The Best New Movie On Apple TV : Review and BTS Story

Some Of Our Stallions, The Great HeartFelt Indie Bromance Dark-Comedy Starring Carson Mell, Al Di, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Mike Judge, Tim Heidecker, David Zellner

On July 2nd A small Indie comedy starring some pretty big hitters in the industry dropped on Apple Tv, and iTunes “Some Of Our Stallions”, starring Carson Mell, Al Di, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Mike Judge, Tim Heidecker and David Zellner, you don’t wanna sleep on this one, I repeat do not miss this release.

During a time like now it’s really hard to market a proper release, the raging beasts of the corona virus are still lingering, the pesticides from the chem-trails are slowly burning them away and less people are dying from the 5 G radio waves. More importantly… Movie theatres are reopening in North America, and the great American Blockbusters are dominating the box office.

This is not a good sign for the little guy, when all people care about is explosions and popcorn. This is why you may have missed the release of Some Of Our Stallions.

You’re probably asking yourself why I care so deeply about a small indie film.

Let me begin… Five years ago I started my journey working as a professional camera assistant on – I guess what you call – Hollywood Films. The unruly 16 hour days that stab at your personal life, while you’re in pursuit of the hollywood dream. Most of the time your just locked into a regular 9–5 job, but in this case a – 7am- 11pm job, it’s not for everyone, but its what I enjoy doing despite losing my personal life. It’s not everyday you get to work on a film with people you admire. Even when you’re working in the film industry, you get an opportunity like this once every few years… I was lucky enough to get the call to work on Some Of Our Stallions.

I must admit, I had no fucking idea who the producers were at the time. I just saw the name Mike Judge, and well, I grew up on his cartoons. Beavis and Butthead and King Of The Hill are still to this day, my alltime favorite cartoons.

People in town don’t like to hop on a lowbudget film, and when they saw the name Mike Judge on there, I was told he would never be on set, because he’s an executive producer. Well… they were fucking wrong, Mike Judge did make an appearence, in fact, he was one of the characters in the film.

This brings me to the camera prep, I got to keslow camera in North Vancouver where we prepped the show. Thats where I met Jason Chiu, the director of photography. He came, bought coffees, talked film, and why he’s excited for this one. We shot the film using a Red Epic Dragon cinema camera, With 2 Hawke Anamorphic Zoom lenses – a short zoom, and a long zoom. He just finished a show called Joe Pera Talks With You, for Adult Swim, and he was prepared to shoot this film same the way. Minimal lighting, lots of practicals, and 90 percent handheld. He also broke some top secret news to me about the project, which I held on to my dear life with – Tim Heidecker from Tim and Eric Awesome Show will be cast as Dr. Thrush in the film. I lost my pants in excitement, this guy is an idol, it was a dream to meet him. Okay … Back to our prep. Our camera truck arrived and it was … not what us vancouver film guys are used to, it was kind of like an empty Uhaul truck. Not what we’re used to out here. The standard of camera truck we are familiar with, is custom built inside with AC, heat, dry closet, work bench, fridge etc.. Although we were dealt a card we were not familiar with, we packed her up and made her our home for the next 3 weeks.

Day one of shooting.

We start to unload the camera truck in Maple Ridge, it’s very cold out, classic canadian winter weather, and this bearded man with kirkland shoes approached the camera truck and asked for Jason. I wasn’t sure where he had gone, nor did I know who this fine gentleman was.

“I’m Carson by the way, thank you so much for coming to work on this” He said.

“Anytime, thanks for having me on it. I’m super stoked to be here,” I said.

That’s when I found out by looking at the call sheet, Carson Mell, was not only the Director of the film, but he was also playing the lead role as Beautiful Bill. This is the first time I’ve ever worked on a show where the Director/Actor, introduced themself to me like they gave a shit. This made me have so much respect for not only the guy, but the film and the entire process that would take place over the next 3 weeks.

The first scene we would shoot was Beautiful Bill stealing a gun from a guy named Randall’s house. This location was used for quite a few scenes, their entire basement pad, the flashback scene in the backyard shaving Andy’s head, and a bunch of outside scenes. On this day, I also met one of the kindest people I would ever encounter in the short period of time ive been on earth. His name is Al Di, He played the character Andy, but.. he was also a producer on this film, and I am very glad to have had this opportunity. Al Di seemed very shy, quiet, but when this guy gets acting, he’s a damn firecracker. Hailing from Beijing China, but having lived in Vancouver, and LA, he discovered a comedic talent he has, mixing american and chinese humor together to create something so special. If you don’t know who Al Di is, just wait a few years, his name will be everywhere, and you’ll regret not watching him at his start.

I’m not gonna get into every single day, but I will revisit some of the finest moments, and a few things that didn’t make the final cut of the film.

