How to Start a Production Company?

Woodson

Woodson

Well-known member
I'm working on my business plan for my production company, maybe will get some grants for it.

Do you know any good links that talks about how to start a production company, well I do know how, but refering to all the details especially working on the business plan for it, costs, things that are needed etc.

thanks
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

I know of a bunch of books, but they apply to US business law. I know nothing of the great white north. I would assume there's a few differences as to how businesses are established up there.
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

A business Plan in this industry is really only a form that has to do with red tape. Plans change so don't base your business on how you fill in the blanks from a downloaded document.
I wasn't aware people could get grants to start a business. Seems like everyone would do that if that's the case.

You have to get a business liscense and insurence. You should also look into Inc. or LLC.

www.creativecow.net has a great Business discussion forum.
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

are you starting a production company to shoot movies and commercials. i figure if you have a cam and computer to edit make money by shooting and editing weddings and parties and save your money for a budget on a film idea you mite have. if you wanna do commercials go to mom and pop business and make commericals for them. any thats what im doing to get my production company going. i hoped my half cent helped.
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

what I want to do is yes shoot films, commercials, weddings etc. But I don't have the equip, I always rent out when I shoot my shorts, thats why I'm applying for a gov grant, and there are tons of them here, but I need a good business plan and I'm pretty much set to go. Tons of production companies have been started here with gov grants.
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

You pretty much just need a business plan here in Canada. What city are you in? There are tonnes of seminars about how to start a small business and what you're doing. They have all kinds of pamphlets that tell you about employee stuff if you employ people, taxes, how to setup an business and register one, how to do a business name search, trade marking, incorporating, partnerships, sole-proprietorships... stuff like that. There are different rules that govern all of these. I recommend you register your business (costs about $120 or something including a name search) and check to see what your projected income per year is going to be. If it's over $20k then you're going to have to register your income in taxes.

Will a film business this isn't always 100% necessary because you deal with cash a great deal of the time (especially weddings) but if the government catches you, you get into a lot of trouble. I know of a wedding company that doesn't quite show their whole income to save taxes and avoids a lot of trouble because everything is dealt in cash and there's no way to track it. They have gotten into some trouble though so I would recommend following the rules and going by the book.

The Canadian government is good for grants but I highly recommend you put a lot of work into a business plan and show that your services will in fact be needed. There's a lot of competition for these grants so you need a rocksolid plan.
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

Well ****... im just dumb.

All they want is a business plan? After procuring your grant youll need to tell us all about it! If i had known they got a grant there to buy my equipment i woulda done that along time ago..

Instead of working my F#$%ing ass of for the last two years to buy all this equipment.!!!

Did you know that a person on welfare in NY gets something like 45k a year in subsidies? While hard working folks send their children to college to make 45k a year working as an accountant or such...

nothing towards you of course woodson.. I was thinking outloud when i read and replied to your post ;)
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

A Business Plan not only serves as a tool to get a loan or grant, but as a model in which to follow and guide you in opening the business. It is a great resource and I reccomend everyone make one prior to opening a business (whether or not you are trying to get a loan or not). The Plan requires you to look forward which is always an asset in business.

Fred

45,000 a year on welfare?! WTF?! :o
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

HAHA, Canadians makes more on welfare... they get a stupid job for a week and then get fired or quit. It makes it look like they're trying and they pull almost 50k a year for doing dickall...

You can't get a grant to buy supplies actually. I know for a fact the Canadian grants specify very clearly it isn't for equipment purchases. It's more for business costs, such as administrative or the like. You can rent equipment with a lot of these grants, but they don't usually like you buying stuff with the money...

Oh yeah, that's another thing i wanted to mention about these grants. They don't just give you the money and say "do whatever you want with it". They monitor your business (as part of the grant agreement) and ensure that their money is being used appropriately... this being said, they're able to take the money away if they find out you're not following the plan you gave them. One downside to these grants is that you're kind of locked into what they want... not entirely... it really depends on the kind of grant. Some are very specific though in what they award the money for. Make sure you get all the details of the grant before you sign anything and find yourself up a creek without a paddle...
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

lol..45k i heard that listening to Rush back in the mid 90's when people cared what he had to say...

