Check out our EXCLUSIVE interview with Scott Hamilton and Matt Hamilton, a.k.a. Save the Empire Productions, who are the film makers who brought us "Saved by the Belding" and "Lost Heros: Rod Belding"! Enjoy!
First, please tell us a little bit about you guys? How long have you been friends/worked together?
Scott: Well, Matt, David and myself (brothers) started making our own movies with our dad’s VHS camcorder by the time we were 3 or 4. So we’ve been having fun making movies for quite a while. We started involving our friends in our movies in high school but it was all just silly stuff, for fun. We started taking it seriously in college and did the first Rod movie in 2009.
How long have you been fans of the show? Are you huge fans like the obsessed characters in the films? :)
Matt: I’ve been watching the show since grade school. I remember coming home after school one day with a friend who turned on TBS and introduced me to the show. I’ve loved it ever since and love the nostalgia that I get from watching old episodes.
I wouldn’t say we are as obsessed as the guys in our movie but we definitely felt that way when watching the Belding brothers reunite and recreate a scene from over 20 years ago. Going home that night we all couldn’t stop talking about what just happened. It’s those moments that make all the hard work worth it.
Was Lost Heroes: Saved By The Bell's Rod Belding your first project together?
Scott: No, definitely not. As mentioned above, we’ve been making movies together for a while. Some of our other recent work includes a Batman fan film, “Batman Dark Tomorrow” which was released in the summer of 2008. We’re also in production on our first original feature film, a comedy about rollerblading called “Wild in the Streets.” We are about 85% through principle photography on the 105 page script. The trailer for that will actually be online soon as well.
How did you guys get the idea/inspiration for both of these projects?
Matt: In 2006 I had the random idea to make a series of videos called “Lost Heroes” that would focus on random characters from old movies. The idea was that you would recognize these characters but probably haven’t thought about them in a while, which would make it even funnier. Our first “Lost Heroes” video focused on the villain from “Kindergarten Cop”. We thought it was great back then but now we don’t show it to many people. After that we forgot about doing that series since we started making our Batman film and focused on that for a while.
In October 2008 my brother David, who plays “Trevor Crick” in the movie, had the idea we should do a “Lost Heroes” for Rod Belding. We didn’t have many ideas for it at the time but knew right away that it had to have the shot of Rod teaching the kids to raft in slow motion, which is seen in the first film. We all had some time during Thanksgiving that year and had just gotten a new camera we wanted to try out so we ended up shooting about 75% of the movie in one night. All the lines were improvised on the spot and then edited together to make it seem more scripted.
Once we finished this we put it on YouTube and other sites like Funny Or Die and kind of forgot about it for about a little while. It wasn’t until the summer of 2009 that we decided to try and send it to Ed Blatchford, who plays Rod Belding, and see what he thought. We didn’t know what to expect but we got a quick reply from him saying he loved it. After a couple of conversations, Ed had the idea to do a sequel where the guys find Rod Belding. We had never expected any of this to happen but this past year of working with Ed and getting the movie made had been one of the coolest things we have ever done and will never forget.
Were you hesitant to do a SBTB-related short film? Were you confident of what you wanted to accomplish?
Scott: There was no hesitation to do the first Rod film. But there was no real confidence in what we were doing either, it was just something we wanted to do for fun. We knew what we were doing was funny to us, and probably would be to an immediate group of friends, but we were actually very happily surprised at the warm reception it found on Youtube.
Was it difficult to get in contact with Ed Blatchford and Dennis Haskins?
Matt: It was actually pretty easy. The night we were shooting the first “Lost Heroes”, our friend Wes checked on his phone to see what Ed was up to and actually found his email address. As mentioned, we finally emailed him months later and he loved what we were doing.
Getting in touch with Dennis wasn’t too hard either. Ed knew him from back in the day and they had remained in touch over the years. After some conversations back and forth Dennis agreed to do it and recreate that famous scene. When we were filming that he was telling us how that episode was his favorite so it was really cool to be able to recreate that in a way.
What were their reactions when you told them about your idea for the film?
Scott: The idea to do a sequel was Ed’s idea. We went back and forth for a while before we finally settled on an idea and story line we both liked. He really pushed us to dig deep and find a funny and creative angle to approach it from, which ultimately resulted in a better sequel than we’d originally envisioned. By the time Dennis got involved we already had a pretty solid story laid out and a part for him. He liked what he saw and jumped on board… which is good because obviously, no one else could play his part.
How long did both projects take to shoot?
Matt: The first “Lost Heroes” took about 3 days to shoot. We shot about 75% of the movie on Thanksgiving night in 2008. That night was just filming the guys talking about Rod and what he meant to them. The next couple days we did some on location shooting whenever our friends could. That whole project came together really quickly and was real easy to do. Even editing it was really simple and had a pretty fast turnaround time.
“Saved By The Belding” took a little longer only cause we had to travel out to LA and plan a whole lot more. We went to LA in early June and shot over the course of 3 days. During that 72 hour period I think I got a total of 15 hours of sleep. It was a lot of hard work but one of the most amazing things we have ever done. Once we got home we shot the rest of the scenes throughout June and early July. I would say overall this took about a month to shoot.
Can you give us some behind the scenes funny moments with shooting?
Scott: While shooting in the parking lot of a restaurant, we had a bright light in the parking lot, which was apparently shining right into someone’s house. And she let us know. She came walking out of her house, barefoot, with a full glass of wine in her hand, telling us to shut it off because she had an early morning… apparently one that involved getting drunk to prepare for. As it turned out, she had a chili fest to go to.
How did it feel watching Dennis and Ed in action? Was it just like old times?
Matt: It was amazing. They rehearsed the scene for about 15 minutes while we were finishing setting up lights and getting everything ready. Once we started they nailed the scene each time. We even had a crowd of about 20 people watching and they would clap after every take. After the movie is out we will put up a behind the scenes video so you can see all of this.
Can you share some behind the scenes pictures for the fans?
Scott: There is a photo album of behind the scenes at steproductions.com. There is also a behind the scenes/outtakes video that will be online shortly after the film is released.
Obviously, this project is geared towards a specific target audience (BELL Fans), but what are your plans to get this to a broader audience?
Matt: I think almost everyone has watched Saved By The Bell at one time or another so hopefully when people see the title of our movie they will want to check it out. While we were writing this we would ask random people about the show and see if they remember this episode. Every time we would talk to someone they always remembered this episode and said it was one of their favorites. In the movie itself we include a lot clips from the episode so if anyone hasn’t seen it in a couple of years the clips will help remind them.
We will also enter the movie in a lot of film festivals and it will premiere on the front page of Dailymotion.com so hopefully that will help us reach a wide audience.
Any t-shirts/posters/ fan memorabilia in the works?
Scott: There definitely should be shirt! I have a few ideas. We’ll get the movie out first, then work on some of that stuff.
Have you been able to share this with any of the other cast members? How about Peter Engel?
Scott: Don Barnhart (the director of the show) took a look at the trailer and said he really liked it. We haven’t reached out to anyone else from the show yet, but definitely will once the film in online.
Did you accomplish what you wanted? Is it better than what you envisioned?
Scott: All we ever wanted was for the real Rod Belding to check out our first movie. Anything else was just bonus. So yeah, the outcome was much better than we ever envisioned!
Any other SBTB-related projects in the works?
Scott: No, there is nothing else SBTB related in the works. Once we get this completely and released we will be returning focus to our feature film “Wild in the Streets”, which is almost done with principal photography.
And finally, do you reveal what ever happened to "Inga" the stewardess Rod ditches the gang for? Did they live happily ever after? :)
Matt: You will have to watch and find out!
