Back in 2003 when I worked on two cancelled shows on the USA Network, one of the people I had the pleasure of meeting was Anthony Deptula. I finagled him to be in my 48 hour Film project and another sketch comedy thing that has never seen the light of day. Anthony was always forward thinking and ambitious, so it came with little surprise and great pleasure that the film he’s been working on for the last few years — One Too Many Mornings — got plucked and put into the new “Next” program at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
(BTW, a great interview with John Cooper, the new head of the Sundance Fest, is here.)
Part of what is so exciting about what the OTMM crew is doing is that starting now — during the festival (but after it debuted at Sundance) — the film is online for both purchase and download. Their store even has an option to buy the film’s domestic distribution rights for a scant $100k.
I got Anthony, along with Stephen Hale, co-star, co-producer, co-writer, and co-friend of mine, and Michael Mohan, director and co-writer, to agree to answer some questions before they headed off to Park City.
Read the Interview after the jump!
Kent: Congrats on Making it into Sundance! How did you hear you made it in?
Mike: We all knew that these acceptance calls happened either the day before Thanksgiving or the day after. All of us were trying really hard not to think about it, but of course, every minute of every day was full of anticipation.
I got the call two days before Thanksgiving – when my phone rang, and “Sundance” popped up in the caller ID, I nearly had a heart attack. I didn’t answer it, actually, because I was too afraid that we didn’t get in, and I’d rather hear that news from a voicemail, than from a real person. I listened to the message, it was from John Cooper himself, and it was appropriately vague. When I called him back – I just couldn’t stop saying “thank you” over and over and over again. Sundance, I mean, it’s such an honor. And it meant that our film would now be seen by way more people than if we weren’t playing Sundance.
Anthony: I was in Ohio for Thanksgiving, when I got the call from Mike. I started screaming, and then hung up on him by accident. I was pretty much in shock around my family for the next two days. I had planned a trip with Tina Kapousis, who also plays Rudy in the movie, to stay at the Stanley Hotel right after Thanksgiving. This is the hotel that Stephen King based The Shining on. We wanted to celebrate if we’re accepted and rest up before the non-stop craziness (which quickly preceded) , and we wanted to be out of Los Angeles if we weren’t accepted.
Stephen: I was at work, sitting behind a desk. My co-worker was asking me a question when my phone rang. I picked up and all Mike said was “We got in” I started to say “Yes, yes, yes, yes.” I said it probably 50 times as I made my way downstairs and out into the back alley where no one was. I would have preferred to scream and cuss a lot but there is a child care at my work place and I didn’t want to freak any kids out.
Kent: When did you start this new approach of self-distribution instead of trying to find distribution at the festival?
OTMM: We were doing tons of research on the films that had sold over the past few years, and it was pretty bleak. We’re really confident in our movie, but it’s black-and-white, there are no “name” actors in it, and it was made on a super low budget (under 50K). The odds are against us. So rather than crossing our fingers going in to Sundance, and hoping that a distributor would buy our film, we realized that we just wanted to capitalize on all that publicity to our benefit. This method also just feels way more responsible to our investor too.
That said, because our budget was so low – we’re lucky that we can do this. Films that were made for even 500K – that’s a lot more responsibility, and you can’t take the same risks.
Part of this approach is being in direct contact with our fans. So ever since we started production, we had a blog, and an active facebook page, so people could really see our progress during the 2 years it took to make the movie. Hopefully these people will be so invested in our story, that they’ll want to see the final product.
What exactly is the distribution strategy and what are the goals?
OTMM: The goal is simple: to get as many people to see the movie as possible. Right now, the film is on sale at onetoomanymornings.com. You can buy an HD download, the dvd, or even a deluxe package that comes with a poster and -literally- a scrap from our set.
Was UTA onboard with this strategy, or did they need to be sold?
OTMM: I think everyone is looking at us to see to gage whether or not this model is viable. Most films who have taken a hybrid release strategy in the past have waited until after Sundance, after realizing their film was not going to get a good traditional theatrical deal. And usually this involves raising more money to put the film out there, and still releasing it like a small arthouse film. It takes a really long time to do this and we don’t want to spend the next 2 years of our life focused on releasing this film – we’ve already spent the last 2 making it.
So I think UTA, they want to learn from us as much as we want to learn from them. Michelle Satter from Sundance’s Feature Film Program, has given us so much advice throughout this process. She let us know that even though we’re doing this hybrid release, we really shouldn’t close ourselves off to other ancillary opportunities (Cable VOD, International Markets) that we don’t know about, but that UTA might.
We’re really lucky to be working with Rena Ronson, who has been giving us lots of strategic advice and has been open-minded with our unique plan. That said, we think it freaks a lot of people out.
Kent: Do you think other filmmakers will follow your lead?
OTMM: Yes. Absolutely. Traditional arthouse distributors are scaling back and downsizing – by the virtue of this they have to take less risks, cutting the chances of a black-and-white non-star-driven indie comedy getting out there. It’s not their fault. The market is changing.
We’re just trying to create our own opportunity to fill the void within that system. We’re working with this incredibly smart and progressive company called Topspin, that provides us with the tools and ideas to get or product directly in the hands of our fans.
We hope this opens the doors for other filmmakers to find their audiences too – and we hope that we can chat with other filmmakers who are looking to do this as well. Our contact info is on our website.
Kent: Anything else you want to share before heading off to Park City?
OTMM: For anyone who can’t go to Sundance – again, you can see our film at the same time the audience in Park City can. Check out onetoomanymornings.com, we’ll be blogging and facebooking all about our adventures at Sundance over the next two weeks.
