You’ve likely seen the videos on the internet of people attempting to make crazy trick basketball shots, but did you know Auburn has their own group of extreme sports risk-takers? Legendary Shots is a group of six Auburn students (Carson Stalnaker, John Massey, Chase Martin, Christian Lill, Bryan Anderson, and Ryan Johnson) who make some of the sickest sports videos! HC Auburn sat down with group member Ryan Johnson (a former Campus Cutie!) to learn more.
Can you explain exactly what your group Legendary Shots is?Legendary Shots is a group of 6 guys who enjoy making extreme sports videos, namely trick shots, on the Internet. Our main outlets are YouTube, Instagram, and Vine and we’re always doing our best to come out with crazy and creative videos.
How did the idea to start Legendary Shots come about?Legendary Shots started in 2006 when we were in middle school playing a game of pick-up basketball in the driveway. One guy made a crazy long shot and naturally someone else said, “I can top that!” We got the idea to film them and make DVDs to give out to people because keep in mind, YouTube wasn’t exactly popular back then. We eventually started uploading our videos there and we’ve been growing ever since.
What is your favorite video that y’all have done?Personally my favorite video is “Greatest Game of HORSE Ever” which we filmed last summer with Ultimate Frisbee star Brodie Smith. The video was essentially an extreme version of a game of HORSE that you would play in the driveway and we did things off the Vulcan statue in Birmingham, shots at football fields, and crazy stuff like that. It took three days to make but it really pushed our creativity and physical capabilities. Also it got over 11 million views online so that was a nice cherry on top.
You just worked with Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl–what was that like? Bruce Pearl is absolutely incredible. He was open to every shot we wanted him to do and we all had a lot of fun filming it. He wasn’t there for the entire video but his presence brought the video to the next level. Seriously, the man is perfect on camera. We had very limited time in the arena but we somehow managed to film more than we expected, which was a nice surprise! [Check out their video here!]
What does it take for a shot to be “legendary”?“Legendary” to us is constantly changing its meaning. A few years ago we thought someone kicking a ball into the basket was incredible, and now we’re making basketball shots with a catapult we built (yeah, it’s pretty awesome). Legendary is always something we can look at and evokes a jaw dropping feeling, and more importantly a “Get this footage on a computer now so nothing happens to it” feeling.
What do y’all have coming up in the future?I said before that my favorite video was “Greatest Game of HORSE Ever”… Well, Brodie is actually flying in this weekend to film a second HORSE game video. Keep it on the down low, but it’s going to be much bigger and better. On top of that we did a video a few weeks ago in Destin, Florida on a water hover board and jet pack and that video is coming in the spring! Beyond that we put up full YouTube videos every month and we’re always putting up new content on Instagram and Vine.
What is the most fun part of filming? The most fun part of filming is actually having fun. The genuine celebration that comes from someone making a difficult shot is incredible and really brings everyone together. Also just goofing around with one another between shots, it’s just us at a location having fun and filming our shots.
How do you see Legendary Shots growing in the future?It’s crazy to think that something as trivial as driveway basketball shots could evolve into what it is now, but it has become a job for us. Businesses are beginning to see us as a marketing outlet, which has allowed us to travel across the country for videos. While we don’t see crazy basketball shots as a career path, we definitely have every intention of continuing to put out extreme sports content. We have no clue what the future holds for us but we’re doing everything we can to keep doing what we love.
Check out Legendary Shots on YouTube, Instagram, and Vine to see all their amazing videos!