Im on business # 4 in my life so im acustom to the business plan ideal
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

ive never heard of these grants. where do i go to read up on them.
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company? C

Re: How to Start a Production Company? C

I've heard about all these crazy Canadian grants before. I wonder, where does all this money come from? Anyway, I've heard specifically about phenomenal incentives for filmmakers in getting money for their projects. I was pretty blown away when I heard the details.

As far as production companies go, I would first recommend getting yourself in a strong market for production or post-production or ideally BOTH. I have spent a lot of time in a market that was WEAK, and now I'm in a very strong market. Not only was the weak market weak, it was extremely fragile...despite the fact this was a fairly large city (St. Louis, MO). I am pretty driven and good at what I do, but I couldn't make a living there in video or film production. I definitely learned my lesson quickly. The market I'm in now is very exciting, and there is plenty of money to be made. Find a strong market and establish a niche! And don't try to establish a competitive edge by being the "cheap" guy.

I also learned to minimize the amount of gear I purchased. I worked with guys who owned $150k worth of camera gear, or post gear, or stedicam gear, why would I want to buy any gear when I got these pros with their gear in my market? Don't compete with them, work with them! I found working as a creative producer is a nice approach to make money in this business. Basically you bring in the business, lead the projects and hire contractors who specialize in their areas...this is how you will make the most money and create the best work. The most I would purchase gear wise is a G5 with Final Cut and a DVCAM deck to do offlines (if you consider yourself an editor at all) and you can save yourself and your clients tons of money. You can go out and buy all the books on starting production companies you want, but if you are starting small I guarantee this is the best approach you can take.

Then maybe someday, if you dare, you can start a full-service production company with creative editorial, online, sound stage etc etc...but start small and maximize profit.

The doom of many production companies is they try to grow too quickly and encounter huge FIXED COST (decks, cameras, Avids, etc) and they simply cannot survive in the short run. It's simple economics.

-nate brown
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

They pay for them because we pay taxes out of our asses. Our government also doesn't believe in funding a lot of military operations. Our military is pretty sad to say the least, but I'm still proud of it and the work it does. Our government's priorities lie much more strongly in social services and trying to better the living quality of everyone as well as keep people who are skilled and talented in the country. There is some serious braindrain going on with Canadians moving to the US for things such as film. They want to try to keep these people in Canada and maintain the Canadian industry. There is a very strong influence coming out of the US for us and the government wants to keep it seperate and tries to foster their own citizens.
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

"Canadian Military" kind of an oxymoron. I love Canadians though, maybe they have the right idea - more $$ for arts and less for killing other people. A Canadian friend of mine and I used to joke about the Canadian PM calling the US President at a time of US Military crisis, and asking him in a thick French/Canadian accent, "Mr President, do you want me to send THE Boat?"
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

lol, that's quite true... the canadian military however has quite the military engineer force though. One of the better ones in the world. Once again, our money isn't being spent on killing people.
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

I really don't know about a Canadian on welfare making 50K - were you just exaggerating?

I'd say it was closer to 30K CAD - still a lot considering, but 50K is out of the question. I would put lots of money saying that they don't get 50K. If that's the case, then damn...just..damn.
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

I can attest although small compared to other militaries the canadian military has top notch troops and deserves respect...
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

The 50k depends on a lot of things. If you have kids, if you've been attempting to seek employment, if you're aboriginal, if you're on disability... there's a lot of factors that play into that.

I know someone on welfare is able to afford a television with cable... you can still be in the poverty bracket and afford this...
 
Re: How to Start a Production Company?

ya.. I've started my business plan, it's this interactive thing on the gov website, so it's neat. Getting harder though, as it's asking to put things about money issues, how much this, how much that. Time to start researching and making some calls to established productions companies here in Winnipeg.
 
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