Project:

Cinema Mercantile

// New York, United States

“I work for people that are trying to make the world a better place and they treat me and my team exceptionally well.”

"In my current job, I am literally lucky enough to be a full time director and cinematographer working for a not-for-profit. I work for people that are trying to make the world a better place and they treat me and my team exceptionally well. I really couldn’t ask for a better situation to be in. However, I knew that I still needed to do more passion projects that really interested me." Mike Collins

Cinema Mercantile started as a late night conversation after finishing a long shoot. What if we did something for ourselves? What if we didn't worry about getting paid for it? What if we finally told the stories that we wanted to tell and told them the way we wanted to tell them? Cinema Mercantile is a collective of filmmakers who all love telling stories. It is a filmmaking collective led by cinematographer and director, Mike Collins.

“I was lucky to have a lot of talented people follow me along on this journey, because they thought they would be good fun projects to do or make great reel pieces. What I think is really cool about this stuff, is what we offer to people, is that if you give me a day or two of your time, I will in return, give you a professional cinematic piece that you can use however you want!”

"When I went looking for a name to call these passion projects, all I knew is I wanted to use the word cinema. Then I saw the ‘something’ Mercantile Company in 'Monocle Magazine'. When I looked the word Mercantile up and found that one of the definitions was to do with being a trade, it was too good to be true. I am literally trading my skills for everyone’s time that I do a piece for, so it all made perfect sense. So my passion projects are now called Cinema Mercantile.”