Behind The Mike Podcast
Behind The Mike Podcast is a Christ-centered show where host Mike Stone dives deep into inspiring stories and profound insights from guests who view life through a biblical lens. Each episode offers hope, encouragement and wisdom to help you navigate life's challenges with faith and purpose.
Tune in for conversations that uplift your spirit and strengthen your walk with Christ.
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Behind The Mike Podcast
Behind the Scenes of 'Green and Gold': Faith, Community, and Perseverance
This episode features a rich discussion with Anders and Davin Lindwall about their film "Green and Gold," which tells a heartfelt story of resilience in farming and the bond between a grandfather and his granddaughter. The Lindwalls examine the importance of community, faith, and hope as they share insights into the film's creation and the unique partnerships that have shaped its path to the screen.
• Exploration of the film’s themes around perseverance and community
• Insight into the filmmakers' personal backgrounds and inspirations
• Discussion on the partnerships with Culver’s and the Green Bay Packers
• Importance of original music in enhancing the film's narrative
• Behind-the-scenes challenges during the filmmaking process
• Future plans for upcoming projects and continued storytelling
In this exclusive interview, Mike Stone sits down with filmmakers Anders and Davin Lindwall to uncover the incredible journey behind their upcoming feature film, Green & Gold, hitting theaters on January 31st! 🍿
📖 What You'll Discover in This Episode:
✅ How Madison Lawlor and Craig T. Nelson brought authentic depth to their roles 🎭
✅ The real challenges of filming on a Wisconsin farm, including capturing a live calf birth 🐄
✅ Craig T. Nelson’s incredible generosity that elevated the production 🎥
✅ The spirit of independent filmmaking and the perseverance required to make it all happen 💪
✅ The message of hope, values, and the importance of America’s farmers 🚜
Whether you're a fan of heartwarming stories, behind-the-scenes filmmaking, or timeless values, this episode will leave you inspired and excited for Green & Gold! 🌟
🎥 About the Film:
Green & Gold is a heartfelt, faith-based drama that celebrates the perseverance of farmers, the value of family, and the power of community.
👀 Watch the Trailer:
https://youtu.be/cIYZ5rWQNtg?si=0HFys0ADHOEPJKJn
🗓️ Save the Date:
Green & Gold premieres in select theaters on January 31st. Don't miss your chance to experience this beautifully crafted film!
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🌐 Behind The Mike Podcast: Bringing stories of hope, perseverance, and faith through inspiring interviews and real-life stories.
🔔 Don’t forget to LIKE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to stay updated on more incredible episodes and exclusive interviews!
📌 Don't Miss These Key Moments:
00:14:47 – Bringing personal stories into bigger narratives
00:16:05 – Capturing unforgettable performances from Madison Lawlor and Craig T. Nelson
00:18:03 – The adventure of filming a live calf birth
00:20:06 – The generosity of Craig T. Nelson in supporting the film
00:22:10 – How Green & Gold inspires hope, perseverance, and faith
#GreenAndGold #BehindTheScenes #FaithBasedFilm #CraigTNelson #MadisonLawlor #FarmLife #Hope #Perseverance #BehindTheMikePodcast
Hey, welcome to Behind the Mic Podcast. Today I'm thrilled to bring you a conversation with two remarkable creators, anders and Davin Lindwall, the visionary minds behind the highly anticipated movie Green and Gold, hitting theaters on January 31st. This film isn't just about football or farming. It's about perseverance, standing firm for what truly matters and overcoming life's toughest challenges. Hey, if you're a fan of the Green Bay Packers, you love a story of grit and grace, or you're simply curious about the journey of bringing such a powerful story to life, this episode's for you. So grab your coffee, settle in, get ready to hear from Anders and Davin Lindwall as they share their inspiration, challenges and heart behind green and gold. Let's dive in, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, welcome back to Behind the Mic Podcast Today. I'm really excited to share. I'm always excited, but I'm really excited to share because you all know, if you watch, I'm big into media. I love Christian movies, movies that have a heart and that you walk away from taking something with you, and I was approached recently about a movie that's coming out that I think everybody watching right now is going to absolutely love. So I want to welcome to the show Anders and Davin Lindwall. They are the what directors, producers, screenwriters you guys probably have a lot of other roles in the movie, but thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2:On Behind the Mic, yeah, no it's true, yeah, yeah, thanks mike for having us miss cow manure movers but I, uh, I was a little hesitant.
