That’s right; we said free! As superficial and cosmetic as the “biz” can be, but Some Dudes are trying to change it. Their vessel – RED BALLS, a film inspired by underground dodgeball leagues (yes, they exist!). Don’t worry, this one is fictitious. But, the real indie-ness of this movie is the cost- It’s now free, thanks to YouTube and the creators’ badass decision to stand up to the industry. So, why did they go rogue with it? Do the real leagues get this intense? And, what’s with those haircuts?! Enjoy this nice little read and find out.
COMEDY CAKE: Why a movie about dodgeball?
DREW MORRIS: We had heard about an underground dodgeball league that a friend of mine participated in that took place on the west side of Chicago and his stories were WILD. They would all get hammered and set out to hit each other in the face, so naturally fights would break out. It sounded like fun, so we started talking about basing a mockumentary around that type of league, and create back stories for each team.
CAKE: What was your gym class dodgeball ranking?
DREW: Three.
CAKE: Where did you get the inspiration for such zany characters?
DREW: When it came to characters, we first divided it up into teams. We figured we would go with a metal band, some rich guys, a few rappers, a couple of urban white trash types like you would see on Shameless, AND a girls team. But once the girls we cast found out we were going to be playing dodgeball for real, meaning they would likely get hit in the face, they opted out of the film.
CAKE: Team Wrath was torn apart by “a good little Christian girl.” Not to mention, she was a strain on their band. Have you ever been distanced from friends or family, because of a significant other? If so, how did you handle it?
DREW: When I was 15 and had my first girlfriend, all my friends hated her. Turns out she was bogus and they were just looking out for me! Gotta have a solid squad to protect you from ratchets. That goes for males and females. But yeah, the Christian girlfriend was developed literally from an improvised line. We hadn’t fleshed out Wrath that much but when we filmed the band practice part, Jake Andrews started improvising Creed lines, then John Paul said “you been hangin’ out with that girl again?” Literally, it had no context, but we decided to run with that and have it be a Christian girl that gives the heave Scott Stapp influence. The actress Mary Morrice was the only one from the girls team who was down for whatever, so we got her in there and she made it into something really fun.
CAKE: While we’re on the subject, how do YOU feel about Creed, musically speaking?
DREW: We have been listening to Creed as a joke since we were kids. Everything about Creed is comedy gold: The deep Pearl Jam-like flow, the trainwreck of a singer (see Scott Stapp’s Wikipedia page), and of course, the fact that they made millions of dollars capitalizing of Christians.
So when Jake added that element to his character, my 6th grade self got ecstatic because at that point I was 21 and forgot about Creed. So we just ran with it and it started all over … which led to us making a completely separate mockumentary about a Creed tribute band in Minnesota … and going to see Creed live in concert. I’m not kidding, here’s proof.
CAKE: Who does the haircuts for this bunch?
DREW: All haircuts were provided by Mr. Ethan Kukulski, who played Gerr from Wrath. He was the silent but deadly one who low key hooked up with old ladies:
Only Cooper Johnson was supposed to have the bowl cut, but then my brother offered to have the George Costanza. Once Ethan finished the haircut, Brian had this look in his eyes where I could tell he realized what he had just committed to. I felt really bad so I decided to shave the sides off of my hair and it kind of gave us this whole new vibe. Unfortunately for my brother, we needed him to keep his hair like that for a few days so he had to go to dinner with his girlfriend’s family like that. Plus since Ethan shaved it so short and we buzzed it all off afterwards, Cooper and I had to graduate college looking like skinheads.
CAKE: How do you feel taking the film to YouTube and making it free?
DREW: Once we saw that Red Balls was on Pirate Bay and other torrent sites, we couldn’t have been happier, and that made us realize that it needed to be accessible to anyone who was kind enough to watch. It found a bigger audience than we ever thought it would and we’re beyond grateful for that. So it’s completely up for grabs. Shit dude, we’d even give this film to Netflix for free if we could.
CAKE: How would you urge other artists and filmmakers to see the value in doing so?
DREW: We made the movie with a budget of mostly Love, Sweat, and Tears, so we never
expected to make money off of it. Anyone who is creating anything for the right reasons knows exactly what that feeling is like. Plus, the film market is completely oversaturated to the point where there’s little money in independent filmmaking. Artists of all kinds in our generation realize that exposure is the most valuable thing they can receive early in their careers. Look at music. Albums don’t make much money anymore unless you’re huge, like Creed ;), so artists give away their music for free on Soundcloud and other platforms. Also, they don’t make money anymore from putting music videos on MTV and see the value in giving it away for free on Youtube. We’re using a similar model.
My advice to filmmakers is that unless you put more money into your film than you can afford to lose, put it out there for free. The decision makers in the industry look at numbers in any way possible and if you can prove that you have an audience for your work, you’re more likely to get a budget for a future film.
