The greatest day was when I made a film that finally did very, very well and my passion actually started to pay for itself. It was my passion, and along the way, I just kept producing, and I stayed hungry. I realized that this was not only my skill set but what I really wanted to do. I produced over a dozen shorts during my time at NYU, and I caught the bug.
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Along the way, I started producing shorts at NYU. And so, when they had their first feature, Afterschool, they said, “We want you to come on in a producorial capacity.” And that was sort of where everything began. And so, they had a lot of heat, but as I said, the big thing about them was that there were just so hungry, like me.
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When I started working with them, they’d just won the Cinefondation Prize at Cannes for Antonio first short. I started as an intern and worked my way up to production assistant, coordinator, co-producer, associate producer - all of these different things - on commercials and music videos. We’d love to have you come and help us.” So I started literally at the bottom with these guys, working as an intern.įilmmaker: Were those the Borderline Films guys?Ĭorkin: I was going to do the reveal, but yeah.Ĭorkin: Yeah, and so, it was this group called Borderline Films. During the class I raised my hand and said, “Do you guys need any help? Do you need any interns?” And they went, “Yeah, absolutely. They would go and find opportunities themselves. The biggest thing that stuck out to me was the fact that they weren’t waiting for people to give them opportunities. It was in that class that I met a group of filmmakers who had graduated the year before and who had a small production company, and they were making projects that were exciting and dynamic. It took just one class and one great teacher to really open my eyes.
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I just assumed that a producer was like a synonym for investor. Going in, I had no idea what a producer was. I’ll act, I’ll write, I’ll direct, I’ll try to wear every single hat.” And just through the coursework and meeting people there, I learned about producing. I went there thinking, “I’ll just try everything first. I realized that I loved the world of film, and film in general, when I was in high school, I was crazy enough to apply to NYU, and I got into NYU Tisch. Below is an edited version of our conversation, which focuses on Emelie and, in most detail, his path towards becoming an independent producer.įilmmaker: How did you get into producing? How did you become a producer?Ĭorkin: My producing story, I guess, starts in a very traditional way. Last year I sat down Corkin for a public Q&A presented by Filmmaker and IFP at the Tribeca Film Festival. Corkin’s most recent production, The Alchemist Cookbook, world premieres next week at SXSW. Uncorked, the production company he runs with partner Bryan Reisberg, has a filmography encompassing shorts, features, television and web, and the material ranges from auteur independent drama to so-called “elevated genre” pictures like Emelie, in theaters and on VOD platforms now from Dark Sky Films.
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With over 30 assorted producing credits ranging from Martha Marcy May Marlene to An Oversimplification of Her Beauty to The Benefactor, Andrew Corkin is a constant figure in New York’s independent film scene. Andrew Corkin, Borderline Films, Emelie, Producer