LIGHTS, CAMERA, INDY! AN INTERVIEW WITH INDIANA JONES AND THE TREASURE OF THE AZTECS CREATOR KEVIN CROXTON
When we encountered Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Aztecs, we were immediately intrigued. This is not just any Indy fan film. Picture Indiana Jones with a twist - each of the characters are played by children - and the production quality, score, and performances are top notch. Top it off with a cameo from the legendary Karen Allen as Marion, and you get pure gold. ZIFA had the opportunity to interview the film director, founder of the Oliver Springs Music Club, and Emmy-Award winning composer Kevin Croxton about the making of this masterpiece. Supporting and showcasing the arts, cultivating youths’ talent, and watching filmmakers grow is what Zepstone is all about…..And we can’t wait to see what Kevin and the children from this Van Buren, Arkansas community come up with next!
Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Aztecs won the following awards for the ZIFA autumn 2023 season: Best Family Film, Best Fan Film, Best Music Score (Kevin Croxton), Best Stunts (Roger Anderson, Vic Armstrong, Sean Boyd, Josh Bull, Cody Faber, Pearson Hurst), Best Costume Design (Abigail Freeman), and Best Grip and Lighting (Andy Her, Hudson Pruitt, Cy Sheffield). You can check it out here.
Poster credit: Ludo Rodriguez-Pascal; channel link here.
ZIFA: What inspired you to create this project? And how did you go about securing your team?
Kevin: After I found out that Lucasfilm was making a new Indiana Jones film, I decided that it might finally be time to make an Indy fan film with the children in my music club at Oliver Springs Elementary School in Van Buren, Arkansas. If I were to do an Indy film, it would need a great ending action sequence, so I first reached out to the foreman of a local rock quarry, because I wanted to film in the quarry, which would sub as an arid canyon in the final action sequence. I then contacted a couple of friends, one that had a 1940s Era army jeep, and the other who was an experienced horseman. I asked them if they would be willing to work with us on the film in an action sequence where the horseman would jump onto the moving jeep, and they all agreed! This was the point where I knew this was my next project!!
As for my team, I first brought on cinematographer Clay Pruitt as DP for the film. He was not only an amazing cinematographer, but also a life long Indy fan like myself, and I can’t stress how much fun we both had working together on the film! Clay brought with him some friends he worked with at 5 Star Productions, and they helped with Lighting, grip, etc…We were also blessed to have former Music Club members, who had worked on past productions, come back and work on set with the crew. Another part of the team were the people from Arts On Main in Van Buren, AR, who showed up at film shoots to help get children costumed and sent to the set. Arts On Main also was a producer on the film, I also have to mention the parents…Many took on roles such as make up artist, hair styling, and some helped out as drivers during stunt sequences.
ZIFA: Where did you film it? And how long did it take?
Kevin: We filmed at locations all over the state of Arkansas, such as Fourche Creek, an urban wetlands in Little Rock, where we filmed the opening swamp sequence. We also filmed in a couple of caves in Northwest Arkansas. The Old Spanish Treasure Cave in Gravette served as the inside of the cave at the beginning of the film, and Cosmic Cavern in Berryville was the location where we filmed the cave sequences toward the end of the film. The establishing shot of the outside of the college was St. Scholastica Monestary in Fort Smith, and the college classroom was shot in an old schoolhouse from the 1950s that had become a private residence, and the owners had refurbished one classroom in the building. We filmed all the Canyon shots in the Preston Rock Quarry in Van Buren, AR, and all the green screen work with the children in the jeep was shot at 5 Star Productions in Fort Smith. It took us about 7 months to film. We had to shoot on weekends, because the children were in school, and we also had to coordinate with our cinematographer, because he was often out of town filming all around the country.
ZIFA: Can you talk about how Karen Allen got involved? Such am epic cameo!
Kevin: When I first started writing the script, I had an idea for a plot that involved Indy taking on an unfinished quest of Marion’s father, the late Abner Ravenwood, so I did some research online, discovered Karen Allen’s agency, and called with the idea of having her involved. A few days later, I got a call from her agency, letting me know that she agreed to work with us! At that point, I sent her the lines for the scene, and she recorded them and sent them back to me. She even gave me multiple takes!
ZIFA: What was the biggest challenge you faced during production and/or post-production?
Kevin: I think the biggest challenge during production was shooting the opening of the film, which took place in Fourche Creek, an urban wetlands in Little Rock, Arkansas. We had to get the children in and out of a canoe and a 1950s motor boat, which was a challenge, because the bank was not only muddy, but when you took a couple of steps off the bank, you were over knee deep in mud! Fortunately, I had chest waders with me, so I had to get in the water to maneuver the boat and canoe to help the children get in and out. I felt like I was in quick sand!! Everything worked out and we got some amazing shots. Fourche Creek is such a beautiful place!!
