00:00:09:03 - 00:00:33:08 Mike Stone All right. Well, welcome back to Behind the Mike Podcast today. I'm really excited to share. I'm always excited, but I'm really excited to share because you all know if you watch I'm big into media. I love Christian movies, movies that have a heart and that you walk away from taking something with you. And I was approached recently about a movie that's coming out that I think everybody watching right now is going to absolutely love. 00:00:33:14 - 00:00:48:08 Mike Stone So I want to welcome to the show Anders and Davin Lindwall They are the what? Directors, producers, screenwriters. You guys probably had a lot of other roles in the movie, but thank you for joining us today on Behind the Mike. 00:00:48:10 - 00:00:52:08 Anders Lindwall Yeah, no, it's true. Yeah. We're. Yeah. Thanks, Mike, for having us. You miss cow 00:00:52:08 - 00:00:56:01 Davin Lindwall manure movies, but. 00:00:56:03 - 00:01:19:20 Mike Stone I, I was a little hesitant. I mean, the topic of this is right on. So I was excited about it originally, but, man, when I watch the screening of this, it is so powerful. It is amazingly done. The cinematography, the direction, the production, the settings just just, the actors, you know, the, everything about it really left me wanting more. 00:01:19:20 - 00:01:38:01 Mike Stone And what was a bonus was I love walking out of a movie when I'm pondering something like, I'm walking away, taking something with me, and this one did it. In all truth, I have to say, this is going to be one of my favorite movies of all times because, you know, we're coming from, farm communities. That's where I grew up. 00:01:38:01 - 00:01:53:17 Mike Stone I think you guys grew up there as well. So the setting, everything just really hit for me. So, can we talk about that a little bit? What? What created the urging you guys to to have a film like Green and Gold? 00:01:53:19 - 00:02:19:11 Anders Lindwall Yeah, I think probably, you know, similar to how it resonated with you, it was something we wanted to see. We wanted to watch. You know, I think for us, a lot of media that we see out there has, you know, it's it's authentic and it's and it's trying to tell, like, really true, you know, be genuine in storytelling, but it ends up leaving kind of like this dark sense, because it's hard to tell a true, good, happy, hopeful story. 00:02:19:11 - 00:02:42:01 Anders Lindwall You know, that's just like, it's just hard to do. And so I think a lot of times in authentic authenticity storytelling, it lends itself being a little bit darker and and less hopeful. Whereas we, you know, we understand the, the world that we live in and have experienced, you know, it certainly is dark and has nasty parts to it, but also has a lot of goodness and a lot of light to it. 00:02:42:03 - 00:03:19:08 Anders Lindwall And we felt like we wanted that to be equally represented in authentic spirit. And so, yeah, you know, for us, though, growing up, we grew up on the northern Wisconsin, upper Michigan border, and our grandfather was a dairy farmer. And while that farm was close, but, you know, before we came around, I mean, we still had the farming property, but just kind of growing up around, you know, folks who were living agrarian lifestyles, and in just a lot of rural America, honestly, there's just this wholesome, kind way of existing and being in the world that we really were excited to showcase and, and, and, and do a movie on, kind of like 00:03:19:08 - 00:03:27:01 Anders Lindwall these unsung saints that are just quietly living these beautiful, rich, communal lives. So. 00:03:27:03 - 00:03:49:09 Mike Stone Yeah, that's absolutely, that's absolutely correct. It's it just brings that out. So beautifully. Now, Davin, for those that, we're going to have a lot of information in the, in the, YouTube description in the show notes on the podcast, but could you give us a brief synopsis of this movie so that those who have not heard of it yet, we can get them to theaters and see this? 00:03:49:11 - 00:04:08:14 Davin Lindwall Yeah, yeah, it's it's a it's a slice of life drama that follows a, an old dairy farmer in Wisconsin fighting to save his family farm from going under. And then the B story is his granddaughter is a musician. She she lives locally. He lives in the barn and takes care of the farm with him, but she wants nothing to do with it. 00:04:08:14 - 00:04:25:19 Davin Lindwall She wants to get out and pursue her own dreams and make music and do something else. But, so it's kind of the two of them coming together to, to fight to save the farm. And they end up the packers are intertwined because they end up making a bet on the on the Packers, too, as a hail Mary effort to save it. 00:04:25:19 - 00:04:26:19 Davin Lindwall But. 00:04:26:21 - 00:04:42:22 Mike Stone Well, I have to say, I watch the screening twice. Once wasn't good enough for me, so I watched it twice. I've got my Packers shirt on. I'm a huge Packers fan and my son. But now you guys, you guys, if I understand correctly, you guys have a strong faith Christian faith background, is that correct? 