This is a bit of a long post, so get ready to do some reading. I just wanted to take you guys on a journey from birth to present through the Alterna Rush project, and show you some of the people and animals I've seen along the way. If you don't feel like reading, just skip ahead to this short video at:
www.smallscalefilms.com Enjoy!
About three years back I went on a three day trip to South Florida with my good friend Michael Bourdon, and my herping mentor Roy Engeldorf. We met up with Mike Rochford (the herper formerly known as Fresh) and were going to attempt to find a wild burmese python!
At this point in my herping life I had worn Kansas and Texas out. I had been herping in those two states for about 8 years, and while I enjoyed it, it had been a while since I had seen something REALLY NEW.
A wild burmese was just what I needed.
Here's the crew:
Well, we did manage to find two burmese on two attempts, but what I really found was a renewed passion for field herping.
This is the only photo we got, as we were too busy freaking the heck out!
In three days we saw over 40 species of herps, some D.O.R.s, admittedly, and many of them lifers. I started feeling that buzz I used to get every time I flipped a ringneck, or the first time I saw an atrox, and I realized that THIS is what I want to do for a living.
Here are some of the animals that changed my life:
Lifer Corn In situ
Lifer polyphemus
My first parthenogenic snake species:
lifer acutus
Osprey
Lifer cottonmouth
Spiny
Etc etc. You get the point...
Well, one more
elapsoides which I flipped and then flipped out!
on the plane ride home, I decided to find a way to spend my life herping. I began brainstorming... talked with my wife... etc etc.
We came up with a plan to shoot a pilot for a TV series.
Our plan was to head to West Texas where Roy could help us out ( he owns the OutBack Oasis Motel in Sanderson), shoot the pilot, write a bunch of episodes, and pitch it all to network TV. We chose the Grayband as our subject matter, because of the combination of herping and herpetoculture, the culture of the grayband, and the interesting people.
Shortly before we were scheduled to head down to shoot, the Texas legislature started down the path to outlawing road cruising...
I had said from day one that there was enough subject matter on alterna to make a whole documentary and not just a TV show, but we simply didn't have the money to do it.
After the weird happenings with the law we felt that we could have a positive impact on the image of herping in general if we went ahead and shot the full length movie.
We also felt that the conflict, and hopefully resolution, between the herpers and the state would make for a compelling film, and a great story, so we made the choice.
We knew we were nuts to do it. First, we had never made a full-length movie, and second we had zero dollars.
I knew that if we were going to do this right we would need money, so using the footage that we shot on our first trip down, we cut together "The Fundraising Trailer."
If you haven't seen it, you can view that first trailer and another trailer at this link:
www.alternarushthemovie.comOur idea was, we would pass this out at big reptile shows and hopefully find a sponsor to bankroll the project in return for advertising and a cut of the sales. We hoped the trailer would add credibility to our solicitation.
I made heavy efforts to land an investor. I sent emails, made calls, made appearances. People just didn't want to give their money away to someone who had never produced a film before, understandably.
My biggest effort was to fly to the giant Daytona reptile show.
I sold alterna t-shirts to pay for the trip, and I passed out magnets and DVD's of the trailer.
I solicited my butt off, but the only real success I had was herping after the show with Mikey Fresh!
Lifer adamanteous
Lifer barbouri
After Daytona, I didn't know what to do. I was committed to the project, but couldn't go forward without funding. I talked to all of my friends about it. My good friend Mike Hughes, who is a genius, suggested that I set things up as an educational non-profit.
It sounded weird at first. I was like," Uhh, I need to pay my bills and stuff." Mikey says," Do you think Jack Hanna sleeps in his car and eats beans out of a can?" Fair enough, so I started looking into the non-profit thing. I read a couple of books, and I came up with a plan.
SMALL SCALE FILMS INC.
We could make short documentary/commercials about conservation oriented non-profit groups to help them fundraise.
We could do all kinds of educational programs for kids and adults. Snake shows, herping trips etc.
We could conduct summer research programs with local teens interested in careers in biology, and pay for it all by selling our full length documentaries like Alterna Rush!
This way, we could rely on tax deductible donations to fund the project instead of finding investors.
PERFECT.
A few legal zoom bills later, and ZING! we have a non-profit.
