Author: Ishmael McKinney

The Entertainment Business Masters program has equipped me with the business knowledge necessary to collaborate with or lead creative projects now and in the future. Throughout the degree program I was able to take what I have learned and apply it directly to my job and own projects. I have been able to use tools like the Gannt Chart in preparation for pitches for campaign and projects I have been working on. An important part for all projects is the finances, including how and how much money will be made as well as how much money it is needed to complete the project. Tools like the business model canvas will allow me to pitch project and campaign ideas to businesses in hopes of collaborating with them showing them I understand who they are, who I am and how a partnership works.

I would recommend this program to any creative who is looking to turn their passion and talent into a career. Ad your artistry and goals grow, this will give you the business acumen to monetize your goals. This program allows you to learn how you can take what you have been doing and make it profitable and grow it into a business. Too often we take for granted what we have been doing because we were not yet professionals. This final course allowed me to tighten up my elevator pitch and really gave the knowledge necessary to be able to speak to investors about how who I am and what I wanna do will make me successful in the end. While the tools afforded to us in the program are useful in the future, you can use them to analyze projects in the past and how you could’ve improved it or any opportunities missed. This program keeps you in the mindset of viewing all opportunities through a SWOT mentality. Knowing you and others strengths and weaknesses, while seeking opportunities and recognizing barriers that may exist in hindering your end goals. I see the business potential for all opportunities as the digital space creates an opportunity for monetizing content while also creating income potential across the many platforms available today.

           I believe this course was the perfect summation of the degree program. As outlined in the course description, we were able to use the knowledge and resources gathered over the last year to develop a “viable business opportunity will attract investors as well as provide solid business opportunity within the entertainment industry” (Full Sail University, 2020). Professor Burhoe did an excellent job of selecting the resources for the course as well as providing videos for our weekly assignments, elaborating on both the how and why, in writing a business plan. He not only gave us the understanding from a business owner perspective but how investors would be dissecting our business plan. My original goal for this course at the beginning of the program was to be able to develop my business idea so that my business plan could be completed. With everything that was given to me throughout the year, I came into the course knowing the what, and this course was able to give me the data, industry analysis, and confidence to elaborate on how. Each week and subsequently each page, with the company description at the forefront of my business plan I was able to focus on and dissect each facet of my business plan for clarity for potential investors. One of my biggest takeaways from the course was the difference between the Board of Directors and the Advisory Committee. As a creative first and business person second, I came to the realization that much of my foundation was built on the teachings of others. While there is a lack of responsibilities and ownership, the advisory committee will be essential in establishing not only a network of customers but partners. Together with our internal team’s expertise, we can make an immediate impact on our community.  I also took from this class great pride and interest in fostering an aspect of community for my company. Not only are we providing a service to clients, but we want to become a resource in the community. By requiring extensive research into the market and region I will be operating, I was able to ensure that at the core of Scarab Creative, would be filling a void in our community that in essence will allow the community to be unified and grow.

Full Sail University. (2020). Business Plan Development.

Retrieved from: https://www.fullsail.edu/courses/geb612-business-plan-development?degree=entertainment-business-master&type=campus

This course was very enlightening and I feel like it was the perfect cap to the program. Coming from the corporate/non-profit sector, there was a lot about the creative process that was revealed to me. I initially thought the processing for pitching projects began at the corporation and you were then appointed an agent. I had a misunderstanding of the role of an agent more similar to a project manager. While this is true to an extent, they work more on the artist or talents side than they to the entertainment company you aspire to work with. Their goal is to serve as a conduit for the completion and manifestation of your profit where it fits best instead of ensuring that your project ends up in the hands of a particular company. They really work to ensure your project happens regardless of where it happens, which make it integral your agent understands of who you are and what your project is.

