About the Film
Making A Scene is a documentary about the underground music scene we built, the people who built it together, and why it still matters more than twenty years later.
The Story We're Preserving
We were there. We made this. Here is what it took, what it meant to us, and why we're preserving it.
Across Tennessee, between 1998 and 2008, bands, venues, promoters, artists and audiences built an underground music community. Much of its history now lives in photographs, flyers, recordings, videotapes, artwork, memorabilia and the memories of the people who were there.
This project brings those pieces together to document the people and spaces that made the scene possible—and preserve the story of what we made and what stayed with us.
The Filmmakers
Benjamin Ross
Ross was an active participant in the Middle Tennessee music scene documented in Making A Scene. He was co-founder and drummer of FSN, tour drummer with 12v Negative Earth, and later continued playing in subsequent projects including Stella Nouvelle and The Real Thing. In the years that followed, Ross built a professional career in film & television, video, photography, design and entertainment production through Rossco Creative. His work in film & television has included productions for CMT, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, Netflix, Amazon, ESPN, Hallmark, TedX, Apple TV, Paramount, along with camera-operator roles for Bonnaroo/Hulu, Mempho Fest, RiverBeat, the Nashville Predators, Harlem Globetrotters, Austin Peay State University athletics and other live, broadcast and entertainment productions with Nugs.net, & Veeps.com. As co-creator of Making A Scene, Ross brings both perspectives to the project: someone who participated in the community being documented and a filmmaker now equipped to help preserve it. For Ross, the project is about revisiting his own history while preserving the larger one—the bands, venues, promoters, music and people who built something together without a roadmap, and whose influence can still be felt decades later.
Russ Attitude
Russ Attitude became part of the Middle Tennessee music scene in the late 1990s through his connection with Flood, first helping with merchandise and photography before later becoming a performer himself. When Flood evolved into Taken Under in 2002, Attitude joined the band on bass, while also spending time performing as a bassist and vocalist with Gorilla Warfare. His involvement quickly expanded beyond the stage. Attitude released the compilation Unsigned Aggression, featuring regional bands alongside artists from the UK and Australia, and created the Underground Meltdown series of local music festivals. He went on to book shows in Clarksville and Nashville for roughly fifteen years, becoming a consistent supporter, organizer and advocate for the scene. In 2023, Attitude launched the You Want It, You Got It Podcast, where he interviews musicians, photographers, tattoo artists, visual artists, comedians and other creative people. As co-creator of Making A Scene, he brings the perspective of someone who experienced the scene from multiple sides—as supporter, photographer, musician, promoter and organizer—helping preserve the people, relationships and creative community that defined it.
Contribute to the Archive
If you were part of the scene, your photographs, recordings, flyers or memories may help tell its story.
SUBMIT TO THE PROJECT →