Category Finance

BY AUSTIN BURBRIDGE. SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA (CINEMA MINIMA) — The 2008 American Film Market offers plenty of movies for sale, but very few buyers. Independent movie producers have enjoyed easy credit and cash, while big business’ stranglehold on media has nearly eliminated the possibility of independent distribution.

This marks the climax of a trend: Banks and capitalists — in the recent free-market orgasm of cheap credit and surplus cash — had pumped money into independent film production. Independent producers — always grateful for funds regardless of source — took the money and made movies. Many, many movies.

Unfortunately, movie makers had failed to consult distributors beforehand, about the prospects for putting their entertainments before audiences.

Distributors have been suffering another — less favorable — trend, also driven by the triumph of the free market over government regulation. Big media corporations — with the connivance of American politicians — have executed a kind of pincer movement to throttle independent distribution of motion-picture entertainment.

In America in the 1990s, rules to promote competition were eliminated. Big business was permitted to consolidate, to eliminate competition, thereby to control every aspect of cinema from production, to distribution, to exhibition. Today, only a handful of companies control most ways to see a movie, whether in theaters, by broadcast, cable, or DVD — in effect, a cartel.

Now — with enthusiastic participation by the Motion Picture Association of America — American big business is on the verge of eliminating open and competitive access to the Internet by independent companies. The practical effect would be that media companies — which own local cable/Internet monopolies throughout America — would decide what Web sites and which Internet services its subscribers would be permitted to use; and according to the amount they would be willing to pay. The Independent Film & Television Alliance — which organizes the American Film Market — opposes this, in favor of Net Neutrality.

Worldwide, the demand has slackened for independently-financed movies. Multinational media corporations lobby governments internationally, that the same deregulation by which they have come to control media in USA should be enacted everywhere in the name of free trade — taking advantage of popular superstition that globalization is inevitable.

Without a level playing field for competition, independently-financed motion pictures will find few ways to reach audiences.

The first, most crucial step in making a film is finding the funds to do it. Let Louise Levison, who wrote the innovative business plan for THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, show you how.

Whether you’re planning a feature, a short, a documentary, or a large-format film, Filmmakers and Financing: Business Plans for Independents teaches you how to create a business plan that can be presented to a potential investor.

In jargon-free plain language, the author leads you through every step. Each chapter concentrates on a different section of your business plan, including the industry, marketing, financing, and distribution.

There are supplementary exercises and spreadsheets on the included CD workbook, so you’ll get comfortable crunching the numbers — no math degree required! The latest, fifth edition contains completely revised and updated industry data, updated information on the market for short films, as well as a new chapter on nontraditional films such as documentaries. Highlights:

• A step-by-step approach to creating a business plan that will attract investor financing for a project
• A new chapter on non-traditional films such as documentaries
• Bonus CD-ROM

Buy Filmmakers & Financing: Business Plans for Independents now online at the Writers Store. [Movie Money]

BY AUSTIN BURBRIDGE. SANTA MONICA (CINEMA MINIMA) — The 28th American Film Market (2007) took place at a watershed moment in the business cycle of independent film. “Now, too many movies chasing too few outlets,” was the blunt summary by one participant. “It has been relatively easy to find money to make a movie; but the money for distribution has been limited. Big media around the world have been consolidating, and they are not looking for as much independently made stuff.”

Supply

On the one hand, a market table groaning under a splendid mass of more than 500 features — more than a hundred world premieres, more than 350 market previews — on offer to distributors. An excellent synchronization of the market with the American Film Institute’s AFI FEST 2007 added a gloss of nighttime publicity and prestige to the daily business of deals and distribution. The market and the festival together make the largest such event in North America, and constitute the largest gathering of film industry professionals. This 2007 AFM offered abundance and variety in the merchandise brought to market by producers and filmmakers from around the world. The supply side of the market is the sunny side of the street.

Demand

However, the demand side of the street was under the shadow of severe constraints. As multinational corporations consolidate their ownership into vertically integrated monopolies (or near-monopolies) — which is to say, they can manufacture the content that they show on the media and in the venues they already own — they have less need to pick up content produced independently. International markets for home video are limited as never before.

New Media

New media has been seen on the horizon as a distant, approaching rescuer of independently produced motion pictures. Now, as it gets closer, it offers some small prospects of new channels for distribution, but with considerable constraints. A tremendous amount of time has been spent (and will be spent) negotiating new media rights. In this respect the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA) — which organizes the AFM — makes significant contributions by offering the benefits of its research — and the experiences of its members — in the form of model contracts. Notwithstanding the resources available to grasp and to trade rights, revenue and revenue turnover — “How much? and When?” — are still complex issues which have yet to be resolved for efficient deal-making in the still-emerging new media environment. [Cinema Minima archive story 2007 November 6]