Because Sometimes The Best Take Is Yet To Come
Our Why NOT?
Take 37 Media is a community and fan-driven independent media company dedicated to preserving and celebrating the stories that shaped pop culture and telling stories that might otherwise go untold. Founded on a love for indie storytelling. We focus on bringing new stories to light, and giving meaningful projects the second life they deserve, especially the ones that didn’t get their full moment the first time around. With a passion for film history, collector culture, and community-driven releases, Take 37 Media is committed to connecting fans directly to the stories they love. Because some stories don’t end… they just wait for the right moment to come back.
PRESS ROOM
Take 37 Media Announces Inaugural 74 Hour Film Festival Benefiting Shoals Scholar Dollars
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 9, 2026
Take 37 Media Announces Inaugural 74 Hour Film Festival Benefiting Shoals Scholar Dollars
Local filmmakers will have 74 hours to write, shoot, edit, and submit an original short film for a live screening and awards event.
The Shoals, Alabama — May 9, 2026 — Take 37 Media is proud to announce the launch of the Inaugural 74 Hour Film Festival, a fast-paced creative competition designed for college students, local indie filmmakers, storytellers, and anyone with a camera and a great idea.
The concept is simple: participating teams will receive a creative prompt by email at the same time. That prompt will include required elements such as character names, props, and lines of dialogue that must be incorporated into their film. From that moment, teams will have exactly 74 hours to write, film, edit, and submit an original short film.
The number 74 is intentional. As a nod to the Take 37 Media name, 74 represents 37 x 2 — a creative challenge doubled in energy, ambition, and opportunity.
“This event is about giving local storytellers a reason to create,” said Skip Nichols of Take 37 Media. “You do not have to be a professional filmmaker. You can shoot it on a cinema camera, a DSLR, or a phone. What matters is the story. We want to create something fun, competitive, and community-driven that gives filmmakers a real platform.”
The competition will be limited to 10 teams, creating an intimate and highly competitive field. Each submitted film must be delivered in 16:9 MP4 format and include an introduction of the filmmaker or team, along with the short film itself. Final submissions must be at least eight minutes and not exceed ten minutes total.
After the 74-hour production window closes, Take 37 Media will host a public screening event at The Shoals Theatre, where the completed films will be shown and judged. Awards will be presented for first, second, and third place, with cash prizes of $750, $500, and $250. Plus a fan favorite award of $100.
A portion of the proceeds from the event will benefit Shoals Scholar Dollars, supporting educational opportunities for local students.
The festival is open to college students, local filmmakers, aspiring creatives, and community members interested in telling stories through film. Teams are encouraged to move quickly, as only 10 spots will be available.
To secure a spot in the competition, interested teams should email:
Additional event details, including official dates, screening information, submission deadlines, and ticket information, will be announced soon.
About Take 37 Media
Take 37 Media is a Shoals-based media and production company focused on storytelling, film, documentary work, creative content, and community-driven media projects.
About Shoals Scholar Dollars
Shoals Scholar Dollars is a local scholarship program dedicated to helping students in the Shoals area pursue higher education and career opportunities.
Media Contact:
Take 37 Media
Email: skip@take37media.com
Location: The Shoals, Alabama
Take 37 Media Officially Options The Backscratcher Screenplay for Development
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 13, 2026
Take 37 Media Officially Options The Backscratcher Screenplay for Development
TUSCUMBIA, ALABAMA — Take 37 Media, LLC announced today that it has officially optioned the screenplay for The Backscratcher, a horror-psychological thriller now moving into active development under the Take 37 Media banner.
The screenplay was optioned from writer-director Vincent Pereira, known for the feature film A Better Place and for his work connected to several View Askew films from writer-director Kevin Smith.
The option marks another significant step in Take 37 Media’s expanding slate of original and acquired film projects, reinforcing the company’s commitment to bold, character-driven storytelling with strong commercial potential.
The Backscratcher is a deeply personal horror project built around tension, memory, fear, and the uncomfortable truths that surface when buried trauma refuses to stay hidden. The screenplay blends intimate human drama with unsettling genre elements, positioning the project as the kind of elevated thriller that can resonate with both mainstream audiences and fans of darker, more cerebral suspense.
“This is exactly the type of story we want Take 37 Media to be known for,” said Skip Nichols of Take 37 Media. “The Backscratcher has the bones of a strong horror film, but what gives it real weight is the emotional truth underneath it. It is not just about fear. It is about what people carry, what they hide, and what finally comes scratching its way back to the surface.”
Pereira said the project grew naturally out of a longtime relationship with Nichols and a shared excitement about what Take 37 Media is building.
