Behind the Scenes: That’s a Wrap on The Fundamentals
Behind the Scenes has always been a clever title for our production blog.
For much of the summer, though, it was also something of an aspiration.
Because you can’t really go behind the scenes until you have an actual scene.
For months, there were locations to scout, actors to audition, props to find, schedules to revise and seemingly endless problems to solve. But there were no scenes.
Today, that changes.
For the first time, we can share actual behind-the-scenes photographs and video from principal photography on The Fundamentals, the coming-of-age short film inspired by the life of Spencer Reed.
Getting there meant casting more than a dozen speaking roles. It meant assembling a production team that included director Aurielle Bryan, director of photography Giavanna Lumia, production designer Sheri Rinn Ward, and a crew of filmmakers who somehow turned plans on paper into images on a screen.
Director Aurielle Bryan sets up a shot during the first day of filming, August 23, 2026.
It meant transforming a rural North Carolina house into Joey’s childhood home—a place shaped partly by Spencer Reed’s memories and partly by the screenplay Spencer and John Bankston wrote together.
And it meant finding not one, not two, but three classic automobiles.
Ron Salmon’s late 1990s Beemer - driven by actor Scott Crabb who does his own stunts!
Somehow, we did it.
From Script to Set
Principal photography on The Fundamentals began August 23, 2026, in the Wilmington, North Carolina area.
Over five extraordinarily long days and nights, actors and crew brought Joey’s world to life: his childhood home, the basketball court, the family members who shape him, and the battered objects that become unexpectedly important pieces of his story.
Some of the most memorable details weren't planned exactly as they ultimately appeared on camera.
A scripted dumpster became something much more visually interesting after our production design team constructed the place where young Joey discovers the almost mythical basketball-instruction boombox.
A Cadillac convertible envisioned during pre-production gave way to a weathered classic car that felt far more authentic to the world we were creating.
Portraying Stax, a pimped out Kevin Kaze Thomas leans against the picture car.
Those weren't simply compromises.
They became part of the movie.
That may be one of the strange pleasures of filmmaking. A screenplay can be revised for months—or years—but once production begins, the physical world starts contributing ideas of its own.
A location changes a shot.
An actor finds something unexpected in a line.
A prop changes a scene.
A problem becomes an opportunity.
And occasionally, something you never imagined while writing the screenplay turns out to be exactly what the story needed.
Five Days We'll Remember
Principal photography wrapped August 27, 2026, shortly before midnight.
By then, The Fundamentals was no longer merely a screenplay, a website, a casting notice, a production schedule or something we'd spent months describing to other people.
We had made a movie.
Now comes another transformation.
As The Fundamentals moves into post-production, we'll be sharing more photographs, video and stories from the shoot here—including the people who brought these characters to life, the locations that became Joey's world, the inevitable production problems, and some of the wonderfully unexpected solutions that made the finished footage better.
Then come editing, sound, music, color, and eventually the film-festival journey.
But before all of that, there was one moment we'd been working toward for months.
After the final shot, after five days of very little sleep, somebody finally got to say the words:
That’s a wrap on The Fundamentals.
THE FUNDAMENTALS — PRODUCTION NOTES
The Fundamentals is a narrative short film inspired by the life of Spencer Reed. Written by Spencer Reed and John Bankston. Directed by Aurielle Bryan. Produced by SLR Productions LLC in association with First National Bankston Productions. Principal photography took place August 23–27, 2026, in the Wilmington, North Carolina area. The film is currently in post-production.
