Feel like a winner

Feel like a winner

Yucca Fest's Impressive Festival Run is Now Complete

Yucca Fest has concluded it’s 2021-2022 festival run, and has returned with premieres, selections, and praise, but more than anything else, Yucca Fest came back with wins! Take a look at our official wins and selections below:

Oniros Film Awards

Best Indie Feature (winner)
Best First Time Director (winner)
Best First Time Producer (winner)

Vegas Movie Awards

Best Indie Feature (winner)

Hong Kong International Film Festival

Best Editing in a Feature Film (winner)
Best Cinematography in a Feature Film (winner)

New York International Women’s Festival

Best Producer (winner)

Yucca Valley Film Festival

Best Feature Film (winner)

Golden State Film Festival

Best Editing in a Narrative Feature (winner)

MLC Awards

Outstanding Achievement “OA” Award (winner)
Best of Year - Best Adventure/Fantasy/VFX (winner)

Gold Movie Awards (official selection)

Berlin Art and Film Festival (official selection)

Film Girl Film Festival (official selection)

Yucca Fest premieres at the Chinese Theatre!

On March 3rd, Yucca Fest officially premiered in Hollywood, California at the historic Chinese Theatre. This premiere was in part of the Golden State Film Festival, where we took home the win for best editing in a narrative feature. Take a look at some of the photos from the trip!

And the winner is...

Yucca Fest is making a huge splash on our festival tour! Screening in Las Vegas, New York, Hong Kong, London, and Berlin so far, Yucca Fest has racked up six awards. 2 Best Indie Feature Awards, Best First Time Director, Best First Time Producer, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography. We’ll continue hearing news of screenings and awards throughout 2021, and we’re super excited to share more wins with our supporters!

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Yucca Fest Trailer #2

Yucca Fest Trailer #1

Yucca Fest: Original Soundtrack out now!

Visit our Bandcamp page here to preview the entire album and buy your digital copy today!

An Interview with the Director of Yucca Fest

interview by Roy Chalkevski

No stranger to being in front of the camera, the director of the world’s first vaporwave movie Yucca Fest was admittedly green to working a production behind the scenes. The first time director took on the job as a favor to first time producer Brady Trainor. Chelsea was already working on the film as a casting director with Brady when the film’s original director and personal friend to both, Walt Roseboro III, passed away.

“We didn’t know what to do at that point.” Trainor said. After more than a week of confusion and processing things started to sort themselves out. “When I started to think back at it, Chelsea had absolutely nailed all the characters during her reads with the talent. She understood the direction Walt and I were going for.” Ultimately the film was made and dedicated to Walt’s memory.

The award winning film made quite the splash at the Vegas Movie Awards, winning an award of merit for best indie feature. And it’s soundtrack is now available for pre-orders via Bandcamp. I sat down with Chelsea Murphy to get her take on Yucca Fest.

Your career is more actress/casting director facing. How did you end up in the director’s chair?

Walt Roseboro III was the original director of the film but tragically he passed away shortly before we were about to start production. We thought about scrapping the film internally, but in the end chose to complete it in dedication to Walt. We decided the mantle should be taken by someone he knew and I was honored to be asked.

Pete, Summer, Zach, and Kevin (Jey Reynolds, Monroe Cline, Nicholas Harsin, and Dale Van Slyke) look over their heist plans.

You cast this film pretty much entirely by yourself. How do you even start that process on such a low budget shoot?

Luckily there are a lot of great resources out there that you can use without breaking the bank. We cast our first round by self tapes and then brought the second round in for in-person auditions, followed by chemistry reads. Actors love to come in the room and play/exercise their imagination so it was more important for me to choose the right sides that show off what we need for the role than being extra with the budget.

The world’s first vaporwave feature film — Yucca Fest — coming soon

What did you do to accomplish adding elements of a musical genre (vaporwave) into indie cinema?

I consumed a lot of vaporware content, mostly music videos and art. I really love the colors and nostalgia of it.

