In our first clip we introduce you to Rogelio, a young college student who works 6 days a week as an ice cream truck driver and Hilberto, a former industrial refueling tech who bought an ice cream truck after he was laid off. 

Rogelio, filmed in Fullerton, CA., started driving at age 18 and is now putting himself through school. Hilberto, filmed in Salinas, CA., is on his fourth truck. He buys old ice cream junkers, fixes them up and goes out on the road to support himself and his family.

Your support and encouragement is helping us finish this film! Thank you so much.

Hello everyone! We Scream is alive and well! We have the first 10 minutes of the film edited and we are planning to wrap up this summer. It has been a long two year wait for all of you who pledged to make this film a possibility and we just wanted to say thanks again for all the support and patience. Not a week goes by that someone doesn't ask about the film and it definitely helps to encourage a couple of first time filmmakers to keep at it.

The footage we have looks great (all shot in HD) and over the last two years we have met quite a few interesting characters. We can't wait for you to meet them too. Thanks again for being patient and expect regular updates now that we are getting close to the proverbial finish line.

Just over a year ago We Scream was an idea looking for an audience. Adriana and I are still amazed at the enthusiasm and support we have received for this project. Things have come a long way in the last year. We have interviewed dozens of ice cream truck drivers and paletero and have driven all over California in search of them.

We have also encountered a surprising number of obstacles along the way. There are many stories that we want to tell but can't. Of the dozens of people we have spoken with, very few are willing to share their stories on camera. Just last week I spoke with a Columbian born driver who said he would talk with us, but only off camera. His reason? He has an engineering degree and a small family. He said that he did not want his family to see him driving an ice cream truck.

This kind of situation has been echoed a number of times as filming has continued. Adriana and I are not filmmakers, per se. I am a composer and musician and my wife is a writer and cook. We jumped into this project because no one else had. When we began raising money through Kickstarter we had only an hour of footage. We Scream was not a polished film that needed money to finish; we hadn't even started. Once funds were raised we paid for our video camera, software, and gas. And some ice cream.

We made a decision early on that we would not provide any voice over or commentary for We Scream. Our approach has been greatly inspired by Errol Morris' film Vernon, Florida: point the camera at interesting people and let them talk.

So, have are still filming! We have an interview scheduled with a paletero named Ruben tomorrow afternoon at a park near our house in Long Beach. We began our interview with him last week and our camera's battery ran out. Ruben has a very important perspective and we wanted to meet with him again. He also happens to carry some of our favorite paleta flavors.

It has been a long winter here in Los Angeles as we are trying to wrap up the filming for We Scream. After our trip to Salinas we have had to wait a few months for the ice cream truck business to ramp up again. Thankfully we have our final few interviews on the horizon, including one with Captain Ice Cream.

Adriana and I just want to thank everyone for the continued support and encouragement. As first time film makers we are trying to do our best, take our time and focus in on exactly what stories the ice cream underground has to tell.

It has been a little while since the last update and I wanted to drop a line and let everyone know we are still hard at work on We Scream. Most recently, we were contacted through Kickstarter by an ice cream truck driver in Salinas, California named Hilberto Leal.

Hilberto sent us a picture of his custom ice cream truck (pictured below) and that was all we needed to see. We drove six hours north and spent a few days filming with the Leal Family. One of the things we have discovered while working on We Scream is that many truck drivers and paleteros are reluctant to talk in depth about their jobs. Thankfully Hilberto is both charming, funny and forthcoming. The importance of his participation cannot be overstated.

At this point, we are hoping to conduct one or two more sets of interviews and then we will begin the heavy editing process. Thank you for your continued support and patience as we feel our way through this subculture and subject matter.

Hello everyone. I just wanted to give a quick update to let you all know we are still in production on We Scream. That means we are continuing to interview truck drivers and paleteros throughout Southern California (and possibly elsewhere). Recently we got together with Matt "Ice Cream Man" Allen in Long Beach and shot a great interview segment with him. We hope to do some follow up sessions and new interviews in the next few weeks and then we'll start editing and working on more original music.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who supported this project, spread the word and watched the trailer. We raised the funds for the film and next week I will be venturing out to the wild concrete lands of Los Angeles to observe, interview and film a number of ice cream truck drivers and paleteros.

In the meantime please accept our sincere thanks for making We Scream a reality and enjoy this ice cream truck photograph from Luis Garcia, forwarded to me from We Scream backer Paul Goode (check the rims).

I just wanted to post a quick update to thank everyone who has pledged toward We Scream. Adriana and I really believe in this project and are looking forward to spending more time on it. In less than 30 days we have raised almost $2,000 and we couldn't be happier.

This process has been quite remarkable. We had an idea, we put a little work into it and then we launched the project on Kickstarter. A few weeks later almost 50 people from all over the country have backed We Scream and given us many kind words of encouragement. What an amazing way to get something off the ground.

We aren't celebrating yet. If we don't raise the final $200 in the next six days we loose everything. So we're getting back on the phones and sending a few last emails to friends and family. If you have someone you think would be interested, now is the time to let them know about We Scream. We have also had a few people increase the amount of their pledges in the last few days. We have one executive producer spot left. It could be you!

"Like all correctly raised Americans, young Chris and wife Adriana Schlarb spent their summer afternoons with their ears alert, patiently waiting for the ice cream man’s unmistakable cue, whenever it might come—the eerie and unrecognizable melody ringing above the truck, the monophonic midi-rendition of 'Turkey in the Straw,' the bike-bell of the paletero. 'I thought they were magical!'"- Kevin Ferguson, The District Weekly

Long Beach's alternative news weekly, The District, recently posted a short article and interview about We Scream. It's a quick read which talks about the spirit of the project as well as the community of supporters here at Kickstarter: http://tinyurl.com/yeswepecan

We're 65% funded with 22 days to go. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has backed this project and pledged their support. Thank you so much.

The family was out at Heartwell Park in Long Beach this weekend when we got a new lead: Jessie's Ice Cream in the city of Downey, California.

You may or may not know that all ice cream trucks in Los Angeles Country are required to have their business address and phone number listed on their trucks. Quite often you will see a number of trucks with the same address but different names and, occasionally, phone numbers. The reason for this actually quite interesting: it is illegal to park your ice cream truck at your place of residence.

Because of this, ice cream trucks are parked together in a commercial parking lot. They all use the address of the parking lot as their business address.

We'll be making a call to Jessie's Ice Cream soon. More news when we do.

So far the response to We Scream has been very encouraging. We have heard from a few people that it might help to have captions or subtitles to read along with during some of the interviews. This is definitely something that we will try to incorporate into the final film.

We are doing our best to spread the word and will be adding regular updates to keep everyone in the loop. We have also added the full HD widescreen version of the trailer to Vimeo which you can see here: http://vimeo.com/4871495

Future updates will contain video and audio clips (including original music) documenting the filmmaking process.