At the beginning of my career, I was working as a marketing assistant and during a lunch break the conversation turned to that age old 20-something musing, what do you want to be when you grow up? For as long as I can remember I had a very clear picture of what that was. But like most young women looking to break into producing, it was a complicated road to finding the right opportunities to someday run a major studio like Sherry Lansing, write and direct like Nora Ephron all while exhibiting the tall girl confidence of any Geena Davis role with Mary Richard’s comedic timing, wardrobe and spunk.
I wanted my hands in a variety of creative endeavors. With a love of classic Hollywood film, television and impactful storytelling and a lust for travel, fashion and adventure, my goal was to build a community of people comprised of family and friends to do great work with; the Gary Marshall business model. Whether short documentary or feature films, travelogues, comics and coloring books, podcasts or even a lifestyle blog, I wanted to produce honest content for audiences that reflected our shared experiences, the qualities we hope to find in ourselves and inspired action.
When I confessed this at the table, my colleague said, “So you basically want to be Marlin@Large?” Wide-eyed and hopeful, I tucked that idea in my heart and waited for the right time to unleash it. A lot of life has happened between that lunch and today but in the spirit of carpe diem, in honor of my mother and inspired by the many industrious small business owners I had the good fortune of meeting through my work, Marlin@Large Productions was born.
I welcome you to explore the new site where you’ll find my reel, visit frequently for curated posts, projects that are coming soon and please drop a line if you are interested in collaborating on a production.
In building this new venture there were many milestones and challenges. I am truly grateful for dear friends and colleagues who lent support, words of encouragement and constructive direction during this process and most importantly believed in and took a chance on a #bigfishsmallbiz.
With my first independently produced short under my belt, I’m creating a production company employing and working with some very talented old and new friends that together advance the creative goals of M@L. I hope you’ll go on this journey with us. And if you’ll pardon the reference, I think we’re going to make it after all.
