We recently connected with Erik Sopracasa and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Erik, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Going from Idea to Execution sounds easier than it is. Especially for creative people coming up with ideas is part of the daily job, it stimulates your inspiration, imagination and it’s where you find your energy. I’ve learned very early though that realizing an idea can be really tough as you will encounter many aspects you most likely don’t think about when you are dreaming of realizing that specific project. Or you might feel overwhelmed by how to actually really start. You will be depending on many people, budgets, companies, sponsors, and many more things that will come up during the process. It will be challenging and you will hear a lot of “no’s” and you will need a lot of perseverance. But when it’s actually happening and you go live, it’s all been worth it.

Before I moved to the US to study acting I studied marketing and worked in tech and finance in Europe. In University I was appointed to organize an event to promote the University and both the marketing and automotive engineering departments. I was free do choose what to create, the school gave me a budget and I had to come with an idea and execute it. It was my first experience in producing and dealing with budgets, different teams, sponsors, venues and more. It was a great experience and I really loved it. I still use some of the things I learned then until now. But I was actually producing some small theatre “shows” when I was much younger, around the age of 7, I was creating some small shows with my friends and we would then present it to our families and neighbors, that’s where it actually all really began haha :-)

After University I worked for Samsung and I was responsible for B2B marketing and producing all events for B2B, which were 42 a year. And further I was also responsible for creating video best practices of our products. Every time I had to work with film crews and combining that with the creative and production part of it I really enjoyed the process. So I always kept in the back of my head the idea of having my own film production company.

During my time at Stella Adler in NYC I worked for a theatre company, The Acting Company, it’s the only theatre company in the USA that focuses on developing young actors that graduate from the top drama schools in the USA. I’ve learned a lot about producing theatre there when I worked closely with the former Artistic Director Ian Belknap, founder Margot Harley and the whole team. It was a great experience to be involved in the production of Broadway and Off Broadway shows and working with amazing actors and directors. It was also there that I met Luca Fontaine who was performing in one of the shows we were producing. And later also met Tom Sys. Who both eventually became my business partners. The idea to start a film studio came kind of natural. We love movies, all of us moved to the US with the same goals and dreams and starting our own studio would give us the opportunity to really focus on producing also our own work.

We brainstormed during a few months last year on how we would position the company, what type of work we would focus on, how we could differentiate ourselves from competitors and how we could bring our values and our own passions into the company. We really wanted to bring in all our experience in business, marketing, theatre, film and the arts into the company and have a link with our years of acting training we have followed as well as that can makes us really unique. Most agencies will have a more business oriented approach and understanding, but we have a deep understanding of business combined with years of experience and understanding of the arts and specifically in storytelling. We love stories and see ourselves also more as a story telling company than a video production company. We want to really push our audiences and clients to go that extra mile and create a unique story to create a product that has the value their customers are looking for. So this all leads us to our mission: “To inspire our audiences to become unique storytellers by creating thought provoking, innovating, diverse media and entertainment through sustainable production”. We really believe in sustainability as well and believe that every company, big or small can actually contribute. E.g. Our very first project has been with VAYYU. It’s a sustainable fashion brand based in the UK and they have also a foundation that cleans up plastic and trash from oceans around the world. We love the brand and we will plant trees as a contribution for the carbon footprint the production of the commercial has had. More info about this will follow soon and we will document it on our Instagram page.

But to come back to where we were, after we had brainstormed and had come to an agreement of what we would stand for and where we would focus on as a company, we decided to have our kick off. We didn’t even have a website yet but we reached out to VAYYU, with whom I’ve had a good relationship since several years and we got the first project started.
I think this particularly is the place in going from “idea” to “execution” where many people get stuck. We could have e.g. said “oh we need a website first” or “we need more training in editing”, or “ we need more training in filmmaking”, or “we need our social media channels first” etc. etc. The danger here is to keep thinking and overthinking. To keep waiting for the perfect moment to start. To keep trying to have the perfect product. Because you simply don’t know until you actually start. The real danger is to keep postponing while you will never have it prefect in the beginning. You will always find something you can improve. And that’s great, that’s part of the journey, part of creating and building your company and being an entrepreneur.
You have to make that jump into the unknown, and that’s what many are afraid of and stay in the “idea” phase. Maybe for us it was something that in the meantime came more natural, as all three of us made a big step into the unknown when we moved to the USA to pursue or dreams and maybe after all these years we kind of got used to take those risks and use our experience to improvise and prepare. But we all started somewhere and we all had to take a risk at some point. It is difficult, it is scary, but you have to keep in mind that it’s not because you take that jump that you can’t change things if something doesn’t go as planned. And you will change things, no matter what, that’s for sure. Going from idea to execution is constantly changing and adapting.
I think that’s also the most exciting part of building a company.You are actually really “building”, step by step, you will see your company grow and change. It’s a very different feeling when it’s really your company.

