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WHAT HAPPENED WAS...
(click here for THE WIFE)
The film was accepted into competition at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival (my impression was that we barely made it)... but we were very surprised and excited (and frightened - we needed a print and the deadline looked unmakeable). We scraped our money together to make the trip out. I was at this time already in rehearsal for WIFEY so I could only go for a few days early on in the festival. I had never been to a film festival before and didn't know what to expect. I had thought that since I had a modest career as a Hollywood actor I would get some attention from the press. It didn't happen. Nobody wanted to talk to me - but I didn't have much expectation for the film so it didn't bother me too much. I would hang out at the ticket booth in town listening to people talk about films they had seen, hoping to hear somebody, anybody, mention WHAT HAPPENED WAS... but sadly that didn't happen either. I went to the screenings which were only the second time I'd ever seen the film projected. They seemed to relatively OK - people laughed in the right places and the houses were pretty full. But when I left to go back to New York I didn't have any real expectation that the film would get any attention and certainly didn't think it would receive any awards. And most significantly, there were no serious offers from distributors - and this bothered me. I wanted people to see the movie and I hoped I could get my crew paid and make any of my investment back. Another disappointment at Sundance was the New York Times review of WIFEY came out while I was in Utah. I didn't read the review (never do) but from what I heard it wasn't going to help get me money to shoot WIFEY which I had scheduled for March 15, 1994. But that's another story (LINK)
Back in New York we went on with our performances of WIFEY to sold out houses (happily after having such a poor turnout for WHAT HAPPENED WAS...). On Saturday night I came off stage to see my production designer, Dan Ouellette, standing in the lobby with a huge grin. He said, "You won!" I asked what he meant. He said, "You won everything at Sundance. Best movie and best screenplay."
I now had confidence that the film would get distribution and I would get money for WIFEY. But neither happened right away. The Samuel Goldwyn Co. a week after Sundance made the only real offer on WHAT HAPPENED WAS... and the money was very low. Hardly enough to finish our delivery obligations (the internegative - E and O insurance - etc.) and definitely nothing for me or the crew. Usually when an independent film is bought you are receiving an advance. This is money that the distributor is paying against future royalties - in other words, if you sell your film and get a $250,000 advance against a 75% participation in the profits that means that the distributor gives you the $250,000 and he does not pay you your 75% cut of profits until he has recouped that $250,000 plus all of his investment in distributing the film. Generally this means that you will never see anything beyond the advance unless the movie makes millions of dollars. I was disappointed in the advance but the first offer was for no advance so now the small advance was looking pretty good. And the film was going to come out.... we hoped.
The next question was, how is the film going to come out. We couldn't get Goldwyn to guarantee any budget level for the release. Often a distributor will do that, guaranteeing that he will spend so many dollars putting the movie out and he may also guarantee how many theaters it will open in. We also could not get any approval on the poster or advertising campaign - again these are things you want when you sell a film. Another thing I wanted and didn't get was some input in the video distribution advertising, art work and poster. I was basically at the mercy of Goldwyn's distribution schemes (not that I had any experience or knowledge of film distribution) but since they were the only company that committed anything to the film I was not really in any position to complain. I was just happy the film was coming out.
The problem that I saw with the distribution was the Goldwyn was in serious financial straights at the time they bought WHAT HAPPENED WAS... These problems only grew worse during the release of my film and I think they prevented any kind of wide promotion and distribution of the film (the reviews and the press for the film were widespread and generally good -LINK). The people at Goldwyn were fine and there were even a few people who worked very hard for the film and without their effort the film would have even fared worse. I was especially happy with Eamon Bowles' work. He worked tirelessly getting the film out all over the country in small to medium venues.
The VIDEO DISTRIBUTION was even more frustrating because Goldwyn was trying to put together a video output deal (all of their films would go through one video company). This negotiation dragged on for many months and as a result WHAT HAPPENED WAS... came out nearly a year after it should have. And the distributor, EVERGREEN, a division of HALLMARK, never once consulted me about anything in their campaign. I was getting press at the time for THE WIFE playing the festivals and I called them to see if we could coordinate press and their reaction was that I should clear all my press through them before I did anything. In the end the credits on the video box are incorrect and the cover art is cheezy and misleading (they did a photoshoot on their own, portraying a scene that doesn't exist in the film). They even complained when I asked for a viewer copy to see how the transfer looked. And when I asked to have a copy of the cover art to put on my web site for promotion they told me I'd have to pay them a fee! It was amazing. I could only laugh.
But the video went relatively well. It didn't hurt that Siskel and Ebert made it their video pick of the week in April 1996. Blockbuster also decided to stock it on a limited basis and that means they're a good number of copies of the movie out there.
THE WIFE
(click here for WHAT HAPPENED
WAS...)
Since CIBY 2000 owned the film, it was their job to find distribution here and abroad. The first festival we all went to was Sundance, 1995. I was surprised to have gotten chosen for competition since I had won the year before, but I was hardly about to turn down the opportunity. Nobody broke down the door to buy the film the first few days of the festival and we ended up leaving Utah without a sale. I believe that CIBY Sales expected there would be multiple offers for large dollar amounts and when that didn't happen they were unprepared to proceed. My impression was that they were unfamiliar with handling a small movie at an American festival - THE WIFE proved to be a small market film they did not understand how to make a sale on that level. They believed that if they sat tight the film would eventually be sold. I think Sundance was our best chance. The screenings were all sold out and the after the first heavily industry audience (which didn't respond), I believe, the last three went very well. There were a few inquiries at Sundance, especially from two video companies but as I said, CIBY decided to wait.