Everyday, it seemed to get colder and colder, and although I couldnt wait to get home, The experience is what kept me on my little baby toes. I remember it being – what felt like minus 10 C —not sure what that is in fahrenheit but that doesnt fuckin matter –it was fucking cold. We were out in the deep forest somewhere and the character Andy would be confessing his love to “Bonny”, played by Olivia Taylor Dudley – Who I would soon run into again later in my career on the show Magicians. Not only was it cold that day, but it was pouring rain. They don’t call it “Rain City” “RainCouver” for nothing. Al Di had a kising scene that day, which would lead to his character ripping his shirt off – like it was in his rider like Matthew McConaughey – and howling in love and excitement in the cold fucking ice rain – you could imagine how quick we wanted to shoot this scene. Jason was amazing at getting things done in a timely matter, using the ready rig to do handheld work whenever he could. We always had a mini monitor with a wireless system so we could playback the footage and hand it to the director and producer quickly after each take. Which made for a better performance from the both of them each time. Carson always knew when it was time to get that perfect improv moment after securing the dialogue he wanted. Later that night we shot some forest scenes with Al Di dressed like Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy and Carson wearing a leather cowboy vest with tassels, pure gold.

One snowy day, we shot in Langley, BC, and this day in particular stands out for me, and really showed me how awesome our producers and more importantly how awesome Carson Mell is. The shot was of Beautiful Bill about to break into the bank wearing a black trench coat and a rediculous wig, But in between takes, a guy, in which appeared to be homeless, was walking past our set, for the second time now, and he caught all of our eyes, including Carsons. The man was wearing a black jacket had a weird punk haircut, but what parched on his shoulder was the most interesting part. A pet pigeion. – or maybe a parrot I don’t remember I don’t think it’s that important you get the point– on a leash that just chilled on his shoulder. Carson had to have him in his movie. I remember, He got the producers on speed dial and told them he wants this guy in the movie, how do we get clearence. The guy agrees, and Carson told him he would take care of him for the day, whatever he needed. This guy just wanted to chill, he didnt care about being in a fucking movie. But the conversation those two shared was like two friends that havent seen each other in decades. Wherever that guy is I hope he’s doing okay.

About Halfway through the week we took over the Abbotsford Mall, Beautiful Bill, and Andy , Two psychotic friends would embark on a quest to find love. We had access to the old Sears lot inside the mall which was unoccupied. This is where we had our green room, craft services, camera stash ect. But we had a long day of run and gun shooting within the mall, So I had to pack lightly, I threw some batteries in my backpack, and put all my other ditty bag gack in there as well.

“Next shot up, the cameras gonna go on the roof, follow me” said the Assistant Director.

So I followed him all the way through the back seedy looking hallways of the mall, where the boiler room is, the janitors office, maybe some dead bodies. It seriously looked like a place you take someone to murder them. He then points at a ladder that leads to a small square in the cieling.

“just gotta climb up there” He said.

“FUCK .. how are we gonna get everything up there?” I said.

“I don’t know ask for some help.”

So me and a bunch of grips figured out how to tie up some boxes and use a pully system to get everything up there. This is was sketchiest , scariest moment of. my career… scared i’d loose my job if I dropped anything valuable, not scared because I had to climb.

Welp, we did it, we got up there, it was cold, it was shitty, there was a door up there that lead back into the mall —but onto this wierd level with no standing space – it looked over a seating area of the mall and we followed Andy and Beautiful Bill with the camera from up there. I’m glad we got that shot, becuase it gave this scene such a unique angle on what the characters were up to in the scene. Pretty much Andy and Beautiful Bill, are walking up to women in the mall, and trying to get them to go on a date with them. I don’t wanna spoil much more of it. After hours we had access to the undergorund parking, in which we got last shots of that scene, and we were off to go home.

Onto the next location..

All of the psychward scenes were shot at Saint Mary’s Residential School in Mission BC, a lot of films shoot here although it has a very dark past. We thought the buildings past haunted us while we were present shooting there. a number of weird things happened, for one we plugged in the dolly to give it some power and the outlet burst into flames, but that didnt stop us from filming there quite yet. I guess why this location worked so well is that it felt eerie while we were in the building, As if there were ghosts watching us wanting us to leave right away. There is a church area in the building as well as dormatory on the same property, the washrooms were out of order, plugged with seasoned shit from god knows when, and there was no heat. we were fucking freezing our asses off. But it wasn’t time to call it quits.

Carson had a scene with a baby tarantula while sitting in the buildings church, dubbed community room, which ironically tips his hat off to his show on TBS called Tarantula, about an uncertified tattoo artist who rambles poetic acid trip monolgues to his clientelle, a must watch for cartoon lovers.

Today is the day I’ve been waiting for, Tim Heidecker is coming to be on set. We used an office space in the school, this building was so versatile it can dubb as anything. I get call sheet in the morning and see Tim’s name. I couldn’t wait to get to work that day, I start bringing gear into the elevator go up to the floor and, Holy FUCK … I was blessed to share the elevevator with Tim Heidecker, this man was the size of two of me tall, he felt like 6’5”, he just stood there with his Tim blank look that makes me laugh in his shows, I kept my cool, and he was nice, we didnt exchange many words but he was very humble. He also told a few Tim worthly jokes that arnt really appropriate for this article. I remember Al asking him if hes ever been to china, and he told a hilarious joke and it got Al thinking, and his response was – Thank You Tim. Carson also told him to just improv with some jokes.

