Part 2 | Building a Film Production Company as an Indie Filmmaker

Going into this year, my primary goal was to come out of it knowing I did something undeniably good for my creative career. An obvious way to be “undeniable” in anything is by being knowledgeable, and February was that for me.

What we achieved this month

A shit ton of research (primary/secondary), we watched informative videos, interviews, read reports, etc
Hired a script reader
Emailed potential collaborators and partners
Started having collaborator meetings

If I wasn’t hell-bent on being a successful creative who works in Film and Marketing, I probably would have a head start as a researcher in one of the tallest buildings you could imagine in central London because of how well I do it. That said, the kind of stories I am trying to tell with Melon House, we make it a deal to research various production and distribution companies in the market that align with our mission.

So far, we have collated a list of favourable companies and directors/producers who we admire their work and would like to collaborate with. In the next coming weeks, we will be having a series of meetings with them to discuss our project, see how well we fit and if we could work together either on this project or another.

In case you hopped on this blog and have no idea what this whole blob is about, please catch up here. In a nutshell, though, this is a blog series on my journey of founding my production company called Melon House on the back of my first feature film – Adanne.

I am only just realising that this is the first time I am publicly sharing the name of my project, and although you can’t see me, I hope you do sense that I am in a mild panic at the moment. For the very odd reason that I am not a sharer (although I have had a very public blog for almost half of my life at this point, I still throw up a little when I have to share these very private details of my being).

Taking meetings and requesting for private/corporate-owned companies to come to collaborate with you, basically “buy into your dreams”, comes with some audacity and the very humbling experience of hearing the word no.

We got our first no!

I would say this was handled pretty well, as we kind of expected it, judging from the mood on the call. However, we also took some very helpful notes from that experience.

Lessons from our first rejection

Not everyone you rave about would be just as excited to work with you
Go with the flow and meet them exactly where they are at
Most times, money is a huge factor as to why creatives cannot commit to a project especially if you need them to contribute to the work.
Rejections from a personal relationship could potentially affect your relationship

I handle rejections pretty okay, except for the rare cases where my eyes dry out and voices bring down the heavens, but yes, pretty okay. But it is quite nerve-racking navigating a world you have been a part of as an employee for the most part to then having conversations/meetings in a more grand way. So, I would say that, if anything, February has taught me to present myself and my business in a much better way. I think it is called an elevator pitch. She isn’t perfect yet, but she is well on her way, that’s for sure.

Going into March, I am really excited for some of the goals we’ve set, which are:

1. Have our first table read
2. Hire a director
3. Get some direction on what we would like to achieve in these collaboration meetings.

It is only part two, and we’ve made so much progress. Imagine what five more of these would be like!

Anyhoo, I do hope you enjoyed February’s read (I know it’s march, the hosting company had some issues. Let’s not talk about it) and I look forward to seeing you next month! Leave some helpful meeting tips in the comments for me, I would love some motivation going into these rooms.