Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Thigpen.
Hi Josh, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up on the south side of Houston as a weak skinny kid, but one day I saw the World’s Strongest Man competition on TV and became completely fascinated with it. Instantly knew it was what I wanted to do. I became somewhat of a strength nerd Everything about strength I could learn or watch I soaked it up. Back in those days we didn’t have cable, So I would beg friends that did have it to record the competitions so I could watch them. After school I’d race home and watch these contests over and over and over. I still have the vhs tape with all of the c0mpetitions somewhere. I’d see hulking athletes like Bill Kazmaier lifting logs, or Magnus Ver Magnusson lifting a rock against the waterfalls in Iceland, I was hooked. Around this same time I accidentally was enrolled in theater classes. I remember raising my hand and saying, “This is a mistake, I’m not supposed to be in this class.” (I thought it was for weirdos) The teacher said, “Ill tell you what, why don’t you give the class a couple of days and then see if you like it. if not i’ll transfer you out.” I begrudgingly agreed. That class then became my favorite class by far and he became my favorite teacher. In Over the next three years we made films, acted etc. On the last day of school the teacher said come see me. So, I did and he said “You should pursue this. You really have a future in it if you do.” (Fast forward 25 years later and that teacher plays the King in my webseries.)So I was at a crossroads. Pursue athletics/strength or filmmaking and acting. I knew either one would take complete focus. So I went home and really thought about it. The decision I came to was that I would have a limited amount of time to pursue strongman but afterwards I could pour myself into film. So that’s what I did. Over the last 20 years I trained and competed as a strongman turned professional, made it to the World’s Strongest Man contest several times, travelled the world, set some records etc. But while pulling trucks and lifting stones, along the way, I always watched making of and behind the scenes of filmaking etc. So I was always studying it, and planning to get into when I was done. Finally My body said it was time because of injury after injury.
So I had an image that stayed in my mind. It was of a horse and rider intercut with a blacksmith forging a sword. I couldn’t get this scene out of my head so I sat down to write it and this whole world and story exploded on the page before me. I wrote the script and thought, “I have to make this, there’s no other option.” So I did exactly that, When you are making an indie production, with a low budget you have to pretty much do everything yourself. So I learned how to make costumes, how to make props, miniatures, scouted locations, did fight choreography, cast everyone etc. for our first episode. But the intersting thing is that I realized I was kind of preparing for this my whoe life without knowing it. My grandpa and Dad had a love for miniatures as I was growing up, they made minitature trainsets,planes, houses etc. My mom always made our own costumes for halloween and put a deep love for reading in us. When she would read a book bshe would do all of the characters different voices.and then of course the acting/filmakkng classs. A couple of years after making the pilot, I had to do the same thing, but times three as we made three new episodes. My goal is to keep building the world and improve each time. There is a high learning curve with filmmaking, especially doing all of it yourself.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Making the series has been the most difficult thing I have ever done but also the most enjoyable. I would say overall more difficult than strongman. Strongman is extremely tough in it’s own way. It’s painful, your bleeding throwing up etc., but indie filmmaking is a different beast because there are always problems. You aren’t just a filmmaker or entrepreneur, you are a problem solver more than anything. For one film day I made or bought costumes for 25 different actors for 12 hours a day for 2 weeks. Then, loaded it into the uhaul, drove up to Dallas from Houston without sleeping got to set at 6:30 unloaded and got everybody into costume, filmed a 14 hour day in the heat but had insurance and location owners calling me chewing me out so when I could I’d run offset to put out those fires because there was no wifi .on set, Quickly comeback to film some more. After the sun went down, I found that costumes were scattered all over the property. So. desperately needing sleep, I searched the woods in the pitch black for 140 costume pieces which took hours since I was the only one there.Finally Loaded it up in the truck, then upon trying to find space to back up, I ran over a post that the property had. We still had 4 more film days that week. that’s just one of the stories during production. When filming I did-
1800-2000- individual schedules coordinated between actors and crew
thousands of miles driven scouting and searching for the perfect locations
1000ish-the number of costume pieces i’ve either made or bought. This is why they say do not make a period piece as an indie film maker and definitely not for your first project. Its also why we are one of only 2 independent fantasy webseries in the world
300 plus script and novel pages written.
100s of props and set pieces made
120- ish roles ive cast
20 film days directing and or acting
9 times I worked 48 hours straight with no sleep to make it all work.
7- fights choregraphed.
I did all of this simultaneously. So when all of this is considered, we made something great. I don’t want any medals for it, i chose to do this, but I do want people to know how this was made. I did have an incredible cast and crew, I think the best actually. So When it did come time to film everybody was top notch. Thats really what makes it worth it. All that work I’m talking about is to film with those amazing people, and it makes it all worth it. I can’t wait to be back on set with them. The more we go the better we get until we are where we want to be and me not having to do everything.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am now a filmaker/actor former Worlds Strongest Man competitor. What sets me apart in filmaking is that my webseries Sword of Alentius is one of 2 indie fantasy webseries in the world. The reason for that is it takes lots of people and work and money to get or make costumes, sets, it requires lot of actors etc. So they say don’t make an indie period piece at all much less fantasy, it’s supposed to be impossible. But I took that as a challenge. and it’s what I would want to do.. I could try to learn the ropes doing a modern short film with modern clothing and sets. But where’s the fun in that? I’d rather be sword fighting and riding horses, filming at castles etc. I do just about everything. Doing a lot in the indie filmmaking world is pretty common, but not to the extreme that I have gone to. This is out of necessity because of the budget but also because I love it.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
In Texas and Houston in particular there is a huge shift happening. Productions are coming to Texas big films and film studios are headed here and that’s certainly exciting. I am happy to be a part of the explosion and I have talked to people that have said that I gave them the motivation to film their project. They realized, they can do it, just get creative and get to work, research, trust your gut.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @swordofalentius
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@swordofalentius
