In order for any creative and artistic scene to thrive, it needs access to the tools and the hands-on expertise required to create, especially for larger-scale, collaborative projects like film and television productions that don’t just need cameras, lights, and rigs, but also the human power to operate them and the organizational power to bring it all together.
Often, that can be the job of an experienced producer or even a full studio.
But sometimes, in order to ensure that your community has that kind of access and experience, you have to provide it yourself.
That was the thinking of friends Brandon Kobs and Ty McMahan when they founded Oklahoma City’s Allsweet, a full-service equipment rental, production space, and film crew-for-hire business that’s aiming to streamline and simplify the production process for Oklahoma’s burgeoning film and television industry.
It was an idea and a partnership that evolved out of them both looking for some professional changes following McMahan’s run as a journalist in New York City and Kobs coming up through OKC’s advertising industry.
Brandon Kobs: I worked for every ad agency in town, and I liked the creative collaboration, and I liked making friends, and liked doing cool stuff.
Luckily, I met Ty as he was coming back from a long tenure in New York, and we just both had this, like, connection for - as cliche as it is – like, telling actual stories. And so we just started there.
Brett Fieldcamp: Combining that love of story and discovery with a desire to meet and collaborate with other creative minds throughout the Oklahoma scene, they launched Allsweet ostensibly as a film production house, but quickly found themselves utilizing their studio space in any number of different ways to attract and connect with other artists and storytellers.
Brandon Kobs: It didn't look like filmmaking, and it still, in a weird way, doesn't every day.
We throw parties, we have art shows, all sorts of stuff, and like the movies just are kind of adjacent in that community. And I feel real love from the film community. And so it's kind of an honor to be, like, even considered a filmmaker.
Brett Fieldcamp: But the duo’s credibility as filmmakers goes far beyond something simply honorary.
While providing equipment and working as crew on a growing number of film shoots, television productions, and commercials, the Allsweet team has also spent the last three years shooting and developing their own film “67 Bombs to Enid.”
The documentary – Allsweet’s first self-produced feature film – offers a look into the lives of Enid, Oklahoma’s surprisingly large Marshallese population, which grew in the wake of World War II and the US government’s persistent atomic bomb tests on the Marshall Islands.
And McMahan explains that the film was completed with the help of some particularly high-profile filmmaking figures.
Ty McMahan: There’s just a lot of layers to this story, and we've been able to work on it for three years.
Our co director on it is Kevin Ford, and we're so excited to have him on board for it. And another exciting thing, obviously, is Errol Morris, legendary director, caught wind of the project and decided to come on board as executive producer.
So for us, it's really just incredible, really surreal. I mean, we worked so hard on it, we think this was a story with mission, and I think that's, you know, one of the reasons we caught his attention.
Brett Fieldcamp: But catching attentions is becoming a habit for the Allsweet team. In recent months, they’ve found themselves as the first call for everything from micro-budget short film productions to lavish commercials and promotional clips for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It’s a status in the scene that they credit to their own hard work, but also to their willingness to encourage and foster that same work ethic among moviemaking newcomers.
Brandon Kobs: Making movies is so hard, and we know this because we've done it.
What I'm super pumped about is it seems like the grassroots and the boots on the ground and the crews are going to be the ones that lift up the industry. I think it's really on the backs of these local crews and these really bright young people that are, like, learning their craft, like, they go from never been on a set, you know, to like being the person to go to for this specific role.
So I feel like we have productions and opportunities here for them to learn in what I would consider a safer space.
Brett Fieldcamp: It’s not only the potential of Oklahoma as a proving ground that has endeared them to the state’s film industry, though. It’s also the unique wealth and diversity of the truly Oklahoman stories.
Ty McMahan: Oh my gosh, there's so many stories here. This place is so weird. There's outlaws and like astronauts, you know? I mean, there's just, like, so many stories here. There is a full palette.
That's a dream of ours. You find the right people, you put the right people around you, you know. We always say you're the company you keep. We also try to have a really strong “Bozo detector,” you know.
And we just try to keep swinging the hammer, as we say.
Brett Fieldcamp: You can get a glimpse of the many projects that Allsweet has produced at allsweet.co and by following @allsweet_co on Instagram.
Their film “67 Bombs to Enid,” produced by documentarian Errol Morris, is eyeing its world premiere later this year.
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