“Fortune favors the bold.” While this saying is evergreen, it’s perhaps never been more appropriate than in today’s world. Donna Ferry understands this quite well. A producer with a number of years and many productions to her credit, she astutely recognized a way for her to flourish in the production world. Recognizing a need for those who were not yet large enough to sustain a full time VP of Production of her expert level, Ferry founded Lucky 7 Productions as a consultancy business to facilitate this role for production companies.
Smaller companies have not only become more common in the industry but have also become increasingly critically praised for bringing adventurous and original productions and styles into the industry. Their ability to access a production executive like Donna Ferry on an ad hoc basis greatly elevated the ability of these entities to achieve the production quality to which they aspired.
This success story is mutually beneficial for these production companies and for Ferry, as proven throughout the many lauded projects she has enabled. From her work on the Emmy Award Winning Talking Drums Productions The Scars of Nanking to Starbuck’s first original television series This is Football, Donna Ferry has confirmed the positive effects of her skill set is undeniable.
Anomaly Entertainment is known for their passion for telling unique (and often bizzare) stories from around the world. Ferry has worked with this NYC based production company on such shows as Great White Abyss which saw her working closely with Cable Ace Award Winning Director Jeff Kurr. As Executive in Charge of Production for Anomaly’s Shaq Does Shark Week, Donna oversaw all production from development to delivery of this flagship show for Discovery Network’s 2018 “Shark Week” series.
Donna was personally responsible for budgeting the production plan and negotiating this plan with the network who wanted it to be the centerpiece for Shark Week.” While she worked on other projects for Anomaly, the company was known for nature centric subject matter; understandably so as the company was started by producers Matthew Kelly and Mike Sorensen who left the Discovery Network in 2017 to start Anomaly Entertainment.
With Ferry managing a wide range of people at various pay grades from entry level to on-air talent plus her ability to adapt to challenging situations to guarantee the completion of all productions, Anomaly established a reputation as an exciting production entity in the industry from its onset.
When Starbucks began creating their first TV production, the docuseries This is Football, with Brutal October Productions, Ferry was enlisted as the Starbucks Production Consultant to establish smooth and informative communication between Brutal October and the Seattle based company which boasts an annual revenue of $26 Billion. A heartfelt series which displays the transformative quality of the sport told through athletes and fans around the world, This is Football was nominated for a Sports Emmy Award and a Golden Reel Award from the Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA in addition to receiving the Humanitas Prize.
Reflecting on her key position in this monumental undertaking, Ferry relates, “Working on the This is Football films with Starbucks and Brutal October was one of the highlights of my television career. Every member of the team was incredibly talented and experienced, making the whole process an absolute joy to be a part of.
The series that was created was one of if not the best pieces of film making, I have ever been involved in and I could not be prouder.” Currently available on Amazon Prime, This is Football also features a number of notable directors including: Primetime Emmy Nominee James Erskine, Primetime Emmy Nominee David Belton, BAFTA Award Winner Sarah Hamilton, BAFTA Award Nominee Phillip Smith, and multiple award winning film director Jesse Vile.
As a fan of Donna’s prior work, Our House Media Senior Vice President of Production Jane Lloyd hired Ferry to run the New York production of the HBO Max distributed Stylish with Jenna Lyons. Donna’s role was to ensure that the entire production ran smoothly throughout the entire series, which became the experience of a lifetime when Covid-19 essentially shut down all U.S. productions.
What began with Ferry working closely with the network execs to ensure that the production was able to deliver the creative story that Warner Media (and in turn HBO Max) wanted, transformed into the need to completely shut down the production for a period of four months while ensuring the safety of all. Donna is currently set to handle the full production oversight for an upcoming feature documentary for Atlas Media Corp in addition to future projects for Our House Productions, Barcroft Media, and a variety of others.
Having carved out her own niche in founding Lucky 7 Productions and empowered the success of the aforementioned projects through her work, Donna Ferry confidently imparts, “I’m excited to continue to work with production companies and freelancers in the US and UK. I am looking forward to growing Lucky 7 Productions and potentially moving into production services for New York-based projects. In this capacity, I hope to employee a small team of production professionals to assist in this venture bringing their experience to each and every project Lucky 7 is involved with.”