Would you like to screen your finished film at a film festival?
OR
If you have a work-in-progress, would you like to tease an audience with a clip and your vision?
Here's your free opportunity.
* * * * *
IndieGoGo and The Sausalito Film Festival are joining forces to present "Tease & Screen" - an event to showcase film at the Sausalito Film Festival happening Aug 21-23rd at Cavallo Point in Sausalito, CA.
The Opportunity: Two IndieGoGo filmmakers will be selected to showcase their work at this inaugural festival.
One filmmaker will have 7 minutes to showcase a clip from their current work-in-progress project, followed by a 3 minute Q&A with the audience
One filmmaker will enjoy the chance to screen their entire film, followed by a 10 minute Q&A with the audience
Following the "Tease & Screen" event, filmmakers will gain access to "Where Internet & Film Collide - Sausalito" - an industry party for filmmakers and "Tease & Screen" attendees.
How to Enter: For filmmakers interested in showcasing clips from their work-in-progress:
Complete an IndieGoGo profile*
Submit entry by either 1) Tagging** your profile: sff09tease or 2) Emailing IndieGoGo Support with "sff09tease" in the subject line
OR
For filmmakers interested in screening their finished film:
Complete an IndieGoGo profile*
Submit entry by either 1) Tagging** your profile: sff09screen or 2) Emailing IndieGoGo Support with "sff09screen" in the subject line
A Little more on the Festival: With its thriving artist community, rebellious history and proximity to the world's technology epicenter of Silicon Valley, Sausalito has long attracted creatives and entrepreneurs alike. Doing things with creative flair is par for Sausalito's course, and with the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco skyline as its back-drop, "Tease & Screen" offers a dynamic setting for filmmakers to share both their vision and their work.
Tags are one of the ways people can find and discover your project on IndieGoGo. Tags are like categories, and the most popular tags show up on in the Tag Cloud on the Projects Listing page. When people click on a particular cloud, all the projects labeled with that tag are pulled up.
Since projects often fall into multiple categories,
each project can have as many tags as needed.
For example, if
your project is an environmental documentary film about the rainforest in
Brazil, you might want give your project the following tags:
environment
documentary film
Brazil
rainforest
If your project is a comic book whose characters love to bowl and do the macarena, appropriate tags could include:
comic book
bowling
macarena
The Tag Cloud that shows up on the Projects Listing page includes
the most used tags across projects on IndieGoGo. Also, the larger the
tag, the more popular the tag.
How to Tag Your Project:
Login and go to your project profile
Go to your INFO window and enter edit mode (How to Edit)
IndieGoGo interviews Mitch McCabe, writer & director of Youth Knows
No Pain, on her approach to DIWO (Do-It-With_others) Filmmaking. Youth
Knows No Pain recently screened at SilverDocs in Washington D.C, at Lincoln Center in New York City and on HBO.
Q1 (0:05): What are the Goals for your film Youth Knows No Pain?
Q2 (1:41): How are you identifying, targeting and building your audience?
Q3 (2:56): Any recommended tactics for raising money?
Q4 (4:46): What role has social media been playing in your DIWO Filmmaking?
Q5 (6:20): How are you connecting your online marketing with your offline events?
Q6 (7:04): What is your plan for distribution? Any plans for self-distribution?
I had the pleasure of sharing a panel at the Hollywood Black Film
Festival with John Cones - entertainment attorney who's worked
extensively with independent producers and filmmakers. While I
emphasized the importance of audience-building and the role of fans as
a contribution-based funding source, John focused on the role of
passive and active investors as an equity-based funding source. Together, both
are complementary sources.
Filmmakers rarely raise money from one
source. Debt, equity, grants, fan funding, tax credits, rebates, and
more are all sources filmmakers can tap at once. Check out the "Show Me The Money Forum" to discuss the hybrid approach with IndieGoGo members.
What follows is Part 2 of a Special 6-Part Weekly Series in the DIWO Download on equity-based film finance sources from John Cones.
Part 2: Two Types of Equity-Based Film Funding Sources
By John W. Cones, Attorney
If we step back and analyze the world of equity-based film finance sources, for purposes of determining which is the appropriate initial documentation with which to approach such sources, we can divide that world into two broad categories:
Industry Sources
Investor Financing
Each category has their own type of documentation.