And then Brady setting the film in Joshua Tree sort of adds a kind of nostalgia to it as well — and the setting is a huge part of the movie too. That can be a really spiritual place. Was that your experience, or was it more just work work work?

Joshua Tree is very peaceful and beautiful. I’d love to go back sometime when I’m not working to really appreciate the full extent of it. Looking back being in such a lovely area probably did help with some of the natural stresses that come with movie making.

Joshua trees against an artificial night sky.

Some days were easier than others on the shoot for sure—and there were a few days that didn’t really go a planned at all. How much of what we see on screen was planned out, and what was spur of the moment?

Due to scheduling conflicts, we ended up losing a location, but luckily the last minute replacement location ended up being my favorite one and adding a great pop of color that we hadn't planned.

If there’s one thing, some aspect or scene, that you think you absolutely nailed, what was it?

I think overall the chemistry between the core cast was something we really nailed. We worked a lot in rehearsal to have real connection between them and they developed genuine friendships which transferred well on screen.

Jesse (Zachary Zarvos) argues with Sammy G (Michael Gambino) over the price.

Yeah the entire main cast was great. Can you tell us about how Zachary Zarvos was cast? It was a fairly last minute decision, wasn’t it?

Yes! actually our original “Jesse” ended up no showing on the first day of filming. I knew Zarvos from classes at Playhouse West and I knew he had the talent to really bring Jesse to life in the way we needed but what I didn’t know was if he was going to be able to drop whatever he was doing and B line to the desert. To my relief he did. He really came through—I mean we had someone read the script in a voice recording so he could listen to in and try to memorize his lines on the drive up and then memorizing other scenes in-between takes. I’m impressed and very thankful for him.

Yucca Fest director Chelsea Murphy (right) prepares for her cameo in the movie as “Riley”.

What do you think are the most important things to keep in mind while making an indie low budget/high concept movie?

Community and teamwork. Remembering we’re all on the same side and working together to bring something to life. A lot of times this means people taking on multiple roles. There were times I was a stand in and times I was even an extra. I think almost everyone in the crew took on multiple roles which was a key component to it all coming together.

————

It’s all part of the plan as four friends in southern California (Monroe Cline, Jey Reynolds, Nicholas Harsin, and Dale Van Slyke) decide to rob a music festival. The only problem; someone else has their eye on the money.

The film stars Monroe Cline, Jey Reynolds, Nicholas Harsin, Dale Van Slyke, Zachary Zarvos, Enrique Oseguera, and Cazimir Milostan.

YUCCA FEST is directed by Chelsea Murphy and written by Sunshine Green. The film is produced by Brady Trainor, Walt Roseboro III, and Jey Reynolds. Michael Huffington serves as the executive producer. The film is produced by meddle media.

Listen to a Track From the First Vaporwave Feature Film

by Roy Chalkevski

music by Matt Waldner

Palm trees line southern California’s suburbs.

From his desert dwelling in Arizona, </body> produces vaporwave beats that take listeners back to 1995 booting up their family’s new computer for the very first time. “I probably won’t be doing vaporwave in 5 years,” said Matt Waldner, the one man phenomenon behind </body>, but that was five years ago, and Matt’s vaporwave project is still going strong, consistently releasing albums since it’s conception in 2016.

Matt’s unique approach to creating the soundtrack for the world’s first vaporwave movie, Yucca Fest, spawned a collection of songs hanging out in the realms between vaporwave, lofi, synth, and psychedelia. The resulting blend lends itself perfectly to the scenes they occupy, and completes the stylistic choices made in the film’s edit. Even if fans of the genre don’t appreciate the high concept/low budget filmmaking ever present in Yucca Fest, surely they’ll appreciate the music endlessly flowing throughout the world’s first vaporwave film, a movie that should prove to be an early cult classic.

Listen to a track from Yucca Fest’s soundtrack below:

I sat down with Matt and talked about approaching his first film score, how he juggled vaporwave with the other influences on the soundtrack, and if we’ll hear more of Matt’s specific sound in future movies.

