BY MAGGIE YBARRA
To make a name for himself in the film industry, Mark Oates has had to dig deep into the financial aid pockets of University of New Mexico. Incurring debt has been the method behind his diabolical plan to become a sole proprietor and self-made composer.

It’s a $33,162 gamble that he has taken every day since his budding company, MarkMusic Production, became a sales tax paying member of New Mexico.

“Most of the money I got to start my business I got from student loans,” Oates said.

For nearly a decade, Oates has debated over whether to pursue his desire to become a composer or play scholastic Russian roulette by choosing an alternative major to substitute in place of his dream. Eventually, Oates came to the conclusion that there was only one thing for him to do: use his financial aid to start a business that would kick start his dream.

“I started out with one large chunk of expenses,” Oates said. “And since then it’s been sort of upgrading the stuff that I had. Most of the expenses are in equipment obviously.”

In order to fully dedicate himself to his battle plan, Oates had to relinquish the steady income of his mundane photo-clerk position and rely his financial aid payments to support his basic need to eat and exist. He also had to purchase $5,000 worth of studio equipment, shell out $450 a month to hole up in the space he rents out of a 20th century mansion, and compose free film scores or write 10-minute scripts for many Duke City residents.

“They say that you should expect to lose money within the first two years, which I can say I definitely have,” Oates said.

The calculated risk now paying off and putting Oates’ name on the Albuquerque film industry map. By winning awards at the Duke City Shooutout this year and having a film be presented at the Guild Cinema in November, Oates’ name is getting publicized and his contact list is becoming a “who’s who” of the finest movie making minds in the city.

 

“That’s the difference between Mark and so many other people,” local animator Brandon-Scott Jensen said. “He has immense talent and everyone else thinks they’re going to run off and make movies and I’m like, ‘sure you are, Timmy, sure you are.’  I wouldn’t put it past them without Mark’s talent.” Jensen religiously employs the services of MarkMusic Production for his animated films. The first Jensen-Oates venture began with “Djinn,” a short, animated film about the life of an indentured genie. Inspired by Oates’ dramatic leap of faith and drive to succeed Jensen has since made the film available on DVD.

“Mark has been a great motivation for me to market my films,” Jensen said.
Over the course of the last 20 months, composition projects at MarkMusic Production have since graduated from freebie 10-minute sound effects to feature-length masterpieces — a service that can cost thousands of dollars for the interested filmmaker to secure. Unfortunately, Oates is still in the premature business stage of feast-or-famine ethics where he can use all the money he can get but still produces a score or two “pro-bono” for friends. As an end result, he is building a soundbite website to capitalize on the growing filmmaker-on-a-budget industry.

 

“The business is going to start selling more music on-line, sort of as a way of bringing additional profit that will hopefully subsidize the profits I make as a film composer,” Oates said Jensen, who favors art over capitalism, doesn’t agree with Oates’ financial plan. “We’ll ignore his corporate whore website for a moment,” Jensen said. Oates is currently considering composing music for “Klown Kamp Masacre,” a movie that has high-profile local names attached to it such as Ross Kelly, whose on-screen presence is in constant demand, and premiere production company Galloquema Films, LLC.

Jensen, who believes that in order for Oates to be financially successful, he has to give up his feast-or-famine ethics and stop doing film scores he isn’t paid for, often checks to see if the project Oates is undertaking is a profitable one.

“They are paying you, aren’t they Mark,” Jensen asked upon learning of Oates’ latest venture. “If not tell them to stuff their film. Never do anything free except for me.”

It’s a $33,162 gamble to live the sort of life that Oates lives. However, starting a business with his financial aid may yet prove to be the best high-risk investment he could have made.

 

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