00:04:42:24 - 00:04:44:02 Anders Lindwall Yeah it is. 00:04:44:04 - 00:04:56:09 Mike Stone But this is not necessarily a Christian movie per se. Did that component have any impact in how you wrote and directed and produced this film? 00:04:56:11 - 00:05:32:13 Anders Lindwall Definitely. I mean, you know, our we grew up and our folks were super involved in our, in our church growing up and really involved in there and our whole community. And so for us, you know, we witnessed we had front row tickets to it, you know, like just a beautiful display of spirituality in the Christian life growing up that I think a lot of, you know, not everybody gets gets that some people have baggage with it or but that, you know, that being said, a lot of the folks that that that we really respected, I think how they express their faith, they weren't always talking about it, but it was just lived 00:05:32:13 - 00:06:13:08 Anders Lindwall out in the fruit of their lives, you know, and and so I think for us, we never really had a desire to make necessarily like an evangelistic type film. I don't think that's just not how we're wired, as people. And but what we are wired as is, like trying to trying to really, I think showcase, you know, goodness, truth and beauty to, to folks who are from our shared faith background and folks who aren't, because I think those themes the world can really use and, and people can get behind and, and they aren't polarizing and, and they, there's sort of a transcendence that they carry that I think we wanted to represent 00:06:13:08 - 00:06:19:17 Anders Lindwall and that we've seen, you know, exemplified in the people and our folks and, and our local community our whole lives. 00:06:19:17 - 00:06:38:18 Davin Lindwall So, yeah. And we want it to be a film. You can bring anybody to write, like whether you're from our faith background or not, like, you can walk into the theater and, and you're not going to cringe at anything or no one's going to be preaching at you, like, but, like Anders was saying, like the the fruits of the spirit are just evident in the characters and the way they're living. 00:06:38:18 - 00:06:42:21 Davin Lindwall And, yeah, that was a that was a big goal of ours for sure. 00:06:42:23 - 00:07:02:04 Mike Stone I really loved that. And I and I do appreciate the fact that not everything has to be very, I don't want to say in your face when it comes to to spiritual or Christian values, but they are exemplified in the characters. That's very true. And and I and I did have a it was just a good, feel good movie. 00:07:02:06 - 00:07:21:03 Mike Stone I started counting swear words. I think I only I think I stopped and I don't, I don't think there were any more than three and they were very mild. Craig T. Nelson is in this movie. So if you if you know him from Parenthood and Coach it's not surprising that he let out a few “hells” And, I. 00:07:21:03 - 00:07:31:13 Anders Lindwall Think he had I think he added those, to be honest, I don't know if they were in the original script. He was always muttering them, and I was like, you know, I just it was he was just in the character. I was like, whatever, we'll just let him rock and roll with them. So. 00:07:31:15 - 00:07:52:10 Mike Stone You know, it really was it just seemed like a role that was just made for him. Yes. Personality. At least. I don't know him personally. But in in what we saw in parenthood and and coach that just came through. So it wasn't anything outside of what we've seen before from him. And just as buck it, he filled that role very well. 00:07:52:10 - 00:08:17:04 Mike Stone And so you guys did a great job of casting, you have some unique partnerships here I want to talk about. So, first of all, Culver's, if I say ButterBurgers, frozen custard Wisconsin and cheese curds. Most people know I'm talking about Culver's. We have one here in town when I run that in Ohio. And second, I've already mentioned I'm a big Packers fan. 00:08:17:06 - 00:08:26:14 Mike Stone They are the only community owned NFL team. So talk about those collaborations, because those are pretty strong. 