“I’m done telling jokes, people don’t get my jokes, frankly there not funny, they make me laugh, nobody like them, you don;t want my jokes it’l ruin everything.” Tim says jokingly. It was a nice moment for us to keep in our back pockets. Tim is in fact a comedic genius in the eyes of me.

On one of our last days of shooting at the school, we set up in the basement – The boiler room lets say – It took me a good thirty minutes to get everything down there – It was tiny space, this was the first time that Jason had no practical lights to light the scene, the only way to do it, would be to rig some lights. So the grip and LX crew along with everyone moving gear down the hefty staircase like a bunch of rabid dogs racing to get the last peice of meat, got packed into the small room and the light rigging began. Carson and Aldi were down there doing a blocking, so you could imagine how packed the room was. Without even drilling into the wall, someone got some white powder on them, which sparked the concern.

“ Is this Asbestosis? “ someone said.

I kid you not, Carson’s first response, he looked at me and said Randy, we gotta go, were done filming this fucking movie, our health is more imporant. Carson ran right past me, we all ran outta there like a bat outta hell and left all the gear downstairs, the trauma of the night, we honestly thought we were gonan die of the poisoning. All that mattered in that moment is Carson cared that we were all safe. Safety was number one on this set. The next day someone came in and inspected the place, and it turned out to be a false alarm. However we acted accordingly and changed our clothes and bagged them for disposal, took showers, and made sure there was no Asbestosis lingering on our cotton clothing. This was my last day on the film, as I had another shoot coming up that overlapped this production.

I wanted to touch on two other nights we had.

I don’t quite remember the timeline, but the memory sticks like glue. We had a couple hotel rooms booked, and we used the parking lot for our camera truck, and other company trucks – craft services ect. One hotel room —which had stairs leading to the room on the outside – was used for the video village and green room – producer’s monitor and change-room – and the other room was being used as one of the sets for the day. In the room would be a character whom was a gun salesmen —Played by Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis and Butthead – I couldn’t beleive what was happening in front of me, I never thought in my entire life I would be in the same room as one of my fucking idols, He was nice, calm, shy, and he didn’t stay long, but im sure he had places to be. I am just thankful I got to share the space with him for a few hours. He sounded just like I Imagined – Beavis meets Hank Hill – Later on that day we used another room, in which David Zellner played a character – some people know him from directing Kukimo, but I know him from the Duplass Brothers film “BAGHEAD”, such a great low budget horror film. He was also in The Art Of Self Defense and Slacker 2011. There’s just something about this guys performance in everything he does. So fluid, his voice is unique, and you always just wanna like him, even know your always unsure about him. The most important thing about him, … He’s in Some Of Our Stallions.

This brings me to my last story of the film, It was our first over night shoot, we were stationed at E-moli, an old battery plant. We used this as our crew parking, and set. This day we were a bit rouge, we did a few scenes in the parkinglot and the rest we did on the road. Carson, Aldi, and Olivia, has speaking scenes in the moving car. The only person that would be in the car from the crew was Jason, our cinematographer and the other crew members would follow behind in a 15 person shuttle van. We had one light on the ourside of the car to capture a bit more moonlight on the talent. But the interesting thing , is there was a lot of cops on the road that night, which was sketching us all out. We could have been pulled over at any second , and at one point we pulled over into a home depot parking-lot and for some reaosn, I don’t know if the guy was drunk, on drugs, or just wanted to plain old fight, this guy followed us into the parkinglot and started to swear and call us out of the vehicles to fight. Not sure what he was thinking , but we all kept our composure and went on with shooting. Maybe he knew we were shooting a movie and hates film people. I don’t know and I don’t care, but I’m glad things didnt escalate, moreso for him.

This night was of the coldest on the whole shoot, my fingertips felt like breaking each time I clapped the slate, and my parka was warm at the start of the day then got soaked a bit, and well, there was no heat on the camera truck. The cold pierced through all of the layers I had on, I thought I came prepared for the night but apparently not. Halfway through our day, we were blessed with a Poutine truck from I assume Carson and the Producers. It was such a nice reward to such a hard fucking day. So far, i’ve watched Some Of Our Stallions 3 times and it gets better with each watch, so rewarding, it was worth the long 3 year wait to see it. I kept seeing news about it, and thought it was going to be released and then nothing. Well finally on July 2nd it was released and I couldn’t be happier. All that hard work and all the memories, will last forever, it was by far the best experience I’ve ever had working with the Some Of Our Stallions Crew, we made something with passion and love, and I am very proud of the work we did. I hope everyone enjoys this film. It means a lot to me and my career.

#timheidecker #mikejudge #Carsonmell #aldi #destrofilms #lizdestro #randallhawke #indiecomedy #davidzellner #someofourstallions #tarantula #beavisandbutthead #kingofthehill #vancouverfilm #vancouver