The class did a 180-degree turn when it turned to the idea of self-publishing. This route should not be taken for granted and if you have the means to make it happen you should. Self-publishing your work serves as proof of concept of your project for pitching your project to your agent. Self-publication serves as a source of income to support future projects and allow you to begin to network across with other creatives. Too often we overlook the opportunity to collaborate with others in an effort to immediately work with bigger entities when sometimes crafting a community of creatives can help us reach our goals faster. There are ways to work to cultivate local, regional and even national recognition. Upon joining this program, I met someone involved with the regional Emmy board and spoke about how that’s an overlooked resource for entry into the industry. Much of my production experience has come from my involvement in the local access television station which served as an outlook to create and produce content while building relationships with local companies and universities. All in all, I enjoyed this course and like all the others served as a reminder that with the mind set my goals can be attained. Whether that is with the support of a major company or with me being left to my own devices.

I really enjoyed this course and was able to hit my goals from my mastery timeline plus more. Entering the course, my goal was to get an understanding of entertainment law and its rules by learning about contract law as it relates to entertainment and how to define intellectual property. Throughout the course, we were exposed to difference case studies involving entertainment cases that went to court and the laws that were birthed from the rulings. For example, just this week we learned of the case of Panavision v. Dennis Toeppen (9th Circuit Court of Appeals, 1998), which birthed the idea of cybersquatting and the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. In 1999, the act was passed as an extension of the Lanham Act, trademark act of 1946, which protects companies from people like Dennis Toeppen who hurry to own domain names in an effort to sell them to their rightful owner for profit. As far as defining intellectual property, the registration forms assignment walked us through copyright registration for various kinds of work. I learned it would be important when dealing with anything episodic or series based, you must register the work under a ISBN.

My biggest takeaway from the course was the understanding of the B Corporation. This is a for profit business which operates with community in mind as they work towards a civic aspect, similar to a non-profit business. Some companies work toward reduced inequality, lower levels of poverty, a healthier environment, stronger communities, and the creation of more high-quality jobs with dignity and purpose. The goal for my company is to empower minority storytellers and I cannot think of a better way to do that than to empower the next generation of storytellers with the tools needed to be successful. An initiative for Scarab Creative is to get cameras in the hands of the underprivileged who show an interest in the photography and videography. My mission is to create summer internship opportunities for these young students headed into high school by giving them hands of experience in production, editing and more. At the end of the program, the students will earn their own camera and software for editing their work. If the students graduate high school and maintain their passion for visual arts in any capacity we will provide them with a new computer for college and be sure to connect with any local production companies in the area to assist in facilitating job opportunities for them both during and post college. Scarab Creative will commit to ensure we are doing our part for those in need by providing them a creative outlet to document and control the narrative of their reality.

Reference:

“About B Corps.” About B Corps | Certified B Corporation, bcorporation.net/about-b-corps.

One thing I thought would come through in this class was conflict management, which was touched on in our Week 1 discussion post. My big takeaway regarding conflict resolution was understanding your leadership style and adapting it to the situation in front of you. In choosing a scenario to respond to, it allowed you to see the range of artists that exist in a given industry and start to think through different scenarios. In doing so you consider your own strengths and opportunities to grow, while deciding if a situation is right for you. In summation, I really enjoyed this course and learned a lot, the books and resources presented are things I will continue to reference.

Initially in this course, my plan was to learn HOW to negotiate. I feel like as a creative my negotiation skills need to improve because too often I have been negotiating out of necessity and needed to learn how to conceal how much I am depending on the help of the other party to be successful. In just three weeks I have learned the meaning and difference between underlying interests and bargaining positions. Too often my bargaining position was my underlying issues. This was happening because I was leading with my goals and honestly speaking from the idea that, “I am going to get it done, but your help would make things easier for me”. I have learned to be tactful and speak to how an agreement speak more towards mutual benefit. Being in the Midwest resources have been scarce, which has caused creatives to developed essentially a “chip on their shoulder” and negotiating needing help but nota partnership.

