By Staff
What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
I’ve always enjoyed being able to establish my own business to see my ideas come to life. I like being as creatively free to build every department within my company and see them flourish. I find great pleasure in hiring good quality people who have passions of their own and contribute to my business with united desires in mind.
Tell us about your company.
My Company is Dondaga Films, Dondaga stands for Donahue’s Do All, Give All. Meaning to give my all in anything I do or set my mind to accomplish. It’s also what I want to leave as my legacy for future generations after me. We’re a film production company dedicated to elevating and bringing a unique creative touch to the film industry.
Tell us about your film.
My film is called “Mister Gates”, this feature film is bringing awareness to human trafficking and homelessness. Christopher Gates makes it back to his hometown from serving in the military and takes over his father’s real estate company. Christopher falls in love, marries, and has children with an attorney named Tiffany hired by his father. Tiffany takes on a dangerous case with property involved in human trafficking that Christopher knows nothing about. Tiffany and her two daughters are killed in a car accident and Christopher blames himself. He gives up on life only to have a run-in with Emily Baker who is attacked to be kidnapped but rescued by Christopher. Emily helps Christopher to discover the horrific details of his family’s murder and revenge for their deaths while bringing awareness to this devastating crime in their community.
What does success look like for you?
The outcome I’m focused on for the years to come is to become a household name as a must-see movie production company after receiving the necessary funding to continue moving forward with more captivating motion pictures. My greatest achievement is building my movie studio to fuse technology with filmmaking to create a breathtaking virtual environment that compliments every actor’s performance that I work with bringing any period to life.
What advice would you give to someone who seeks to produce a film?
My advice would be you must have thick skin, an enormous amount of faith, and solid follow-through dedication like no other. This industry can be very challenging. I know I wanted to write my first feature film in 2013, but I didn’t completely write it until 2016 and then created my investment trailer to pitch my film for funding the same year. I got the run around for years and it was hard to not get the responses I wanted when knowing how awesome my script would be filmed. I always had faith but, I stressed about it, and I had moments of depression from the challenges I had to structure the complete production. I changed my script at least 10 more times to eliminate things that weren’t driving the move forward until stepping away to save my money for 5 years to fund my production myself in 2022. So, never give up and stay committed to your passion if it means so much to you! If you stay persistent, you’re going to win in the end!
Tell us about the most challenging aspect of producing your film.
Let’s just say, not everyone is happy with your success. I hired close to 300 people on my set, and I paid everyone who’s been a part of my production but, you still must deal with many personalities like any other business. There are still people who don’t like others or you even though you’re paying them. Envy, jealousy, and hatred may show up at times but, don’t let that stop your outcome for a masterpiece. Let go of bad energy before it starts to feed others and have a replacement list ready.
What’s next for Donahue?
I’ll start preparing to film my next movie in the fall of 2024 and begin preproduction for my upcoming series. I have been asked about a “Mister Gates II” but, we’ll see how I feel about things after my movie premiere. I’ve also been working on my streaming platform, which is coming along nicely, and I plan to have it prepared within the next 2 years. There will be many benefits for upcoming filmmakers who want to see faster returns over time. The more investors I’m able to connect with the more I can get accomplished, and I’ve made some amazing success so far on my own so the impact of what I can do with funding will be next level.
Dondaga Films LLC,
imdb.me/dehzdonahue
www.DondagaFilms.com
