Today we’d like to introduce you to Geoffroy Faugérolas.
Hi Geoffroy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Thank you for having me! I grew up in Paris, France and nothing could have predicted that I’d work in the film and TV industry in Hollywood, 6,000 miles across the globe from where I was born…except for one thing: my passion for visual storytelling.
My first experience in the industry was working for a music video production company in Los Angeles. They had just received a Grammy Award nomination for a music video. I thought I’d made it. But little did I know, I was just getting started!
Working on set for a skilled and connected producer taught me invaluable lessons: If you want it badly enough, you’ll find your own way in. Learn by doing; nothing is a substitute for trial by fire.
But no one’s going to give you the keys to Hollywood. You have to create your own opportunities. Easier said than done, as many have discovered.
I did what seemed reasonable at the time and opened my own production company. We produced content for major record labels, #1 billboard artists and Fortune 500 companies. This allowed me to join UCLA’s Producers Program MFA and I ended up working for the president of Motion Pictures at Paramount, assisting the Head of Production at Imagine Entertainment, and paying my dues at ICM Partners’ International TV Department. And yet, I felt like I was still just beginning to “break in.”
I then became a Senior Development Executive at Coverfly, a unique talent-discovery platform that allows me to serve as a scout and broker – introducing new emerging voices in the industry and helping package projects to pitch to production companies and studios.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I wish it were! In addition to the culture shock one can experience when opening a business still fresh off the boat, I had to prove I was capable of navigating a new industry in a foreign language with little room for error.
So not knowing anyone in the industry, I had to create opportunities for myself. No one was going to give me the keys to the castle. But where would the fun be in that? Right?!
While I was studying for a Bachelor and then an MFA at UCLA, I was interning for major studios and I was simultaneously running my own music video and commercial production company with my now-wife. I wished many times to be gifted the power of ubiquity. But after all of that, executives still weren’t sure if I was proficient enough in English to answer the phone. Ah! So I once waited outside of the backlot of a studio, approached the CFO and asked him for a chance to intern for him. After he refused and not taking no for an answer, I called HR and said that he had referred me. I interviewed for the job and got the gig on merit. I performed so well, they kept me for a year and wanted to hire me. But without anyone mentoring you, it can feel daunting or nearly impossible to break through in Hollywood…and yet it is doable.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I started as a writer/director/producer. The short films I directed or produced include the epic period piece THE TSAREVICH starring Mark Moses (MAD MEN, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES), ALICE, an avant-garde mystery thriller, the experimental MEMOIRE starring Dean Winters (JOHN WICK, BROOKLYN NINE-NINE) and BLEEDING KANSAS, a psychological western starring Will McCullough (LOGAN LUCKY, AMERICAN MADE) and McKinley Belcher III (OZARK). The shorts were nominated at Academy-Awards® qualifying film festivals including Raindance Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival and Los Angeles Shorts International Film Festival.
I also directed and/or produced music videos for #1 Billboard artists such as Wale, Jeremih, Starling Glow, T-Pain, Dreezy, Bleeker Ridge, Never Shout Never and French artists Dany Synthé, Shay, Joe Bel and Gia Martinelli. Some of the brands I’ve directed for include Samsung, Dodge, and Corona among others.
As a screenwriter, I wrote episodes for the murder-mystery interactive webseries SOLVE for Snapchat and two episodes for an international animated sci-fi series currently in production. One of my TV pitches is being developed at a production company.
While I started in the industry as a writer/director/producer, I am now a Senior Development Executive for Coverfly. The platform is a data-driven talent-discovery revolution. It scales and improves the match-making process in Hollywood in a tech-literate way. As a member of the development team, I find emerging writers and projects which need to be seen by Hollywood. I deal in talent. You see, Hollywood has its own version of the chicken or the egg. To staff on a show, you need to have a representative, but to have a representative, you need to have credits — meaning you have to have been staffed before. This is the Hollywood Conundrum. And Coverfly intends to solve this issue.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I’m a tiramisu master. Seriously. I’ve tried every tiramisu from every restaurant around the world to craft the perfect one myself. From a little grandma’s cave in Rome to the top of a skyscraper in Hong Kong, I’ve tried them all.
And more importantly – I always work with my family. My wife has produced everything I’ve ever directed. One of my brothers, Matt Milan, is an incredibly talented composer and sound designer who worked for companies like Microsoft and Disney. My other brother, Gerault De Marion, is my co-creator and together we dream up concepts we can sell to the industry, including one in development at a production company. My sister, Sasha Verner, who is an opera singer and stage director in Paris, has sang on some of my projects. And of course, my mother, who is a novelist and advises me with my scripts, and my father, who is an international attorney and made it possible for me to write for the animated show.
Contact Info:
- Email: geoffroy@ultimateprods.com
- Website: https://geoffroyfaugerolas.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geoffroy_faugerolas/
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5318413/
Image Credits
All images are credits: Geoffroy Faugerolas TFT-Festival images credits are: UCLA TFT.
