On August 28th, when Chagrin Falls native Tyler Davidson’s new film “Buddy” hits 1,000 theaters nationwide, one of the unseen stars will be the executive producers, TRG Multimedia in Brooklyn, Ohio.
In business since 1983, TRG moved into the 80,000 square foott former American Greetings headquarters in 2019. Since then, the business has expanded three times to its current 160,000 square feet. The TRG Sound & Vision division of the full-service multimedia production company features a 30,000-square-foot soundstage, 10,000-square-foot virtual production wall and a 40X60-foot cyclorama wall for backdrops.
“We also have a Milo motion-control robot and sensor system, so we have all of these tools that are very appetizing to film producers all over the country,” said Adam Wilde, CEO and president of TRG. The Westlake native, who has been with the business since 2003, purchased The Rueben Group (TRG) from founder Martin Rueben in 2023.
Directed by Casper Kelly, “Buddy” is a surreal and dark horror-comedy starring Topher Grace, Cristin Milioti, Patton Oswalt and child actor Delaney Quinn that spoofs 1990s children’s television.
Driving the thrills and chills throughout is a bright orange, fuzzy and terrifying unicorn mascot – think a psychopathic Barney – voiced by Keegan Michael-Key who turns menacing when children refuse to play along. Famously intense character actor Michael Shannon voices other characters on the demented children’s TV program.
Davidson, who produced and co-financed the movie through his Cleveland-based production company Low Spark Films, confirmed TRG made it possible for them to shoot about 85% of the film in Cleveland.
“I’ve been making films here for a long time,” Davidson said. “The missing link that’s always discussed is do we have that kind of infrastructure to post features of a larger scale that require that kind of space, and TRG’s massive studio is the answer to that.”
Requiring a sizable studio to build and film all of the worlds that are part of the story, producer Davidson had heard about TRG and knew two of the people in their original content creation department, Geoff Yaw and Ryan Kelly, but he did not know Wilde.
“I set up a tour and a meeting and was so impressed with what they had and pitched them on the project and thought there might be a way to work together,” he recalled. “To my delight, it was perfect timing because they were looking to launch their new feature film division Substance at that same time, so it really was a no-brainer to find a way to collaborate.”
Davidson’s advice to other filmmakers regarding TRG?
“Productions that are either homegrown or coming in from outside of the area should definitely pay attention to what’s going on there and what’s offered there because it opens a lot of possibilities,” he said.
Original content of substance
Three years ago, TRG launched its new film and television production division called Substance that focuses on original content created within the company to complement the movie projects brought in by outside filmmakers. Wilde, Yaw, head of development, and Kelly, head of creative, who co-founded Substance, operate the division.
On Thursday, Sept. 3, Wilde will screen his Substance-produced documentary “Slowburn Shoot: An Indie Wrestling Story” at Cleveland Cinematheque in University Circle.
The film about the Cleveland-based Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW) received its world premiere at the Cleveland International Film Festival on April 13, 2026.
“We’re telling very human stories within the wrestling world, and we’re telling stories of people trying to break into the wrestling world and trying to compete at the top level,” Wilde said. “We’re also talking about guys who have been on the independent circuit for 25+ years, and they’re looking to end their careers.”
Johnny Gargano, a Cleveland hometown hero featured in the film, came up through the AIW and then “graduated” to the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) professional wrestling promotion.
“AIW is one of the last checkmarks on an independent wrestler’s resume before they try to launch themselves up to the WWE,” Wilde said. “It’s interesting that it’s in our backyard, but it’s this unknown entity that is really special and serves like a farm league in baseball, so they’ve got a lot of the talent.”
According to Wilde, the title of the film combines two wrestling terms.
“A ‘slow burn’ is patient storytelling, and a ‘shoot’ is something that’s real,” he explained. “The film explores the real lives behind the stories being told in the ring.”
Inspired by his personal interest in the sport as a long-time fan, Wilde initially sought permission to photograph the wrestlers backstage.
“It started off as a passion project, but then it developed into something where I realized this can be a longer-form story,” he said. “So I spent the last seven years of my ‘free time’ filming storylines within AIW.”
Wilde used roughly 70 hours of footage to shape the 82-minute documentary that has been shown in theaters throughout the U.S. since its Cleveland premiere.
One Cleveland wrestler, Joshua Piscura, received a prominent role in the documentary as an accomplished AIW wrestler who decided to hang up his wrestling shoes at 45 after competing since he was 19.
“Adam and his crew did a nice job and were gracious with how they presented me, how they followed me for the last day or so, and it’s such a nice thing to have to show, hopefully, my grandkids down the road and just to have that as a keepsake.”
