Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erika Arlee. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Erika , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?
Running your own business in a highly competitive, creative industry like film isn’t for the faint of heart. I think all entrepreneurs have wondered what it would be like to have a “normal” job, especially when you’re in a season of breaking down in order to re-build. From 2021-2022, we made the decision to leave commercial video production behind and began the process of financing our first feature film, A Song For Imogene. As independent filmmakers with no studio backing or celebrity cache, we were reliant on our community and the reputation of the Honey Head brand in order to attract investors to the project. This was an extremely challenging and unknown period in the process of building our business. As founders, we sacrificed our time and personal resources in order to lift our company to the next level. It is at pinch points like this when you have to reaffirm that your business is a career, not a hobby. Passion can take you the first leg of the journey, but you have to be able to prove the long-term viability of your product in order to truly scale. When the product is your own creative output in a saturated market, it is even more challenging and vulnerable to prove its worth to the investors.
But hard work, determination, grit and a little honey always pay off. A Song For Imogene, written and directed by Erika Arlee and starring lead actress/producer Kristi Ray, had its World Premiere to a sold out audience at Oscar® Award Winner Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival in 2023 before moving on to win Best Feature at Flicker Rhode Island Film Festival and open the 29th annual Cucalorus Film Festival. Featured in The Hollywood Reporter with an 90% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, A Song For Imogene has gained the attention of press outlets like NPR and NC Public Radio – which aim to highlight Honey Head’s commitment to telling authentic stories about the South with diverse people from this region. A Song For Imogene is continuing its run into 2024, with multiple distribution offers and acceptances at high-profile festivals already on the docket.
Was it worth it? Absolutely. Could we have done it alone? No. The support of our community, friends, and family was the glue that held us together through such a challenging – yet extremely rewarding – leap of faith. The female executive producers who came to the table to invest in A Song For Imogene and scale Honey Head Films cared about our company’s mission as much as (if not more than) the story we were telling on screen. For this reason, when Kristi and I lead lectures on entrepreneurship and film, we emphasize the critical nature of building a strong team with a mission-driven approach to your brand. Your network is equally as important as the product you’re creating. Financiers want to invest in you.
Erika , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Founders Erika Arlee and Kristi Ray built Honey Head Films as a direct response to the need for more authentic female voices in cinema. We use a mission-driven approach to make independent cinema more authentic and accessible to audiences nationwide. Since launching our brand in 2016, we have helped hundreds of people share their stories with the world. Our innovative, award-winning approach truly sets us apart from traditional film production, as we continue to challenge the status quo and break down conventional industry barriers.
As multidisciplinary producers running an award-winning production company, we bring a fresh perspective that helps us strategize with collaborators at any stage of the cinematic process. We offer tailored solutions for creative and technical aspects of independent filmmaking that are necessary to keep building a healthy, diverse slate of new media. Uniquely positioned to support Tier 1 & 2 features and non-union narratives, our in-house above-the-line team brings a fresh perspective to production. Well connected within creative markets across the Southeast, our services include: crew recruitment, regional and background casting, script services, equipment, locations and strategies to maximize your budget.
With every project we take on, our brand continues to grow and create influence in the indie film scene through our commitment to championing women both in front of – and behind – the lens. This includes educational initiatives and workforce development through internships and specialized programs. In 2022, Honey Head launched its first season of an all-girls summer camp, Shoot Like A Girl. The camp’s mission is to provide a safe environment where young women can receive the tools, education and confidence they need to tell their stories, build community and pursue and interest in film.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
The story of Kristi and I meeting is a fun one that we often get asked to tell. We both moved to Wilmington in 2014 and were primarily pursuing careers on-screen at the time. We actually met through a casting call on Craigslist, which I posted seeking a lead actress for my first short film. Kristi submitted an audition, and she was brilliant (of course). After Kristi and I met on set, we started putting each other on tape for auditions. It was through this process that we both realized how absurd the casting process can be. Kristi would pour her heart and soul into preparing an audition, only to get passed over for an Instagram makeup influencer (true story). The superficial nature of the film industry can be soul-sucking, and if you’re only investing in one path forward, it gets discouraging pretty fast. It didn’t take long before we decided to break the ceiling and start making our movies.
And a huge part of that was giving women more depth: we were done with seeing females put in such limited boxes: “the nagging wife,” “the sex object,” “the 26-year-old playing a 17-year-old.” We knew things needed to change: we wanted characters who were layered, multi-dimensional, and relatable. It wasn’t about putting female characters in traditionally male roles. We wanted to embrace all the ways women are dynamic and unique – put those qualities on screen and create compelling cinema around stories that explore the female experience.
Once we found our purpose, the evolution of Honey Head was incredibly organic. There was the intention behind the kinds of scripts we wanted to bring to life and the roles for females in them, but we founded the company as strong women who felt there was a better way to produce films. At a time when inclusivity, equality, and counter-culture environments were not necessarily valued in our industry, Honey Head stood for something fresh and different.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Honey Head has an exceptional reputation of inclusivity and a positive company culture with authenticity at our core. We built this brand organically by consistently showing up – on set, in meetings, online and at screenings – with the same approachable, come-as-you are demeanor. Our mission-driven approach to narrative filmmaking paves a way for opportunities to hire on potential over proof. Meaning, we’re constantly looking to collaborate with creatives who have been historically excluded from traditional film sets.
As female leaders in our region and self-made entrepreneurs, we do a good job of lifting the veil to say “you can do this too, let’s demystify the process together.”
As for authenticity, I’m proud to say that part of our branding and reputation is two-fold. Both our personalities and outlook as a filmmaking team, as well as the films we produce and the stories we choose to tell have an undeniable heartbeat and relatability. We’ve become known in the broader Southeastern region for what we affectionately call “The Honey.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.honeyheadfilms.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeyheadfilms/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/honeyheadfilms
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/honey-head-films
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@honeyheadfilms2191/featured
- Other: http://imogenemovie.com/ http://erikaarlee.com/ https://www.kristiray.net
Image Credits
Images 1-6: Katie McTiernan Image 7: Erika Arlee Image 8: Ryan M. Brown