Workshop Registration

Starting a Production Company

This intensive two-evening workshop is designed as a broad introduction for those interested in: starting their own production company, cultivating and building their media producer intelligence toolkit, developing co-production relationships, and selling their skills as a freelancer and indie producer offering production services to the media industry. The workshop will also provide clarity on: corporations, partnerships, work-for-hire engagements, IP security, why it’s important to perform due diligence on business relationships, and your personal credit history. The why and when of business registration/incorporation, the importance of detailed record-keeping and bookkeeping, internal audit of all matters related to the government such as HST/GST, and corporate and personal tax filings. Understanding the critical building blocks of production relationships, production insurance, and completion guarantee, building personal and production company brand and reputation with careful curation of SME. Other topics include what production companies look for to confidently hire the services of a freelancer and why delivering as promised is important to the overall success of your business. Emphasis will also be placed on understanding the business language of the industry, getting organized, and building awareness of the various auxiliary professions with the capacity to support your business and production aspirations.

The Introduction to Independent Filmmaking workshop is strongly recommended as a prerequisite. This course is recommended as a companion to Introduction to Production Accounting, Production Management and Producing workshops.

part 1: Tue 25 March 2025, 6 - 10 pm   
part 2: Thu 27 March 2025, 6 - 10 pm   
(Registration deadline is Tue 25 March 5:00 pm)

Instructor: Marva Ollivierre

Marva Ollivierre is a Gemini nominated executive producer, a management accountant, a mask maker, and Floyd Chalmers-awarded writer with over 25 years of experience in the arts-culture industry. A storyteller multimedia disciplinary artist - director/curator /producer/entrepreneur/educator, a committed mentor, and self-described “collaborating maker” she has significant creative roots in multiple art disciplines. Marva’s deep and varied expertise is underpinned by rich diverse experiences in screen media. During her five-year tenure with Inner City Films, several productions received broad acclaim and continue in present-day to deliver significant international sales earnings including US Broadcast revenues. They include Skin Deep a Gemini Winning Best Lifestyle/Doc, one of the first internationally produced docu-lifestyle series; and Jozi-H, the Canada/South Africa co-production medical drama series, a multiple Gemini Nominee including Best Drama. In 2006, Marva started her own independent production house, Doe Eye Media Production https://www.doeeyemedia.com. Drawing on research that began in 1998, DEMP has subsequently written, developed, and produced several media projects that address the dismal state of distribution and discoverability of Canadian Content within the Canadian screen-consumer marketplace - They are the graphic animation video shorts -  Tax Credits; Canada’s Market Share of Box Office/Have you seen a Canadian Film Lately https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=herL47P3gTA  - a brief animated history of Canadian film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGLtPtNUC4U  and Made in Canada, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVhX--O6uio&t=6s a 2013 feature documentary. There are currently several writing and production projects on DEMP’s slate including Men in Raincoats, the animated documentary on the arrested development of CanCon, and the post-WW11 narrative drama 2nd draft script SHE Pirate of the Caribbean.



Category: Production
Maximum Capacity: 12
8 hours of instruction in 2 parts$125 /member$150 /nonmember