In the meantime we have our website and our Instagram page :-), there is still a lot of work, but the most important is that we got started and delivered our first project to our first client. And now let’s keep building, improve and move to the next phase.

Erik, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was born in Italy, close to Venice. When I was 10 years old I moved to Belgium with my parents. My mother introduced me to music when I was very young, I was 6-7 years old that I started playing the piano. I liked drawing and painting, I liked to write and I was organizing small theatre shows with my friends and we would present them to our families and neighbors. When I was 14 I also started playing the guitar and during my time in University in Belgium I started DJ-ing. So I’ve been in touch with arts since a very young age and it has always been part of my life. I wanted to have a business since I was around 10 years old but it took me a while to actually realize it :-). After University I started working in marketing for a tech company and later at a bank. I really didn’t like the job at the bank and it was then that I thought that I might actually be able to pursue my dream. I auditioned at Stella Adler in LA and got accepted and started my journey first in LA and later auditioned at Stella Adler in NYC and completed the full conservatory there. It has been a rough path as I started this career in the arts from zero, I had never taken an acting class before. But from the first moment I arrived in LA and started this journey I knew this was it. I was really happy that I was finally really pursuing my dreams. Eventually I graduated from Stella Adler as the first Belgian actor. One of the reasons I also wanted to move from Belgium was that in Belgium I feel I’m Italian as I was born in Italy, but in Italy I feel like a tourist as so many things changed and I don’t live there for so many years. I feel at home here now in the USA. It’s really a land of opportunity and I’m kind of living my own American Dream.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

I met Luca Fontaine when I was working at The Acting Company. We were producing a Shakespeare school tour around NYC and Luca was in the production. As he’s also Italian and from the same region as I am we started talking about our experiences in the USA, the rough path through immigration and visas, studying and acting, as he was studying at Juilliard and I was at Stella Adler. I immediately saw his great talent as actor and artist and later asked him if he wanted to start a film studio. In the summer of 2021 I met Tom Sys, who is also a Belgian actor. He had read an article about me that had appeared in a Belgian newspaper as I was the first Belgian actor graduating from Stella Adler. He reached out to me through social media as he was in NYC at that time studying at AMDA. My goal had always been to try to inspire Belgian actors to pursue their dreams and show that it was actually possible to move to the USA to study acting. In Belgium studying acting abroad is very uncommon and unfortunately many won’t take you serious. When we met I saw his perseverance and dedication, and he was only 20 years old. I thought it was really amazing that he took the step to move to the USA to pursue his dream at such a young age. Later I asked him as well if he wanted to start a film studio and that’s how we all got started and the rest is history.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I moved to the USA and started a new life from basically nothing. I didn’t know it’s so difficult to be able to work here as an immigrant and I couldn’t use my experience in Marketing as finding a company that wants to sponsor you a visa is basically almost impossible. So I had to it on my own. I used all my savings as an investment in moving here and going to school. It was definetly a big risk. I moved here to not do the same that I was doing in Europe. I moved here to be able to grow, get more experience, study acting, pursue an acting career and have my own company. I like to think that having passed through that tough path was all part of the bigger plan. If I would have moved here and started working in a similar company or doing the same kind of job I was doing in Belgium then I would have never pursued any of the things I wanted to pursue and actually moved here for. But it hasn’t been easy. I started here with a career in the arts from zero. I had never acted before or took an acting class. So first I was going to school in LA and later in NYC. Graduated as the first Belgian actor from Stella Adler. Of course my experience in Business helped me a lot in the way I planned my journey and prepared for my work visas etc. I worked in the theatre from 8am until 4pm and then had school from 5pm until 11pm from Monday to Friday. I worked in a restaurant on Saturdays and on Sundays I had to catch up with schoolwork. When Covid started I had to reinvent myself again and I started a branch of a Belgian marketing agency in the USA where I would also help with voice overs and commercial work. I signed with a management company, The Robb Company, in LA for theatrical work and end of December 2022 I signed with Affinity Artists for theatrical representation in LA and NYC. And eventually this journey lead me to start MOVART. I never thought of giving up, even if it has been pretty hard when I was working and going to school and especially during the pandemic. I love this country and the many possibilities it has to offer, especially when you work hard. It gave me the change to pursue my dreams and to do that you have to be resilient and never give up.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eriksopracasa.com and www.movart.tv
• Instagram: eriksopracasa and movart.tv
• Facebook: Erik Sopracasa
• Linkedin: Erik Sopracasa
• Youtube: @movartstudiostv

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