ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

'Toss It': COVID-19 pandemic offers opportunity to independent filmmakers

Thursday, May 28, 2020

'Toss It': Pandemic offers opportunity to indie filmmakers

The coronavirus pandemic has shut down movie and TV production nationwide and delayed the release of the big summer blockbusters, but it also created opportunities for independent filmmakers who managed to finish their projects before the crisis hit.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The coronavirus pandemic has shut down movie and TV production nationwide and delayed the release of the big summer blockbusters, but it also created opportunities for independent filmmakers who managed to finish their projects before the crisis hit.

One of those projects is called "Toss It," about the gap between the fantasy of romance and the reality, and director and star Michele Remsen proudly calls it "an anti-romantic comedy."

It opens at a wedding, with her character "sitting here thinking about all that time I waste on Match.com."

She wrote a great part for herself based on what had gone wrong in her own love life.

"If you see these red flags on the first date, believe them," she said. "Because that's what's going to be on the last date, what is the deal breaker."

She noted with a smile that she has, "a little experience in that arena," and as a result, her characters are joining what so many others are doing in the real world right now -- re-evaluating their own lives.

"Absolutely," she said. "And the quiet time really is when people look inward. And these characters, they're not always quiet, but they're certainly looking inward as their outward world shifts dramatically."

She made "Toss It" in and around New York City and shot the entire movie in just 12 days, financing it in part with her personal credit cards while relying on what she calls "the team spirit" of her cast and crew, who worked for much less than their customary fees.

"It just felt like everyone was all in," she said. "And that was a lovely feeling."

Her movie is now available to stream at home on demand at a time when movie theaters remain closed.

"One upside is that people can now find these little gems," she said, adding that folks are starting to run out of shows they want to watch. "They look for something a little further afield and find little indie films like this that are scrappy, interesting, you know, off the menu storytelling."