What are set fees: Producer or Executive Producer

haha

haha

haha, well it's worth sacrificing upfront payment if it means a lot more money on the back-side.

While it's a risk, I know that I'm going to make a lot of money on this film in all likelihood. Not as a director, I barely got paid for that (just minimum we could get away with and have it be a DGA film), but as the executive producer I own about half of the film and that is a valuable asset. I'd rather put as much money as possible into the film, not take it out of the budget, so that I have the best movie I can get and sell it for even more.

If the entire budget of the film is $100,000, you barely have a pot to piss in, let alone any money to pay yourself dude. Our film was well more than that and we had a major producer working for no upfront pay. That's a guy who has done it all and produced movies with A-list talent, represented A-list talent, worked on more movies than some people have seen, but he believes in the project and knows that on the back-end he'll make plenty of money to make it worthwhile. We all believe in the project, thus the upfront pay is not a big deal.
 
Good point but I have VISA/Mastercard bills to pay and kids and a wife to feed!!

Good point but I have VISA/Mastercard bills to pay and kids and a wife to feed!!

I like your point of view and for the most part agree. A budget of $100,000.00 isn't much I agree but just learned today it is much more than that. Nothing official but it's coming. If I do three or even four jobs I'm getting paid to do them because I work a job that pays $48,000.00 a year plus benefits. To do this job properly I need to quit my regular day job (not going back to it again) and doing this full-time. My fee to direct could sustain me for two years easily. My fee as E.P. buys me a house via cash transaction so I have no mortgage.

Bottom line I have fees and expenses like anyone else. I am worth something just as my lead actress is and my P.A. is. Cutting yourself short isn't the answer. Back end is fine and looking forward to that. I plan to take 10% and another 10% for the studio (I own the company after all). Filmmaking is fun but this is a biz, it's not just a hobby one takes up like stamp collecting I have mouths to feed. That's all I'm saying. This has all been fab but I am going to make my movie my way and as E.P. take whatever I want being I'm the dude in charge but yeah don't milk the cow or the cow dies and nothing is more terrible than a movie gone sour.

Good-night all!
 
Haha, well yeah I agree that anyone's time is worth money, absolutely. We did ours basically like a favored nation status kind of thing, everyone made the same pay per day, including me as director. Where I make the extra money is as the EP, and deferred pay as a writer-director as well.

Of course the film isn't paying my bills while I'm making it, though, I am doing corporate work for some money, that's my main business, and I'm burning through some cash reserves as well to launch my career. You said you've already directed one film, though, so maybe you're in a different position than me. I'm just saying for me, it's about paying your dues first, and I haven't paid my dues yet, I'm still doing so. I have to prove I can direct a really good film and bring it to the market first, then on my next film I can get outside financing and be paid as a professional. First, though, I have to prove it, and even if I was working a regular job making $250,000 a year that doesn't mean somehow if I spend a year on a movie that I'm entitled to make that same paycheck, haha, that's irrelevant.

We all have bills to pay, absolutely, and it's been tough for me to turn down some corporate work and sacrifice cash in hand to work my butt off on my film so that the future is even brighter. I know it will be worth it, though, so I'm wiling to make those sacrifices.

I have to admit that I'm bummed about the reality that it really does take so much time to make a movie from start to finish, especially writing the screenplay too, haha. I would love to direct 3 movies every 2 years, like one every 8 months, but the reality is I now understand it's ambitious enough to try to direct a movie a year. That's my new goal, haha, and that'll be tough because the entire span of a movie is longer than a year, so you have to have multiple projects going at once.
 
You can do it however you want. I'm just suggesting that most movies are budgeted according to industry-standard best-practices. You can ignore them, integrate whatever aspects you want or ignore them completely. I don't care.

Savvy investors might.
 
lambert said:
"New Jersey tax credit are no longer as of yesterday." Is that to try and pay to get Lebron?
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Isn't that crazy. Analysts are saying where ever he goes he will be worth $2.5 BILLION in revenue to that city over the time of his remaining career.
 
Who needs film incentives just get the King for your state.
I hope we've seen the last of the states drop or reduce their incentive programs. Probably not.
 
I happen to think film incentives are important. It stimulates growth. One province will give us 45% of our budget back-- now that's amazing!

If I can make a film and collect a paycheck all the better. Why would I not want that?
 
Belief Pictures said:
I happen to think film incentives are important. It stimulates growth. One province will give us 45% of our budget back-- now that's amazing!

If I can make a film and collect a paycheck all the better. Why would I not want that?
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Better hurry man, and don't try to sell your investors on it when they are closing shop left and right. Kinda leaves you holding your dick in your hand. Everyone knows what's coming.

Just go make a movie and don;t worry about it.
 
ChipG said:
Better hurry man, and don't try to sell your investors on it when they are closing shop left and right. Kinda leaves you holding your dick in your hand. Everyone knows what's coming.

Just go make a movie and don;t worry about it.
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What's wrong with holding your dick in your hand?! lol
 
Incentives have created projects that would not have been funded and many that haven't made sense economically with or without them. I hope they continue but many are questioning how viable they are long term. When the video boom originally hit many good,average and hack 'producers" jumped in the game because everything sold to fill video rental shelves(art films to hot girls in bikinis shooting machine guns in the desert).
A producer today has to ask himself if a film makes sense without tax credits and incentives? A large percentage probably don't. A producer should use every legal way to insure a film has as little economic downside as possible but shouldn't delude themselves into thinking their sows ear is a silk purse when in many cases it isn't.

