Out of Print and Unavailable – Page 38

BOTL Total Season 1 (2007-’08)

This one picked up where BOTL Radio left off at the end of Season 3.

The idea with BOTL Total was to keep with the same format of BOTL Radio – the roughly 22 minute episodes, each made up of about 10 short films, some of which were part of their own series within the series.

But also, to explore new themes and ideas that we hadn’t been able to before, because of how BOTL Radio had really been built around a specific absurd style of comedy and social commentary we were doing – any time we had tried to bring something more surreal, suspenseful, or serious into that project, it still came across as being part of that more playful dynamic, and my ideas were getting increasingly more into the kinds of darker material I’d started out with in movies like The Scarf (2004).

As part of BOTL Total, there was a series of horror/fantasy shorts called Redemption that I wrote, directed, and edited, starring a group of aspiring actors around my age from my neighborhood – and another one called Ondé that starred me and Beth, and had a similar, more serious tone to it – both of these dealt with themes of suicidality, domestic abuse, romance, and interdimensional travel, all of which are themes that have consistently been present in my work, from The Scarf to the music I’ve made as Cannonball Statman decades later.

an update on the making of the first two episodes of Ondé, from a Band Of The Land Films Newsletter

opening scene of Ondé Episode 1

closing scene of Ondé Episode 1

stories about the production of Ondé, each told using the name of a person involved in its production

stories about Ondé, told through quotes from the screenplay

stories about the past, present, and future (in 2007), each told in only four words

There were also some comedy bits throughout BOTL Total, building on the best of what we’d been doing in BOTL Radio – I vaguely remember a bit about a plush bird that we named after the filmmaker David Lynch, because I’d just gotten into his work around that time. There was also a bit of social commentary, including a recurring segment called News From The Pentagon where I was making fun of the absurdity of post-9/11 news media.

Similarly to how I felt after finishing BOTL Lite, which I did right around the same time – I was pretty tired of this style of filmmaking at this point, having now worked on over 100 completed short films when accounting for the number of short films within each of these episodes.

As a result, I quickly moved on to other projects and didn’t think much about these series after 2008 – all the episodes of these series were originally released online, but very few were ever properly screened or released physically, with the exception of Ondé and a few other shorts.

I ultimately got rid of my old YouTube channel where I’d been posting these, because I was tired of people associating me with that era of my work – I no longer have files or physical copies of any of them, but these series did have some fans on early YouTube, so there may be some people who downloaded some of these – I just don’t know who would still have them.

poster for The Jesse Show Specials, a recurring segment in BOTL Total

from Out of Print and Unavailable Filmography (with Band Of The Land Films)
BOTL Lite Season 1 (2007-’08)
BOTL Total Season 1 (2007-’08)
BOTL Radio Seasons 1-3 (2005-’07)
Road to Fame Season 1 (2005-’06)
The Baseball Effect* (2005)
The Baseball Effect* (2005)
Skits and The Baseball Effect (2004)

(or, go to the beginning for the full list of out-of-print and unavailable projects)

* In total, we made 3 different short films called The Baseball Effect. 2 of them were made in the year 2005, but they are not the same movie – they just happen to have the same exact title and were made and released in the same exact year.