So how’d you first get into music anyway?

I picked up piano when I was around 10 and guitar shortly after. I started messing around recording stuff when I was 15 or so, and went on to play in and produce a handful of shitty but fun punk bands over the years.

How long has </body> been active? How did it start?

</body> started in August of 2016, just after moving back down to Arizona for my third year of college. At the time I hadn’t heard much vaporwave, other than some Saint Pepsi and Macintosh Plus, but the more I dug into the genre the more attached to it I became until I hit a point where I just had to try making some myself. I figured the project would be just be a short introduction into producing more electronically based music, I remember even saying “I probably won’t be doing vaporwave in 5 years”, but here I am 5 years later and still going strong with it!

Yucca Fest is full of vaporwave aesthetics like this one.

This is your first time doing a film score, right? How did it differ from your usual process of creating music?

Yeah, this is my first time doing a film score, discounting an “experimental art” short film I did in college haha! It was a drastically different process from how I normally produce in a number of ways. The biggest was going from using samples and heavily using that for the base of a song to creating that same sound and vibe from scratch. In a lot of cases, pieces were much less structured than I’m used to in order to fit what was happening at the time in the scene. Though there were a few instances where I was able to create an original song and “vaporize” it like I would a sample to achieve that classic, slowed down, vaporwave sound.

Another difference was that, it being for a film with a plot and development throughout, the entire score needed to be able to tell a story as well. So I had to adjust from making songs and start thinking in terms of themes and of ways to incorporate leitmotifs that would drive alongside the movements the film makes.

Brady told me he sent over a lot of references that weren’t exactly vaporwave, how did you find the right balance for the score?

When Brady gave me his list of references for how he wanted the score to sound, I put them all into a playlist and listened to it nonstop for a few weeks. I could tell he was looking for something a bit more lo-fi feeling, synth heavy, and had a touch of psychedelic to it; with a vaporwave twist to it too of course! Brady was awesome to work with throughout the production of the score, we vibed really well off of each others' ideas and visions which made composing for the film that much easier and so much fun!

I think there was only one time where he wasn’t really feeling the composition of a track I gave him and even then I was still able to take the track and turn it into what he had envisioned for the scene. He gave me a lot of creative control with the score and in the end I know it’s something we’re both psyched for people to hear.

Pete and Summer (Jey Reynolds, Monroe Cline) look out over a gloomy Los Angeles morning skyline.

There are fourteen very unique tracks from this soundtrack, which is your favorite?

There were a lot of really fun tracks to work on, but the one that was my favorite was "Tickets, Plural" for the standoff in the desert scene. It was a blast melding together a synthy 80’s vibe with a tense spaghetti western sound, two things that in theory sound like they definitely don’t work together, but turned out sounding really fresh and complimentary. I even got to use an ocarina I picked up on my last trip to the Grand Canyon for some flairs that added authenticity to the overall southwestern sound of the piece!

Detective Hayward (Cazimir Milostan) surveys a car as it passes by the festival exit.

Creating a soundtrack can be tricky process for a lot of composers. How do you decide where music should and shouldn’t be?

Honestly a lot of it came from gut feeling and reading the situation of each scene, but I feel like this is what I struggled with most since this was my first time working on a film. And Brady was amazing to work with for this aspect of the project - a lot of times I’d give him a cut with a track on it and while the placement of the track itself was fitting, sometimes it’d bleed a little too much or too little into the space around it so he’d give a time he felt it best to start playing or stopping a track based on the composition and the scene it was in and I’d be able to cut it or rearrange it to fit his vision.

There was also a scene where I told him I purposefully didn’t put music over it because I felt it would distract from the interaction going on in the scene and he totally agreed with me which, once again, it was a joy working with Brady because of how much respect we had for each others ideas and how well they meshed together in situations like that.

Kevin (Dale Van Slyke) stares into the souls of his friends.

So now that you’ve got a little practice is scoring, can we expect to hear more of your music in future movies?