1. Industry Sources Industry sources would include the in-house development/production deal, the production-financing / distribution deal (P-F/D) and co-productions (joint ventures), along with the various forms of third-party lender financing for production costs (i.e., worldwide negative pickups, domestic negative pickups, international negative pickups, split rights deals, foreign pre¬sales, gap financing and super gap). (See Part 1 for details)
Producer’s Package All of these industry sources, with the exception of the in-house development/production deal, can only be accessed with a producer’s package (i.e., at minimum a completed script, a budget and evidence of key attachments). The in-house development/production deal is accessed through pitching an idea for a film, typically before the script is even completed and a package assembled. It would not be appropriate to approach such industry sources with a business plan.
2. Investor Financing The world of investor financing can be further divided into active versus passive investors.
Securities Disclosure Document All offerings to passive investors involve the sale of a security (typically, units in a limited partnership or manager¬managed LLC or shares in an existing corporation). The securities disclosure document associated with a public/registered offering is called a “prospectus”. The securities disclosure document associated with a private/exempt offering is called a “private placement offering memorandum” or “PPM”.
Business Plan Generally speaking, active investors (investors who are regularly involved in helping make the important decisions associated with the project--not necessarily a good idea for a creative venture like film) can be approached with a business plan. Of course, a business plan is not an investment vehicle, thus, it must be associated with a suitable active investor investment vehicle (e.g., investor financing agreement, joint venture agreement, initial incorporation or member-managed LLC). Unfortunately, federal appellate courts construing securities regulations have narrowed this field of active investors who may be approached with a business plan even further. This line of cases (see case citations below) require that not only must the active investor be regularly involved in helping to make the important decisions, but all documentation of the deal between the investors and the production company must make it clear that these investors have the authority to participate in such decision-making and most important, they must be capable of participating at a meaningful level (i.e., they must have “knowledge and experience” in the relevant industry – the film industry for purposes of our analysis here).
Upon reflection, we have to admit that these court-imposed limitations relating to the world of active investors (from outside the film industry) with whom a film producer might choose to and be willing to work and that have knowledge and experience in the film industry is very limited indeed. This effectively means that contrary to the misinformation routinely being provided to filmmakers by business plan consultants and others, the business plan is of very little use in seeking to raise film production funds from investors.
Sources and Additional Reading:
Consolidated Management Group, LLC versus the California Department of Corporations, 162 CA4th 598, 75 CR3d 795, 2008 (as reported in the California Business Law Reporter in its July 2008 issue.
Dictionary of Film Finance and Distribution – A Guide for Filmmakers, John W. Cones, Marquette Books, 2007.
Forty-Three Ways to Finance Your Feature Film, Third Edition, John W. Cones, Southern Illinois University Press, 2007.
Williamson v. Tucker, 645 F.2d 404, 5th Cir. 1981.
* * * * *
About John Cones
John
Cones is a securities/entertainment attorney who has practiced in Los
Angeles and area for nineteen years advising independent feature film
producers and others on matters relating to investor financing of
feature film and other entertainment projects. He has prepared or
participated in the preparation of business plans and/or the required
securities disclosure documents, along with Blue Sky compliance for
more than 250 such offerings during this period, including public and
private production¬money offerings for feature films, television
pilots, documentaries, music projects, infomercials, live stage plays
and Internet companies. Some 50 feature and documentary films have been
produced by his clients with securities offering materials he has
prepared. Other such offerings have been conducted for development,
packaging, completion and distribution funding. In a broader sense, Mr.
Cones also works with entrepreneurs on investor financing of business
startups.
Mr. Cones has lectured more than 300 times to an
aggregate audience of approximately 5,400 on topics relating to film
finance and distribution for the American Film Institute, the UCLA
graduate level Independent Producers Program, UCLA Extension, The USC
Cinema/TV School, the USC Cinema/TV Alumni Association, IFP/West,
American University (Washington, D.C.), the Nashville Bar Association,
Cal Western School of Law, The University of Texas Entertainment Law
Institute, North Carolina School of the Arts, California Lawyers for
the Arts and other film industry organizations. He has also published
several books and articles on those same topics including Film Finance
and Distribution¬¬A Dictionary of Terms, Film Industry Contracts, 43
Ways to Finance Your Film, The Feature Film Distribution Deal and How
the Movie Wars Were Won. He also hosts a Q&A Internet site about
investor financing of entertainment projects at http://www/mecfilms.com/guide4.htm and maintains a web site athttp://www.mecfilms.com/coneslaw.
