Scum Crew Pictures was the independent film LLC in Austin, Texas that produced Über Goober and Year at Danger. It kept its own website at scumcrewpictures.com for roughly twenty years. That site has been retired, and what was on it is preserved here.
The films
A feature documentary about gaming subculture. It played festivals around the world, drew good reviews, and won several awards.
A feature documentary following a Texas Army National Guard deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
About the company
As it read on scumcrewpictures.com, written around 2007. Reproduced as written, so the tense refers to that moment.
Scum Crew Pictures is a film LLC based out of Austin, Texas. It has it roots dating back 20 years, and has now finally taken hold as a film producing company. The members of this company have worked on numerous short, feature-length, industrial, fiction and documentary films over the years, but their most successful work to date was “Über Goober”, a film about Gamers. This full-length feature documentary has played around the globe, inspired great reviews, and won a few awards along the way.
Scum Crew Pictures is a small independent filmmaking company with a lot of heart and hard work behind it, and that heart and hard work shows. We’re currently filming another feature length documentary, and hope to raise enough money through documentaries to begin narrative work in the future.
The people
Steve Metze
Director, producer, and president of Scum Crew Pictures. He funded and produced both of the company’s feature documentaries, and at the time was also teaching Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin and serving as a public affairs officer in the Texas Army National Guard. The current version of all of this is on the biography page.
His 2007 Scum Crew Pictures bio, as archived
Kept for the record. Superseded by the biography page above.
Experience
Director / Producer / President, Scum Crew Pictures LLC
Funded and produced independent feature-length documentaries. Projects include:
- “Year At Danger” (about Operation Iraqi Freedom). Currently in production.
- “Über Goober” (about the gaming sub-culture), 2004.
Independent Producer
Organized, hired, and managed a team of student filmmakers to create short industrial video.
Created three television commercials for University of Texas station KVRX 91.7 FM.
Faculty and Staff, Radio-Television-Film, University of Texas at Austin, 1997–2004
Taught undergraduate courses in Digital Video, Audio Production, Advanced Audio, Video Production for the Internet, Narrative Audio, and Radio Production.
Awarded College of Communication Texas Excellence Teaching Award, fall 1999.
Broadcast Advisor, KVRX 91.7 FM student radio station, 1997 to present.
Miscellaneous teaching experience
Austin Museum of Art, 2000–2001. Taught Broadcast News and Art Inspires Writing.
Teaching Assistant, 1995–1997. Taught Studio Television, Advanced Audio, Radio Production.
Miscellaneous independent film and video experience
Cinematographer, editor, and sound designer for numerous graduate and undergraduate short films.
Wrote four feature screenplays, numerous shorts, and co-wrote one feature screenplay.
Related work with the Texas Army National Guard
Public Affairs Officer, 1992–2002.
- Deployed to Bosnia. Supervised the production of video news spots aired on American Forces Network, Hungarian, Croatian, and German networks.
- Prepared and conducted press conferences, and interviewed with media, including Stars and Stripes, CNN, Radio France, ABC, AP, Reuters and Worldwide Television Network.
Operations Officer and Unit Public Affairs Representative, 2004 to present.
- Deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom III. Escorted media representatives and facilitated live satellite interviews between soldiers and broadcast stations in the United States.
Skills and training
Army Information Operations 210 Course, 2004.
Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools, Avid, Movie Magic, Post Conform, SAW, Prophet, Photoshop.
Various 16mm cameras, Beta SP, miniDV, DigiBeta, SVHS, DVCPRO, 3/4".
Public Affairs Officer Course, Defense Information School, July 1993.
Education
University of Texas at Austin, M.F.A., Film and Video Production, 1997. GPA 3.81.
University of Texas at Austin, B.S., Radio-Television-Film, 1994. GPA 3.88.
United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, B.S., National Security and Public Affairs, 1989.
Don Swaynos
As it read on the original site in 2007.
As a screenwriter, editor, and director, Don Swaynos has worked on a variety of projects including narrative films, documentaries, commercials, and music videos.
As a founding member of Jollyville Pictures, Don has written several satirical short films, including Emily, which was distributed by world famous independent film company, Troma Entertainment.
In 2005, Don was awarded a Gold Addy Award for the animated advertisement Austin Film Festival: “Uhhh…”
Don is currently in Post-Production on the feature-length documentary Year at Danger and is in Pre-Production on the animated television pilot Baby/Bear.
Archived from scumcrewpictures.com in August 2026, when that site was retired and its domain pointed here. The original contact form and the scumcrew.com email addresses are not reproduced; that domain no longer resolves and the form had stopped working years earlier.