A
STORY OF INDIE FILMMAKING
Co
Directors Thomas Vosicky and Kenneth Kit
Lamug, shot their first full-length film,
"Vegasland", for a budget of under
$2,000. In the two years prior to the production,
the team spent time working on a $2,700
- :47 minute short film named “Bounce”.
Without any previous experience in filmmaking,
"Bounce" served as a do-it-yourself
school for the both of them.
After the somewhat rocky road producing
“Bounce”, the brothers Yuzzi learned where
some of the potholes were and decided to
take to the road again with “Vegasland”
casting a lot of the main players from their
previous endeavor.
So
with a limited budget, one camera and two
microphones, the cast and crew had to work
extra hard to create a compelling movie
both visually and narratively.
Because
everyone worked during the day and with
different schedules, "Vegasland"
was shot mainly during Wednesdays and Thursdays
between the times of 9pm and 3am in various
locations throughout Las Vegas using "Guerilla
filmmaking tactics". Most of the editing
was done on home computers with software
available to anyone.
Some
of the scenes we shot that were of note
were an actual casino-implosion, desert
fighting, Las Vegas aerial shots, SWAT teams
busting through houses and even gun fights.
Even though Vegasland has visual effects,
the core of the movie is in it's characters
and the story which are the heart and soul
of the production.
Vegasland
is a culmination of what can be achieved
with passion and hard work.
Behind
The Scenes Photography
Vegasland
Movie Screen Shots
Vegasland
Synopsis
Contact
Us at info -at- wilddogarts.com
VEGASLAND
FUN FACTS:
- Vegasland
was filmed entirely in Las Vegas and has
a 100% Las Vegas actors and crew members.
- Since
all the crew and cast members had day
jobs and families, most of the scenes
were shot between 9pm - 3am on Wednesdays
and Thursdays
- The
movie cost $932 to complete
- All
the "in-car" driving scenes
were shot inside a one car garage during
a Las Vegas summer. In keeping with the
story, the actors had to wear jackets
and sweats with a close to 100 degrees
temperature inside the garage. Short "breather"
breaks had to be taken to keep everyone
conscious.
-
The gym used in the movie, “TOCCO’S GYM”
is a Las Vegas icon where famous boxers
train. Some of them are Ali, Frazier,
Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Roberto Duran, Wayne
McCullough, Mike McCallum “The Body Snatcher”,
Roger Mayweather “The Black Mamba”, Floyd
Mayweather Jr., and many many more. The
co-director Thomas Vosicky also trained
there for a fight with Butterbean that
never happened. The production team almost
never got this location since it was closed
for renovation during the time of production.
- The
movie was shot using a Panasonic DVX100.
All the footage were downloaded and edited
on a 500GB USB drive!
- The
previous titles for the movie “ZYZYX”,
“ZYZYX ROAD”, “TOOLS”, “TOOLS OF A HIGHER
EVIL” and “ILLEGAL”
- The
hat used by Tony Rollers referenced from
the movie Snatch is called “The Mickey
Hat” was custom ordered and made from
U.K. This is the leather hat Brad Pitt’s
character wears.
- A
couple of desert scorpions were captured
by Special Visual Effects Supervisor Langley
West for the torture scene. Unfortunately
the scorpions killed off each other. A
new scorpion was casted for the part and
lives with one of the actors to this day.
Langley’s alternate title is “scorpion
wrangler”
- The
lead actors in this movie previously worked
with the filmmakers on their unreleased
short film “BOUNCE” and an office comedy
short film “DEFRAGGED." A glimpse
of "DEFRAGGED" can been seen
on Eddie G's TV screen when he arrives
home.
- Vegasland
was written and designed to be filmed
in "modules." This allowed the
filmmakers to have only a skeleton crew
and cast for each scene which made scheduling
and production coordination a bit easier.
- Halfway
in the production of the movie a majority
of the shooting equipment was stolen after
a house “break-in” leaving the crew with
a camera, some batteries and one boom
stick. Microphones had to be repurchased
which took up almost half of the non-existent
budget.