For whatever reason once Sundance had passed the news got only worse. We were not accepted into Berlin or Cannes. (We did go to the USA Film Festival in Dallas that April and the Long Island Film Festival in June). We missed several opportunities to go to smaller European festivals because CIBY put all there European hopes on Venice which didn't work out either. I went to Rome in September 1995, not returning till February 1996. My being away didn't help matters either Several possible deals came and went for American distribution and by Spring, 1996 the film had sold some foreign territories but my sense was the CIBY Sales was writing off America.
One thing we did do to prepare for the release was design our own poster and put together a trailer (I suggest this to anyone who has a movie they've made - once that film is bought the distributor is rarely interested in your marketing ideas. But if you've already designed a campaign with a poster and a trailer, they will take that input seriously.) On a technical note: CYNOSURE did the credit sequence for the trailer - I found there work excellent and very reasonable. They also designed and shot the credits for THE PESKY SUITER (a Karen Young film) and also did a great job. Having worked with several high profile title houses, I find CYNOSURE's work superior.
But Scott Macaulay did not give up. We arranged some screening on our own for some distributors and the Independent Film Project presented the film at Lincoln Center at which time we met Sande Zieg who company, ARTISTIC LICENSE, would eventually put the film out theatrically. In May 1996 we were invited to the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema but by that point, the film was already a year old and that didn't excite perspective distributors. On top of that, CIBY called to tell us that in the previous January they had sold THE WIFE to Bravo and the Independent Film Channel for a ‘world premiere'. This meant that the film would ‘open' soon on cable and any chance of getting it out in theaters or on video would soon be gone.
At this point I was ready to give up but Scott continued to have faith and work for the theatrical release of the film. He had contacts at BRAVO. He called them and explained our situation and asked if they would consider running the film a few times on the IFC(link) thus fulfilling the ‘world premiere' aspect of their deal and then hold off running it again for a year while we put it out theatrically and on video. BRAVO agreed.
Scott then went to CIBY and asked if we could take over the distribution in North America. This meant that they would allow us to make whatever deals we could to get a video deal and use that money to help pay for the P+A (prints and advertising) for the theatrical release. They amazingly agreed. (I only wish we had done that a year earlier but...)
Now free to work on our own we went back out to all the theatrical distributors. We settled on Sande Zieg from Artistic License. She had great energy - she understood the film and it's hopeful audience - and she had been pretty successful distributing films of this size. The problem with Artistic License was that they had very little money for P+A. So Scott and I went out and found a few investors to get the process moving, in hopes that we could find a video deal in the interim to pay back the investors and keep the P+A fund in the black.
The next step was to set a release schedule. As I explained earlier, We had only a narrow window in which to get the film out and then have the video released before BRAVO would begin broadcasting the film. We had to find theaters in New York and Los Angeles and the a few other metropolitan centers to open the film by the end of the summer 1996. Jeff Jacobs at the Angelica had always been a fan of the film so we talked to him and he agreed to open the movie in August at the Angelika. This was great. With an Angelika opening guaranteed it would be much easier to get booking around the country.
We then hired Gary Springer who had done the publicity on the film opening of WHAT HAPPENED WAS... Gary had represented the play production WIFEY, and had gone to Sundance with us to do the festival publicity. Gary involvement was pivotal in much of the success the WIFEY had had as a play. He began arranging long lead magazine press. It was June so we had to have interviews completed by the end of the month so they could run in the August issues. This was a ridiculously short amount of time. Most long lead press requires at least six months. But he dove in anyway. Within a week he had some things going - but then we hit a wall.
Disney the year before had bought out Miramax. They also owned City Cinemas. Well, City Cinemas bought the Angelika Theater in June 1996 and Jeff Jacobs called to tell us that he could no longer not guarantee an opening in August. (The distribution of low budget films (link) has changed radically in the past few years.) So we had to scramble again. We found another theater which wanted the film but they couldn't open it until October. This would most likely kill most of our national distribution (if you have no P+A money like us, you want to open first in New York - hope you get a good New York Times review that will bring in the other theaters around the country). The video deal would probably not work now either. A video company needs theatrical distribution to help market the movie and now the window before the TV broadcast was closing quickly - we were getting squeezed on all fronts. The only advantage with the October opening was that the long lead national press was a better possibility. But without having booked openings at theaters around the country no magazine would run the articles anyway.... And on and on... Things look very bad. That was until...
Jeff Jacobs called back in July and said that he had a new theater he was booking, THE SCREENING ROOM. It was opening in August and he was looking for a film to premiere there. He asked if THE WIFE was still available. It was only a month away - we'd have almost no time for press. He assured us that with the theater opening their would a lot of attention which could only help our film. We jumped at the chance and were booked to open on August 16, 1996. We had to forget about the national press but the Times called to do a Sunday piece on the movie and suddenly there seemed to be a lot of energy behind the movie. Sande was able to book Los Angeles for the Labor Day weekend and Siskel and Ebert agreed to look at the film (their review ran nationally in October - one thumb up - one down, lively discussion from what I've heard).
With all sudden revival Scott Macaulay was able to find a video deal. It was struck with Fox-Lorber. With that money we would be able to have a small P+A fund. We made five new prints of the film and prepared for the New York opening. We produced our own poster and posted them around the city the two weeks before the opening. The film did a month at the Screening Room. The Times review was mixed (from what I heard - I don't read reviews link) - the LA Times Review was a rave.
The video came out on March 25, 1997.
It began playing on the Independent Film Channel the following June.
We had barely gotten the film out. I wish it had come out earlier - I wish it had come out in a bigger way - I wish more people had seen it - I wish it had made everyone more money. But in the end we had gotten it out - and that's what we all needed. I don't think I would have been able to feel OK (finished - complete) about WIFEY if that hadn't happened. Now it was done.
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