We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Phillip Wilson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Phillip below.
Hi Phillip, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
One of the most meaningful projects I have ever worked thus far in filmmaking has been Bagman Rising. I have made 2 feature films prior to this one. I started writing this post production of Bagman (2020) in 2017-2018 which was a failure and a successful film for making me a better filmmaker. Lot’s of feedback and overall solid criticism. After getting told the acting sucked and the movie sucked when it hit Amazon Prime this basically wanted to make me rethink a filmmaking career. Also I applied to 71 films festivals for that film and only got into 3 small time festivals. Talk about rejection. Here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada not a lot of films get made here. Occasionally a few, but not a whole lot, mostly just small local indie films. So this really made me rethink a few things when writing the script for Bagman Rising. I wanted to give the audience an unforgettable experience when they saw the film. At that time I did have a first draft and I remember my brother reading the script and he told me straight up “Do you want to make a film like Bagman?”. It really hit me, but he was right. My brother and mom have always been my toughest critiques outside myself of course. Having two people you can trust tell you when your screwing up is an absolute blessing. Really have to thank my brother and my mom for pushing me to the best I can be. Continuing with this project we finally got a solid script done back in 2019. We were a bit hesitant to shoot this film because we didn’t have much of a budget. We lost out on funding when our government political parties changed. Just bad timing. So in July of 2019 we started to shoot Bagman Rising. This was a bad year for weather as lots’ of scenes required the outdoors so we didn’t shoot the whole film. Maybe 10% of it. We began shooting again in 2020 and covid happened. It slowed things down even further. We shot as much as we could nut again did not finish shooting. Now by 2021 we had a basis of how things would get done, but again businesses and locations weren’t opened to shoot the ending. We had a tough time overall as I had wrote a script that was too big at about 140 pages longs. We basically had not much of a crew on this film, only for the bigger scenes, beginning, ending etc. Lets just say I bit off more then I could chew with this film considering I was also playing one of the main characters in the film and my brother being a cinematographer. 2022 rolled around and we found out that the warehouse we shot the beginning was going to be taken down so we had to get a few things together to shoot the ending. We used 2 locations and mashed them together to make it feel like it was all in one place. Still blown away how we pulled that off, but we did. We got the film edited around around beginning of 2023 and we had a few people give us feedback on it. We realized we had to shoot two additional scenes even though this monster of a film was 150 minutes roughly. So 2023 my brother was not available to shoot the two scenes so I had too. I directed/shot/acted in these scenes. It was tough, but totally rewarding. About December of 2023 it was picture locked. We had to do ADR for the entire film because we our sound was not great. 2024 was the year me and Josh Andres got the soundtrack going for the film and I worked on sound. Finally in 2025 were finalizing the sound and making it as best as possible.
One of the biggest reasons this is such a meaningful project is it really took a long time to make. About 5-6 years to make, with so much love, passion and dedication. Its truly a labor of love. Something I personally find missing with modern films. They fee soulless and meaningless whereas Bagman Rising feels necessary and something worthy of the audiences time. There are not many indie films that are 160 minutes in length, this is a monster of a film. To tell a good story in that runtime that’s meaningful in so many ways, was always the goal. This isn’t a movie just about violence or killing people, its about friendship, love, two unlikely people that team up, both with similar issues with loss and moving on. I am so excited to see what people think of this film. it’s really gonna open some eyes. Anyone whose worked on this film is really gonna see all their time and effort really show on screen.
Bagman Rising IMDB Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6019424/
Bagman (2020) IMDB LINK: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5328348/
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I was born in September, 12 1995 in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. I always loved watching movies growing up, I never really thought to make one until after high school in 2013. I was rejected by Sait’s Film and Video Production in Calgary, Alberta Canada. This was an absolute blessing to be rejected by them. I was working full time at my families Gas Station/Convenience store during this time. In 2014 I watched a film called the Pursuit of Happyness again and realized why not go for it. So I started to write a script, bought some filmmaking books as there wasn’t as much information about filmmaking like there is now on youtube or the internet in general. I based it off an idea my brother had called the film Within Circles (2016). It was an absolute bomb. after releasing it in 2016. It was not a good film at all with also getting rejected by 30 film festivals. That didn’t stop me from putting the camera down. I made a few short films and started to understand more of the filmmaking craft. In 2016 I wrote another script called Bagman (2020) me and my brother shot it in 2016 in one summer. Finished it by 2018. Released it to the world got rejected by about 74 films festivals at that time. 3 small festivals accepted it. That meant really nothing. Some people enjoyed the film and lot’s did not. It was labeled as not a good movie, but still had the charm for people to like it. This one really hit as we got criticized even more this time. I never really wanted to be an actor, but there I was acting in Bagman. I always wanted to be a filmmaker behind the camera, not in front of it, but there I was starring in a bad film I created. Then I had to start fresh again. The idea of Bagman (2020) was good so we continued it. We decided to make a soft reboot of it called Bagman Rising, yet to be released to the general public. Worked on it for the past 6 years. Back in 2019 me and my brother decided to make our new company Shadowscape Pictures. This lead us to making music videos/commercials/realtor videos for local clients. We’ve done that since about 2019 and also working on Bagman Rising a true passion project. A few quotes that always motivate me are “You got to risk it to get the biscuit” and “Never Give Up. Never Surrender” that ones from Galaxy Quest. Those quotes make me keep going and despite all the rejection its all a blessing to keep improving and be the best you can be.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
There definitely is particular goal for sure. It’s to really give the audience what they want and entertain them through films. Something Hollywood is not doing correctly. I honestly think Bollywood is doing a better job. The biggest part was to bring people who are loyal, have our backs as well along for the journey. Its a really a tough industry to get into for the arts, but indie films are becoming more and more popular every year and they continue to grow. I want to give people the opportunities I never had as a filmmaker. One being is the knowledge, to know how to start to even begin. Lot’s of big time filmmakers just say go out and shoot a film. I agree and disagree with that. It should always be the steps it takes to make an actual good film on a small budget. It can be done and others prove it every year.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The biggest thing for me is seeing people watch the art I created and smile, laugh, cry, be in shock. That’s the most rewarding is the people over anything else. Without them I wouldn’t do what I do. The films are really for the people and many have forgotten about that. It’s all about money it seems which drives people to make subpar work. The passion and love for the craft is needed, but also caring about the people who go and see your films. Just to see people smile and have a good time is all I want. There’s nothing more rewarding then someone being a fan and enjoying what you make. It’s extremely satisfying.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shadowscapepicutres.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shadowscapepictures/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shadowscapepicture
- Twitter: https://x.com/shadowscapepics
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shadowscapepictures
- Other: TikTok
@shadowscape.pictures Rumble
https://rumble.com/user/ShadowscapePicturesThis one is my personal instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/phillipl_wilson/
