PLEASE NOTE: My ultimate goal is put this movie (along with the Original In-Camera edit and the remake we started but never finished) on DVD with full audio commentaries, trailers, and the whole kaboodle (yeah, even if you think I'm crazy), so this won't be a scene by scene Commentary. I just sort of want to touch on some of the bigger things, and what it means to me looking back at it now all these years later.

   First of all, let me just say that I'm glad to finally have this thing online. I worked really hard to have the edit completed by this past Christmas(2007), the 10 year anniversary of when we began shooting this movie, and I succeeded. Alas, some annoying technical problems kept me from getting it online. That is - until now.

   Even before I started this website, I had begun finally editing together this great beast of a movie from my past. The original version was 95% edited in camera, so beyond inserting a scene or two that were shot out of sequence, there wasn't much to edit. It's a mess of a confusing movie overall, but I love the fact that for every reverse angle or cut we had to stop the tape where it was and get the new shot. However, while it's great to watch the original tape knowing that these two high school kids did this by themselves, it's not well done enough to be enjoyed as a movie on it's own without being distracted by the problems. This is why I decided to do a final, modern cut of the movie - not just as I would have back then, but as I would today. I did stick to as much of the traditional mentality that I could, though. I used songs that we had originally talked about using, and the only visual effects I used were done in a very "cheap" way - something we would have done if we had the technology back then (only 5 added effects in all, that were merely used to enhance the clarity of the plot: Tyler's drunken POV, the Psycho's gunfire, the trippy drug scene, extra camera shake when Mark is run over, and the police lights driving away with The Psycho). For the sound of the gun, I even used the original sound my BB gun made in the movie, just tweaking it a little. So, besides the normal fix that an editor may do, all other effects were done in camera on the spot - there was no such things as CGI for us back then. If we didn't get a shot or a voice-over originally, I didn't add one. Also, you'll notice that I barely cleaned up the video presentation. It still looks like an old video copy of a movie made by two kids - because that's what it is... and I love it for that.

   So, how did The Anderson Brothers come to be, anyways? As you know, I grew up making movies with my friends, and one particular night in 1997 (the day after Christmas I believe), my friend Tyler Metz was spending the night, and we decided to make a movie. That was it - something my group of friends and I did all the time. What we didn't realize that night, however, was that this moronic little movie would eventually become an hour long (a definite first for us), involve a girl that wasn't our mom or sister (another first), and take us a year to complete (again, a first for us).

   I hope you have already watched the movie, and even more hopefully enjoyed it, so I won't bother with the full plot. The basic idea started on that first night: "two brothers have a door to door sales business that they're really bad at." Of course, back in those days we never even imagined creating scripts for our movies. Firstly, because our movies never lasted for more than one day of shooting anyways, and secondly, because we probably had no idea what the heck a script was anyways. Well, that's not entirely true of course, but our movies were never well thought out pieces of drama, so though we knew what a script was, I don't recall ever finding the use for one. The Anderson Brothers (the shortened version of "The Anderson Bros." was adopted most likely because we grew up with the famous Super Mario Bros.) started off in this same way - just a little movie to make one night, and possibly continue the next morning.

   However, new ground was struck when, during the next sleepover, we decided to continue the same movie. So, it was then that Tyler and I began this road of madness. From the very beginning, we had no idea how it would end. Eventually we began to talk about it constantly - and we had a rough idea of what would happen with The Psycho, or Tyler's date, but still, everything was complete improv. We never had a shot list, or storyboards, or any clue what we would exactly say. Generally, I would come up with my line, and Tyler would come up with his response when the camera angle changed - but it was completely a collaborative effort. If you ever watch the original un-edited version, you can see and hear laughter throughout the entire movie. It's still present to a degree in this edit, but that's only because it was impossible to hide in some places. Personally, I think Tyler completely shines during the date near the end of the movie. That scene still makes me laugh.

   There are a million things I could talk about in this movie, every detail, every hilarious back-story, every mistake (though the new edit helps alleviate quite a few of those issues), but I'll save that for the audio commentary on the DVD (though if you have any questions you can ask me in the comments below). Really, it's just a pleasure for me to look back and see the growth that happens through the movie and to be reminded of good times. Obviously, Tyler and I get older, but it's more than that. And no, I'm not talking about my ever-growing unibrow (the shame). I'm talking about the moviemakers. By the end, we were no film geniuses, but there was tremendous growth in our style, and story structure. It's gradual, of course, but I notice it the most in the final scene in the kitchen with Tyler and Mark. The pacing, the camerawork, the acting, the shots - it had all really improved from the very beginning of the movie. Maybe you probably can't even see it, but I know that after this - our movies were different. We started really trying alot of new things, new locations and ideas, something that I see as a real stepping stone. So, yeah, it's just a silly little movie I made in high school, but for me it's a big chapter of my moviemaking story: I played two characters (one of whom is very telling of what characters I'd be playing when I was older), we were shooting on location, and we learned what does and doesn't work in storytelling, among so many other things. I look back at this movie and not only see memories of my youth with my old friend and my dog, but a real turning point for myself as a kid making movies. It sounds a bit dramatic, and I still made many horrible movies after this, but this was where I finally started to think about movies as something more serious than just goofing around with a camera on the weekend. This is where, as a moviemaker, I started to grow up ... even if it was through something as simple and silly as The Anderson Brothers.


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