John
is a member of the California and Texas bar associations and the
Independent Feature Project/West. He can be reached at jwc6774 at
roadrunner dot com.
I had the pleasure of sharing a panel at the Hollywood Black Film
Festival with John Cones - entertainment attorney who's worked
extensively with independent producers and filmmakers. While I
emphasized the importance of audience-building and the role of fans as
a contribution-based funding source, John focused on the role of
passive and active investors as an equity-based funding source. Together, both
are complementary sources.
Filmmakers rarely raise money from one
source. Debt, equity, grants, fan funding, tax credits, rebates, and
more are all sources filmmakers can tap at once. Check out the "Show Me The Money Forum" to discuss the hybrid approach with IndieGoGo members.
What follows is Part 1 of a Special 6-Part Weekly Series in the DIWO Download on equity-based film finance sources from John Cones.
The key factor that helps independent feature film producers in finding investors or other individuals who may help find investors is investor motivation. First do some brainstorming with your associates regarding what might motivate anyone with money to invest some of it in your high risk venture. There may be others besides those listed below that are unique to a specific film project, but a fairly good list of possible investor motivation follows. Some of these descriptions of investor motivation are closely related and may even overlap.
The Prospective Investor:
Is interested in supporting the filmmaker’s career (career support)
Is enamored with the glamor of the film industry (glamour of film industry)
Feels the investment has a certain amount of “cocktail chatter” value, that is, it’s more interesting and fun to talk about than most boring investments (cocktail chatter value)
Wants to be able to spend some time on the set and rub elbows with the cast and crew, although this needs to be carefully controlled so that it does not get out of hand (associate)
Wants to use this investment as an opportunity to learn about how the film industry works, so that he or she can get more involved in the future (learning experience)
Has a son, daughter, niece or nephew who can appear as an extra in the movie (film extras)
May want to appear in the movie as an actor or actress (appear in movie)
May (in rare and unusual circumstances) be allowed to direct the movie (directing)
May thereby get his or her script produced (screenwriter)
Realizes that by investing in the movie, it will help bring the movie to a specific locale which will benefit the local economy (local economy)
Is very interested in one or more of the messages being communicated by the movie (movie message)
Is looking at the upside potential for making money on the investment even though the investor recognizes investing in independent films is highly risky
Of course, enterprising filmmakers may be able to come up with other descriptions of investor motivation that could be added to this list.
* * * * *
About John Cones
John
Cones is a securities/entertainment attorney who has practiced in Los
Angeles and area for nineteen years advising independent feature film
producers and others on matters relating to investor financing of
feature film and other entertainment projects. He has prepared or
participated in the preparation of business plans and/or the required
securities disclosure documents, along with Blue Sky compliance for
more than 250 such offerings during this period, including public and
private production¬money offerings for feature films, television
pilots, documentaries, music projects, infomercials, live stage plays
and Internet companies. Some 50 feature and documentary films have been
produced by his clients with securities offering materials he has
prepared. Other such offerings have been conducted for development,
packaging, completion and distribution funding. In a broader sense, Mr.
Cones also works with entrepreneurs on investor financing of business
startups.
Mr. Cones has lectured more than 300 times to an
aggregate audience of approximately 5,400 on topics relating to film
finance and distribution for the American Film Institute, the UCLA
graduate level Independent Producers Program, UCLA Extension, The USC
Cinema/TV School, the USC Cinema/TV Alumni Association, IFP/West,
American University (Washington, D.C.), the Nashville Bar Association,
Cal Western School of Law, The University of Texas Entertainment Law
Institute, North Carolina School of the Arts, California Lawyers for
the Arts and other film industry organizations. He has also published
several books and articles on those same topics including Film Finance
and Distribution¬¬A Dictionary of Terms, Film Industry Contracts, 43
Ways to Finance Your Film, The Feature Film Distribution Deal and How
the Movie Wars Were Won. He also hosts a Q&A Internet site about
investor financing of entertainment projects at http://www/mecfilms.com/guide4.htm and maintains a web site athttp://www.mecfilms.com/coneslaw.
John
is a member of the California and Texas bar associations and the
Independent Feature Project/West. He can be reached at jwc6774 at
roadrunner dot com.
