In 2008, art school grad Danielle Earle formed a production company, PL Entertainment, which has since produced a series of animated music videos, the short films Where the Road May Lead Us, Break and the upcoming License and Registration, and most recently, the web series, On The Scene, highlighting unsigned musicians in NYC and the UK. She is currently in production of the second season of On the Scene, so DCTV asked Danielle to talk about what motivated her to become the boss.
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A lot of actors and musicians I’ve met over the years have been curious what “PL” stands for. There’s history behind the name. PL stands for “The Perfect Life,” based on a comic strip I started when I was 16 years old.
The Perfect Life was about a young girl in her early twenties living in New York City. She graduated from a prestigious college in New York City, and like every twenty-something, she had high hopes of where she would eventually go in life. But like most, unfortunately reality sets in, and survival becomes goal of the week, month or year. Maggie, the main character in the series, had no direction, except for those high hopes, and later realizes that her dream was simply a fantasy. So, one day, during a dark period in her life, she discovers a newspaper ad hiring talent agents in LA. She decides to pick up her life and move to California to start over. She ends up learning that her life may be exactly the same, but she’s able to get through those tough times with the friends she meets along the way.
The Perfect Life Cartoon was a story based on my life at the time and what I was going through as a teenager. I guess my stories were a way to deal with that particular stage in my life– letting my imagination lead me to my dreams, and hopefully one day getting there as a result. After graduating at the Academy of Art University, I came up with the concept of starting my own production company.
While still in college, I knew that I had two loves in my life– one being animation and the other film. I chose Animation for the first 4 years of my adulthood, and later at the age of 24, my love grew stronger, for film. I guess, sometimes it takes time to really know what you want in life, and like Maggie in The Perfect Life, I was a late bloomer I guess.
In 2009 I developed a web series called On The Scene. I came up with the idea after driving in my car on 208, completely stuck in traffic on my way to work, and I was saying to myself, there is such horrible music on the radio! How these musicians get record deals is beyond me! There are so many great bands out there! Incredibly talented and way better than then what you hear on the radio! So that’s when it hit me– to start a web series called On The Scene.
I never knew that On The Scene would have such a major following, and that fans from all over the world would feel the same way I felt making it. On The Scene is not just a 10 minute segment, but a portrait into musicians’ lives, of the struggles that they face on the long road to indie-rock success.
For the most part, PL Entertainment was formed in order for me to be able to take my creativity to the next level by challenging my ability, but also to be able to help other talented directors, actors, musicians achieve their dreams. I guess that’s why I love doing what I do. It’s a tough business, but when you discover that your show has a purpose, for encouraging people to follow their heart or dream, that’s more rewarding then anything else in the world to me. It makes me feel that PL Entertainment has that same purpose — producing films that we can all relate to in our lives.
Danielle Earle
CEO and Founder of PL Entertainment
Check out DCTV’s On The Scene listing here.
I really love On the Scene. Each interview is like a mini-documentary, and they are shot in a way that really draws the viewer in. It’s good stuff!