Speaker 1:I mean, the the topic of this is right on, so I was excited about it originally. But, man, when I watched the screening of this it is so powerful, it is amazingly done. The cinematography, the direction, the production, um, the settings, just the actors, you know everything about it really left me wanting more. And what was a bonus was I love walking out of a movie when I'm pondering something, like I'm walking away taking something with me, and this one did it. In all truth, I have to say this is going to be one of my favorite movies of all times, because, you know, we're coming from farm communities. That's where I grew up. I think you guys grew up there as well. So the setting, everything just really hit for me. So can we talk about that a little bit? What created the urge in you guys to have a film like Green and Gold?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think probably, you know, similar to how it resonated with you, it was something we wanted to see, we wanted to watch.
Speaker 2:You know, I think for us, a lot of media that we see out there has, you know, it's authentic and it's trying to tell like really true, you know, be genuine storytelling, but it ends up leaving kind of like this dark sense, um, because it's hard to tell a true, good, happy, hopeful story.
Speaker 2:You know, that's just like um, it's just hard to do, and so I think, a lot of times in in authentic authenticity storytelling, it lends itself being a little bit darker and and less hopeful, um, whereas we, you know, we understand the world that we live in and have experienced, you know, it certainly is dark and has nasty parts to it, but also has a lot of goodness and a lot of light to it, and we felt like we wanted that to be equally represented in authentic spirit.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, you know, for us, though, growing up, we grew up on the northern Wisconsin, upper Michigan border, and our grandfather was a dairy farmer, and while that farm was closed, you know, before we came around, I mean, we still had the farming property. But just kind of growing up around. You know folks who are living agrarian lifestyles and in just a lot of rural America. Honestly, there's just this wholesome kind way of existing and being in the world that we really were excited to showcase and do a movie on, kind of like these unsung saints that are just quietly living these beautiful, rich, communal lives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's absolutely correct. It just brings that out so beautifully. Now, Dave, for those that we're going to have a lot of information in the YouTube description and the show notes on the podcast, but could you give us a brief synopsis of this movie so that those who have not heard of it yet, we can get them to theaters and see this?
Speaker 3:get them to theaters and see this. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's a, it's a slice of life drama that follows a, an old dairy farmer in Wisconsin, fighting to save his family farm from going under. And then the the B story is his granddaughter's musician. She she lives locally, lives in the barn and takes care of the farm with him, but she wants nothing to do with it. She wants to get out and pursue her own dreams and make music and do something else. But uh, so it's kind of the two of them coming together to uh to fight to save the farm, um, and they end up the Packers are intertwined because they end up making a bet on the, on the Packers to as a Hail Mary effort to save it.
Speaker 1:but well, I have to say I watched the screening twice. Uh, once wasn't good enough for me, so I watched it twice. I've got my Packers shirt on, I'm a huge Packers fan, and my son. Now you guys, if I understand correctly, you guys have a strong faith, christian faith background. Is that correct? Yeah, it is, but this is not necessarily a Christian movie per se. Did that component have any impact in how you wrote and directed and produced this film?
Speaker 2:Definitely.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, we grew up and our folks were super involved in our church growing up and really involved in our whole community.
Speaker 2:And so for us, you know we witnessed, we had front row tickets to, you know, like just a beautiful display of spirituality in the Christian life growing up.
Speaker 2:That I think a lot of you know not everybody gets, that Some people have baggage with it or but that you know, that being said, a lot of the folks that we really respected, I think, how they express their faith, they weren't always talking about it but it was just lived out in the fruit of their lives. And so I think for us, we never really had a desire to make necessarily like an evangelistic type film. I don't think that's just not how we're wired as people, but what we are wired as is like trying to really, I think, is like trying to really, I think, showcase, you know, goodness, truth and beauty to folks who are from our shared faith background and folks who aren't, because I think those themes the world can really use and people can get behind and they aren't polarizing and they're sort of a transcendence that they carry that I think we wanted to represent and and that we seem, you know, exemplified in the people and and our folks and and our local community, our whole lives.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and we want it to be a film you can bring anybody to right, like whether you're from our faith background or not, like you can walk into the theater and and you're not going to cringe at anything or no one's going to be preaching at you, but, like Anders was saying, the fruits of the Spirit are just evident in the characters and the way they're living. And, yeah, that was a big goal of ours, for sure.