Bob
Teitel: If you've made a short and your goal is a feature, just blast
it out to build your reputation. #laff via@ScottKirsner #indiegogo5:11 PM Jun 20thfrom web
"Girlfriend Experiece collapsed windows (Theatre, online, VOD) of release did not cannibalize each other" #laff via @zakforsman #indiegogo4:47 PM Jun 20thfrom web
"equity investors usually get 110-125% preferred ROI plus their piece of 50% profit participation." #laff via @zakforsman #indiegogo4:45 PM Jun 20thfrom web
"nearly 10,000 films submitted to sundance, 218 screened, 3 distributed" via @zakforsman #indiegogo4:44 PM Jun 20thfrom web
building fundraising and promotional campaigns takes tons of work says todays panelists #indiegogo #nywift5:26 PM Jun 13thfrom txt
the
term story architect is getting some buzz instead of just director. use
all the channels to create your story. #indiegogo #nywift5:22 PM Jun 13thfrom txt
build your mailing lists through relationships #nywift #indiegogo5:00 PM Jun 13thfrom txt
the evidence is there that fundraising is happening on the internet #indiegogo #nywift4:47 PM Jun 13thfrom txt
shoot a prelude or teaser to raise money for the real thing #indiegogo #nywift4:31 PM Jun 13thfrom txt
social media is great but lets not forget email for promotion #indiegogo #nywift4:24 PM Jun 13thfrom txt
nywift panel going in full force at hunter college #indiegogo4:21 PM Jun 13thfrom txt
"Sell More CDs at Shows By Not Naming the Price.".. Same probably true for DVDs at film screenings http://bit.ly/PzFhk #indiegogo8:13 PM Jun 15thfrom web
How to Get Distributors to take your Seriously? Ignore them. Make them come to you. How? Fans. See how music works: http://bit.ly/FbHSO8:40 PM Jun 10thfrom web
Shot on a shoe-string and self-distributed across the country, Box Elder presents an equally hilarious and poignant look at growing up. Todd Sklar, the filmmaker, was kind enough to share with
IndieGoGo some of his tactics for promotion, reaching an audience, and using
the Internet.
Q1. What were the goals for Box Elder?:
Narrative-wise, the goal was
to tell a really funny, sincere, coming of age story about Midwestern
college life.
Project-wise,
the goal was to make the best film we could using only the appropriate
amount of resources, and not because of budget constraints - I was
originally offered more money than we accepted - but because we didn't
wanna make the film anything that it didn't need to be. For example,
we
didn't need to shoot on film because we know we'd be screening it
digitally on the tour, and we knew that story and setting didn't need
lush tones or cinematic atmosphere. We also knew that the film was
gonna be heavily dependent on loose natural performances and improv,
and there's something about a 35 setup that sort've brings an air of
professionalism and importance to a set that we wanted to avoid, as
it'd intimidate our actors and stifle the creative energy. That said,
we also knew that we'd be bringing the
film to a relatively wide audience through the tour, and that it'd be
an audience that generally doesn't see independent films, so they
probably wouldn't accept our film as a "real" movie if it was just
DV footage. So we went w/ a 35 adapter b/c it gave the film the
necessary depth
of field to make it look and feel like a "real" movie when projected in
a theatre. If we weren't gonna be screening the film theatrically or
bringing it to a wider audience, I would've shot it on Flip camera's.
Every decision from the conception of the story
through the design of our DVD was catered around that same process,
with our intended audience in mind.
To me, film is purely a
storytelling medium, and there's no point in telling a story if you
don't have an audience to listen, so it just makes sense to tailor
everything you do around your intended audience -- which doesn't have
to be the film's intended audience mind you - there's much to be said
about a filmmaker who tries to bring a story to people and places that
don't necessarily fit it's themes or content. On the other hand, I
think a lot of times with independent film, we can error on the side of
only telling stories that aren't getting told for that reason alone,
and I think that's a little short-sighted, especially if it's not done
responsibly in regards to the economics. Everybody would love to make a
5 million dollar movie, but I don't think every story needs 5 million
dollars to be told effectively, especially in terms of reaching it's
audience.
Q2. How were you identifying, reaching and building your audience?
For
Box Elder, this was easy. We felt like the film's natural audience was
going to be an extension of the film's creators and it's characters, so
it was really just a matter or identifying people with similar tastes
and interests as us and our characters. So on top of the already
inherent audience (college students, fans of comedy, dudes with beard,
etc), there were all the niche audiences that we targeted by just
dissecting what we loved about the project and the characters and
related them to people on social level in each market we took the film
to.
