An independent film called “Crimson Cove” is set to have its premiere at the Tara Theatre on Jan. 8.
Directed by Georgia-based filmmaker Loyd Bateman, “Crimson Cove” follows a group of friends who inadvertently find themselves at odds with a small surfer community while on a bachelor trip. The rising tensions explode, turning a carefree weekend away into a nightmare.
Bateman’s film industry background is rooted in stuntwork, having worked in numerous films from “Avengers: Endgame” to “I, Robot.” But, while action might be a familiar genre for him, it wasn’t necessarily the genre he thought he would work in as a director.
“Leaning into action is great, but I could always do it. It almost felt like a handicap,” Bateman said. “So I wanted to work on the things that I was sure I wasn’t good at, and try to improve at those things.”
“Crimson Cove” definitely doesn’t skimp on the action, but it’s also interested in pack mentality and tribalism, particularly in niche communities. In 2024, Irish filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan offered a surreal physiological take on a group of local surfers who torment a newcomer with his film “The Surfer.” “Crimson Cove” is a grimier, bloodier, version of that concept.
Bateman didn’t write the script for “Crimson Cove” — that credit goes to actor and fellow stuntman Phillip Mitchell — but he was drawn to Mitchell’s depiction of insider v. outsider animosity.
“I feel like it’s funny how people kind of clump up and then make fun of whoever is orbiting,” Bateman said. “I’ve always kind of been an outsider like that. I’ve always felt like I was not one of the clique. I was always sort of orbital, in everything I’ve ever done.”
It makes sense, then, that the making of “Crimson Cove” felt like a true boots-on-the-ground indie film experience — from scrapping scenes due to costs to location and weather issues, the cast and crew had to be flexible. According to Bateman, while the plot of the film didn’t change much from the first time he read the script, the scenes themselves evolved quite a bit, and the ending changed entirely.
“We changed the finale pretty much 100 percent, because it was on a boat, and there was a bunch of other stuff,” Bateman said. “It was just too expensive.”
At one point toward the end of the first leg of production, Bateman said he sat down with the cast and crew to field people’s ideas about how to wrap the movie up. From that brainstorming session, it became clear that Alison (the female lead of the film, played by Michelle Rose) had become more central to the propulsion of the film than the male lead, Tom (Courtney Dober). Alison ends up taking over the latter half of “Crimson Cove,” which is a nice change from the more testosterone-centric energy at the film’s beginning.
“Tom was sort of getting dragged along, and it didn’t feel like he should be the one who saves the day, even though that’s kind of how the original was written,” Bateman said.
Bateman said it took two years from the first day of the shoot to settle on a final cut of the film.
“We did everything backwards and came at it the wrong way,” Bateman said. “[They] always say shoot one location, three, four people — don’t do an ensemble — don’t use kids, don’t use dogs, don’t do any stunts or any visual effects. We did all of those things.”
Because of Bateman’s background in stunts, he figured he would be able to find a way to do all of those things as safely and cheaply as possible, he said. However, he didn’t account for the weather. The cast and crew went to Folly Beach, South Carolina to shoot the surfing scenes, but for the entirety of their shoot time, the waves refused to cooperate. When they went back to try for a second time, the tides had changed the layout of the shore. A large swatch of the beach they originally shot at was completely different.
“There was no surf. It was pretty flat the whole time we were there,” Bateman said. “We managed to steal a couple of long lens-y shots when it was kind of stormy out of Courtney [Dober] jumping in the water and a little bit of surfing, and the bad guys paddling out there and floating past the break, but not much else.”
Eventually, they decided to go to Malibu, California to pick up some more surfing shots as well as the film’s finale, but that came with its own host of issues, including scrambling for surfing doubles and even some doubles for the actors themselves.
This is the debut feature of Misfit Circus Productions, which is the production company run by Bateman and his wife and producing partner, Brittany Bateman. Part of the impetus of starting Misfit Circus came from wanting control over distribution.
“At this point, finding distribution is challenging, but it’s also become a race to the bottom,” Bateman said. “So many people out there … they want to undercut you and offer you as lowball an offer as they can so that they can buy a bunch of films and they can package them off and make capital while they sleep. Which I get. Everybody wants that. But it’s not really fair to the artist anymore.”
Instead of going the traditional film festival route, Bateman said that Misfit Circus Productions will distribute “Crimson Cove” on its own, putting the film in theaters and doing their own advertising. If all goes well and the film gets enough attention, they plan to use a service called Bitmax to get “Crimson Cove” on streaming platforms.
“We want to take the reins and not let people steamroll us, and then we want to be able to provide that opportunity for other people too,” Bateman said. “Hopefully we can grow our little family, grow it into the type of place where we can still have our hands on making art, and actually get paid to do it.”