00:08:26:16 - 00:08:50:17 Anders Lindwall Yeah, they're, you know, the partnerships. When you're an independent film, you need partnerships. I think that's something I want to make clear is, you know, we're not like a big studio film here that's coming in. It's like we're we're a mom and pop shop trying to get this out and compete against, you know, large scale studios and, and distribution platforms and, and, and so you just need big partnerships. 00:08:50:17 - 00:09:12:19 Anders Lindwall And so in the, in the movie, the Packers, the kind of the underlying, narrative that's the Packers represent is sort of this collective, you have this individual story being surrounded in this collective community. And, you know, Packers is the community on sports team that for us, they just want it. We thought this was such a perfect background character for the movie. 00:09:12:21 - 00:09:33:11 Anders Lindwall And and so, yeah, like getting that partnership is really, really tricky, as you might imagine. Yeah. Especially when you're a movie, you know, it's not like we're, you know, putting Miller High Life, you know, signage in the stadium. It's like we're we're, you know, we're an idea. We're we're a thing that, has kind of this, like, movement, this life to it. 00:09:33:11 - 00:09:50:22 Anders Lindwall And so, so. Yeah, but but what helped activate that was Culver's actually came on board first and we got it in front of them. They, they have a huge passion for farmers. And I think if you're in one of their stores, you kind of get the sense of this like wholesome spirit that is behind the organization. 00:09:50:24 - 00:10:19:01 Anders Lindwall And they've been but they've been supporting farmers for, you know, I think 13 plus years donating money towards what they call the thank you Farmers project, which is just invests into agricultural education largely towards FFA. And, you know, people don't know who FFA is. It's Future Farmers of America. And it's just a really solid kind of a a dynasty organization that's that's been around for a long time training and inspiring young farmers. 00:10:19:01 - 00:10:33:17 Anders Lindwall And so, when Culver's came on board that we got the film in front of them and they came back to us with tears in their eyes and said, we don't want to change the whatever. What do you guys need? We want to help get this out in the world, and we want to get behind it. And that was awesome. 00:10:33:17 - 00:10:54:13 Anders Lindwall Like, I didn't expect that, you know, expected like, hey, can we take this? Take this and and yeah, so but once we were able to activate them, the Packers came on shortly after. And you know, having the Packers behind it is that's pretty special. We just did a red carpet event at Lambeau. Mark Murphy came out for it. 00:10:54:15 - 00:11:15:23 Anders Lindwall And then Craig T. Nelson sang the national anthem at the Packers Bears game. And you know, I think to have for us like grown up is huge Packers fans. You know, it's like we were smiling ear to ear during this whole thing. So, yeah, they've been awesome to work with. And, and their, their corporate partnerships division has really rallied behind it. 00:11:15:23 - 00:11:18:07 Anders Lindwall You can tell they've just invested their heart into it as well. 00:11:18:07 - 00:11:26:11 Mike Stone So and if I'm correct, I read that this is the first time they've ever gotten behind a film. Is that correct. 00:11:26:13 - 00:11:32:23 Anders Lindwall Yeah. In this way for sure. Yeah, yeah. Davin, maybe speak more to that. You might understand more the nuance behind that. 00:11:33:00 - 00:11:51:01 Davin Lindwall Yeah. They've done like, they've like supported films in different ways in the past. Mostly through like, player relations, like, when Aaron Rodgers was there, they supported film that he was involved in that type of thing. But, yeah, this is unique. How they're supporting our film in this way is is totally unique to green and gold, which is pretty awesome. 00:11:51:03 - 00:12:18:21 Mike Stone Yeah, that's pretty cool. I want to talk about the music here. It may be it's kind of a I think you said it's kind of a, B story, but it's really a strong story because it kind of keeps this movie going and it throws that extra, you know, storyline in there that we want to follow. And I thought it was going one way and it went another, another great storytelling, tactic was that I was not I was surprised at the way that it turned out. 00:12:18:21 - 00:12:33:04 Mike Stone But talk about the music. It was it was really instrumental and I've watched, of course, both of those, screenings. I watched through the credits in the end to find out who sang and all that, but really great original stuff. I believe it was original set correct? 