Jesse Kove (“Cobra Kai”) stars in “Birthday Flight” short film, which was written and directed by Kevin Cate. #Powerjournalist Markos Papadatos has the scoop.
Fresh off a six-figure development deal for his short film “Open Door,” indie filmmaker Kevin Cate just released “Birthday Flight,” a film about a man who wakes up mid-flight to an empty airplane.
The self-funded film, in the same universe as “Open Door” (currently at 28.7 million views), was shot over two and a half days almost entirely aboard an Airbus A330 at Shoot Aviation in Griffin, Georgia, and stars Jesse Kove.
“We didn’t want to sit back and wait for all the “Open Door” sales and distributor talks to play out before making something new,” said Kevin Cate. “That’s not how this generation of filmmakers operates, and it’s certainly not how to build a loyal fan base. We are filmmakers. We want to make films and get them out to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.”
From idea to principal photography took nine days, including the casting of Kove and Nikki Nunziato, Alex Trewhitt, Jade Ricci, Sean Anthony Baker, and Jaclyn Olesky.
The crew closely mirrors Cate’s core team from OPEN DOOR and his upcoming debut feature Unbearable Christmas (Julia Stiles, Alex Moffat, Caroline Rhea, David Cross, and Stephen Root), including director of photography Pete Chiaramonte, editor/cam operator Daniel Reinecke, and DIT/post supervisor Qais “Q” Karadsheh.
“I’d seen Kevin’s short films, so I knew a little about what I was getting into,” said Jesse Kove. “But to see how creative, quick, and collaborative the whole team is up close, it makes sense why Hollywood is trying to figure out how all of this works. Once the idea hit, it was a million miles an hour into world-building this insane situation. I loved every second of it and I know his fans will, too.”
The film is being released first on YouTube under Cate’s Clinging Vine Films brand.
