Q&A: Toby Wilkins
Here’s a few more questions with Toby Wilkins, director of “Splinter,” beyond what we could fit in the newspaper.
Matt Price: Has the reaction to Splinter been what you were expecting?
Toby Wilkins: We screened it twice now, for an audience. At Screamfest was the first time I had seen it with an audience, and I was blown away by the reaction. It was a really great mix. Screamfest being a horror festival has this hardcore horror audience who are there to watch and love horror movies. And then the other half of the audience were people I’d invited, people from the industry and friends of mine who don’t necessarily watch horror movies all the time.
And it was a great blend of audience to see it for the first time with, horror fans cheering at all the right gory moments and the stuff that they love, and the less experienced horror audience screaming at all the right moments and laughing at all the right jokes. It was a really great experience, I can’t imagine a better audience to have seen it for the first time with.
MP: What can Oklahoma City fans who attend your screening expect?
TW: I’d guess there’d be an introduction and a Q&A afterwards. I would imagine or hope some of the local crew and cast will be able to attend. But basically they’re in for a roller coaster ride of a horror movie!
MP: And you’re also distributing “Splinter” in kind of a new way.
TW: The way theatrical distribution is going, with a third more independent films launching each year, something like 600 movies per year, the number of theaters you can actually get a movie into is becoming greatly reduced. And there’s a huge audience for horror movies and especially independent horror movies, people are really excited to see them. So it’s a great, cutting-edge type of distribution that Magnet have been able to secure for “Splinter.” You can actually see the movie right now, before it releases in theaters on Halloween, if you don’t live in one of the four cities, New York, Los Angeles, Austin or Oklahoma City, where the movie is being released, you can watch it through your cable’s on-demand service, for basically the price of a movie ticket.
I think independent film in general needs to find a more efficient way of reaching an audience. Because even if you do what in independent film is considered a very wide release of 100 screens, that still cuts out a huge section of an audience who may be responsive to a film. With the internet as a distribution method, things like iTunes rentals and downloads, and video on demand, which is obviously becoming very popular, there are great opportunities to release movies to a much wider audience.
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