INDIANA — It was the start of a strange tradition.
“If we win an award,” said John Armstrong, co-founder and COO of Pigasus Pictures, “we have to go down and throw it directly into the ocean.”
Because… that’s what happened to their first award. Pigasus Pictures’ very first film, “The Good Catholic,” won the Panavision Spirit Award for Best Independent Feature Film at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in 2017. Following the awards ceremony, the film crew went down to the beach, hoping for a dramatic photo of the genie-bottle-shaped award in the sand with the ocean in the background. As they were setting up for the shot, a rogue waved thundered in, soaking everyone and burying the award in seawater and sand.
“Zach Spicer,” producer and actor in the show, “went straight into the water,” Armstrong reported. “digging around and trying to find it.”
They never did, and the crew flew back to Indiana empty-handed.
Armstrong isn’t sure if there’s a moral to anecdote — and they probably won’t throw their next award into the ocean — but the re-telling makes for a funny story.
And although, in hindsight, trying to capture a photo on the beach may have been a boneheaded move, Armstrong will be the first to tell you: dreams aren’t dumb.
The dream for Pigasus Pictures began in 2014. Three college friends — John Armstrong, Zach Spicer and Gordon Strain — pooled their talents to create Pigasus Pictures. Spicer as a huge fan of the American novelist John Steinbeck, came up with the name.
On the inside every one of Steinbeck’s novels is a drawing a pigasus — a pig with wings like the flying horse Pegasus — and a Latin inscription that translates as “to the stars on the wings of a pig.” Steinbeck’s explanation was that he wrote about “lumbering souls striving to fly, with not enough wingspan but plenty of intention.”
The trio of filmmakers recognized a ‘fit’ of these inspiring words, and thus was born Pigasus Pictures.
Although Armstrong has done his share of traveling for theatre-related projects, he calls Indiana home — and Bloomington, that Mecca of college towns, is the base of operations for all things Pigasus.
Pigasus Pictures released its first film in 2017, “The Good Catholic,” a romantic comedy film written and directed by Paul Shoulberg and starring Spicer, Wrenn Schmidt and Danny Glover. In addition to the award lost at sea, it was also chosen as the Best Screenplay at the Milan International Film Festival. “The Good Catholic” is the story of Daniel (Zach Spicer), an idealistic and dedicated priest who loves his work more than anything else, until a chance meeting with a woman at confession makes him question his true calling.
In his spare time, Armstrong lobbies to help make Indiana attractive to other film makers and production companies.
“Indiana is one of just 13 states that doesn’t offer a tax credit for movie-making,” Armstrong said. Other states, such as Georgia, Armstrong explained citing television series and well-known movies that have been filmed in Georgia, have already figured this out.
“Atlanta is Hollywood East,” Armstrong said.
Even with the absence of a tax credit, Armstrong and his partners are committed to producing and filming in Indiana. The entirety of “The Good Catholic” was filmed in Bloomington, as was “Ms. White Light,” Pigasus Pictures next film, which starred starring Roberta Colindrez, Spicer and two-time Tony and Emmy award winner Judith Light. The film, chosen one of the 10 competition films at the cancelled South by Southwest Conference, is about a woman who counsels terminally ill patients but has a hard time making connections in her personal life.
With six years of production under its belt, Pigasus has now released two full-length feature films, with three more due to be released this year, and three more waiting to be green-lighted to begin production.
But Pigasus isn’t just a production company. It’s also the machine behind the Pigasus Institute in Bloomington, a 501(c)3, non-profit organization that houses the Bloomington Academy of Film & Theatre, Project Pigasus and the “New Pages” Festival.
Of the myriad of Pigasus Institute projects — including the Bloomington Academy of Film & Theatre and the New Pages Theatre Festival — Project Pigasus is the highlight. From this state-wide high school screenwriting competition, a winner is chosen, and Pigasus Pictures brings in a professional film crew to the winner’s town to fully produce the film.
In spite of its success and growth, Pigasus Pictures in committed to staying in Indiana, and with projects like the high school screenwriting competition, they are planting the seeds for the future of movie making in the Hoosier state.
“The goal is to engage Indiana communities, create jobs and engage people during the process,” Armstrong said, “and hopefully tell some good stories.”
