Vegasland: A YUZZI Brothers Film, Indie, Independent Film made in Las Vegas

A STORY OF INDIE FILMMAKING

Co Directors Thomas Vosicky and Kenneth Kit Lamug, shot their first full-length film, "Vegasland", for a budget of under $2,000. In the two years prior to the production, the team spent time working on a $2,700 - :47 minute short film named “Bounce”. Without any previous experience in filmmaking, "Bounce" served as a do-it-yourself school for the both of them.

After the somewhat rocky road producing “Bounce”, the brothers Yuzzi learned where some of the potholes were and decided to take to the road again with “Vegasland” casting a lot of the main players from their previous endeavor.

So with a limited budget, one camera and two microphones, the cast and crew had to work extra hard to create a compelling movie both visually and narratively.

Because everyone worked during the day and with different schedules, "Vegasland" was shot mainly during Wednesdays and Thursdays between the times of 9pm and 3am in various locations throughout Las Vegas using "Guerilla filmmaking tactics". Most of the editing was done on home computers with software available to anyone.

The Vegasland Crew (from left):
Langley West, Mike Wagner, Thomas Vosicky
Kenneth Kit Lamug, Brett Payne, Tim Jackson

"The first lesson in filmmaking school of thought is that it's not your wallet that makes a movie, no matter what they tell you in school or in hollywood. Think about it. Any monkey can tap himself out financially while making a movie. The idea is to tap yourself out creatively first."

- Robert Rodriguez

Some of the scenes we shot that were of note were an actual casino-implosion, desert fighting, Las Vegas aerial shots, SWAT teams busting through houses and even gun fights. Even though Vegasland has visual effects, the core of the movie is in it's characters and the story which are the heart and soul of the production.

Vegasland is a culmination of what can be achieved with passion and hard work.

Behind The Scenes Photography

Vegasland Movie Screen Shots

Vegasland Synopsis

VEGASLAND FUN FACTS:

Vegasland was filmed entirely in Las Vegas and has a 100% Las Vegas actors and crew members.

Since all the crew and cast members had day jobs and families, most of the scenes were shot between 9p - 3a on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
The movie cost $932 to complete
All the "in-car" driving scenes were shot inside a one car garage during a Las Vegas summer. In keeping with the story, the actors had to wear jackets and sweats with a close to 100 degrees temperature inside the garage. Short "breather" breaks had to be taken to keep everyone conscious.
The gym used in the movie, “TOCCO’S GYM” is a Las Vegas icon where famous boxers train. Some of them are Ali, Frazier, Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Roberto Duran, Wayne McCullough, Mike McCallum “The Body Snatcher”, Roger Mayweather “The Black Mamba”, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and many many more. The co-director Thomas Vosicky also trained there for a fight with Butterbean that never happened. The production team almost never got this location since it was closed for renovation during the time of production.
The movie was shot using a Panasonic DVX100. All the footage were downloaded and edited on a 500GB USB drive!
The previous titles for the movie “ZYZYX”, “ZYZYX ROAD”, “TOOLS”, “TOOLS OF A HIGHER EVIL” and “ILLEGAL”
The hat used by Tony Rollers referenced from the movie Snatch is called “The Mickey Hat” was custom ordered and made from U.K. This is the leather hat Brad Pitt’s character wears.
A couple of desert scorpions were captured by Special Visual Effects Supervisor Langley West for the torture scene. Unfortunately the scorpions killed off each other. A new scorpion was casted for the part and lives with one of the actors to this day. Langley’s alternate title is “scorpion wrangler”
The lead actors in this movie previously worked with the filmmakers on their unreleased short film “BOUNCE” and an office comedy short film “DEFRAGGED." A glimpse of "DEFRAGGED" can been seen on Eddie G's TV screen when he arrives home.
Vegasland was written and designed to be filmed in "modules." This allowed the filmmakers to have only a skeleton crew and cast for each scene which made scheduling and production coordination a bit easier.
Halfway in the production of the movie a majority of the shooting equipment was stolen after a house “break-in” leaving the crew with a camera, some batteries and one boom stick. Microphones had to be repurchased which took up almost half of the non-existent budget.