Film/media startup First Element Entertainment creates jobs downtown

A chance encounter with Spike Lee and a few words of wisdom from insiders in the filmmaking industry led to Adrian Walker taking his focus off of becoming a screenwriter and setting up his own media-based startup in downtown Detroit called First Element Entertainment.

“Everyone kept saying it’s very tough as a writer to get your scripts on the screen in Hollywood,” Walker says. “They said I should work as a producer.”

Producing led to a production company that does everything from make its own movies (Art of Power opens at the Michigan Theater in downtown Ann Arbor on Nov. 20) to pitching reality shows to filming documentaries to creating music videos. That’s enough work for the nearly 2-year-old company to keep seven employees and a couple of interns busy.

The recent University of Michigan graduate runs his budding media empire from the Ford Building. Walked expects it to continue to grow as it takes on more work over the next year in both film and more tech-based media. He thinks another 2-3 hires over the next year is a conservative estimate.

“A lot of what we plan to do is very high tech,” Walker says.

Source: Adrian Walker, CEO of First Element Entertainment
Writer: Jon Zemke