We looked at reaching them in the same manner by mapping out ways
that we'd wanna be reached. i.e, nobody in our camp would ever grab a
bullshit flier at a coffee-shop or respond to a mass facebook mssg --
we'd much rather hear about something through a friend or through
something we're already interested and involved in, so we'd strive to
make really personal connections with our audience and then let them do
the work by passing it on to their friends. Or we'd connect with an
organization that fit the film or our interests well and then tailor
what we were doing to something they were interested in, which was
usually aligned with the film/tour because f the similar interests.
Marketing a film is really easy when you're only marketing it to people
who'll probably like it in a way that meshes with how they already
discover content.
Which any film can do really, you just gotta figure out how you'd
wanna discover your own film if it was made by someone else, and then
apply that to your marketing platform. And you gotta accept that not
everyone is gonna love your film. That's step one. Get realistic, get
strategic, and get to it. None of this bullshit waiting around for
somebody to buy or market your film for you.
As far as audience building goes, it's just an extension of the
outreach process - just a matter of staying connected and being
involved with people, which is easy to do if your audience generally
has the same interests as you because you end up liking the same things
and staying connected / audience building quickly becomes hanging out
with friends. Which is awesome.
Q3. What tactics did you use for financing? Any advice?
Well, we shot the film twice, and the first time I used a VC group to fund the project.
When
we decided to re-shoot it all, me and my producer believed in it enough
that we just put our personal money into it and the rest on credit
cards - it made sense financially at the time because the tour served
as a realistic point in time when we'd start seeing revenue come back
and could start re-couping.
As far as advice goes; don't do what I did. Way too much work.
Instead, find a rich kid who wants to be a producer. Tell him that he
can be the producer on your film if he finances it. End of story.
Richie rich gets his first credit, you get your first film made,
everyone's a winner. Or rob a bank. Seriously, nobody ever robs banks
anymore. OR, is it that they do but we never hear about it because the
only time it's in the news is when people get caught.... and nobodies
gettin' caught these days.
In all honesty, from my limited knowledge from bank robbery movies,
it seems a lot easier to plan and pull off a small heist than it does
to put together financing on a film. Looks like a lot more fun too.
P.S. I was watching Rififi earlier tonight. And the shoot-out scene from Heat. And that might've influenced pt. 2 of that scenario.
Q4. What role does the Internet and social media play in your DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) fund raising or audience-building?
We
didn't use the internet at all in our fund-raising strategy, but I'm
helping a friend on a film right now and he's using that kickstarter
site - you can check his page out here - it seems to be working really well. As far as audience building goes, the Box Elder Facebook and Myspace pages have been pretty integral, and our Youtube
page has been incredibly important as well, and those three are the
main hubs for our social community, so i'd say we've used the internet
quite a bit as far as audience building is concerned.
The internet is also where I first discovered the You're Business Card Sucks guy,
and I'm not sure how integral that's been in our audience building, but
it's certainly become an important factor in our overall operation, as
we still watch it several times a day, and would probably be more
effective at doing a lot of things if that video didn't exist.
Q5. How do you connect your online campaigns with offline fund raising and audience-building?
That's
a really good question - I'm not sure we've figured that out yet.
Thankfully, with the tour, we have a strong on-line and off-line
presence, and we've been able to find the right mix as far as how,
when, and where to execute on each, but we haven't found a hybrid model
that specifically plays them off each other quite yet. I feel like
Lance Weiler and Arin Crumley and a lot of those folks over at theworkbookproject.com would know how to do that - those guys are light years ahead when it comes to this stuff.
Q6. What is next on your radar? And where can folks follow your efforts?
There's
actually quite a bit on my radar right now - I'm actually having a
pretty tough time not drowning in everything to be honest;
For starters, we're knee deep in planning the Fall and Spring
tours, and we're trying to bring 40 movies out this time while hitting
over a 100 cities and putting on a different screening series in each
one - should be daunting, but awesome to say the least.
I'm also producing a bunch of movies right now, some of which we're
still trying to get financed, and some of which are moving forward, and
it looks like 2 or 3 of them are gonna be going into production at
various points this summer, so that'll be interesting to balance while
we move into the Fall tour in Sept. - will definitely be a test in time managment.