“I’ve known Skip Nichols for years, and when I saw that he was launching his own production company with Take 37 Media, I said to him, ‘How about us making The Backscratcher together?’ So here we are!” said Vincent Pereira. “I poured my heart and soul into this screenplay and can’t wait to unleash my vision for it upon the world. The horror genre has always been my favorite, so to actually make a full-on horror film that is also extremely personal to me is a dream come true. I can’t wait to finally make this film collaborating with Skip!”
With the screenplay now officially optioned, Take 37 Media will begin the development process, including script refinement, packaging, production planning, financing strategy, and early conversations with potential creative partners.
The project joins Take 37 Media’s growing slate, which includes documentaries A Blue Dot in a Crimson Tide and Coming, Going, or Staying along with the feature film Across the Street.
The company is also days away from closing an additional deal that will further expand its footprint in the independent film space.
Based in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Take 37 Media is focused on building a nationally relevant independent film and media company rooted in the creative energy of the Shoals while developing projects with reach far beyond the region.
“This is about building momentum,” Nichols added. “We are not interested in making disposable content. We are looking for stories with voice, atmosphere, and staying power. Vincent Pereira brings a real independent-film pedigree to this project, and The Backscratcher fits exactly the kind of sharp, unsettling, memorable storytelling we want to champion.”
Additional development updates for The Backscratcher, including production timeline, creative attachments, and casting announcements, will be released at a later date.
About Take 37 Media
Take 37 Media, LLC is an independent film and media company based in Tuscumbia, Alabama. The company develops, produces, acquires, and promotes film projects across narrative and documentary formats, with a focus on distinctive voices, strong storytelling, and commercially viable independent cinema.
Media Contact:
Skip Nichols
Take 37 Media, LLC
Coming In 2026
A Blue Dot In A Crimson Tide
Set in the culturally rich Shoals region of Northwest Alabama, A Blue Dot In A Crimson Tide is a character-driven documentary exploring what it means to live as a progressive voice in one of the most conservative areas of the country.
Through intimate access and deeply local storytelling, the film follows a diverse group of residents navigating identity, community, and belonging while often feeling out of alignment with their surroundings. From local musicians and small business owners to faith leaders, young voters, and members of LGBTQIA+, Black, and Hispanic communities, each story reveals a different dimension of what it means to stay.
Among them are James and Libby Counts—longtime members of The Midnighters—who work to sustain their livelihood in a community that doesn’t always share their beliefs, and voices from across the Shoals who navigate visibility, faith, and cultural identity in deeply personal ways.
The film also explores the Shoals’ storied musical legacy reflecting on a region historically defined by collaboration now grappling with division.
Featuring Alabama natives including former Lauderdale County District Judge Deborah Bell Paseur the film bridges cultural, civic, and spiritual perspectives—offering a layered portrait of identity in modern Alabama.
At its core, the documentary asks a universal question:
What does it cost to stay?
Coming in 2027
COMING, GOING… OR STAYING?
Choosing life in small-town America.
In towns where everyone knows your name—and your past—one question quietly shapes the course of a life: do you stay, or do you go?
Set in North Alabama, Coming, Going… or Staying? follows four individuals at pivotal crossroads, each wrestling with the pull of home and the promise of elsewhere. A young dreamer prepares to leave in search of opportunity. A returner comes back, drawn by something they couldn’t find away. And two who stayed—one by choice, one by circumstance—reveal the vastly different realities of putting down roots.
Through intimate conversations and unhurried observation, the film explores the emotional weight behind these decisions—the ties of family, the pressure of expectation, the hope for something more, and the meaning of belonging in a place that both shapes and limits you.
This is not a story about right or wrong choices. It’s a portrait of lives in motion—or held in place—and a reflection on what it truly means to build a life in small-town America.
In Development
Across The Street
Some Lessons Take A Lifetime To Unlearn
Across the Street is a Southern memory drama about Dr. Ray Whitaker, a psychology professor who has spent his adult life unlearning the racial assumptions, family silences, and inherited beliefs of his working-class Alabama childhood. When his father dies, Ray is forced to return home to Russellville, where the street he grew up on still holds the ghosts of who he was taught to be — and the people who helped him become someone else.
As Ray reconnects with family, grief, and the memory of his lifelong friendship with Willis Carter, the Black boy who lived literally across the street, he must confront the uncomfortable truth that love, loyalty, and prejudice often lived side by side in the same homes, same churches, and same neighborhoods.
Across the Street is a story about family, race, memory, forgiveness, and the long, painful work of becoming better than the world that raised you.
Coming In 2028
The Backscratcher
Scars don’t heal…
Summer 2016. 42-year-old Brian Muth has just lost his beloved mother Patty to cancer. He embarks by himself to prepare the isolated family homestead to be sold, but something in that place isn’t finished with him. Something from his childhood…
The scars on Brian’s back tell a story, and the demonic force that made them has come back.
Brian has to fight it to survive. He must defeat the Backscratcher to live…