country, and which is pretty exciting. My daughter actually went to the screening here a week ago and I realized it was the film that you had shared with me a while back, that you were editing and working on. So I'm excited to go see it and I think we're going to just share the trailer for people here on YouTube and then maybe we'll talk a little bit about the editing process and if you'd like?
Eldon Palmer:definitely cool, let's roll it, evan. The book stops here. Come on, let's get the can before dark buck. Tough titties my liver's itching let's get those drinks in the air and make it tough. Do the high.
Scott McCambridge:Whoo, I can't go.
Eldon Palmer:It's in my soul. All right, let's go. Pulled one deer tag before we even got out of the truck. They smell that we got protection. Oh, you boys were at the Peace P pipe last night, weren't you? Bartender was found murdered this morning. Too many of our girls go missing. Outsiders come up here and take more than venison. We did not come up here to get in any trouble, your honor. We did not come up here to get in any trouble, your honor. Nope, there's no hiding from the sins committed on these lands. It's playing with us. Words, pray, where are you going? I'm going back to detroit, where it's safe.
Scott McCambridge:It definitely has a very yeah, unique brand of humor Some crude humor, you know, definitely. But then it's got some great, you know, moments of suspense, a couple of jump scares and like that kind of stuff too.
Eldon Palmer:Well, I look at it and I'm like this looks like fun. I mean, this is, I grew up there, I mean not that far away from there, and this is the same culture, though yeah, I mean we weren't from detroit going up there, but those guys from what I've seen in the clip could actually be from there. Yeah, maybe not even detroit, but um, just kind of guy humor. Yeah, you know, smell my finger. I don't know what happened before that. Um, right, and then the, and then the deer hanging and dangling, oh yeah.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah, it's definitely that kind of movie.
Eldon Palmer:Liver zitching, it's just, you know. I mean, it looks entertaining to me so I'm excited to go see it.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah, I definitely think it was a really fun movie to work on, for sure, I mean it had. It's kind of like my younger self's dream to have put worked on something like this.
Scott McCambridge:You know what I mean, definitely so, um, yeah, the acting is really good, uh, which makes my job as an editor even more fun, because it's like you, you know, you're the, you're the actor that people don't see. You know what I mean. Like you're helping, you know whatever, like craft this thing into the most. You know the thing that works the best sort of thing. So, yeah, I don't know. I feel, yeah, I feel very grateful to have had the opportunity to work on it, but also I had a lot of fun too. The process itself I just got to make a movie with my buddies. Basically, you know so, uh, so how'd that process work?
Scott McCambridge:let's get into that a little bit. Yeah, so, if I recall. Um, well, so my friend eric mishila is the one that wrote the script. Yeah, this, um, and uh, he, you know, he's kind of the one that I think really poured a lot of himself into it okay, in that sense and uh, um, our other friend, harold cronk, was, is the director of the film and he also.
Scott McCambridge:Those two guys together, like you know, are, you know, sure great like collaborators and uh, just good friends and all that kind of stuff. And then, uh, yeah, I was just lucky enough to be brought in to help them edit, edit it together. You know, I read a I think I read a draft of the script at one point and gave some thoughts on it as well. But, um, we uh, yeah, basically we're at the filming location. I uh had a room set up so I actually went to set, okay, nice, and I was editing, um, in proximity to the set. I wasn't actually on the set, but I was at, uh, like a house on a lake not too far away. And so at the end of each day, you know, they'd get their scenes shot and then I would get the footage. But I'd be working on the previous day footage just editing the scenes together. And so by the time we got done filming, you know we had a bunch of scenes put together already and it also, I think was helpful for the guys um filming it as well, because they could come and watch, oh yeah, and sort of like created, um, you know, even a rough cut form.
Scott McCambridge:You know, um, I did my best to put some like sound effects and even some music. You know, I think a big uh inspiration for this film is, uh, the movie predator, oh yeah, arnold schwarzenegger, um, and so I would just, even in the editing, I just like use that music sometimes as like temp music, just to kind of like give it, yeah, give the feel, life a little bit. You know, um, yeah, and then once we wrapped shooting, I think, uh, eric and I just kind of like got together in our editing suite and just kind of put the rest of it together in just a few weeks, basically to get it to a rough cut um. And then I guess one of the challenges with that is that, uh, being that it's like a lower budget film and stuff like that, we, uh, we actually had less, like the movie was too short, basically, you know, so, um, and I think we were a little surprised by that because we literally only cut one scene out of the movie which was that's gotta be unusual.