On top of that, I'm writing a comedy with my good friends James
Ponsoldt and Alex Rennie this summer, and also directing another flick
later in the year, so I'm trying to keep the creative juices flowing
through all of this distribution, marketing, and fund-raising stuff.
Would all be a lot easier if someone gave me a bunch of money to be
doing this stuff, or if I robbed a bank.
I'm also playing three scrabbles games on Facebook and winning two of them.
As
far as following these efforts are concerned, we're working on the new
Range Life website right now, so I guess the best place to stay in
touch is either via my Facebook or Twitter - would love to connect on both, or either.
TO PROJECTS: If
funders appeared out of nowhere, we could all just go back to making
films. But alas they don't! The good news is that now you have the
DIWO tools on IndieGoGo to reach new fans and mobilize them into funders. Use clear Calls-To-Action (contribute, share, comment, etc.), and ask your fans to do the same too. To get started, go to your project profile (how to create one) and start sharing!
TO FANS & FUNDERS: With a few clicks, you help bring projects to life. Pick a perk, fund and share your favorite projects with others who'd want to be involved as well.
Invite Friends: Email your friends, family, and acquaintances using the email invite tool. Every time you meet someone or present to a group of people, get their email addresses. Email is your foundation.
GoGoWidget: Pick a GoGoWidget, place it on blogs, websites, and put it in your email signature. It's an easy share tool for bloggers, organizations (website & newsletters) and forums too.
Facebook: Login via Facebook Connect and publish your IndieGoGo activity to your Facebook newsfeeds.
Now folks never have to leave Facebook to discover your project and take action.
Social Media: Spread the word with social media tools built into your project profile and encourage your fans to do the same. Post to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, and Yahoo Buzz!
Take it to Influencers: Go to bloggers,
organizations and forums whose readers are already discussing topics
your film addresses. Tell them your story, ask their opinions, and encourage them share it
with their followers if there seems to be a fit.
Fresh Content & Announcements: Turn your viewers into promoters.
Maintain fresh content (videos, images, etc) and keep your project's
community updated by posting announcements, which they'll automatically
receive via email.
Maximize IndieGoGo: Check out IndieGoGo's Resources for more tools.
I had the pleasure of sharing a panel at the Hollywood Black Film Festival with John Cones - entertainment attorney who's worked extensively with independent producers and filmmakers. While I emphasized the importance of audience-building and the role of fans as a contribution-based funding source, John focused on the role of passive and active investors as an equity-based funding source. Both are complementary sources.
Filmmakers rarely raise money from one source. Debt, equity, grants, fan funding, tax credits, rebates, and more are all sources filmmakers can tap at once. Check out the "Show Me The Money Forum" to discuss the hybrid approach with IndieGoGo members.
What follows is Part 1 of a Special 6-Part Weekly Series in the DIWO Download on equity-based film finance sources from John Cones.
Part 1: Five Most Common Film Finance/Distribution Scenarios
By John W. Cones, Attorney
There are so many different ways to finance one or more feature films, that it is extremely important for independent producers to focus their efforts on those forms of film finance that are most likely to produce favorable results for their current project. Without this focus of time and effort, the film finance campaign is less likely to succeed.
First, it is important to understand that there are three different stages in the life of a feature film, each of which can be financed separately. Considerations regarding the manner in which the three major stages in a film's life: (1) acquisition/development/packaging, (2) production (including preproduction, principal photography and postproduction) and (3) distribution, may be separately financed are sometimes difficult to distinguish in many real world transactions. The combinations typically used in the industry today tend to fall into one of the following five distinctive film finance/distribution scenarios (or some variation thereof). Each film finance/distribution scenario will typically require that the independent producer engage in a different set of activities and communicate with a different group of people. In addition each such scenario tends to work best with different levels of film budgets.
1. In-House Production/Distribution
The selected studio/distributor to which the project has been pitched or submitted, provides the acquisition/development financing, develops the project at the studio under some level of supervision of studio creative executives, gives a "greenlight" to studio production funding and distributes the completed film with the studioaffiliated distributor using the distributor's funds to cover P&A expenses. An independent producer (or screenwriter, director, actor or actress) may have originally submitted the idea, concept, underlying property, outline, synopsis, treatment or screenplay to the studio, but rights to produce as a motion picture were then acquired by the studio. If the producer or others remain attached, they do so as employees of the studio or project.
