Start-up for RE Investment LLC

My name us Erik-Peter (EP) Mortensen and I've been a professional musician since the age of 9, starting out at the Metropolitan Children's Chorus in NYC, and singing in professional Churches, mostly performing Renaissance Acapella Choral Chamber Music since then to the present time as well. I also graduated cum laude with a Music B.A. from Columbia University in 1992. Since 2006 I've been completing, part-time, a Master Certificate in Orchestration for Film and Television via The Berklee School of Music, MA - Online Extension and have just 2 more courses to complete before receiving the certificate.

As most of you know, it's really hard to support oneself purely on music these days, but that has always been my dream.  But I've been a realist and have also worked several long-time corporate jobs since college to pay for living expenses, which include a mortgage, and slowly but surely building up a home recording studio and independent label, Papagena Productions.  This multifaceted side business I'ved developed is as a recording engineer, producer, composer and arranger, but only 10% of my income comes from music this way, versus my day job.  It's a bit of a shame, since I feel I'm much more talented as a musician than anything else.

This past summer, I had the great opportunity and honor to put many of my music skills to work on a practically $0 budget independent full-feature film based on the legend of King Arthur called "The Fall of Camelot" which was also conceived by the director, Jein Park of South Korea, as a musical.  His vision, with such a low budget, was to go deeply into the interpersonal relationships of the Arthurian characters not primarily using background scenery and action (though there is some action), but using cinematography, camera angles and music to underscore and intensify the emotions of the players.  So most of the scenes use a "black box theater" effect with a simple black background, though some scenes were shot outdoors (in my back yard!) and royalty free scenes were blended in for imaginative transitions and story-telling.  The movie is still a work in progress but 90% of the scenes are now close to final cut, so I invite you to check out this unlisted link for scenes 2-21 (in order) out of 23 as well as highlighted scenes above.  Please note I did all the sound editing, orchestral scoring, song arrangment and production, sound FX, recording of the actors' dialog and musical numbers, overdubbing the lip-synching, and 50% of the  video editing so far for this project:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAmn5WGTIb40fd3PWAjaNudISmR8m24Om

Personally, I think this movie, when finalized, will be of better overall quality than many low budget films of $100,000 to $1,000,000 (such as B horror films), but it's your opinion that matters more, naturally! :-) 

You can also here some of my other music (a wide variety from orchestral and classical to pop and crossover) and film projects through the following websites:

Erik-Peter Mortensen's Personal Website
EP's Reverbnation SEO

And if you liked the 60's sitcom "Gilligan's Island" as well as maybe Johann Sebastian Bach, I think you'll greatly enjoy this "Bach to the Future" Demo based on the main theme song (At least I hope it brings a smile to your face)!

Bach to the Future - Fugue 24 in bm "Gilligan's Island" (DEMO)

Naturally if you like some or all of what you hear, I encourage you to become a fan, join my mailing list, maybe buy a song or three, and share me with your friends!  

Even if you don't have a lot of funds to donate, this simple act of support and spreading the word is deeply appreciated! Who knows, you could be helping the next John Williams or Hans Zimmer make it to the next level, and you might hear my work on a future "Lord of the Rings" type movie! :-)

Frankly I love music and multimedia arts involving music so much that I'd like to free up most of my time and energy towards it being my primary, and not secondary career, and I have researched and invested in a business strategy to help me accomplish it.

The above introduction has simply been to demonstrate my expertise, knowledge and passion for music, what drives me basically, so you know I'm motivated to do anything in my power to make my visions a reality! Though this vision is worthy of a fundraising campaign on its own, here's what I really need the funds for, so I can achieve my goals more quickly.

I've already raised $20,000 of my $40,000 personal goal already on my own through drawing on my credit lines, and from micro loans from Prosper.com and Lendingclub.com.  Unfortunately, I'm a bit short, which is why I need your help.

I've signed up for personal, private mentorship, as well as business development for a Real Estate Investment LLC.  Without going into propriety details, the 12 month focus is to get connections to private lending and target homes in need of rehabilitation in select U.S. Markets.  Developing Power Teams to rehabilitate 2-3 of these properties, under the personal guidance of some of the most successful investors in the industry will yield an average profit of $250,000 per rehabilitation, or a base target of $600-800,000 initially. These first profits will then be invested in professionally managed rental properties, and eventually commercial properties within a 3-5 year target which will yield a net income of $6-8,000 monthly within the first year and a half, and a $20-60,000 monthly income in the 3-5 year range. The initial seed money of $40,000 ($20,000 of which I need help with) will pay not only for mentorship and business start-up costs, but also provide gap funding on the initial properties when the cost of private lending is higher than desired. 

Once I have set up my power teams to help manage my real estate investments, I will cut back on my active business efforts in real estate and focus a large portion of the passive income generated to do what I stated above, and what I do best, namely to expand my music efforts full time, and upgrade my current home recording studio into something more large scale, perhaps with music assistants and other music professionals on payroll or contract so I can begin to market my services and talent to Hollywood and other Recording Labels, which is where they belong!

I appreciate any help you can provide! Even small amounts of $5-25 can really add up if there's enthusiasm, as I've learned through previous peer-to-peer lending experiences.  Naturally, larger donations are also very much appreciated!

Whether you're moved to donate based on my intermediary real estate plan, or my long-term goal of music success is up to you.  Ultimately, you'll be helping a musician that you hopefully like, and who will in turn be helping many of his also struggling music colleagues down the line.

Also, as far as I know, I'm the only guy in the world (or on the internet at least) with a first name of Erik-Peter, so if you want to throw in an extra buck for that piece of trivia, you'd make me smile!

Thanks for listening to my story and God Bless all of you! :-)

EP