With his first film, “Kicking the Dog,” set to hit DVD on April 21, Randy “Scooter” Lammey seems poised to break into the crowded, yet lucrative teen sex comedy genre.”Kicking the Dog” revolves around the exploits of 12 friends during their last summer together before they must go their separate ways. It stars Carl T. Evans, Elizabeth Schmidt and Jarrod Pistill. The cast also includes Laura Bach from last year’s “Zombie Strippers,” which also starred Jenna Jameson and Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund.
Lammey hails from Loag’s Corner, Pa., which is about 50 miles west of Philadelphia. He went to Twin Valley High School, the same school as youtube.com founder Chad Hurley. After high school, he headed to Virginia Tech, where he graduated with a degree in Communications.
From there, Lammey began to cut his teeth in the film business, working on many Philadelphia-based productions including the short-lived David Morse series “Hack.”
He got his first big break as a director when his music video for the local band Pawnshop Roses won an award on youtube.com and was later featured on “Good Morning America.” From there it was on to the big screen.
“I’m not some artsy-fartsy filmmaker trying to change the world or save the rainforests – I just want to make people laugh,” Lammey said.
“Kicking the Dog” is the very definition of a low- budget comedy. It was made on a $72,000 budget, and shot almost entirely in one location. That location also just happened to be the Chester County home of Lammey’s parents.
His parents were more then happy to do whatever it took to help their son realize his dream. His mom even went so far as to repaint the entire house to make it easier to light. After filming concluded, she had to repaint it again in order to cover up any damage that had been caused.
“We shot Wednesday through Sunday for a month – so my parents only came home to sleep, and I have no idea what they ate,” recalled Lammey.
Despite the film’s small budget and literal at-home environment, Lammey stressed professionalism on set, saying- “I believe that no matter how low the budget, professionalism can and should be the highest goal.”
See Lammey
on page13
Lammey
From Page 11
“Kicking the Dog” is very much a reflection of Lammey. Not only did he direct the film, but he also wrote, edited, and acted.
On top of that, much of “Kicking the Dog” is inspired by events from his own life. The most notable of these is a scene in the film where a character pees out of a 13th floor dorm room window.
The film’s title comes from a drunken and intentionally offensive conversation that he had while still a student at Virginia Tech regarding spousal abuse and animal rights. The phrase went on to become an inside joke between Lammey and his friends.
“I kinda thought it related to the relationship between the two lead characters – people who love each other often treat the other like (excrement) when they have a bad day, because they know they’ll still love them tomorrow,” Lammey said, explaining why he chose it as the film’s title.
Initially his DVD distributor, MTI Home Video, wanted to change the title, something that Lammey also considered doing. He even received emails from animal rights groups demanding that he change it. When nothing better came to mind, Lammey realized that the title was a perfect microcosm of the movie itself.
“I always wanted the movie to appear to be vulgar, but then have people realize it’s not. Many teen movies rely on shock value to make people laugh – I never wanted to do that,” he said.
The soundtrack to the film features nine local rock standouts, including Lammey’s old friends Pawnshop Roses, who contributed five songs.
“I would have used ten, if they had that many,” he said of Pawnshop Roses’ contribution to the film.
In addition to Pawnshop Roses, the soundtrack also features Spider Rico, The Blow Goes, Ritter, Overlook, Oregon Ave, and Big Green Limousine, all of whom have local connections.
With so many of Hollywood’s biggest names getting their start in the teen sex comedy genre, the future could be very bright for Lammey and his little film about a summer to remember.
“Kicking the Dog” will be available for preorder on March 24, a little under a month before it hits stores.
Colin McGlinchey is a fourth-year student majoring in English and minoring in Journalism. He can be reached at CM646588@wcupa.edu.