After attending Southern Maine Community College, longtime friends Travis Wood, 20, Ted Hemberger, 20, and Brian Cross, 22, figured they’d get their film-making careers started with weddings and the like. By the way things have fallen into place for the South Portlanders and their business, Flat Foot Films, don’t be surprised when you see their names on the big screen credits real soon.

“None of this was planned at all,” says Cross, whose crew was among the finalists in the Proven Film Festival for board sports lovers earlier this month.

While filming the band Lost on Liftoff, the Flat Foot guys got hooked up with the hugely popular Rustic Overtones and are currently making a full-length documentary on the band which will show in Portland theaters in spring 2008. The project began in August and each time the band plays there are four cameras rolling. That amounts to hundreds of hours of film and likely thousands of hours of editing. Hemberger says he loves editing the film but by the time a project is done none of the guys have any interest in watching it. “It’s fun to watch other people’s faces (as they watch it),” he says.

The trio also has created the short film “Goggle Party,” which was sponsored by Oakley and Sunday River. It’s currently playing in ski and snowboard shops and will have an opening in Bethel in early December. Featuring plenty of snowboard tricks and some great music, the DVDs are selling at Ride 207 and Sunny Breeze in Portland and Locals Skate & Snowboard in Windham.

They’ve also created a documentary about snowboarding and skiing called “Sharing Common Ground,” which can be viewed on www.flatfootfilms.com, and entered a piece named “What’s Next” in the Insomnia Film Festival. The contest, hosted by Apple.com, requires crews to produce a three-minute film in 24 hours, start to finish, which is no easy task. There are 2,200 entries but you can vote for the local guys at www.apple.com/education/insomnia.

For this winter, Flat Foot Films has signed a contract with Sunday River and will do filming and specially-lit night shots on the mountain. They’ll also be editing spots on the Sunday River website.

The guys have collaborated with plenty of friends who have served as actors and critics. They’ve traded for artwork and writing for the Rustic Overtones project and they’ve made plenty of connections, which have helped keep their costs down and get their names out in the film industry.

“It’s all about Mainers helping Mainers,” Wood says.
Flat Foot also supplements by editing for websites and has worked on a film of Olympic swimmers. They also freelance and work as production assistants for local film companies. It all serves the purpose of hooking them up with the right people and always having their cameras with them.

“We’re just kind of going with the flow,” Cross says.

“We just want to meet everybody in our regular clothes,” Wood says, “and be ourselves.”