Jake Andrews who plays Gremlin (the Creed lover) now works for Freddie W who is a perfect example of that. He started with Youtube videos and now he has a fully functional brand with the freedom to make any dream a reality. They even produce a TV series called Video Game High School that they fund off of Kickstarter every year that now goes on Netflix. They have completely created their own lane outside of the industry and they answer to no one. Perfect example of how putting some content out for free can pay off HUGE in the long run.
An outstanding short film made by Jake Andrews and Jon Karmen with Rocketjump:
CAKE: The Henry’s see some disloyalty from their father. What would you do if your parents bet against you, if it meant they would most likely win?
DREW: I dunno, probably work some shit out beforehand where I get a cut.
CAKE: Dodgeball gets intense! Are you competitive like that?
DREW: I am not that competitive, unless I’m playing Scrabble with the fellas. HOWEVER, the fact that the tournament was going to be completely unscripted brought out the primal energy from the entire cast. There was so much shit talking leading up to the tournament between everyone and we were all genuinely trying our hardest to win.
CAKE: Is there a secret dodgeball culture out there? If so, how do we plug into it?
DREW: I think the original club we based it off of was dismantled but there’s an amazing dodgeball group based in Chicago and around the country called Elite Dodgeball that hit us up after they saw the movie. They’re way more dedicated to dodgeball than we’ll ever be and we’re honored to have their nod of approval:
https://www.facebook.com/Elitedodgeball?pnref=lhc
http://www.elite-dodgeball.com/
CAKE: Who are your comedic influences?
DREW: When I was 5, my parents took me to see Dumb & Dumber and it blew my mind that their JOB was to show up and act like that. So Jim Carrey was the initial influence. Then Sandler, Farley, Kattan, and the rest of the late 90s SNL crowd. But honestly, when I took notice of Danny McBride, it gave me the motivation to leave conventional college and completely dive into filmmaking.
He came out of nowhere with Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder to the point where I was like “WHO IS THIS DUDE?” and I dug up every single piece of info I could on him. I watched The Foot Fist Way like 10 times and THEN Eastbound & Down came out. I kept thinking “this is the exact type of shit I want to make!” I love the overly confident, don’t give a shit about anyone but me type of characters. Will Ferrell always did it really well and he caught notice that Danny McBride had practically perfected it, which is why we all now know who he is. So shit, Carrey, Sandler, Chappelle, Louis Ck, Stiller, Appatow, so many people. But fuck dude, Danny McBride is like Jay-Z to me.
CAKE: Was there a good bit of improvisation in this film?
DREW: I take ZERO credit for any of the dialogue in this film because it’s 90% improvised. All we had to start with was character bios. We had been working with FND Films, Rubydog Movies, and some other great actors around Chicago so we just based characters around who we knew would play them. From there, really loose guidelines were given on set and everyone just ran with it. Some takes went almost a half hour, but we were having so much fun that the word “cut” was the last thing on my mind. Obviously, that made editing a bitch, but my advice to anyone making comedy is to let your actors improv. The cast gave lines, character traits and plot points that I could have never come up with myself. It was so collaborative that we ended up giving “Screenplay By” credit to our dog.
Our dog’s IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4915594/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
We knew it was a risk writing no dialogue, but we trusted each other on set to the point where we knew we could take it in all sorts of directions. Improv is one of the best possible tools to use when it comes to comedy of all forms. I read the script for Pineapple Express a few years after it came out and that’s when my love for McBride practically became an obsession. It was very clear to me that all of the best jokes in the film were improv. It was like wow, these guys practically wrote the script off the dome on set. So yeah, just to dick ride Danny McBride a little more, seeing him work magic with improv in films inspired us to try.
CAKE: What projects do you have on the horizon? Red Balls 2?
DREW: I think if we actually attempted to make a Red Balls sequel, it would probably just be sad and lame, but we do have something very special in the works …
Since several of us relocated to Los Angeles, we’ve turned Born Ready Films into a commercial production companies that serves all sorts of random fun clients. Other than that, we’ve done lots of fun documentaries and music videos.
On the comedy end, we’re in post production of a 20 minute short film called Pizza Boys. Long story short, it takes place in the year 2023 where Dick Cheney has taken over the United States, then makes pizza a schedule 1 narcotic. Four pizza dealers travel to a secret dairy farm on the Mexican border looking for cheese, only to find a deadly secret. Yes, that is an actual movie that we for some reason took the time to make.
It was shot here in Los Angeles and features several Red Balls cast members and some great new faces. Honestly, I think it might be our best work yet and it was so amazing to get together with all the talented friends we work with. Since Red Balls, we’ve all gone off and started making a living in all areas of the industry. Some of us are even making content for the Playboy network! So Pizza Boys is the first thing we’ve gotten together to do, and we had a blast. It will probably be wrapped up by the end of the year, then we’ll see what we do from there!!!
Also, FND Films will be releasing their first feature length film next year:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/it-s-all-good-by-fnd-films
Mentions: For more Red Balls info click HERE. Now, go pay some dodgeball, dammit.
CakeMama