2. ProductionFinancing/Distribution Agreement
The independent producer provides the acquisition/development financing (or raises such funds from investors) and takes the deal to a studio/distributor with a fairly complete package (i.e., significant elements are attached). The studio/distributor's money is then used to produce and distribute the picture. The distribution agreement is entered into (theoretically) prior to the start of production, or at least before the end of production. The distributor will deduct its fee, recoup distributor expenses, collect interest on the production money loan and then reduce the negative cost with remaining gross receipts, if any.
3. Negative Pickups (and other forms of lender production money financing)
The independent producer provides acquisition/development financing (or raises such funds from investors) and obtains one or more distributor commitments and guarantees to purchase the completed picture (for the worldwide, domestic or international markets, or individual territories) if the finished film meets specified delivery requirements (as set forth in detail in the distribution agreement). The producer takes this or these distributor commitment(s) to an entertainment lender to secure production funds using the distributor's contract(s) as effective collateral. In this instance, the only part of the financing provided by the distributor relates to distribution expenses (i.e., the socalled P&A monies). The negative pickup and other forms of these distribution/finance agreements associated with lender financing are typically entered into prior to the production of the film. Other variations on lender production financing include foreign presales, gap financing, socalled "supergap" financing and partlyor whollyinsured sales estimates.
4. Acquisition Deal
The independent producer raises acquisition/development as well as production monies, often from investors outside the film industry, but distributor funds are used to distribute the movie. The distribution agreement is entered into after the film is produced). Some in the industry still erroneously use the term "negative pickup" to describe this transaction which is clearly different from the true lender financed "negative pickup" described above. This "pure acquisition" approach to film finance and distribution generally provides the producer and creative team with the most creative control (over scenarios 1 3), but involves greater financial risk for the producer and/or the producer's investors.
5. Rent-A-Distributor
The independent producer raises acquisition/development, production and some or all of the money needed to distribute the film. This type of distribution agreement is generally entered into after the film is produced. Distributor fees are generally at their lowest with this transaction, (e.g., 15%).
In any given year, these five film finance/distribution scenarios will typically be represented on the film slates of each of the socalled major studio/distributors, although in terms of numbers, the PF/D, negative pickup and acquisition deal combinations probably generate most of the films appearing on such slates. On the other hand, almost all of the majors will have one or more inhouse productions each year (typically, their hopedfor blockbuster/"tentpoles") and the rentadistributor scenario is probably the least commonly used. Most of the independent films produced each year tend to rely on some variation of lender financing or investor financing combined with an acquisition deal. The major studio/distributor sales representatives tend to use their coming blockbusters as leverage to gain favored treatment from exhibitors for the mediocre to poor films on their annual slates, thus partially explaining why many independent features of equal or superior quality get squeezed off theatre screens in favor of major studio product.
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About John Cones
John Cones is a securities/entertainment attorney who has practiced in Los Angeles and area for nineteen years advising independent feature film producers and others on matters relating to investor financing of feature film and other entertainment projects. He has prepared or participated in the preparation of business plans and/or the required securities disclosure documents, along with Blue Sky compliance for more than 250 such offerings during this period, including public and private production¬money offerings for feature films, television pilots, documentaries, music projects, infomercials, live stage plays and Internet companies. Some 50 feature and documentary films have been produced by his clients with securities offering materials he has prepared. Other such offerings have been conducted for development, packaging, completion and distribution funding. In a broader sense, Mr. Cones also works with entrepreneurs on investor financing of business startups.
Mr. Cones has lectured more than 300 times to an aggregate audience of approximately 5,400 on topics relating to film finance and distribution for the American Film Institute, the UCLA graduate level Independent Producers Program, UCLA Extension, The USC Cinema/TV School, the USC Cinema/TV Alumni Association, IFP/West, American University (Washington, D.C.), the Nashville Bar Association, Cal Western School of Law, The University of Texas Entertainment Law Institute, North Carolina School of the Arts, California Lawyers for the Arts and other film industry organizations. He has also published several books and articles on those same topics including Film Finance and Distribution¬¬A Dictionary of Terms, Film Industry Contracts, 43 Ways to Finance Your Film, The Feature Film Distribution Deal and How the Movie Wars Were Won. He also hosts a Q&A Internet site about investor financing of entertainment projects at http://www/mecfilms.com/guide4.htm and maintains a web site at http://www.mecfilms.com/coneslaw.
