After 28.7 Million Views and a Six-Figure Deal, Kevin Cate Unveils ‘Birthday Flight’

Fresh off a six-figure development deal for his short film Open Door, indie filmmaker Kevin Cate just released Birthday Flight, a short 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 (Cobra Kai).

“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 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 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.”

Watch the film below, which is being released first on YouTube under Cate’s Clinging Vine Films brand.