As of right now my future in film is wide open but I’m hoping this will be a great stepping stone into the industry. In the meantime, I have a lot of ideas for </body> that I’ll be working on and ideas for other projects in different genres I’d like to try out. But I’m always going to be down to compose a score for another opportunity like this should it come up in the future!

————

It’s all part of the plan as four friends in southern California (Monroe Cline, Jey Reynolds, Nicholas Harsin, and Dale Van Slyke) decide to rob a music festival. The only problem; someone else has their eye on the money.

The film stars Monroe Cline, Jey Reynolds, Nicholas Harsin, Dale Van Slyke, Zachary Zarvos, Enrique Oseguera, and Cazimir Milostan.

YUCCA FEST is directed by Chelsea Murphy and written by Sunshine Green. The film is produced by Brady Trainor, Walt Roseboro III, and Jey Reynolds. Michael Huffington serves as the executive producer. The film is produced by meddle media.

Listen to more music by </body> at bodyendtag.bandcamp.com

Join Us at #yuccafest

Don't Miss Out on Yucca Fest

Another Set of Stills From Yucca Fest

Zach (Nicholas Harsin) shows off his daily catch to Pete (Jey Reynolds).

Pete (Jey Reynolds) and Summer (Monroe Cline) share a sunny beachside day collecting wallets.

Summer (Monroe Cline) anxiously looks onward.

Summer (Monroe Cline) gets a chance meeting with two semi-internet famous influencers (Denise Khumalo and Lena Escandon).

Escape the City

Yucca Fest Official Motion Picture Poster

An Interview with the Editor of Yucca Fest

interview by Roy Chalkevski

Yucca Fest is the world’s first vaporwave feature film, combining traditional elements of indie cinema with signature aspects of the vaporwave aesthetic, while also experimenting with the narrative edit of the film itself. A slow burn, with an ending you won’t stop thinking about, the film follows four friends as they plan a heist in the background of a vaporwave music festival, but are they the only people after the money?

Brady Trainor, the producer and editor of the low budget/high concept music festival heist film has all the answers. A native of Pontiac, IL, Trainor obtained a film degree in Florida before moving to the Mojave desert in California where the movie was filmed. “It’s a great place for creativity,” Trainor said about the area, “there’s a lot more to do out here than people realize, and having clear open skies is never a bad thing.” Brady talked with me about his influences, balancing cinema style with vaporwave, and his personal connection to the film.

You serve as the main producer and editor on this project. Why did you want to make a vaporwave movie?

Vaporwave is something I’ve been following for a while as an emerging art genre. Not just music, but as an aesthetic and really an entire culture. In early 2018, I began wondering what a vaporwave movie would even look like. Then a few months later, when I read Sunshine’s script, I knew we had a good opportunity for a low budget/high concept project that wouldn’t strain itself being vaporwave, especially since we were going music based to begin with. We threw some specific elements into the script, but I knew that post production would be where the fun would really start. It was really a case of the stars aligning in the very beginning.

Jesse (Zachary Zarvos) desperately looks around the festival.

What were your influences while creating this movie?

It was more music videos than narratives, things like Tyler, The Creator and Tame Impala. With the movie being so closely related to music it just made sense. As far as influences from other features though, I tried to take a little bit from as much as I could. A staple in vaporwave is sampling, so I would try to add things in to mimic older movies. There are references to a lot of different films in Yucca Fest, old westerns, Tarantino, Star Wars, and tons of action movies from the 80s/90s. Combining elements together that probably shouldn’t work and approaching it in this niche way that somehow makes sense. For me it was a great way to creatively problem solve how I could progress the story but still stay true to what I was trying to accomplish.

A split screen shows the beauty of the world the movie creates.

How much of that creative problem solving went into the final look of the movie?

There was a lot of experimentation and thought that went into the final look. I had made a few skate videos as test edits, and had created a lookbook at the beginning of pre-production, even then there was a lot of fine tuning for the right look, and then a lot of second guessing after that. Every frame had to be reviewed to make sure it carried the message we wanted it to carry. Every effect and sound had to mean something. I wanted to make sure in the end we were cinematic, but that we really held onto our vaporwave theme.

