Getting a Production Company Started - Help? Tips?

[Lemonymous]

My name is Joel and I'm seriously considering starting a production company featuring a show that I'm working on called Deep Galaxy: Empires ( www.deepgalaxy.com ). The idea was originally to put together the plots, characters, an image portfolio and the first season of scripts and pitch it to SciFi. But now I'm more concerned with keeping the show under my direction and control.

I'd also like to use it as a starting point for other original "shows" and works.

What I want to do is kind of take off from the medium that Broken Saints ( www.brokensaints.com ) has gone in, and delve even deeper into it, with full-length episodes, (whether or not people would pay anything to see an ep yet is not clear - but where else would money come from?), merchandise, DVD's, and the whole works, with off-shoots going into actual comic books and so on.

Broken Saints has opened up another medium for the web that, I think, if other creators and producers were to jump on, there would be a lot of money there. I'd like to take a stab at it myself with a slew of other series and shows, including Deep Galaxy.

So my question is, how do I get started? What do I need? Of course I'm going to have to get others on board, but is that possible when no money will be seen for quite a while? What could I offer them? How do I make it an official company? What sort of copyright things do I have to go through to make it happen? I've never really been interested in starting a business, but since that's what this would be, I need to know how to go about it. How would I create and sell merchandise? How would I make sellable DVD's? What programs would I use? (I know a lot of flash but it's flash 5 - I want to know MX but don't have the money to purchase it - then again, i didn't purchase 5... - I also want to learn digital art in photoshop as well).

I'm truly serious about this. I want to get it moving, and i want to be really ambitious and take a medium that has been very successful and move it into a more mainstream format that everyone can know about and enjoy. It's good stuff. I wouldn't want to throw crap out there.

If anyone can help with some tips or tricks, or even if you're interested in being part of it, please let me know. I can be contacted via IM : Lemonymous or my email - joel@deepgalaxy.com

Take Care,
Joel

[Tommy]

I don't know too much about all that's involved in making a show or movie, but that makes 2 of us. My advice would be to get involved in the medium by working for someone else for a while so you can see how things get done. Ask lots of questions, talk to people doing the same thing you want to do.

Good luck!

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

I'd suggest that you go and do the research from a source where you're more likely to get more definative answers than these forums are likely to provide. Check online bookstore resources for material on that type of industry specifically and on starting a business in general. If you have the contacts, ask people who are already in that industry. Research, research, research, and then yet more research. If you can't answer all the questions before they're asked of you, you're not properly prepared. Not to be cruel, but based on some of the questions you've asked it is obvious you've not done the most rudimentary of research because some of the questions should be easy to find answers to by doing even a just a little bit of Googling.

Next, get an investor. Unless you are offering people something that is REALLY going to want to make them commit a lot of time and effort to you for no return, even if only for a while, you're going to find a hard time getting people to join your team and the people who are willing to join likely won't be the quality people you're looking for.

With the right investor, you can afford to entice the right people and can make sure you're doing things properly from the word go. It's REALLY hard to build a good reputation in any business if your initial work shows that you're working on a shoestring.

When approaching the investor, make sure you've done a well-researched, professional business plan. Even if you're going to attempt this without an investor, I'd still suggest you spend the time to do a proper business plan and write it up as though you were looking for one. It will serve to focus your plans better and will collect your costs in an ordered fashion that will give you a better idea of the big picture.