Scott McCambridge:I would think it is. Yeah, it wasn't even really a scene. It was like there's just a part in the movie where the guys are all at separate parts in the woods and then they all have to kind of run back together and they it's just one shot of them running through and the. It just wasn't necessary for like the story, you know, and we're like, oh well, let's cut that. That's the only thing we cut.
Scott McCambridge:We used everything else and I think our first edit was somewhere I think it was like 77 minutes or something like that, which we were told is just too short to be like a sellable um feature length film, right, uh, so we had to get creative and find ways to make it a little bit longer, to get to that length. But with, even without, you know, it doesn't really hurt the story, it's still a fun movie to watch and like um, it's a great length, you know it's not too long, it's not too short kind of thing. It just feels like um, that yeah, good throwback to the those kind of like b movie, horror film kind of things you know where it's just a good, fun ride, you know, with some good action and suspense and all that kind of stuff.
Eldon Palmer:So yeah, entertaining, like every movie doesn't have to be like this big grand titanic type thing, right? Um, it can. Just you know it's a great genre. Yeah, just a fun night out yeah with friends, yep yeah, definitely so.
Scott McCambridge:Um and the the yeah the font looks cool. You know it's got the throwback kind of.
Eldon Palmer:I love the throwback aspects of it.
Scott McCambridge:I was like man the movie poster is cool, and then the yeah, like I said, the acting is really great. Um and uh, yeah, the music score is awesome. Uh, the direction is great. Yeah, it really came together nicely.
Eldon Palmer:So I think we're all proud of it and excited to see you know what, what can happen with it, obviously, but I'm just shocked at how efficient you were able to do it and to edit that quickly, at least for your rough draft. I mean, it's probably got to be helpful, like you said, for those actors to kind of see their work right away and inspiring a little bit. Yeah, I think it'd keep momentum rolling in some sense, and I think it.
Scott McCambridge:Yeah, there were definitely scenes that were very difficult to edit, you know, um, but when the acting is good and, like the, the camera work was great, um, I mean the, yeah, what they did with the, just the camera work was crazy in this movie, or uh, what. What they had to work with, too, was, you know what I mean. But, um, it really for my perspective as an editor, my a lot of the incidental stuff I didn't have to worry about as much because they did a good job on that stuff, and so for me it's more about the pacing, the, you know, just the overall timing of things, how the music's going to kind of like fit together with the performances and the sound effects, and you know, I could just kind of focus my attention more on that instead of cutting around, like you know mistakes.
Eldon Palmer:Yeah, yeah, exactly, I mean or things, yeah awesome.
Scott McCambridge:So, um, yeah, we were able to edit it quickly. Um, it still took a long time for the film to get finished and then go through the whole. You know there's a whole process that goes on after you've, you know I say finished, but it's not, you know, it has to go through, uh, you know, like a whole sound mix and color correction and all these things that take quite a bit of time as well. And then, you know, finding the right distribution partner I think took a while. So we, actually we filmed this, I think, in 2020, october of 2020, okay, uh, every year yeah, right.
Scott McCambridge:Oh yeah, it was definitely a covid production. Everyone yeah it was crazy had like masks and stuff and uh, which you know that was a different time of life for everybody but uh um, but to pull stuff off at that time.
Scott McCambridge:It's impressive on its own, you know yeah yeah, um, and it was, you know it's excuse to get out and do yeah something you know, yeah, exactly right. So um, yeah, I think, uh, I don't know if there's much else to say about it other than it's, yeah, gonna be in theaters and so now it looks like from what I saw the other day.
Eldon Palmer:uh, I know they have a link in their Facebook page and maybe the website actually where it's playing. I think it's down from a Grand Rapids, West Michigan standpoint. I think it's downtown at Studio Park. I'm not sure if it's in any other local theaters. They might be updating that because this was a few days ago, so I don't know what that release schedule is, but that's probably where I'm going to go see it. Actually, one more thing. I think I read that this won an award at one of the film festivals.
Scott McCambridge:It did. It won the best special effects at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Eldon Palmer:Cool, yeah, well, I look forward to seeing those also. Well, thanks for joining us, scott. Anything else you'd like to share before we leave.
Scott McCambridge:Oh man, I don't think so.
Eldon Palmer:Okay.
Scott McCambridge:No, I just appreciate you taking the time to have me on and yeah.
Eldon Palmer:Great having you from the audience. You know, go check out the film. Hurry up, because we're not sure how long it'll be there. Also, some of these other docs and stuff, we'll link them. But, uh, also some of these other docs and stuff, I will link them. But a lot of fun stuff that you get to explore. So thanks again, see you next time. Please like, share and subscribe if you've enjoyed this podcast. Tough titties, my liver's itching.