a sales agency made me an offer for a feature film i did after they reviewed a screener. they sent me an email this morning and in it i noticed their basic terms and wanted to know if this is pretty standard or not, being that it's the first offer i've gotten so far while a coupla other companies are reviewing my film...i've copy and pasted directly from the bottom portion of the email and highlighted one of the things that made my eyebrow raise:
[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Basic Terms:
[/FONT]·[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] We give you a short term deal (24 months) with an option for the rights to revert back to you if we do not meet a basic level in sales
[/FONT]·[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] Our sales commission is 20% of the Gross + 5% for sub-agents on the International Deals and on the US domestic deals – 10% if a US subagent is used
[/FONT]·[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] We have waived our service fee of $ 2,600 - $ 3,500 others pay for Internet servicing and our fees for viral marketing
[/FONT]·[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] We’ll cap the recoupable expenses at $ 35,000 for the Term. We have lowered it from the standard $ 50,000
[/FONT]·[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] An advance payment of $ 7,500 towards marketing expenses. By paying this advance you end up paying less for marketing than you would have paid otherwise but at the same time this allows House of Film get through the initial and financially most demanding phase of marketing these movies and ensures your film B2B and B2C viral marketing as well -- an essential factor to get any results in today's challanging market environment.
Here is how it works:
Marketing budgets for feature films are $ 60K - $ 50K on average for the Term. We are offering you to work with the lower figure, that that is with a $ 50K marketing cap and even include the viral marketing fees in this figure.
In addition, your advance payment of $ 7,500 towards marketing expenses will be credited back to you with double value that is $ 15,000 will be written off from the Recoupable Expenses in exchange for the advance. First we have reduced the marketing expenses with $ 7,500 across the board for you, that is why the marketing expenses cap is $ 42,500 in the attached Marketing Plan. In addition, the advance will be credited back to you from the already reduced expenses cap, bringing the recoupables further down to $ 35,000 for the Term.
The idea of paying in advance for marketing is probably familiar to you since it is common practice in the trade. Producer's Representatives typically take a flat fee on the order of $15,000 just for representing your movie. Going this route, one would still incur the full range of marketing costs. [/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Basic Terms:
[/FONT]·[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] We give you a short term deal (24 months) with an option for the rights to revert back to you if we do not meet a basic level in sales
[/FONT]·[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] Our sales commission is 20% of the Gross + 5% for sub-agents on the International Deals and on the US domestic deals – 10% if a US subagent is used
[/FONT]·[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] We have waived our service fee of $ 2,600 - $ 3,500 others pay for Internet servicing and our fees for viral marketing
[/FONT]·[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] We’ll cap the recoupable expenses at $ 35,000 for the Term. We have lowered it from the standard $ 50,000
[/FONT]·[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] An advance payment of $ 7,500 towards marketing expenses. By paying this advance you end up paying less for marketing than you would have paid otherwise but at the same time this allows House of Film get through the initial and financially most demanding phase of marketing these movies and ensures your film B2B and B2C viral marketing as well -- an essential factor to get any results in today's challanging market environment.
Here is how it works:
Marketing budgets for feature films are $ 60K - $ 50K on average for the Term. We are offering you to work with the lower figure, that that is with a $ 50K marketing cap and even include the viral marketing fees in this figure.
In addition, your advance payment of $ 7,500 towards marketing expenses will be credited back to you with double value that is $ 15,000 will be written off from the Recoupable Expenses in exchange for the advance. First we have reduced the marketing expenses with $ 7,500 across the board for you, that is why the marketing expenses cap is $ 42,500 in the attached Marketing Plan. In addition, the advance will be credited back to you from the already reduced expenses cap, bringing the recoupables further down to $ 35,000 for the Term.
The idea of paying in advance for marketing is probably familiar to you since it is common practice in the trade. Producer's Representatives typically take a flat fee on the order of $15,000 just for representing your movie. Going this route, one would still incur the full range of marketing costs. [/FONT]
