Who Is Michael P. Rekola?

From the kitchen table.

M.P. Rekola is a New York–barred entertainment attorney, independent film producer, and founder of The NonDē Filmmaking Legal Lab — attorney-drafted contract templates and chain-of-title infrastructure built for filmmakers who can't afford a studio-sized legal bill.

Dear Filmmaker,

For years, I had a recurring daydream. I would win the lottery, carve out $90 million, and fund 90 independent features. No studio notes. No "marketability" studies. Just pure, unadulterated creation for the bravest voices in the industry.

But eventually, you wake up. I realized two things. First, money is a finite resource — even $90 million hits zero. Second, and more importantly: if I just wrote checks, I might get 90 movies made, but I wouldn't have fixed the machine that grinds those movies into dust the second they hit the market. You can have all the funding in the world, but if your chain of title is broken, your film is dead on arrival.

So I stopped looking at what I wished I had, and looked at what I do have. I am a producer and a legal educator. I know where the bodies are buried in this industry — how the deals are structured, how rights get quietly signed away, and where the trap doors are that make artists lose control of their life's work.

The industry thrives on the lie that the "business side" is too complicated for you. They want you to think it's boring, so you hand it over — along with your copyright — to the "adults in the room." I built The NonDē Filmmaking Legal Lab to tell you that you are the adult in the room.

You don't need a savior. You don't need an $800-an-hour lawyer. You need the legal architecture. I'm here to put the "business affairs" brain directly into your creative process — structuring your film as an asset, securing chain of title so you actually own what you make, and helping you navigate distribution without signing your life away.

I don't want to fund 90 films anymore. I want to bulletproof 1,000.

The Short Version

I run Rekola Studios, LLC as a working production company — most recently the short film Last Laughs — alongside a legal practice focused on independent film. The NonDē Lab is where those two things meet: real contracts, drafted the way I'd draft them for my own productions, made available to filmmakers who'd otherwise be choosing between an $800/hour retainer and a free template that won't survive a distribution audit.

How People Actually Work With Me

• The Vault — $250/yr →

  Self-serve access to the full chain-of-title template library and video walkthroughs. Rising to $450/yr in 2027 — current members are locked in for good. Right now, through January 1, 2027, there's also a pay-what-you-can lifetime option — pick your own price on the Vault page.

• PPM Drafting — $3,000 flat

  A fully drafted private placement memorandum for filmmakers actually raising outside capital. One deliverable, no retainer.

• Budget Management

  Ongoing oversight of production spend against your legal structure, once real capital is in motion — offered after a PPM engagement, not sold cold.

Let's get to work.

M.P. Rekola