Wilde’s team tracked Piscura as he prepared for his final match in May 2024. Their cameras rolled at Independence High School, where he teaches government and psychology, then followed him home to have dinner with his family, then headed to the Cleveland Masonic Performing Arts Center for AIW’s “Temple Live” for Piscura’s last match that night.
“It was a cool way to commemorate what for me was a big deal, closing that chapter of my life, which wasn’t easy because I still loved wrestling but as I got older, it was harder to stay in the shape that you need to stay in and it’s easier to get injured,” he said.
John Thorne, who founded AIW in 2005 and owns the business said: “Adam remained true to how we operate as a business and how we interact with each other. It’s not a salacious, ‘gotcha’ documentary. It showcases exactly what we are as a company and the interesting subculture of people that is independent wrestling, and it’s never really been captured in the way that Adam was able to do it.”
“Cleveland can be a heartbreaking town, and the story of AIW has been one of resilience that Cleveland sports fans can relate to – struggling through setbacks and trying to achieve a common goal,” Piscura added. “Another thing that comes through with the documentary is the sense of family amongst the guys and the people that are part of the wrestling promotion and how deep those relationships are.”
In addition to the opening of “Buddy,” the last weekend of August will be especially exhilarating for Wilde. He will also travel to London to screen “Slowburn Shoot” at the Prince Charles Cinema in the West End in conjunction with All Elite Wrestling’s (AEW) largest event of the year, called All In, at Wembley Stadium.
Other new films from Substance
Yaw said it’s actually been a very exciting summer and will be a promising fall for Substance projects.
Along with the film’s director Joe Kowalski, Yaw, Ryan and Wilde served as producers on another documentary, “Micronations,” that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 5, 2026.
“It’s a quaint tale of these different groups around the world that start their own sovereign nations where they are living as an act of inclusivity by creating a group where they feel they belong,” Wilde said. “You think it’s going to be an exercise in quirkiness, and by the end it’s a very endearing and telling message about what it means to be a nation.”
“Micronations” is currently playing on the film festival circuit. In September, the film will screen at the 9th Annual Mystic Film Festival in Mystic, Connecticut.
Clevelanders will be able to catch the film at the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival in October.
(Editor’s note: The Land is a media sponsor and partner for the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival.)
Also scheduled for release in September, “Wrestle Her,” an unscripted documentary series about girls high school wrestling produced by Substance, will be available on the Documentary+ streaming service.
September will see the world premiere of another new Substance-produced documentary at the Mystic Film Festival: “Art of Destruction.”
The film was written and directed by Artur Dziedic, a Polish national filmmaker who immigrated to the U.S. several years ago as part of the Ukrainian conflict diaspora because his wife is Ukrainian. He became fascinated with the bombing of August Rodin’s “The Thinker” statue at the Cleveland Museum of Art on March 24, 1970.
“Dziedic uses that event to explore dissent groups of the 1960s and 1970s, chief among them the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers and a group out of New York City called The Young Lords,” Yaw explained. “The doc explores those three major dissent groups who used violence or the threat of violence as a means of governmental dissent, but it also attempts to solve the mystery of who exactly blew up The Thinker.”
Yaw said they expect “Art of Destruction” to be available for streaming sometime in late 2026 or early 2027.
For Yaw, the range and depth of storytellers at TRG is “a deep ocean,” and Substance is a small part of it.
“Ohio has a great tax credit program that’s unique in the US and attractive to production companies and filmmakers,” he said. “We’re trying to become an economic engine for the region, and ultimately the thing we will be most proud of is TRG’s ability to employ people by attracting film projects.”
Commercial capabilities
On the commercial side of the business, TRG offers agencies and companies that need to feature their brand in advertisements 40 semi-permanent sets for commercial photography and video shoots. They also offer the ability to construct sets quickly, run plumbing if water is needed on the set, as well as furnish full costume, hair and makeup services.
For Jason Fisher, senior director of marketing communications, STERIS Life Sciences, Mentor, the attraction of TRG is the sheer size and resources they provide onsite.
“I don’t know if there’s anywhere from New York to Chicago that offers the sheer capabilities that they do, so to not have to go out of state or long distances for shoots and have that in our backyard is pretty incredible,” he said. “I have a dedicated set and work with a dedicated staff that knows our products, our brand.”
Fisher has seen TRG grow significantly during the 20 years he’s been shooting product photography and commercials there. Now, he particularly likes having access to the virtual production capabilities they added last year.
“We have the ability to project anything behind human talent,” Fisher said. “That is the next layer if you want to produce still photos or video, where people are going to go because they can build these full-on sets and virtually broadcast images or scenes behind the product or talent.”
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