ONLY PROBLEM: no donations
My assumption had been that any herper who heard our idea would want to donate something. Even if it was 5 bucks, if the whole community chipped in, we could easily finish the film, but that didn't happen. Getting even a 5 dollar donation from your average herper proved as difficult as getting an investor for the film originally, so...
I kept selling T-shirts at shows all around the US...
I kept herping where ever I went with the local yokels:
I got some nice fat donations from some folks, but mostly I ran up about 10,000 bucks in personal credit card debt, and I KEPT MAKING FILMING TRIPS.
One memorable trip was to Pennsylvania to film the alterna holotype.
This is the first alterna ever catalogued by science. It was pickled in 1901 and is still in great shape:
This was a cathartic experience for me in a lot of ways. Seeing that snake, and so many other holotypes at the museum that day was a real treat, but it was on this trip where I realized that the altera community was beginning to accept me, and welcome me.
I landed at Laguardia airport and was greated by Jerry Kruse and his family:
Who then promptly drove me from New York To Philadelphia, so that I wouldn't have to rent a car.
When we got to the museum we met up with Ned Gilmore who took us into the collection room.
I had forgotten to buy tapes for the camera I rented, so Ned walked me FIVE BLOCKS, IN THE RAIN to buy tapes. This is one hell of a nice guy:
Jerry, monkeying around:
After filming all day, Bob Assetto picked me up and took me to Pat's Steaks:
You might remember it from Rocky:
On this spot also stood Bob Assetto during the filming of the great motion picture: Alterna Rush!
The next day Bob drove me back to New York via Jim Dobis' house. We filmed his animals and interviewed him:
In Jim's backyard I found a lifer!
Plethodon cinereus Leadback Phase:
Bob took me to the home of Coach and Moe, the dynamic duo of grayband finding power. They let me stay in their spare bedroom, and they let me interview Bob Assetto on their couch.
Here's Tom (coach) around the house:
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The next morning, Tom drove me over to the home of one of the best alterna breeders around, Mike Russo.
I got to meet him and his family:
CUTENESS!
After filming his collection and interviewing him, the grayband story telling began.
Mike buys three copies of any literature evolving graybands.
After Russo's, Coach drove me to Jerry Kruse's house to film his collection.
I was drooling over his gorgeous red milks:
We had a great time!
I spent the night at Coach and Moe's again, and the next morning they, graciously, drove me through awful traffic into Queens, so that I could fly out on time:
I had a beer in the airport
and read a little Emerson while I waited to board:
With what money I had been able to raise, I took three, credit card debt inducing, trips to West Texas. Totaling about 6 weeks of filming over three years. I was lucky to find a camera man who was as passionate about herping as I was:
Andrew Gizinski:
We stayed at the home of Tom Sinclair while we waited for some filming equipment to show up via UPS.
Luckily we hit it off right away, and I consider him a very good, trusted friend.
The following are some highlights of our 6 weeks in Texas. Understand that most of our finds weren't photographed, because they were FILMED. For the real highlights, you'll have to see the movie!
In Situ Buttermilk that Andrew spotted:
Cropped shot: ( he got away before I could change lenses)
South Texas Atrox:
South Texas Bullsnake
scenery:
Big rock
Red Spotted Toad:
That toad in hand on Black Gap:
Dude, there are so many pics... I haven't even uploaded half of them. But I'll leave you with a few favorites:
118 suboc:
One of my favorite alterna ever:
Now it has been three years, and I'm pleased to say that the film will definitely be finished this year. We have just kicked off our web fundraiser and we're offering up one heck of a deal for a limited time.
For a donation of 25 bucks you get two T-shirts and a sticker FREE SHIPPING.
Shirt one will be our standard Alterna Rush shirt. Good for herping in and showing your support:
The other will be our newest shirt drawn by Jordan Johnson:
And the sticker is a novelty "Pets Present" sticker. Warning the firemen to save your pet herps.
this whole package:
For 25 bucks shipped, and you can help Small Scale Films accomplish its goals.
Check out this cool video for more information:
www.smallscalefilms.comThankyou to Dylan for letting me post this!
Thank you all for reading, and thanks in advance for your support!
DAN KRULL
-President
SmallScaleFilms Inc
www.alternarushthemovie.com