Speaker 1:I really love that and I do appreciate the fact that not everything has to be very I don't want to say in your face when it comes to spiritual or Christian values, but they are exemplified in the characters. That's very true and it was just a good feel-good movie. I started counting swear words, I think I stopped and I don't think there were any more than three, and they were very mild. Greg T Nelson is in this movie, so if you know him from Parenthood and Coach, it's not surprising that he let out a few hells.
Speaker 2:I think he added those. To be honest, I don't know if they were in the original script. He was always muttering them and I was like you know, he was just in the character.
Speaker 1:I was like whatever, we'll just let him rock and roll with him. You know it really was. It just seemed like a role that was just made for him. His personality at least. I don't know him personally, but in what we saw in Parenthood and in Coach that just came through. So it wasn't anything outside of what we've seen before from him and, just as Buck, he filled that role very well, and so you guys did a great job of casting. You have some unique partnerships here I want to talk about. So first of all, culver's If I say Butter Burgers, frozen custard, wisconsin cheese curds, most people know I'm talking about Culver's. We have one here in town where I'm at in Ohio. And second, I've already mentioned, I'm a big Packers fan. They are the only community-owned NFL team. So talk about those collaborations, because those are pretty strong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the partnerships. When you're an independent film you need partnerships. I think that's something I want to make clear is we're not like a big studio film here that's coming in, it's like we're we're mom and pop shop, trying to get this out and compete against, you know, large scale studios and and distribution platforms and and and so you just need big partnerships. And so in the in the movie the Packers, the kind of the underlying narrative that's the Packers represent is sort of this collective. You have this individual story being surrounded in this collective community and you know Packers is the community on sports team. That for us they just want it. We thought that was such a perfect background character for the movie and and so, um, yeah, like getting that partnership is really really tricky, as you might imagine, especially when you're a movie. You know it's not like we're, you know putting Miller high life, you know signage in the stadium. It's like we're we're, you know we're an idea, we're a, we're a thing that um has kind of this like movement, this life to it, and so um, so yeah, but but what helped activate that was Culver's actually came on board first and we got it in front of them. They've, they have a huge passion for farmers and I think if you're in one of their stores, you kind of get the sense of this like wholesome spirit that is behind the organization and they've been. But they've been supporting farmers for, you know, I think, 13 plus years donating money towards what they call the Thank you Farmers Project, which is just invest into agricultural education, largely towards FFA. And you know, if people don't know who FFA is, it's Future Farmers of America and it's just a really solid kind of a dynasty organization that's been around for a long time training and inspiring young farmers.
Speaker 2:And so, um, when Culver's came on board that we got the film in front of them and they came back to us with tears in their eyes and said we don't want to change anything whatever. What do you guys need? We want to help get this out in the world and we want to get behind it. And that was awesome. Like I didn't expect that, you know. I expected like, hey, can we take this, take this?
Speaker 2:And um, and yeah, so, but once we were able to activate them, the Packers came on shortly after and you know, having the Packers behind it is that's pretty special. We just did a red carpet event at Lambeau. Mark Murphy came out for it, and then Craig T Nelson sang the national anthem at the Packers Bears game and you know, I think to have for us like growing up as huge Packers fans. You know it's like we were smiling ear to ear during this whole thing. So, um, yeah, they've been awesome to work with and and their their corporate partnerships division has really rallied behind it and you can tell they've just invested their heart into it as well.
Speaker 1:So and, if I'm correct, I read that this is the first time they've ever gotten behind a film. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:yeah, in this way for sure. Yeah, yeah, david, maybe you can speak more to that.