John is a member of the California and Texas bar associations and the Independent Feature Project/West. He can be reached at jwc6774 at roadrunner dot com.
Congratulations! You have succeeded in making a video, and have
successfully uploaded it to one of many fine online video hosting
sites. That, for some of us, may feel like an achievement in itself.
But let’s get real for a second: So what?
It only counts if people see it.
Be
it a short documentary, an indie animation, a video blog or even a
slide show of your niece’s 3rd birthday party (and we sincerely hope
it’s not the latter), there are tons of ways that you can maximize your
audience and help turn your video into a viral hit.
This is a 5-part weekly blog series that will provide an introduction on how to best get eyeballs to your content. Simple.
EPISODE 4: Your video was acquired for distribution somehow? Here’s what you do.
Congratulations! Your little piece of brilliance has been acquired by a television, DVD or film distributor. This is quite some feat, considering the breadth of content out there, and the waning resources for content makers.
It is worth noting at this point that if your video has been acquired, there are probably going to be some legal limitations as to how you can promote it virally. Once it’s bought, for instance, it is quite common for you to be asked to pull the content off video hosting websites such as Youtube, Revver, etc. The content will probably need to appear online under special circumstances.
Here are some other things you can do to spread the word.
Tell all your fans: If you've been doing a good job engaging your fans and keeping them abreast of your progressvia IndieGoGo or otherwise, now's the timeto ask them to brag about the project they've been supporting since the beginning. Make an Announcement. Your fans on IndieGoGo will be automatically alerted via email or RSS. Fuel the marketing army that you've built along the way.
Make a trailer: Cut a short teaser or trailer for your video, being sure to include the link to its online home, like your IndieGoGo page or website. Upload the trailer to all the video hosting sites you can think of. Tube Mogul is a great resource to help you do this.
Write a press release: Be sure to run it by your acquisitions contact before you send it out into the world. Be sure to include a concise synopsis of the video, that it will be airing on TV or theatrically (and tune in dates), and why this is awesome! Your press release should contain some or all of the following:
A compelling, specific headline that contains a hook: ‘Local filmmaker gets Distribution’ probably won’t get picked up. “Short Doc About Local Albino Fisherman Makes National Television’ might.
A first paragraph that covers the five W's of the story:
Who (who is this release about)
What (what is this release about)
Where (where does this take place)
When (when did this happen)
Why (why the press should cover this, be subtle)
Electronic contact information including an e-mail and web site address. Be sure that in addition to e-mail contact information a phone number for the press contact is listed.
Endorsement from a 'non-biased' source. You should have permission from those sources to use their remarks in your press release.
A short paragraph at the end of the release containing background information about you, your work, your career high-points.
Own the media: Take that release, or just make a phone call to let your local rag, your alumni newsletter, the trade publication of any group you belong to, or your school paper know that you, yes YOU, will be exhibiting your content on TV or theatrically! This is exciting news, and many small press outlets will jump at the opportunity to let people know that their local boy/girl has made good.
Get listed in the local: Fax or mail your press release at least 10 days prior to the publication date
Use the internet: Submit information about your video, and any related news (plus trailer!) to tastemaking sites like: www.dailycandy.com, www.flavorpill.com, etc.
Spread the word on blogs and message boards: This is a particularly good way to target market your video to specific groups who might be interested in various aspects of your film, such as content (e.g., ecology), genre (e.g., animation), cast and director... You get the drift
Pitch a story or request a review of your video: Think of how your video might tie into current news topics. Then contact the assignment editors at the appropriate papers, as well as reporters who cover individual beats or television coverage. This kind of detailed information about media personnel is available at the local library’s reference desk in a book called Bacon’s Directory. Check out HelpAReporter.com.
Hustle, hustle, hustle: Use e-mails, flyers and whatever else you come up with to get the word out and create interest. Use an industry source guide such as The Hollywood Reporter Blue Book or the Hollywood Creative Directory, available at the reference desks of many local libraries, to get contact information for people or production companies that you want to impress, and send them your info!
Organize your own screening: Oh what the heck, organize your own screening. Find a gallery, café or even a small theatre, make flyers, invite your friends and family and make a party out of it. If your distribution agreement prohibits this, then speak to your acquisitions person and let them know why this will help market the content. They will no doubt be happy to work with you to make something happen.
