TROOP 4 VIDEOS

 

The Troop 4 videos are currently offline, but I'm working on getting them online in 2023.  Here's a summary of the B-movie history which involved just over 90 minutes of video content and 400+ visual effects shots total, horribly goofy acting, and plots that made zero logical sense:

 

GOD & COUNTRY

Based on a troop award that was attended more by church members than scouts, and largely insubstantial, this simple 3-minute video dates back to 2002. It's notable for being the first T4-related video I ever recorded.

 

TROOP 4: UNCENSORED, PT. 1

The original Troop 4 video... with missile strike, aircraft theft, questionable merit badges, a surreal news broadcast, and a strange car chase... Dates back to 2003, to excessively fulfill the requirements of the Cinematography merit badge.  Other scouts might have recorded a simple 2-minute knot-tying demonstration, but I felt that a 9-minute action-comedy would be better.   Then I added the airfield scene later that year... and in 2007 made a few additional changes to several VFX shots, and also added some new music. Even more changes are now being considered for the upcoming online release.

 

TROOP 4: UNCENSORED, PT. 2

A trip to the deserts of West Texas...  accidental misuse of gasoline resulting in an explosion, giant bugs, aliens, weed-induced hallucinations, two lost scouts, and a climactic battle of boy scouts against cub scouts which makes no sense whatsoever.  I'd like this video online soon... I've been re-editing it lately with over a dozen new or enhanced VFX shots.

 

TROOP 4: UNCENSORED, PT. 3

Recorded on location, in Hawaii.  Featuring a battle of foam balls, a plane crash on a remote island, even more lost scouts, poison berries, dinosaur attacks, evil Minhthien with a FundLaser, and a volcanic eruption and aerial dogfight at the end... and the evil "El Fatso".  (and bring me a roasted rat!)  At a staggering 28-minute length, it's about as close to epic as these get.

 

GOD & COUNTRY FLYING CIRCUS

Not a Troop 4 video, technically, but it featured a mix of former Troop 4 scouts who attended the God & Country award program.   Notable for the Bible study/gunfight, scouts with superpowers, and spoofing of random TV shows.  Also, there was a Minhthien music-video tribute that ended with me getting 'stabbed' in the head.  Which arguably explains a lot about me. (laugh)

 

TROOP 4: UNCENSORED, PT. 4

I never realistically thought I could make this feature-length story into a video, so I turned it into a comic book.  So... it'll be in the comics section.  It's generally referred to as 'Troop 4: Diamond War'.  It was meant to be a sequel both to the popular Arkansas comic and to the Troop 4 video series.

 

TROOP 4 TV: SEASON ONE

Intended to be three 7-minute episodes, a catastrophic hard drive failure destroyed key footage and reduced this $700 mini-epic to under half its intended length.  It currently exists as three episodes of 3-4 minute length per episode, constructed from video that I was able to salvage.

Memorable scenes included an exploding house, a campsite tsunami, an alligator attack, and more... Still, the 8 1/2 minute movie is a tragic fragment of the 21-minute epic I had intended to create.  A recent 12-minute re-edit has added back some of the surviving lost material, but not a lot.

 

TROOP 4 TV: SEASON TWO

There had been discussion of a Season Two, with Albert Rivera directing.  Because Rivera has drifted away from Troop 4 lately, his video and video game will probably never see completion.  But my versions will!

 

I made Season Two as a cartoon and I'm happy to say that all of the voice-acting audio related to this project and the Troop 4 adventure game, is in the can.  And while the game's still on the backburner, this video's actually a thing that is done.

 

TROOP 4 TV: SEASON THREE

And we return to the world of live-action video with this bayou hiking trip gone horribly wrong.  It's the story of scouts enduring the horrific consequences of the damage they've caused to each other and everyone and everything around them.  A desperate last-minute reshoot that attempts to bridge a few narrative gaps, just might make this the longest Troop 4 movie of all of them, with an estimated total length of 30 minutes. But later editing reduced this scope by roughly 4-5 minutes, compromising the video's 'found footage' conceit slightly in favor of making it a better video pacing-wise.

 

When the moment is right, I'll post a link here which will ask for a 'passcode' - the passcode protects its own encrypted space where the videos will be accessible. Only people with Troop 4 connections will be given the passcode.

 

Even though the videos are not going to be widely accessible to the broader internet, and even though they raise zero funding or revenue, I'm still going to be making money elsewhere, and a tiny bit of that will be distributed among the T4 scouts who participated in these projects.

 

The payouts will be annual, early in the year, from January 10 - March 10,

and as the main page pointed out, they start in early 2024, because the videos go live here for the first time in 2023.

 

If you wish to reach out to me (Matthew Lyles Hornbostel) for access to watch the videos, or to discuss your preferred methods of payment, please email me at matthornb@gmail.com.