Speaker 3:You might understand more the nuance behind that yeah, they've done like um, they've like supported films in different ways in the past, mostly through like player relations, like when Aaron Rodgers was there, they supported film that he was involved in, that type of thing. But yeah, this is unique. How they're supporting our film in this way is is totally unique to Green and Gold, which is pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's pretty cool. I want to talk about the music here. It may be it's kind of a I think you said it's kind of a B story, but it's really a strong story because it kind of keeps this movie going and it throws that extra you know storyline in there that we want to follow and I thought it was going one way and it went another. Another great storytelling tactic was that I was not. I was surprised at the way that it turned out. But talk about the music. It was really instrumental and I watched, of course, both of those screenings. I watched through the credits in the end to find out who sang and all that. But really great original stuff. I believe it was original. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're super proud of the music. I mean, we feel like we've got some pretty heavy firepower and, like you mentioned, most of it's all original, written by some pretty accomplished writers, just for our film, the stream, the songs, um, after going to the theater, so, um, but even you know, we, we got in touch with, uh, some music fans might catch this, but we have some jackson brown music too that's kind of sprinkled throughout the film, which is pretty awesome. And, uh, he came on honestly, similar to to craig, uh, craig t nelson, in the way of, just loved the project and wanted to support us however he could, and just wanted to elevate our music. He watched it and he's like man, this is like. You guys have done such an amazing job here. I want to like, I want to help make it even better, so, um, but uh, yeah, the, the music's, uh, yeah, sometimes a forgotten piece of of our film, but uh, yeah, it's a we, we feel really proud of it and think it's pretty awesome really proud of it and think it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you know the other, our composer. You know him and his wife worked so hard on this with us. You know his wife is the voice of Jenny, and then two other musicians, courtney Hartman and then S Carey is a pretty well-known Wisconsin musician, and those two, you know, wrote the last kind of big anthem song that's in the film and those two, you know, wrote the last kind of big anthem song that's in the film and that's a pretty special thing to have. You know, wisconsin folks you know write the last big anthem of the movie.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I mean, I think, to Davin's, you know, kind of the reason, the story of the musician wanting to leave the farm, wanting to go. You know she wants anything but milkingking cows every day and she just wants to see bigger things, travel, and and I realized halfway through the writing process that I was writing my own story into her um, which was really funny and sort of the twist that you see at the end with her and this musician, you know, has some parallels to my own path as a filmmaker and and yeah, so it's, it's cool. Like David was saying, I think to have original music is pretty special in something like this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you know when you can insert parts of your story into something bigger like this, I think it makes it more genuine and that definitely came through. And I just read earlier that, talking to Craig T Nelson, I was looking at the interview that they did when he was singing the national anthem and he mentioned that his family goes back to farming for years. So all of that, I think, really adds the depth to the storyline and the characters. And I want to talk briefly about Madison Lawler. She did such a fantastic job and you can tell she was also I think she was in a farm community as well, and that comes through. And so she did a great job. And the two of them especially Craig T Nelson as Buck and then Jenny Madison Lawler they played off each other very well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely no, they did. And she did such a I mean, for her this is, you know, kind of a really big opportunity and you're going head to head against. You know a guy who's been doing this since the fifties or something, you know, and he was kind of this guy and but you know, I mean Craig is so generous and so gracious and it was cool and one of our first and one of our our first rehearsals. We didn't get many because we couldn't afford to have Craig and Madison and everybody out there for long. So we fly him in and you like, just smash into some rehearsals.
Speaker 2:And I knew we had something special. We rehearsed that, the barn scene where they kind of have this big confrontation. We kind of went right to that. Yeah, and you know, seeing young Madison go up against you know she's five foot, I don't know five foot, six or five, seven go up against Craig, who's you know six, three or something, six, four and just big booming voice and she's hanging right there with him. I was like, oh, this is so cool for her, I'm so excited for her, um, and she did such a great job, I'm so proud of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she really did. I want to ask, maybe from a producer side of this. It seems like when I talk to people, there's always something that happens behind the scenes. That is, either it either changes the direction of the story or maybe there are adjustments, or I want to ask both of you this is kind of a multi-part question, but I want to ask both of you if there was ever something that happened that just really stood out behind the scenes, one of your favorite moments, or maybe a really difficult moment that it took to direct or produce and I know that you had looked like you were. This was filmed in Wisconsin, correct?
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 1:I'm sure that you had weather issues, and I can't even imagine all the things that you would have had to have dealt with, because a lot of this does take place outside. But yeah, can you do you have anything that you can share with us?
Speaker 3:I was trying to think I love your, I love the question, mike. I was trying to think I know there is something, I just haven't of it uh, quite yet in terms of like, what, um, a moment that ended up changing something in the story. So I'll have to think about that. But, um, one, one difficult but a beautiful moment, that that, uh, that I come back to a lot, is our calf birth scene. So we, we, we show a live calf birth in the movie, which we wrote a script, and little did we know how challenging that would actually be to catch in film. So, yeah, so we tried to capture it. You know, in our main production, which was 18 days, and we, just, we literally had a camera on standby another B unit team like and they were you, you know, they were fulfilling other roles during that time, but we would get a call from a farmer and be like, hey, I've got a you know cow going into labor and the crew, that crew would like shoot off, you know, towards that farm to catch it and it would like boom, just miss it. Or or the you know the labor would happen four hours later, whatever, um, so, uh, but we so, so we ended up not shooting it in main production.
