One Too Many Mornings - a new comedy.

Here’s the eventual directors statement we ended up going with. While the one below in our last post was absolutely personal, it really didn’t give enough insight into the process behind making the film. Really, it’s a perfect entry for a blog like this. But for someone like Roger Ebert, he can read this one (man, how cool would it be if Roger Ebert saw our movie!).

Where did you come up with this concept?

Back in 2007, Stephen Hale, Anthony Deptula and I were about to make our first feature film. We had been hired to write a horror comedy script, and spent the first 6 months of the year getting the script in shape, and doing pre-production. We had the budget, we had leads on locations, we had a start date. And right as we were about to pull the trigger, and tell our bosses at our day jobs that we needed to take a leave of work for the month of August, we pulled the plug. We realized that while we were intellectually invested in the idea, it simply wasn’t personal enough. At that moment, we decided that we’d rather not make our first feature film, than to spend the next year of our life making this one. That’s not fair to us. That’s not fair to our audiences.

So the three of us, after making countless short films and music videos together, we challenged ourselves to look hard within ourselves and tried to come up with a story that was the most intensely personal story we could come up with. We were starting from scratch – and we all met in Stephen’s apartment to come up with the story. The thing about Stephen’s apartment – it’s in the back of a very large church complex. He lives there for free, in exchange for turning off the lights, and locking one door. He even works directly next door at the YMCA.

So that’s where we started. “It’s about a guy who lives in a church.” Not only was it personal, we had a free location. The rest fell into place from there.

How is this film different from other comedies?

I think there’s a lot of humor in everyday life. I’ll be riding the bus or walking down the street, and I’ll just see ordinary things that make me laugh. Could be anything: an out of context bit from an eavesdropped conversation, a street sign that has a typo, someone who put their shirt on inside out.

And I wanted to take a similar approach to the humor in One Too Many Mornings. We didn’t set out to make something that was a laugh riot from start to finish, we set out to make something truthful. Part of that is not only putting in these simple and peculiar bits of observed human behavior into the movie, but having it come from these awkwardly lost characters.

I think this film is visually different from most comedies as well. I would describe the visual aesthetic as “hi-fi lo-fi.” I was really inspired by the mumblecore movies that have been coming out recently, but we wanted to challenge ourselves to take this one step further. Part of that was really taking our time to experiment with camera movement and lighting, and trying to do so in a way that didn’t infringe on the looseness of the performances. It took a long time, but I feel like this film is that much more special because of it. It’s very pretty to look at, but still feels handmade.

Why did you want to make this film?

A friend of mine had a drinking problem, and I had no idea how to help him through it. He would get really drunk, do something stupid, and then apologize for it, saying he’s never drinking again. A week would pass, and it would happen again. It was incredibly cliche. I had no idea how to help him through it. I would try talking to him, but didn’t have the proper words. I would encourage him to get professional help, but that would just piss him off.

During that time, being his friend really sucked. I hated loving him.

Making this film allowed me to explore this obligation of friendship, and how people you think you know incredibly well can also be complete strangers. Through making this film, I discovered that when you are forced to help out a friend with their problems, it really forces you to look at your own. Sometimes your own problems are even worse.

How was the cast/filmmakers chosen? What was it like working with them?

Everyone associated with this movie is a friend of mine and worked for free. Anthony and Stephen co-wrote and produced it. Tina Kapousis is Anthony’s fiance. Almost everyone on the crew are people I’ve been friends with since college.

I think it was an absolute luxury. Everyone was there to support us, and in the most genuine way possible. If a shoot ran a few hours late, nobody was upset – they were there because they wanted the work to be good. It also felt like a family.

And somedays, all of our friends would be busy. There were many a night where it was literally Me, Elisha (DP), Anthony, and Stephen. We worked extremely slow those nights, but it didn’t matter. We were still making our movie the way we wanted to.

What do you hope audiences will experience while watching the film?

There are two things I hope audiences experience:

The first is simple, I hope after seeing these characters, people think “I know someone like that” or “That’s me.”

The second, is that I also hope that the story behind the making of this film inspires more people to not let a lack of funding hold them back from telling their stories. Making a movie is no different from writing a novel now – your phone has a camera on it, and every computer comes with some kind of editing software. Everyone can and should make films, but only if their stories are personal.

Are there particular moments from the film that are your favorites?

When I first started making the film, I was really inspired by Stranger Than Paradise – specifically how simply it was shot. Every scene is done in one simply staged take. When we started filming, I realized just how hard that is to do. Everything has to go right. Marks have to be hit perfectly. You cannot control the performances in editing. But there are two moments in the film, where I knew the best way to tell the story would be to let it unfold in one long unbroken take.

The first moment is when the character of Peter is left alone with Christine, a “cougar” he has brought home from the local bar. She is ready and willing to give him a blow job, and he is conflicted as to whether or not he should let her go through with it. I knew that the best way to capture the tension and excitement of that moment for me to stay out of the way, and let that moment happen in real time. I am so glad that we were able to really capture this in one take, as cutting it up would have really lessened the impact.

The second moment is when the character of Fischer is confessing to Peter that he has a drinking problem and needs help. It’s also done in one take, but during the course of the scene, the camera is dollying ever so slightly towards them, over an old television set. At the start of the shot, the rabbit ears/antenna is sharply dividing the frame so that the characters are visually kept apart from each other. As the scene carries on, and the characters open up to each other, and start listening, the camera passes thru the TV so that the characters are no longer split apart visually (or emotionally).

To me, moments like these are what cinema is all about.

What was the most challenging part of shooting this film? How long did the shoot take?

We shot this film on nights and weekends over a two year period. Friday night we would all leave our respective day jobs, meet at the church, set up the lights, build the sets, and maybe shoot 1 scene late into the morning. Then everyone would crash on the floor of the church, wake up, shoot all day Saturday. Sunday morning was tricky because of church services, so we couldn’t shoot anything with dialogue – otherwise you’d hear the organ over it. But we’d still shoot all day and into the night. Monday morning we’d wake up extra early to return the equipment, and be back at work by 9:00am. And all week long we would prep for the next weekend.

We never questioned our dedication to the project, not once. We also had to keep our expectations in check. There’s no guarantee that we’d get into any festival, let alone Sundance – so the reward of making this film had to be the process of making this film. But it was simply exhausting. Whenever I’d see my friends, it was only on set, and they were running around helping move lights, and hold the boom mic. I never had time to do normal-people things, like pay my bills or do laundry. The only exercise I got was lifting c-stands and dolly track from one side of the church to the other. I really missed my wife. But looking back – it was absolutely all worth it, and I wouldn’t have done it any other way.

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