00:12:33:06 - 00:12:51:01 Davin Lindwall Yeah, we've got it. We're super proud of the music. I mean, we feel like we've got some pretty, pretty heavy firepower. And like you mentioned that, like, most of it's all original, you know, written by some, like, pretty accomplished writers just for our film. So and just a plug, we will have a soundtrack coming out at the same time. 00:12:51:03 - 00:13:17:21 Davin Lindwall So people are able to you be able to stream the stream, the songs, after going to the theater. So, but even, you know, we, I got in touch with, some music fans might catch this, but we had some Jackson Browne music, too. That's kind of sprinkled throughout the film, which is pretty awesome. And, he came on honestly similar to, to Craig, Craig T. Nelson in the way of just love the project and wanted to support us however we could and just wanted to elevate our music. 00:13:17:21 - 00:13:34:17 Davin Lindwall He watched and he's like, man, this is like, you guys have done such an amazing job here. I want to like I want to help make it even better. So, but, yeah, the music's, Yeah, sometimes the forgotten piece of of our film, but, yeah, it's, we we feel really proud of it and think it's pretty awesome. 00:13:34:20 - 00:13:57:09 Anders Lindwall Yeah. I think, you know, the other, our composer, you know, him and his wife worked so hard on this with us. You know, his wife is the the voice of Jenny and then two other musicians, Courtney Hartman. And then S. Carey is a pretty well-known Wisconsin musician, and. And those two, you know, wrote the last kind of big anthem song that's, that's in the film. 00:13:57:11 - 00:14:21:16 Anders Lindwall And that's a pretty special thing to have, you know, Wisconsin folks, you know, write the last big anthem of the, of the movie. But, yeah, I mean, I think to Davin’s you know, kind of the reason the story of the, the musician wanting to leave the farm, wanting to go, you know, she's she wants anything but, but milking cows every day and she just wants to see bigger things travel. 00:14:21:18 - 00:14:47:11 Anders Lindwall And, and I realized halfway through the writing process that I was writing my own story into her, which was really funny and sort of the twist that you see at the end with her and this musician, you know, has some parallels to my own path as a filmmaker. And, and. Yeah. So it's, it's cool. Like Davin was saying that I think to have original music is is pretty special and something like this. 00:14:47:13 - 00:15:12:07 Mike Stone Yeah. And I think, you know, when you can insert parts of your story into, something bigger like this, I think it makes it more genuine. Right. And I that definitely came through. And I just read earlier that, talking to Craig T Nelson, I was looking at the interview that they did when he was singing the national anthem, and he mentioned that, his family goes back to farming, for years. 00:15:12:07 - 00:15:32:11 Mike Stone So all of that, I think, really adds the depth to the storyline and, and the characters. And I want to talk briefly about Madison Lawlor She did such a fantastic job, and you could tell she was also, I think she was in a, a farm community as well. And that comes through. And, so she did a great job. 00:15:32:11 - 00:15:42:15 Mike Stone And the two of them, especially Craig T. Nelson, as Buck, and then Jenny, Madison Lawlor, they they played off each other very well. 00:15:42:17 - 00:16:05:02 Anders Lindwall Yeah. No, they did, and she did such a I mean, for her, this is, you know, kind of a really big opportunity and you're going head to head against. Yeah. You know guys what do it was since the 50s or something, you know, and he was kind of this good guy. And but you know, I mean, Craig is so generous and so gracious. 