The biggest challenge during post-production was getting the color correction right. One of the things that I wanted to do with this film in regards to color, was to make it look like the Indy films from the 1980s. We ended up using a LUT that emulated the Kodak Eastman 5247 film stock that was used on those films, and my cinematographer and I worked tirelessly on getting the colors to look right.
ZIFA: It definitely worked! What would you say was the most memorable moment on set?
Kevin: I actually have 2 moments that I have to mention…The first was when we shot the classroom scene. This was actually our first day of filming, and when the kids sat down in the desks and our child playing Indy started doing his lines behind the teacher’s desk, I was just stunned at how great it looked. The location was as close as you could get to the classroom in the Indiana Jones movies, and when the light came through the windows and the sunrays hit the mist in the air from our fog machine, It was just amazing!
The other moment was when we were shooting the horse/jeep chase. I had picked up a stunt dummy and dressed it like a Soviet Soldier, and when we filmed the shot when our child playing Indy threw the dummy off the jeep, everyone just started laughing!!! It was hilarious!!!
ZIFA: Can you talk about the process of scoring/composing the music for this film?
Kevin: With the children’s fan films, I have a completely different scoring process….Instead of scoring in post, I actually compose and record the score before we shoot, along with the pre-recording the children’s dialogue. When on set, the kids actually lip sync and speak along with their pre recorded voices. When I edit the scenes, I sync their best takes up to my master audio track and drop out the audio on set. This gives us a clean audio track.
The only thing I add to the score in post is live brass and some live strings. The trickiest part of composing this score was adding in my own arrangements of John Williams’ Indy themes at key moments, and making it blend with my original score, which I did in a similar style to Williams’ classic Indy scores. I also had to create new themes that felt like they came from an Indy film. The Russian theme was my favorite new theme, and I even had the children sing in Russian during the film, when you first see the Soviet Army! It was so fun, and the kids did a great job!!!
ZIFA: Any lessons learned or things you wish you would have done differently?
Kevin: For one, it will be a while before I shoot in a cave again! Both caves were absolutely beautiful, but were hard filming locations. Once we got all our equipment in the caves, we had to wait for about 45 minutes before shooting to let the cameras get acclimated, as the lenses would fog up! The caves were also very slick and hard to get equipment in to film!
Also, scheduling film shoots was an issue. We had to shoot on weekends over the course of about 7 months, which was really long and drawn out. so have been discussing different possibilities for the next film, such as shooting in larger chunks, for a few days at a time, like over a 4 day weekend. That way, we could shoot our next film in 2 or 3 big chunks.
ZIFA: Any advice for our fellow aspiring filmmakers?
Kevin: As an independent film director, I have to wear lots of hats, but lately I have been surrounding myself with more people to take some of that load off my shoulders. I would suggest that aspiring filmmakers reach out and get as many people involved with their film as possible, to help them lighten their load.
Also, as a composer and sound designer, I can’t stress how important it is to have a good score and clean audio. Great audio really elevates a film, so I would suggest that filmmakers include in their budget the funds to hire a composer and good audio crew.
ZIFA: Any upcoming projects on the horizon?
Kevin: I have a couple of projects on the horizon. With the Indy fan film, our music club partnered with Arts On Main in Van Buren, Arkansas. The plan going forward is to not only continue making fan films with the children in my elementary music club, but to also create a new children’s film program with Arts On Main, and work on children’s films with kids of all ages in the entire community.
I am shooting our first Arts On Main film in late Spring of 2024. It will be a children’s film with kind of an 80s/Goonies vibe called “The Legend of the Sasquach Eye”.
The next music club fan film will be shot in Winter/Spring of 2025. I can’t officially say what fan film we’re doing, because we have a tradition at school of keeping our music club fan films a surprise, at least until we release a trailer, but I’ll throw out a few hints! Our next fan film will be based on a film series that had a couple of films in the 80s and a recent film a couple of years back. It will have a lot of comedy, will be scary at times and has a cool car!! Also, our fan film will be set in 1994!!!
ZIFA: How can we find you and follow your work?
Kevin: You can follow my You Tube page, where many of our past music club fan films are available to watch, including tributes to Star Trek: The Original Series, Batman 66’ and James Bond, the latter of which had a cameo from former 007 actor George Lazenby! All future films will be posted on my You Tube page. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/@kevincroxton1
Interview by: Alicia Oberle Farmer