emotepix
Well-known member
GaryinCalifornia said:
Gary.
A professional film package looks something like this:
Script
Schedule
Budget
Principal Cast and Crew pay or play contracts
Funding arrangement letter of agreement
Dustribution arrangement letter of agreement
Completion Bond (insurance).
Takes a lot of meetings, at least two sets of lawyers, bankers, producers and accountants to put one of these together.
The putting together of the package is called development.
So.
You can see that the development part of the film is the highest risk part.
You may not be able to get a bank to agree to finance.
Or a star may not want to sign to your director.
Many things can go wrong.
So the money you put into development is very high risk indeed.
Now consider this:
If you do have a package together, with contracts signed, sealed, witnessed and delivered, what do you have?
A film that a bank will finance, because it knows that the people in it are name players, a distributor will take it once it's done, and, if something should go wrong between the spoon and the lip (i.e. from the moment the money is taken until the moment the film is finished), then the completion bond company will protect the investment.
In other words, this is not a very high risk proposition.
So.
Start a development company.
Put your money into the high risk part of the operation.
Bet on your being able to get the necessary lawyers, agents, managers, bankers, et al together to get this package put together.
Upon success, sell the package to the film production company.
At a profit commensurate to risk.
High risk, high yield, fast turnaround.
Gambling, pure and simple.
Trouble is these days, most people want all the profits without any of the risk.
When you're on the road to being done, you'll have the attention of people, who will suddenly all want to be your best friend and partner.
They all smell the money and they didn't have to lay out a dime to get it.
So you spend $100k setting up (developing) a $5m movie, say.
Or you go to Vegas and get a couple more entrepreneurs to chip in $100k each, whatever.
You wine, dine, schmooze, play golf with, and generally get to know the players and make deals.
And when you're done, you simply sell your completed package (without the risk now, remember, everything's a green light at this point) back to yourself, at a profit that pays you back for the risk you took with your initial money (when nobody would talk to you, let alone back you).
That's what producers do.
Then they go hire the minions such as us to actually make the movies they have developed.