00:16:05:04 - 00:16:24:19 Anders Lindwall And it was cool. And one of our first, and one of our first rehearsals, we didn't get many because we couldn't afford to have Craig and Madison and everybody out there for long. So we fly him in, and you, like, just smash into some rehearsals. And I knew we had something special. We rehearsed that the barn scene where they kind of have this big confrontation, we kind of went right to that. 00:16:24:21 - 00:16:45:01 Anders Lindwall Yeah. And, you know, seeing young Madison go up against, you know, she's five foot, I don't know, five foot 6 or 5, seven go up against Craig. Who's you know, six three or something. Six four. And just big booming voice and she's hanging right there with him. I was like, oh, this is so cool for her. I'm so excited for her. 00:16:45:03 - 00:16:48:20 Anders Lindwall And she did such a great job. I'm so proud of it. Yeah. 00:16:48:22 - 00:17:14:19 Mike Stone She really did. I want to ask, maybe from the producer side of this, it seems like when I talk to people, there's always something that happens behind the scenes. That is either it either changes the direction of the story, or maybe there are adjustments or, I want to ask both of you, this is kind of a multi-part question, but I want to ask both of you if there was ever something that happened that just really stood out behind the scenes. 00:17:14:21 - 00:17:36:23 Mike Stone One of your favorite moments or maybe a really difficult moment that, it took to direct or produce and, and I know that you had, looked like you were. This was filmed in Wisconsin, correct? Yeah. I'm sure that you had weather issues, and I can't even imagine all the things that you would have had to have dealt with, because a lot of this does take place outside, but, 00:17:37:00 - 00:17:41:24 Mike Stone Yeah. Can you do you have anything, that you can share with us? 00:17:42:01 - 00:18:03:22 Davin Lindwall I was trying to say I love your I love the question, Mike. I was trying to think. I know there is something. I just haven't thought of it, quite yet. In terms of, like what? A moment that ended up changing something in the story. So I have to think about that. But, one, one difficult but, beautiful moment that that, that I come back to a lot is our calf birth scene. 00:18:03:24 - 00:18:28:17 Davin Lindwall So we we we we show a live calf birth. In the movie, which, you know, we were the script. And little do we know how challenging that would actually be, to. It's a catch and film. So, yeah. So we, we tried to capture it, you know, in our, in our main production, which was 18 days, and we just, we literally had a camera on standby, another B unit team, like, and they were, you know, they were fulfilling other roles during that time. 00:18:28:17 - 00:18:45:05 Davin Lindwall But we would get a call from a farmer and be like, hey, I've got a, you know, cow going into labor and that crew, that crew would like to shoot off, you know, towards that farm to catch it. And it was like, boom, just missed it or, or the, you know, the labor would happen four hours later or whatever. 00:18:45:07 - 00:19:07:19 Davin Lindwall So but we so, so we ended up not shooting in main production. Anders and I ended up camp camping out in, in January in a Wisconsin barn. Just the two of us, like National Geographic in a camera. And, and we waited. Just waited for, like, these. There was like, a barn of. I don't know, 20 pregnant cows. 00:19:07:21 - 00:19:21:12 Davin Lindwall And they were all due within, like, a week, you know? So we're just like, it's it's comical when you look back, you're like, we're just sitting there with a camera and they're all just like, looking at us, and we're looking at them. We're like, come on, guys. Well, you know, do we need some Pitocin and what have we got to do? 00:19:21:12 - 00:19:44:04 Davin Lindwall But, yeah. So we ended up capturing it. The next day, a farmer called us when we were on her way out was like, it was a similar situation, like, hey, we've got one going into labor. And Anders and I sprinted over and and we happened to catch it in the same barn that we shot the original scene, which was pretty cool, but, yeah, yeah, I come back to that, to that calf birth a lot because it was a that was a true independent film moment for us, for sure. 00:19:44:04 - 00:19:46:00 Mike Stone That's really great. 00:19:46:02 - 00:20:06:12 Anders Lindwall Yeah. It's so, you know, the whole when you're in the independent film, the, the level of difficulty that happens every day, it's like something's constantly going wrong. Like you're constantly running out of time. You're constantly because you can't pay everything. You're kind of at the mercy of people helping you out. Like, oh, that that guy said you could use it for eight hours, but he actually needs it back right now. 00:20:06:12 - 00:20:24:13 Anders Lindwall You know, like, oh, okay. And, you know, it's all all of that. One of the cool stories that and this exemplifies, I think the spirit of Craig. Craig T. Nelson was on day two. We were we were filming and he pulled me aside and he's like, Anders, you know, where's your other camera? And I said, we got we got one camera. 