"I happen to think film incentives are important. It stimulates growth. One province will give us 45% of our budget back-- now that's amazing! If I can make a film and collect a paycheck all the better. Why would I not want that?"As a filmaker you should want that of course, but as a taxpayer you might have different concerns. It would be good for filmakers but the real question should be what will happen in the next few years and can one realistically raise money for a film in the future that has state incentives as a key component. Make hay while the suns still shines. Good luck to all.
 
Barry_Green said:
Canada has some of the most generous film incentives out there. Some provinces will rebate 55% of what you spend there. I'm not 100% up on it, but look around, because there's huge rebates available in Canada.
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Barry actually you're correct. Manitoba will give you back 45% of what you spend. That's nearly half!
 
Barry_Green said:
I'm not sure you understand the film biz and budgeting process here... the executive producer is typically the guy who puts up the money. He doesn't take anything out of the budget, he supplies the budget.

On a $100k budget, if you're thinking of taking any salary at all, you're doing so to the detriment of the production. A hundred grand isn't enough for the producer to be taking anything substantial at all. You'd be getting paid in points, not cash.

If you raise a million, then you're talking about being able to take a fee out of that, obviously.

The producer is the businessman or businesswoman who owns the film and hires everyone in it. The producer is the one who raises money from executive producers (or gets a studio exec. producer to greenlight the film for production). The producer owns the production company that owns all the film rights, and typically parcels out chunks of ownership to investors. In a model scenario, the producer hands over 50% ownership of the company in exchange for the money to make the film. The producer makes all executive decisions about hiring the director and cast, does all fundraising and contract work, and manages the money and the business. It is the producer's job to sell the film after it's made.

If you're just trying to make a salary, producer is the wrong job to be looking at. At the micro- or mini-budget level, the producer is likely to never see a dime until the film is successfully sold.
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Barry I understand the E.P. ("Executive Producer") is the one who puts up the money or is the one who finds people who writes checks (it doesn't necessarily have to come out of their own pocket directly) I'm just saying there is a dollar value attached to that and I'm not doing that for free.

Maybe you're right being Executive Producer earns me points in the end. Like say 100% of back end in the very end when the film is successfully sold.
 
Barry_Green said:
The guy's talking about working three years on a film that might have a budget of $100k. What kind of salary can he expect to draw?? That's gonna be a day-job scenario no matter how you slice it. Even if he took a pathetic $2,000 per month, that'd eat up $72,000 over the course of three years.

I know exactly what you're saying and I do agree in principle, I just don't think this is a realistic discussion for Belief Pictures at this point in time.
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Why not realistic?
 
Belief Pictures said:
Why not realistic?
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Would you consider it realistic to budget a film at $100,000 and expect $72,000 of that to end up in your own pocket?

If you find an investor who will buy into that scenario, please report back, as I think that's extraordinarily unrealistic.

Investors want to know that their money is going to end up on the screen, not in someone's wallet. On a hundred grand, there is very little money to make a film at all. Certainly not enough to go around paying someone's salary for three years! Unless that someone is a major draw who will help ensure that the investor gets his money back.

Think about it: if you were pitching me to invest in the film, my question would be: what will I get for my money? And the answer you're offering is: well, you'd get a $28,000 film, and you'd pay my salary for three years. I can assure you, that's not gonna be a successful sales pitch. I would want to hear that I'm gonna get two recognizable name actors, an award-winning screenplay, and thirty grand of the budget is going to be spent on marketing.

If you want to draw $72,000 in salary, the overall film had better have a budget of more like $500k or more.
 
Well said Jonathan; and let me add this. If you bring professionalism in your approach to your project, you'll draw when you start hiring your keys. People want to work and will to stay busy in any market. To say as Patryk has; that mathematically its all a waste of money, there is no ROI in these projects. That is a blanket statement and I would agree that most are short sighted because they fail to take into account from the start where their market is.

This is a business after all and you can create the greatest widget in the world, but if you don't know how or where to market it NO one except family and friends will know or see it for the most part, it will become the most expensive coaster on your coffee table . I have found that most of the plans that come across my desk are clueless too the back end of making their dream come true. Make and they will come is a bad way to do business and a very bad way to present to investors outside of family, friends and clueless investors.

Every film made is a risk. The level of risk varies and there are countless examples on all ends of the spectrum. The Studios and large indies mitigate this with marketing formulas that are proven and time tested. Now, that being said think about how the internet is changing that balance and the distribution channels. Anyone can now create their baby and find outlets, but that doesn't mean success! its a crap shoot without real market planning. So, if you make the latest greatest story ever told someone like me might make you an offer of pennies on the dollar because we know you have everything to gain in getting something back besides and expensive coffee table coaster.

Live your dream, but be real about it. After all this is BUSINESS. I love it, so will they is fantasy land and in a lot of cases a better story than the one they have on disc. But once reality sets in, do it again! Because experience should make you wiser to the ways of living your dream. It's out there so keep walking to it.
 
Hey,

I appreciate what the latest poster has said here. Good advice. I will take that into account when I go putting my current project in motion.

Chris
 
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