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The communities of Sealy and Cat Spring accepted a visit from a film crew hoping to create a historical fiction of the first female high school football player.
In Texas, Frankie Groves was the first girl to ever put on pads and trot out on to the field in an official UIL football game. That story was recreated in the local area as director Laura Somers brought that story and her vision to film “Tough Enough,” a short film based on the circumstances surrounding the sport’s first female player in the state.
The film crew, based out of Los Angeles, arrived in Texas at the end of May and spent the entire first week filming in various locations. They split their time recording in the downtown area of Sealy, the rural areas of Cat Spring and recorded the feature football game on the Sealy High School field.
Mays recruited a high-tier crew to create her vision of this historic event, bringing in cinematographer Steve Gainer to help her secure the shots and producer V.C. Rhone to help her secure the equipment and locations.
Gainer, a longtime director, producer and cinematographer has had a long career of creating award-winning visions, being nominated twice for a Daytime Emmy and winning the award once along with several other film festival awards. He has filmed a number of music videos, movies and TV shows throughout his career with “On My Block” and “With Love” some of his most recent works. He has filmed the music videos for musical acts such as Panic at the Disco and Marshmello as well.
Rhone has a history of producing and writing notable works as well, being nominated twice for awards under her creation, Dominion InnerTainment, an independent production company. She has written and directed several screenplays that have been recognized at some of the world’s top film festivals, and even won an award with her documentary “Pie a la Mode.”
The director herself has some notable accomplishments as her directorial debut “Rich Kids” was filmed back in her hometown of Houston. The film won 16 festival awards and was distributed worldwide.
Since her debut, Somers has been an advocate for American consciousness and for the youth. She hopes to create stories that invoke a feeling of empathy and humanity through strong storytelling and compelling characters. “Tough Enough” projects to be a film that brings out each of those feelings with a story of adversity and intrigue.
Now, with filming complete, the movie enters its editing process before its eventual release.
Some of the crew used old newspaper to prepare some of the scenes at local stores.
