Canadian filmmakers Sam Dunn and his partner Scot Mcfadyen know a thing or two about making movies. As the team behind Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage documentary, Dunn and Mcfadyen also tackled one of the most comprehensive insights into the world of heavy metal with their acclaimed VH1/MuchMoreMusic Series Metal Evolution.
Many say that the glaring omission in the Metal Evolution television series was the absence of bands in the extreme metal genre. The duo have launched an Indiegogo Campaign with the hopes of raising enough money to create the “lost” Extreme Metal episode.
Sam Dunn recently spoke with Here Magazine with respect to their fundraising campaign, details of which can be found at www.indiegogo.com/ExtremeMetal:
While it was “left out” of the original Metal Evolution series, was covering Extreme Metal always on your radar?
Absolutely. When we originally pitched the series to VH1, they were pretty excited about it and were willing to go as heavy as thrash metal. In their eyes, extreme metal was a little too underground and was a little bit outside of their comfort zone. Their decision didn’t surprise us. Frankly, we’re thankful they have us the opportunity that they did.
Are you an Extreme Metal fan yourself?
I grew up listening to a lot of heavy music like Slayer and Sepultura but when it came to bands like Death and Carcass, it really felt to me as though they were doing something exciting to push the heavy metal genre forward.
What is your goal to make the Extreme Metal episode happen?
We’re looking to raise $135,000. The funds will cover everything that we need to do to create the episode: research, writing, scheduling interviews, costs of travel, editing…It is quite an involved process.
When will viewers get to see the final product?
Our fundraising campaign runs until December. We would spend January and February filming followed by eight to ten weeks of editing. So if all of that goes well, the episode should be released in April.
What drives you to want to spread the heavy metal gospel?
Scot and I started Banger Films with a passion to create good conversation about heavy metal and heavy metal culture. There was nothing or no one out there representing heavy metal music in an interesting, fair and exploratory way. I like to think that we’ve taken a genre that was somewhat neglected and present it in a way that fans and non-fans alike can enjoy.