By Luke Taylor & Matthew Helderman
Building a business is an incredibly challenging task. You must recognize a problem. You must find a solution. You must structure a business model that is viable, strong, and withstanding. You must raise money on an idea alone. You must assemble a team. You must prove a market. You must acquire a customer base. You must create. You must operate efficiently and effectively. You must scale. Most importantly – you must provide a return.We’ve always equated producing a film to starting a business. In a short period of time, it is the producer’s responsibility to develop an idea, secure financing, assemble a team, and execute a marketable product that (hopefully) provides a return. In a shifting economy where technology has leveled the playing field between consumers and brands – budgets for all business development has inevitably plunged. In order to sustain in a world of instant gratification and rapid technological advancement – quantity supersedes quality.
Quantity comes from the ability to keep overhead to a minimum while the supplying necessary demand to keep your doors open. Film and television consumers have every advantage when it comes to viewing content. It is no longer required for a consumer to sit through commercials, stand in lines, wait for DVDs, or even pay to view their content of choice. As a film producer (or business owner), you must provide this supply – no matter how tight the budgets are. You must keep up with the demand.
How are businesses able to survive in a climate that requires them to produce more than they can financially sustain? Strategic partnerships. These partnerships provide the necessary leverage or missing pieces that enable businesses to compete and flourish in demanding and expensive marketplaces. Large or small scale – all businesses use partnerships as a support system to capitalize – whether it be for financial purposes, data collecting, or marketing.
On the larger scale – a film studio can partner with a production company to provide the production’s financing, while in turn providing mass distribution and campaigns to their films. The studio mitigates their financial risk by covering only distribution costs, and the production company now has the leverage for high return given the infrastructure and exposure/wide release capabilities of a studio.
On a smaller scale – a production house can provide a “flow through” deal with a post-house, receiving discounts, marketing boasting, or even office space. The production house now has the ability to market themselves as a larger entity and include post services, while the post-house receives significant amounts of additional business due to the partnership (and vice versa).
Given the lowering of budgets and increase in content creation – progressive and profit sharing partnerships are becoming not only inevitable for survival, but potentially very lucrative. This even-playing field has created an innovative ecosystem in the film space, with companies sharing their specialties and exploiting each other’s services to benefit all. This system of bartering – exchanging goods/services rather than currency – creates a necessary sense of egalitarianism and community within the film space and allows for businesses to thrive in a challenging economic landscape.
At both BondIt and Buffalo 8 – we view our partnerships as a foundation builder for each of our businesses. Our exclusive partnerships with ABS Payroll and Accounting Services and Entertainment Partners Payroll has given us the ability to acquire massive amounts of client info, contacts and production company/producer insight while also providing additional target marketing for projects heading into production. Similarly, our partners at Truman Van Dyke Insurance allows us to stand on the shoulders of a 50+ year old production insurance firm for data collection purposes and risk assessment technology perfection for individual project evaluation.
Access to this information has allowed us to launch with a sophisticated backend system and protection that would have otherwise taken years to build. Using existing partnerships through Buffalo 8, our production entity, we’ve been able to extend our outreach and expand our network of film producers.
Idea generation is only part of the solution to a problem. Execution is everything. Without proper and efficient execution – an idea is just that, an idea. From pressure comes creativity, and sustaining a viable business in a world of shrinking budgets forces a business owner to get creative. We encourage all filmmakers to partner in a similar fashion and utilize resources. There is nobody more resourceful than a quality film producer – after all, we don’t have much of a choice, do we?
BondIt was founded by independent film producers Matthew Helderman & Luke Taylor of Beverly Hills based Buffalo 8 Productions. Having produced 30+ feature films, the team recognized a dilemma in the production process — union deposits — and launched BondIt to resolve the situation to assist producers & union representatives alike.