00:20:24:13 - 00:20:41:23 Anders Lindwall That's all we can afford. And he said, well, how much is the other one? And I was like, I don't know, I could ask, you know, I'm sure we just can't afford it. And he goes, we'll just take it out of whatever, whatever you need. Just let you know. Let my people know, and let's figure it out and let's get you a second camera. 00:20:41:23 - 00:21:09:05 Anders Lindwall And then from that, we were able to actually move a lot quicker through all the scenes because, you know, you're filming one way and then you're flipping the world and filming it, but now you can just capture it both ways. Wow. And really so I think that to to that that spoke volumes, I think to the rest of the crew to where it was like they understood the, the generosity of a man like this and a spirit of, of what this project means to him and how you and how you act and how you treat each other. 00:21:09:07 - 00:21:12:22 Anders Lindwall We just said set the tone for the rest of the crew in a really special way. 00:21:12:24 - 00:21:33:01 Mike Stone Yeah. Really cool. We are running out of time here, but I wanted to to know, is there anything on the horizon? I know you guys are just like, we just finished this thing. It's going to be in theaters and on January 31st, but do you have any other hopes or dreams or projects in the works? 00:21:33:03 - 00:22:08:13 Anders Lindwall Yeah, we we've definitely we've got a couple. You know, I think for us this has been such a joy. I, you know, it's hard work. But you know, I've lost hair because of this project. But, but it's it's also such a joy, you know, to be able to like to, to share values that you believe in, to warm people's hearts, like, I think that we want to continue to do and, and yeah, we've got two other projects we're kind of in development on and, and we'll see how you know, some of that depends on the success of this, like whether or not we'll be able to continue to grow or, or how that 00:22:08:19 - 00:22:10:09 Anders Lindwall next phase, the next phase looks. 00:22:10:09 - 00:22:30:10 Mike Stone But green and gold, in theaters January 31st. Check your local theaters. It's not everywhere like you guys. It was it was fairly low budget. But let me tell you something. I vouch for the fact that this does not look like a low budget project. It is amazing. Go travel the extra 30 minutes to go find it. 00:22:30:11 - 00:22:36:13 Mike Stone Did you guys have any final thoughts on this? First of all, I want to thank you for being here with us and sharing this amazing project. 00:22:36:15 - 00:22:46:19 Anders Lindwall Yeah, no. Thanks so much, Mike. I was curious what what was the final thought you said? There's a thought that you stuck that stuck with you as you were walking away. I, I was curious what that was. 00:22:46:21 - 00:23:09:09 Mike Stone You know, it was for me. It was. It's rare because most movies don't do this to me, but for for me, it was walking away with the renewed sense of hope. And this goes back to my days when in my high school, you were either a FFA or not. I was on the Not side, but I was surrounded by FFA players who had farms and still do. 00:23:09:11 - 00:23:31:18 Mike Stone And so I was renewed in the hope of of America and the importance of our farmers. They very seldom get any credit. And then I was also I also had a renewed sense of perseverance. We all have things in our lives that we struggle with, problems that we face, challenges and it gave me a renewed sense of just persevere. 00:23:31:20 - 00:23:42:14 Mike Stone And I looked at it also in the spiritual sense of, you know, God has given us all we need. He's with us. We just need sometimes just to continue to down those hard road. So that's what I took away from me. Thanks for asking. 00:23:42:16 - 00:23:46:09 Anders Lindwall And it's awesome. Yeah, thanks for sharing your screen. 00:23:46:11 - 00:24:02:16 Mike Stone Davin and Anders, thank you so much for sharing this. I wish you guys the best. I'm going to get this out there as far as I can, because I really believe everybody needs to see this film. Thank you for all you did. I know it's hard work. It's been a project since, what, 21, I think is when you wrapped up filming. 00:24:02:16 - 00:24:14:13 Mike Stone And so, thank you for persevering. And, thank you and fathom who was getting this out. And, all those involved. We appreciate it. And Go, Pack, Go! 00:24:14:15 - 00:24:16:01 Anders Lindwall Go, Pack, Go! Thanks, Mike.