Speaker 3:Andrews and I ended up camp camping out in, uh, in january in a wisconsin barn, uh, just the two of us, like national geographic, and a camera, and and we waited. We just waited for, like these. There was like a, a barn of I don't know 20 pregnant cows, uh, and they were all due within like a week, you know. So we're just like it's, it's comical. When you look back, you're like we're just sitting there with a camera and they're all just like looking at us and we're looking at them and we're like, come on, guys, what you know, do we need some Pitocin or what? What do we got to do? But, um, uh, yeah, so we ended up capturing it.
Speaker 3:The next day, a farmer called us when we were on our way out. It's like it was a similar situation like, hey, we've got one going into labor and andrews and I sprinted over and we happened to catch it in the same barn that we shot the original scene, which was pretty cool. But yeah, I come back to that, to that calf birth, a lot because it was a. That was a true independent film moment for us, for sure that's really great yeah, it's know the whole.
Speaker 2:When you're in an independent film, the the level of difficulty that happens every day. It's like something's constantly going wrong, Like you're constantly running out of time, you're constantly cause you can't pay everything. You're kind of at the mercy of people helping you out, like all that. That guy said you could use it for eight hours, but he actually needs it back right now. You're like okay, and you know it's all. All of that.
Speaker 2:One of the cool stories that and this exemplifies, I think, the spirit of craig craig t nelson was on day two. We were, we were filming and he pulled me aside. He's like, andrews, you know where's your other camera? And I said we got, we got one camera. That's all we can afford.
Speaker 2:And he said, uh well, how much is the other one? And I was like I don't know. I could ask you know, I'm sure we just can't afford it. And he goes, we'll just take it out of whatever. Whatever you need, just let you know, let my people know, and let's figure it out and let's get you a second camera. And then from that we were able to actually move a lot quicker through all the scenes, because you know you're filming one way and then you're flipping the world and filming it, but now you can just capture it both ways. Wow, and really so I think that to to that that spoke volumes. I think, to the rest of the crew too, where it was like they understood the, the generosity of a man like this and a spirit of um of what this project means to him and how you and how you act and how you treat each other.
Speaker 2:It just set the tone for the rest of the crew in a really special way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really cool. We are running out of time here, but I wanted to know is there anything on the horizon? I know you guys are just going like we just finished this thing. It's going to be in theaters on January 31st, but do you have any other hopes or dreams or projects in the works?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we, we've, definitely we've got a couple. You know, I think for us this has been such a joy as surprise. You know it's hard work. You know I've lost hair because of this project, but but it's. It's also such a joy, you know, to be able it's like to share values that you believe in, to warm people's hearts, like I think that we want to continue to do and um, and yeah, we've got two other projects we're kind of in development on and and we'll see how. You know, some of that depends on the success of this, like whether or not we'll be able to continue to go, or or how that next phase, the next phase, looks.
Speaker 1:But Green and gold in theaters January 31st. Check your local theaters. It's not everywhere. Like you guys said it was, it was fairly low budget, but let me tell you something. I vouch for the fact that this does not look like a low budget project. It is amazing. Go travel the extra 30 minutes to go find it. Do you guys have any final thoughts on this? First of all, I want to thank you for being here with us and sharing this amazing project.
Speaker 2:No, thanks so much, mike. I was curious what was the final thought. You said there's a thought that stuck with you as you were walking away. I was curious what that was.
Speaker 1:You know, for me it's rare because most movies don't do this to me, but for me it was walking away with a renewed sense of hope, and this goes back to my days when in my high school you were either FFA or not. I was on the not side, but I was surrounded by FFAers who had farms and still do, and so I was renewed in the hope of America and the importance of our farmers they very seldom get any credit. And then I also had a renewed sense of perseverance. We all have things in our lives that we struggle with problems, that we face challenges, and it gave me a renewed sense of just persevere, and I'd looked at it also in the spiritual sense of you know, God has given us all we need. He's with us. We just need sometimes just to continue down those hard roads. So that's what I took away from me. Thanks for asking.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks for sharing.
Speaker 1:David and Anders. Thank you so much for sharing this. I wish you guys the best. I'm going to get this out there as far as I can, because I really believe everybody needs to see this film. Thank you for all you did. I know it's hard work. It's been a project since 21,. I think is when you wrapped up filming, and so thank you for persevering, and thank you and Fathom, who is getting this out, and all those involved. We appreciate it and go, pack, go.
Speaker 2:Pack Go. Thanks, Mike.