Fall deeper into the rabbit hole as the movie progresses with increasingly strange visuals.

What were some of the limitations you faced putting this all together?

Our budget for starters. Although we received some money from our executive producer Michael Huffington, we also had to turn to GoFundMe, a few private donations, and I even briefly went into debt to make sure this movie could be done. I think our total budget was under $10,000 total. Between travel, food, and gas there wasn’t a lot left over to actually make the movie. I called in just about every favor I had, and was fortunate enough that I had family and friends that traveled quite a distance to help me out.

Another unique vaporwave visual from Yucca Fest.

As the producer, you had quite a hand in crafting the soundtrack too, right?

I put Matt [Waldner] on his path, he did all the rest. I remember giving him a lot of non-vaporwave influences to look over. Things like Boards of Canada, George Harrison, Black Moth Super Rainbow, and Pink Floyd because I wanted to expand both the audio and visual encyclopedias of the film, adding things in like glitchwave, drone, synthwave, and psychedelia to keep the audience engaged. What Matt came back with was something really amazing. I can’t really take much credit for it though.

Kevin (Dale Van Slyke) talks with Rita and Riley (Vanessa Conlon and Chelsea Murphy) as the festival unfolds around them.

Did the pandemic interfere with creating Yucca Fest at all?

We were fortunate enough to have filmed in May of 2019. By November we had a pretty completed fine cut and were able to do pickups before the year’s end. I spent pretty much all of lockdown editing solo. For the most part it really hasn’t gotten in the way, but now that we have this movie finished, and we want to show people, we’re finding it difficult to get it out. We know we have something good, we just want to be able to share it.

Jesse (Zachary Zarvos) uses his power as security guard to keep an eye out for crime.

This film has a pretty personal connection for you, can you talk about that?

You mean besides having worked on it full time for three years?

Besides that, yeah.

When I first decided this was going to be the movie I would fully commit to, I asked a friend of mine, Walt Roseboro III to direct it. Walt was my college roommate and the best man at my wedding. He’d been a close friend for a decade even though he lived in Philadelphia and I was in California. Walt eagerly agreed, and we started casting. He was supposed to fly out for a few weeks in November of 2018 for Thanksgiving and to start pre-production, but a few days before his flight he was shot and killed by his roommate.

I took some time away from the story, contemplating if I even wanted to go forward with it. In the end I decided I wanted to see this through. This had been our dream for some time, and I didn’t want to just abandon it. I wanted to make sure this thing got done so I could dedicate it to him. When we started shooting my parents came out west for a few days to help out. That turned out to be the last time I saw my mom healthy as well. She passed seven months later. This whole process has been such a roller coaster.

Joshua Trees stoically stand under the desert night sky.

What advice do you have for indie filmmakers tackling a project like this?

I think it’s important to try to not take it too seriously. It’s hard work to create anything, especially a movie, but remember to enjoy it. At the end of the day I was able to make a movie with my friends and family by my side. I’m very lucky in that regard, not everyone gets an opportunity like this.

And don’t linger too much on what could have been. “This shot would have been great if we had just blah blah blah.” It’s fine to have that thought, but just enjoy your project, learn from what you made, and do better next time.

————

It’s all part of the plan as four friends in southern California (Monroe Cline, Jey Reynolds, Nicholas Harsin, and Dale Van Slyke) decide to rob a music festival. The only problem; someone else has their eye on the money.

The film stars Monroe Cline, Jey Reynolds, Nicholas Harsin, Dale Van Slyke, Zachary Zarvos, Enrique Oseguera, and Cazimir Milostan.

YUCCA FEST is directed by Chelsea Murphy and written by Sunshine Green. The film is produced by Brady Trainor, Walt Roseboro III, and Jey Reynolds. Michael Huffington serves as the executive producer. The film is produced by meddle media.