Discover ‘Wild Boys’ of Springville. Action-comedy filmed in the Valley, streaming for free
Before “Wild Boys,” Vincent Catalina was doing the cliched Los Angeles actor thing. He was taking classes and doing improv; going to auditions, but not finding much work.
He wasn’t really thinking of going indie film route, but there was this bit of advice from an acting coach: “He said ... you have to make sacrifices. You have to make things happen,” says Catalina, an actor, writer and filmmaker now living in Coarsegold.
His debut feature is now available on digital services and streaming for free on Youtube and Tubi. Search “Wild Boys.”
Inspired by rural living
Catalina grew up in the foothills around Springville, a small town in the Sierra Nevada south of Fresno.
He graduated from Porterville High School 2011, but for much of his childhood he was home schooled.
It was an open curriculum that included fishing and hunting for snakes and lizards and the like.
So, Catalina spent a lot of time in the mountains, “running around and having fun.”
Those experiences went into the writing of “Wild Boys.”
This is an off-kilter action comedy that’s a throwback to the ’80s and ‘90s. It follows Kate, who is sent off on a forest adventure as the last wish of her dying father. That’s where she encounters the titular wild boys (played by Catalina and fellow actor Jordan Laemmlen), who are living in the forest, wearing loin clothes, carrying wooden spears.
The characters are, in a way, Catalina’s childhood self, grown up.
“What would that kid look like as a 26-27 year old?” he says.
Catalina originally pitched the idea to Morten Forland, a short-film director he’d met who was looking for a feature length project. The pair applied for — and won — a $5,000 filmmaking grant.
“It just snowballed from there,” Catalina says.
Of course, one of the selling points of the movies was that they could shoot on location in Springville, where Catalina had friends and family and figured he could at least cover food and lodging for the cast and crew.
“If anyone who watches it knows Springville, they will definitely recognize the town,” Catalina says.
There are shots at The Hamburger Stand and inside Giffords Market.
When he reached out, “everyone said, yes.”
The film was shot in and around Springville over a period of 10 days in late 2017. It would have been sooner if not for the Pier Fire, which happened on the day the crew was supposed to arrive in Springville.
It pushed production back several months.
The wilderness wasn’t easy for the filmmakers. Because of the literal nature of the shoot, the time of year and the fact it was being done on handheld cameras, every shot had to be planned out meticulously in advance.
Catalina and Laemmlen spent most of the shoot barefoot and in loin cloths. Between takes they would huddle under blankets trying to stay warm.
The film was actually completed in 2019 and was being prepped for the festival circuit when the pandemic hit. It was two years before the movie was finally shown to audiences at festivals and screenings, including several in Porterville in May.
It’s currently being distributed on digital platforms through Indie Rights.
“We just wanted to tell a fun story that makes people laugh,” Catalina says.
“I hope we did the Central Valley justice.”
See also: “Lost Joy”
Catalina currently lives in Coarsegold and commutes to Los Angeles for auditions when he needs. He’s been working on a few scripts since “Wild Boys” and starred in a couple of projects, including “Lost Joy.”
It was also filmed in the Sierra Nevada.
This movie is a cabin-in-the-woods thriller that was shot near Badger, the rural mountain community north of Visalia. The film was directed by Catalina’s “Wild Boys” costar Laemmlen, and inspired by his time spending filming in the Central Valley.
“It’s so different than shooting in a place like LA,” Catalina says.
“Lost Joy” will be making the festival rounds next year.
