Rising Stars: Meet Chris Lofing and Travis Cluff

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Lofing and Travis Cluff. They and their team shared their story with us below:

Chris Lofing – Born and raised in small town Beatrice, Nebraska, Chris’ filmmaking aspirations began when he was 13, creating home movies, skits and even two feature-length films during high school. After attending The New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, Chris moved to Fresno where he met his creative collaborator, Travis Cluff. Travis’ unique marketing and business background combined with Chris’ film and technical experience, made the duo the perfect team.

Travis Cluff – After losing his job in the 2008 recession and with his first child on the way, Travis fell victim to a large Ponzi scheme, sinking him into crushing debt. Desperate for money to support his new family, Travis came across ABC’s obstacle course game show WIPEOUT which promised a $50,000 grand prize to the winner. That year, not only did Travis make it onto the show, but he won his episode. This accomplishment helped him get back on track and also opened his eyes to the entertainment business. After meeting New York Film Academy student Chris Lofing, the two developed a friendship and started their own production company

Chris Lofing & Travis Cluff formed Tremendum Pictures in 2011, creating viral videos on zero budgets such as “Man Jumps Out of a Plane with No Parachute” which accumulated over 200 million views across all platforms and was even copied by IKEA.

Determined to break new ground in the ultra-low budget space, they independently co-wrote, co-directed and co-produced the micro-budget horror film, THE GALLOWS for only $100,000. THE GALLOWS went on to gross over $42 million at the worldwide box office, becoming the least expensive movie in history to go straight to a worldwide theatrical release, and is ranked among the Top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time based on ROI. The film became the first acquisition by New Line Cinema in over eight years and also marked the first collaboration between Warner Bros., Management 360, and horror-titan Jason Blum.

Chris & Travis successfully repeated this low-budget formula with the sequel, THE GALLOWS ACT II, which was sold to Lionsgate and released in 2019. The guys have been creating independent horror thrillers ever since, including HELD, which was released during the pandemic by Magnolia Pictures and is featured on Hulu. Today, we are focused on a new slate of films, raising financing, as well collaborating with other filmmakers to help their projects come to life.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our filmmaking journey has brought us face-to-face with some of the biggest challenges of our lives. We think the phrase “From Boys to Men” would apply here. We started with essentially zero contacts in the industry and no connections to money. And after all this time…that really hasn’t changed much. We are still very outside the system – masters of our own destiny, which is both a blessing and a curse. We have total creative freedom, but we are also (typically) completely on our own and with little to no resources.

We often tell people that making movies is literally just solving one problem after another. Some of those problems are massive – such as when a leading actress loses 40lbs between reshoots – great for her, bad for us. This caused us to recast and reshoot nearly ALL of The Gallows – taking it from a two-year process to nearly four and a half years to complete and release. *Fun fact – the original cut with the original actress can be found on The Blu-Ray!

Losing locations, weather trouble, equipment breaking down, props falling apart, scheduling disasters, seemingly impossible visual effects, minor to major disagreements, and never, NEVER enough money to do half of what we attempt to pull off… these are just a few of the challenges that come with this crazy pursuit. But we love it. While we question our life choices every single day, we still can’t give it up for anything else.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We are fans of storytelling. We love stories of all kinds and for all ages. As theater-goers and film fans, we have a huge list of movies that inspire us and that we hope to emulate in our work. This ranges from horror to action, to comedy to whimsical Amblin-era adventures. We often look at filmmakers like Spielberg, Cameron and Nolan who make movies for the masses and pray that we can have the opportunity to play in that sandbox someday. Our specialty to this point, has mainly been in the horror space. When we set out to make The Gallows, we were so constrained by money, resources, time, and connections… it sometimes feels like a miracle that the movie even got made, let alone released. We are proud of how The Gallows turned out and the success it brought for our friends at Warner Brothers, New Line, Blumhouse, 360, our investors and for us and our families.

The horror genre has allowed us to learn, grow and continue making films that actually make money! which, in today’s landscape, is incredibly difficult. We like to think that creating suspense and scares comes naturally to us and so we are always happy when an exciting new horror or thriller idea pops up or is sent our way. We think the biggest thing that sets us apart is our frugality and our independence. We don’t need much to get something made. Would we like more? 100%, haha But… we always plan every single project with this simple question in mind, “What would this look like if we had to do EVERYTHING – all the way down to marketing and releasing – ourselves?”

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson we’ve learned along our journey is to find people you love to work with and keep them close. There is nothing more rewarding in this business than creating alongside people you love. We have been blessed to meet and work with some real gems and we constantly stop and remind ourselves how amazing it is to have these talented craftspeople in our corner. We have to continually work to earn their collaboration. It is part of what drives us and pushes our quality of work.

But hands down, finding the right people to work with is key.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tremendum.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tremendumpics/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TremendumPics
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tremendumpics
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tremendum