I had the opportunity to put the idea t practice in a recent negotiation for a part-time opportunity. They were looking for help, help I was willing to provide but I want to be sure I left with something other than money from the partnership. I was negotiating with a bookstore as they needed help processing orders. They were willing to pay a decent hourly rate, with the ability to work as much as possible. Their underlying interest was revealed, which was needing as much help as possible, by not putting a limit on the amount of time you can work. Having being in that position before, I knew that I could make certain concession in order to leave this negotiation with more than just money in my pocket. I pitched a collaboration with the bookstore once my contract was completed allowing them to support some of my media endeavors with books, opportunities to interview the owner and more. While it will help me further grow my portfolio the owner will get some benefit by giving her access to another market she can sell to. I also am connected to a budding bookstore and other community connections that they could benefit from. Having been in their shoes, I recognized their need and was able to assist and offer them an opportunity that may not have been available to them otherwise. My underlying goal was to create an opportunity to help her sustain the level of business achieved warranting the need to help because as she grows, she can hire a permanent team to accomplish her goals. I was happy to leave this negotiation with not only the opportunity for extra money, but a partnership that will allow this business to grow.

I think I was able to really formulate the ground from which I will be marketing my business. As each class progresses, the dream of mine that is Scarab Creative becomes more and more of a reality. I initially thought this course was going to cover some principles for developing content as it relates to digital marketing. This goal was met, but exceeded as it allowed me to develop some content examples that allowed me to being thinking of ideas for the different colors, text and themes I would use in marketing. Content is important but strategy is even more important. As an individual you can use social media as a personal portfolio or scrapbook. With a business, each post is to create engagement or create a brand awareness. The message must be consistent and intentional and in developing your campaign, your audience and competition are equally important as you must develop unique content that reflect your brand and re synonymous with your company. My personal goals and perspectives are what inspire and will enable me to be successful with my brand so I won’t be afraid to use my personal and professional platform to be brave in my storytelling and the sharing of other stories. Keeping a consistent message will allow me to connect with my audience and build a true relationship with them. The communities I am looking to work with are more than the stories I am going to help them tell. They are people who live, work and provide resources to the community so as I continue to learn more I can teach more that allows them to be successful as more eyes are turned to this groups as their truths are revealed. I look forward to using the things I learn on the back half of this course program to continue to curate more content that reflect not only the business but to use in the production process to make sure stories are told from a 360-degree perspective.

To be transparent this course was not only the most difficult I have taken thus far but probably the most difficult thing about the entertainment industry. Growing up, entertainment was leisure and often viewed as non-essential. With my family it was typically a reward, if I spent enough time reading for the night, then I could watch wrestling or as a student If the class did well we could watch a movie. As I’ve grown and learned to view the world different I learned that entertainment is a resource and during this pandemic, I see that it is a need and no longer the want I thought it was. Television, film, and live productions can be used to entertain as well as educate. Outside of learning about the business of finance and helped me to further cement the importance of my business. More than my niche, I am able to better understand how to communicate the necessity of my business for purposes of obtaining both clients and funding. I will be going into television, movie and podcast production. Why my company, Scarab Creative will be important is to creatives of the Midwest to not only bring their projects to life but be a hub for these creatives to develop the skills to be able to better communicate with their audiences. This will be with those looking to simply entertain and those who are looking to educate by working with political and social action organization as well as they have the need for specialists to come in and work on different campaigns to reach the community.

I used to think of the finance of business as the x and o’s of business and this class proved that to be true, as the understand of costs and revenue is a balance need to ensure your business survives in the day to day.  This proved to be true, having the opportunity to work with the time value of money, break evens and investment were key because as a new business owner I need to be prepared for handling the economics of business as I scale the company. Getting an understanding of the day to day operations and how the success with the financials can create the opportunity to be a publicly traded company and learning the process was very helpful. Shows the importance of building relationships throughout the life span of the company to ensure proper funding. The one thing I would’ve like to explore more in this course would’ve been the LLC, incorporation process and need for an EIN as that is one of the first steps taken in the infancy of the company. While I was exposed to the process in some of my research, it would be nice to hear more perspective on those ideas. I am thankful to have completed this course and look forward to using the tools afforded to me to be able to really prepare my business to be successful.

