What’s Next? An Exciting and Terrifying Question

Our most asked question since we wrapped on episode one of Don't Feed The Interns is "what's next?" And that is a loaded question usually coming from well-meaning people.

Hi! If you’re new here, we are Mermaid Motion Pictures, an Indie film company working towards creating the next generation of content.

Recently, we crowdfunded and were able to self-produce a pilot of our very first comedy series, Don’t Feed The Interns. You can read more about that here.

Our most asked question since we wrapped on episode one of Don’t Feed The Interns is “what’s next?”

As you can imagine this is a loaded question from people who generally mean well and genuinely care, but it’s loaded nonetheless. On one hand, this question is exciting because it means people care about the stuff we’re doing. It means we’ve got them interested and we’ve created something they connect with, something they are invested in.

The terrifying part of the question is that there are so many ways to answer and there are so many possibilities for what is next. And the truth is, we’re just taking it one day at a time. But in this blog, I’m going to try to talk through the next phase of Mermaid in a way that hopefully gets you excited to be part of this next phase of Mermaid with us.

THE SHORT ANSWER

Edit the episode, and release it, then hopefully get funding to create more.

THE LONG ANSWER

We are not 100% sure yet. Over the next few months and years we have a clear set of goals, but how we go about achieving them has stopped us in our tracks. There are so many ways people go to get to the same location. So much so, that it has led us to ask ourselves, what’s next? And the truth is what’s next is a little bit of everything, so let’s break it down into theoretical phases.

PHASE 1: ATTENTION

Don’t Feed The Interns was a big leap of faith. We took a chance on ourselves and so did everyone who was involved (and continues to be involved).

For the first part of this plan, we hope to have Episode One edited and then submitted to festivals. We plan to then have a local screening of the first episode where we’d charge a small fee for tickets. Through this fundraiser, we’d use the money collected to fund the second episode. At the same time, we are seeking out the representation of a literary or entertainment manager who would help us get this project into the hands of people who can distribute the series.

The plan sounds fairly simple, fairly doable and it can be, but the truth is, as much as the show is our baby and we want to make it at all costs, we don’t just want to place it somewhere online where it will get lost amidst the chaos of the internet. We truly believe Don’t Feed The Interns deserves to be somewhere that people who know nothing about our little company can find it and say “I relate to that”.

Phase One is all about getting the first episode into the right hands.

PHASE 2: EXPAND

Phase Two is all about the future of Mermaid. How will we sustain ourselves as a company, as a brand? This is one of the big questions that pops up.

The truth is we can only fundraise so many times before the people we are asking for donations are sick of us, at some point our content needs to be supporting itself. This aspect of Phase Two is pretty strongly dependent on Don’t Feed The Interns or our manager succeeding — or both. The dream is to have Don’t Feed The Interns get enough funding that we can make more episodes that we can distribute and earn from to keep the incredible cast and crew we had for the first episode.

However, that is not guaranteed, so what other ways can we sustain ourselves as creatives? And for other options we are looking to other ventures, expanding into other media types and content. We have written so much already, and we have so many ideas of what Mermaid could be, not just to us, but to you all. We don’t want to limit ourselves to one form of content or one genre. So maybe it’s a podcast, maybe it’s a film, maybe it’s a really interesting blog that gets a lot of readers *wink*. The point is Mermaid is bigger than you know, or we know, or even then Mermaid knows, and that is what we hope the second phase will be.

PHASE 3: START AGAIN

As a creative, there’s so much that you put into your art. Your blood, your sweat, your tears, your money. And yet, being in film is a lot like being a shark, if you stop moving you die.

Maybe not literally, but it certainly feels that way.

There’s something about the non-stop hustle, the feeling of never wanting to stop doing what you’re doing because there’s always another idea to write, or another story to pitch, or another episode to be filmed.

I’m not saying this will happen in this order, or that these phases won’t bleed into each other, or really any of that; none of us know where the future will take us. What we do know is that this is just the beginning.

THE FINAL ANSWER

The final and probably the most truthful answer to the question is I have no idea.

And maybe it’s okay to not know everything. But I know one thing and that is this feels right, Mermaid is the best thing we’ve done and it’s not going to be the last. Maybe this is more dream than a plan, but this dream is a start and you’ve gotta start somewhere.

So watch this space, and keep swimming with us.