Underground Planet is an award winning production company based in Austin Texas. From concept to completion we develop, plan, shoot and edit amazing videos for some of the most incredible bands and artist that a company like ours could ever hope to work with.

Drama – Full Version Now Online

So I had been pushing Timeca to do a short for some time, an incredible actress with a million great story ideas. “Drama” was one she had mentioned and one that I fell immediately in love with. Maybe it’s because when I was a kid when I told my Dad I was getting picked on he said “What do ya want me to do about it? Ya gotta stand up for yourself”. The next day I did, got my ass kicked. Anyway, as I was saying, we had bounced around a lot of ideas and this was actually part of an longer story she had thought of doing. From the first time I heard this particular part of the storyline I thought it would work really well as a short, picking up from when Drama gets out of bed and walks by her Auntie who’s passed out, ending with Drama’s moment of self-realization in the mirror, perhaps not exactly Norman Rockwell but a slice of life nonetheless.

Took me five months to convince Timeca to go for it and once we decided to do this it was cast, found locations, shot and edited within a week and I really couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out. We got incredibly lucky with the casting, only auditioned 6 girls for the parts of Drama and the bully and don’t think we could have found anyone better had we auditioned 100. Huge props to Ann Woodward (Drama) and Gianna Redeemer (the bully). Both just amazing and incredible to work with, I know we will be seeing a whole lot more of you two!

Of course Timeca rocked it, never had any doubts about that, and never had any doubts about her screen love interest of the moment played by Aaron Spivey-Sorrells. For those of you who watch “Friday Night Lights” you’re probably familiar with his work, he’s appeared in every episode except the pilot as Coach Spivey. We were all nothing but flattered that he was interested in being a part of our humble little short.

As for the making of stuff that I like to babble about, we shot this over one verrrrrry long day and picked up a few shots over a couple hours a few days later. Because of the nature of this one I wanted to keep it with a more real/doc type feel and opted for a handheld look. A little ironic that two of our actors were from Friday Night Lights (Timeca has also made an appearance on the show) and I went with the swishy sway cam but what can I say? When it works it works. My favorite shot of the whole piece is the shot coming off the roof. Took us awhile to find a location and when we did winded up with one that didn’t have rooftop access.

Thankfully, Austin Habitat for Humanity did have a trusty old lift truck that hoisted us up two at a time with our equipment so we could get the shot I wanted.

Side note, the song playing in the background while Drama is running from the other kids was a song called “Get Low“ by First Class Fresh who Timeca’s son, Elgyn A. Chandler Jr. is a member of. The group makes a guest appearance as the boys who tease Drama as she’s walking by. You can see the music video I did for their song “Wobble House” here:

First Class Fresh – Wobble House

This was shot on a Sony EX1 with a Letus35 extreme, edited in Sony Vegas.

Dirty Wormz – Black Piranha

Artist : Dirty Wormz
Song : Black Piranha
Album: The PARAZITE
Director: Raymond J. Schlogel
Production Company : Underground Planet

This one was more or less tossed together from a variety of footage shot over the course of a year or so with a mix of Canon XL2’s and XH-A1’s. Some footage being shot before and during a show at the Backroom here in Austin Texas. More from a show at Antones and more were picked up at Music Lab and even set up stage lighting to film in the woods behind the Music Lab. Other shots still were filmed at a variety of locations including my front room.