I am sure this may not come to a surprise for faculty and staff at the university, but as I continue throughout the program I am reassured I made the correct choice in choosing this program. This course in storytelling and brand development has helped me a lot in my journey as a creative looking to turn their dream into a reality. In the course of four weeks the idea for a business I have been developing for a little over a year has finally come full circle. It has gone through 3 iterations from a media group, to a production company, to a creative agency. Making that transition from creative to business-person and more importantly the leader of a business, your storytelling and brand identity are über important. These two ideas are the sole reason people decide to buy-in to not only your company, but you as a leader.

I knew the reasoning behind my business and the name, but in talking to people over the year I have noticed that the explanation of what I want it to be changes. This course was a huge help in establishing my creative identity. The idea for Scarab Creative comes from my love of ancient Egypt. I admired their culture as they seem to embody creativity from their clothing, to their writing and sculptures. Something that has always stuck out to me as well was their polytheistic culture and how they had many gods and goddesses which they used in a way of respecting everything that comes from the world and others. Khepri, which means “to create” or “to transform” is the god of creation and is responsible for the movement of the sun, life and resurrection. His symbol is the scarab or dung beetle as it represents his movement of the sun through the sky every day. As a creative I see every day as an opportunity to create and live for moments to use my “right” brain to solve problems.

I underestimate this course as I mistook your story and brand identity for simply your vision and mission statements. This course expounded on those idea teaching me how to create my brand position statement, establish creative goals, and a brand promise. The tool of the brand identity prism is a great one to have in order to not only stay true to the expectations I set for myself but to look for areas of both growth and opportunity. The opportunity to conduct market research in was great for not only finding my niche but seeing that there are opportunities for my brand to exists in what seems like such a saturated content market. I was able to hone in on my specific audience of aspiring and emerging urban creatives and the different traditional and digital platforms to connect and distribute their works. All in all, this course helped me to develop the same excitement for creating my business as I have when I am creating. I am looking forward to continuing to develop my business in both acumen and marketing and development.

This class has taught me the importance to build on and into yourself as you continue to learn outside of professional settings. I have been shown the importance of taking the necessary steps to establish yourself further at every step of the journey. One of my goals for this course was to develop effective tools to plan projects and right away we got Project Plan 365 and the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) document. This not only teaches you to think through the entire planning process but to find the key pieces needed to facilitate the project as well. This class has taught me how difficult or effortless planning can based on your own preparation and the team around you. Many focus on pushing out a product versus being sure there are not steps missed or incomplete in the production process. One thing I am looking forward to down the line is, collaborating with other stakeholders on enhancing the WBS document to ensure the complete process is in place. Another one of my goals was to find a real-world application for the tools provided and luckily/unluckily, there is a major transition happening at work that will allow me to put these skills to use. I can help facilitate the transition by bringing my ideas to the major stakeholders in a clear concise form document and together we can see what I, as at the bottom level, am missing from the executive point of view while providing insight to the executives from a day to day point of view.

According to Verzuh, the author of The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, “project management is a skill that can be learned and mastered.” I believe that ultimately the goal of a Producer is to be a project manager. This course has taught me a lot regarding how to be successfully in the planning of a project. Outside of simply being knowledgeable of the task at hand, it allowed me to look at the team I assemble and how, who they are is key to success for us all. My goal is to leave this degree program with a comprehensive plan for starting my own company with an emphasis on who and what I need around me to be successful. I feel as though to develop my media company, Scarab Media Group, I will apply the Waterfall Methodology with each class as a benchmark for success. The waterfall will get strong as the show goes on and we analyze the wins and losses to continue to improve on the end product. “It takes the project as a whole and consistently understands the big picture, handling it in a powerful way. (Whitley, 2016)”.

References:

Verzuh, E. (2016). The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management. John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/the-fast-forward/9781119148227/c10.xhtml

Whitley, J. (2016). Project Management: Waterfall VS Agile in Film Production. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/project-management-waterfall-vs-agile-film-production-jacob-whitley/