Our House on the Big Screen

This past Friday, we had a little film crew at our house.  You see, we have friends who are film makers and they have friends who are film makers.  So, when their film maker friends were looking for a house to shoot a scene for their new movie, our film maker friends put us in touch with their film makers friends and the rest, as they say, is history.

The last time we had a film crew in our house, we didn't take a single picture.  Even though they were here for three full days.  This crew was in our house for about three hours and I managed to take a few (we learn from our mistakes, right?).

First, you might want to know a little bit about the movie.  It's titled "Rhythm of a Red Dirt Road".  Isn't
that a great title?  Heck, I'd probably see this movie based on that title alone.

Jill Andrews and Brent Thompson

The official log line for the film is: Rhythm of a Red Dirt Road chronicles a musical journey through the South as a road-weary musician desperate to save his marriage is forced to hit the highway with a fiery honky-tonk singer who's given up on love, in a last ditch effort to get home. 

A musical journey!  What?!  I LOVE musical journey's--Oh Brother, Where Art Thou is one of my all time favorite movies and sound tracks. Ok, so now I have two reasons to see this movie...no, make that three since I'm definitely watching it since my living room will be in it.

The scene shot in our living room was a flashback.  In this memory, the husband, asleep on the couch, is gently awoken by his wife singing him a love song.  He joins her in song, then tickles her foot and she smiles radiantly.   End scene.  And I was left with chills!  The song she sings is so beautiful and so sweet that it left me longing for more (turns out she actually wrote that song...yet another reason to see it!).  If that song is any indication of what the rest of the soundtrack will sound like, well then, it's just going to be awesome!

Second, I guess you might want to know a bit more about the actors and crew for this movie.  Well, let me tell you about them. 

The actress is Jill Andrews.  You may have heard of her.  She's a well known and talented alt-country musician who has played at Bonnaroo more than once (yeah, I didn't know any of that when she was here.  I thought she was an actress who could sing real pretty).  Formerly, she was in a band called the everybodyfields (I had heard of them but had not listened to their music--boy was I missing out!).  The everybodyfields parted ways last year to pursue solo careers.  Jill has already released one record with another one coming out in November of this year.  You can listen to Jill's new music on her website.  I did and I'm hooked!  Her songs are so full of melancholy goodness that it makes me long for a rainy day so I can hole up inside my house and listen to her songs on repeat. They're that good.  The song she sings in the movie is one of her songs and I was happy to have it floating around in my head for a couple of days.  I have to share this quote from her website that describes her music so perfectly...

And what usually happens is soul stirring, contemplative and focused: a story, a feeling, a song that warms you like a winter quilt – or chills you to the bone. Either way, when you hear Jill Andrews sing, you will remember it.

So true! Heck, even reading a description about her music is enough to give me chills!

The actor in the film is Brent Thompson.  He's an all around talented guy and entrepreneur. I think it's safe to say that he can and does it all.  Currently, he's the business development manager for Knox ivi, which is an internet video broadcast network based in Knoxville,TN,  featuring local programing.  He also co-hosts the hour long live show Eleven O'Clock Rock.  Eleven O'Clock Rock features musical acts and special guests with a focus on Knoxville and surrounding areas.  Knox ivi keeps the archives of Eleven O'Clock Rock on their website so you never have to worry about missing the show.  Go check it out!

Yeah, he does all that in addition to being a talented actor.  I know first hand that he can play the part of a mean zombie just as convincingly as he portrays an endearing husband (well, what I'm going to interpret as an endearing husband but I have to wait until I see the movie to know for sure). Yeah, and in addition to that, he's a musician.  (Seriously, Brent, how do you do all of this?!).   I haven't had the pleasure of seeing his band live but I have no doubt that is an experience. His band,  Brent Thompson and His Wandering Circus,  involves a revolving cast of musicians (from 5 to 15) and they all dress up as various circus performers when they play a show.  How could that not be fun?!

So that's it for the on-camera talent.  Now, moving on to the talent behind the scenes.

Left to Right, you have Spencer Adams (cinematographer), Lane Skye (writer, producer and actor) and her husband Ruckus Skye (writer, producer, composer and director).  These people are legit.  As in they all have profiles on IMDB.  Lane and Ruckus have a full service film, music and film studio called Joybean Studios, based out of Atlanta. This team is super professional and as nice as can be.  They were so respectful of our house and property (heck, they even cleaned my windows so no complaints here!).  I'm still in awe of how well they all worked together and how they made magic happen, RIGHT HERE IN MY OWN LIVING ROOM.  It's amazing!  I think Ruckus said it best when after watching one of the takes he said "your house is going to be famous".  I believe it because this movie will be known.  And in a few years, there will be tour buses driving by our house and tourists will be hanging out the window to capture a picture of our house.  I seriously cannot gush on and on enough about how awesome that one scene was and how excited I am to see it through their eyes.

And last but not least in this talented line up of crew is Melinda Hairelson, makeup artist.

Here is Melinda touching up Brent's makeup after Ruckus decided that he needed to be ugly-ed up a bit.

Whoa, Melinda!  Might have gone a bit overboard on the ugly there.

Just kidding!  That's obviously not in my living room and this ain't no zombie movie, folks.  I met both Melinda and Brent when our friends Claire and Nathan shot a zombie movie last summer.  Melinda did makeup for the film.  The girl has talent, that's for sure!

Here's a better picture of Melinda, taken by our talented friend Claire.  (Claire, promise me, next time there's a film crew in our house, you'll stop by and take some pictures for me! :) ). 

All in all, this was a wonderful experience.  Thank you Ruckus and Lane for thinking our house was worthy of your movie and allowing us to be a part of it.  We'd be more than happy to let you use our house again if another need arises!

I'm still in awe that all these talented people were in our house.  If you can, take a moment to check out their music and films and remember their names--they all have long careers ahead of them!