Locally-made film fights the odds to be released

The crew of the Athens-made film “Not Since You” have much to say about production perils and frustration.

After filming the intended box office breaker more than three years ago in Athens, the film’s intended debut at Beechwood Cinemas last week was cancelled, and the release date postponed indefinitely.

But despite all of these roadblocks, local producer Ashley Epting refuses to give up on the film and says he will finish the business he started no matter what.

“I was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge,” Epting said. “I come across there and I see these firefighters, and there are these piles of oranges. You know about that in the Godfather? Oranges symbolize death. It was just bizarre, eerie.”

The day before, Epting saw the second tower of the World Trade Center collapse from a rooftop in Manhattan.

He saw pillars of smoke quietly slide between skyscrapers toward his vantage point atop the building where he worked for Hugo Boss.

The West Side Highway was littered with cars glinting in the harsh sunlight of an otherwise pristine New York City morning.

“We were walking around near the towers and I saw this paper on the ground,” he said. “I picked it up, read the other side. And I thought about how this was part of someone’s office, and that it was part of something unfinished.”

Epting left New York.

He drove into Los Angeles to do what he went to NYU to do: work in the film industry.

He got a job as an assistant to the vice president  at Weed Road Pictures, a production company. After one year in Los Angeles, he returned to Athens to work at his father’s catering and wedding planning company.

He told a producer he met in Los Angeles, Jane Kosek, that he wanted to bring film to Athens.

“I had this script that Jeff Stephenson was onboard to direct,” Kosek said. “[Epting] told us to come out and take a look at where they live, which is the Hill. We attended a 700-person wedding and we fell in love with the setting and we knew that it would be perfect for the story.”

The Hill is a community of Athens homes where the Epting residence is located. It is reminiscent of an 18th century plantation house.

The script, penned by Brent Laffoon, came to Kosek because she and Stephenson were looking to make something similar to “The Big Chill,” the 1983 ensemble film about a group of baby boomers who reunite after 15 years to examine the memories they have of the 1960s. “Not Since You” was originally set in the Hamptons, about a group of NYU students who reunite for a weekend wedding.

But Laffoon took the opportunity to work on “Dirt,” a TV drama featuring Courtney Cox. Soon after, Kosek and Stephenson became co-writers in adapting the script for its new Southern, small-town setting.

“Shooting took three-and-a-half weeks,” Epting said. “It took two years to finish.”

Ashley Epting (third from left), producer of the Athens-made indie film ‘Not Since You,’ offers tips for budding filmmakers to help them overcome common video production obstacles.

The actors for the film — including leads Desmond Harrington and Kathleen Robertson — received salaries built into the film’s budget. The rest of the crew “deferred” parts of their salaries for the benefit of the film.

“‘Postponing’ is another word for it,” Stephenson said. “Some people are risking large, large portions until after the fact to give it the best shot for investors to recoup on the investment in the film. You do your damnedest to get all that cash money on the screen.”

Shortly before the film’s November premiere last year at the Hollywood Film Festival, the film’s music had to be renegotiated.

The film market during initial production and the film market of November 2009 were different.

“When we first started, we even had an R.E.M. song for the film,” Kosek said. “Start to finish it took six weeks to find new music. We had to renegotiate and basically beg for the songs. That’s what happens in independent film. Everyone on board, soup to nuts, has to believe in the project.”

But, “Not Since You” isn’t necessarily the quirky indie “dramedy” the American market favors. Kosek and crew see it not as a challenge, but as an advantage in the recent film market, hoping to piggyback on the success of recent date movies such as “Valentine’s Day.”

Despite talks with the Georgia Film Company to screen the film in Athens, the theaters didn’t have space to run a digital film.

“Due to the popularity of digital ‘Avatar’ and even ‘Alice In Wonderland,’ we’re just not able to compete with studio films because these theaters only have one digital screen,” Kosek said. “The budget to bump the film costs tens of thousands of dollars to transfer from digital back onto film.”

Production is in talks with Ciné to have a theatrical run there for one to two weeks. Ciné is used to working with independent filmmakers and has the capability to digitally project movies.

Stephenson said the team is looking to expand into other markets as well.

“Our sales agents just returned from Berlin and we’re continuing to sell that, but we’re in the process of selling the domestic, trying to get a limited theatrical release,” he said.

In the meantime, Epting serves as the CEO of The Hill Properties, which furnishes and rents historic homes; Center Stage Catering — his father’s old catering service — and Epting Events, as well as Harry’s Pig Shop. He has the charm of an experienced entrepreneur and a penchant for stringing together disparate stories.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Indie Filmmaking, according to the makers of  “Not Since You”

DO get out there and fight for your film. “People in Hollywood are extremely busy, so when you introduce your film for the first time it may be one in 20,” said L.A. producer Jane Kosek.

DON’T be whiny in front of financiers. “Be confident,” Kosek said. “Know your story inside and out.”

DO spend less on more. “If I had to go back and do it all over again,” Epting said. “I would make five smaller films with what I spent [on ‘Not Since You’].”

DON’T expect to put out films quickly. “As a director, you’re moving at [a] very quick clip if you’re making a film every three years,” said director Jeff Stephenson. “The actual time spent on set is obviously much smaller than the time spent getting there.”