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Truly Free Film

Buffalo 8: Balancing The Art of Filmmaking With The Economics of Filmmaking

In the past we’ve written extensively about the economics of low budget filmmaking from the fundraising stages through the sales delivery. We’ve focused heavily during the early stages of our producing careers (and the founding days of the company) to build a sustainable business model that would allow us to produce content with a return structure. Bottom line — our focus has been economical and that was never the intention when we first started in the film/entertainment business. Our real passion was (and still remains, although slightly altered over the years) great content & impressive artists that have mastered the difficult craft of visual storytelling.
Whether an actor like DeNiro enthralling us with a performance, or a director like David Lean dazzling us with both the scope and intimacy of his storytelling abilities or a producer Harvey Weinstein impressing the notion that great films can be made — we were hooked and drawn in, like the majority of the entertainment business, by the art itself.

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Truly Free Film

BondIt: Speciality Film Financing Updates

UploadLending Club offers a great consumer solution — loans, lines of credit and access to capital that traditional banking and institutional lending cannot provide.  Additionally — Lending Club offers individuals the opportunity to make investments through the providing of capital to said consumers. As banks continue tightening their abilities to service specific opportunities (especially those in media, entertainment & technology) — BondIt has found an opportunity to provide value and customer service in the growing independent market place. As film & media producers we knew the realities of getting a project financed, produced and recouped — it is never a pleasant ride. Combining this reality with the financial and technology background our team brought to the table — BondIt continuing to expand by offering additional services, industry value and a growing fund.

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Truly Free Film

BondIt: Filling the Gap in Entertainment Financing & Offering Liquidity to Filmmakers, Sales Agencies and Sales Agents

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After the collapse of 2008 – entertainment banks began taking less risk – which in turn meant it became more difficult for independent film producers, filmmakers and film sales agents to access the capital (whether equity or debt) they needed to complete, gap, bridge, leverage or develop their project.

Today in 2014 – these same entertainment banks have adjusted their mentalities and aren’t necessarily “evacuating” the niche’s they once partook in — but they are certainly not re-visiting the previous opportunities of the pre-2008 era.

When we launched BondIt in early 2014 – we wanted to provide liquidity for union deposits (SAG, DGA, IATSE, etc…) and we expanded on that model as the demand grew for our services to broaden.

In the past few weeks we’ve begun beta testing our newest form of financing by offering liquidity once more – but this time to filmmakers, sales agencies and individual agents.

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Truly Free Film

Buffalo 8: How To Cut Through the Noise in the Over-saturated International Markets

Market figures
 
Different sources provide different figures but the bottom line is the same — too many films are being made on an annual basis.
 
“Too many” seems like a very broad term – but it isn’t. A recently conducted study resulted in a finding that the international community of audiences (those able to attend theaters, view content remotely traditionally as well as on mobile) was able to absorb 1,000 film per year.
 
The problem — roughly 8,000 films we produced/released in 2013.
 
With the markets therefore over-saturated by 87.5% – the cliched adage once again applies: something’s got to give.

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Truly Free Film

BondIt: Expanding Cash-Flow Opportunities to the Sales Side of the Independent Film Business

UploadBegan as producers & recognized problem

Before launching BondIt – our speciality financing operations to cover union deposits for feature films and theater productions – our team at Buffalo 8 Productions produced over 30 feature films.

Ranging in budgets and sizes — we dealt with the development, pre-production and post-production process — and branched in to the sales side of the business out of the necessity to build a revenue stream capable of sustaining a functioning business model.

As we grew as producers the company grew as well — offering new projects, larger budgets and further opportunities for the model we had built to pivot, adjust and expand.

More than anything – we recognized that capital allocations had changed for many of our colleagues as producers and production companies – with tight operating budgets and even tighter margins of profitability.

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Truly Free Film

Buffalo 8: Building Your Film Library for Value, Longevity and Leverage

 By Matthew Helderman, & Luke Taylor
 
At Buffalo 8 – we began our careers in the film business working as Assistant Directors on smaller independent sets, bouncing from project to project in the lower indie space.
 
Not only did AD’ing offer great insight and experience in to the the filmmaking process — but it also enlightened the reality that the film business is heavily driven on contracted labor that constitutes/requires the laborer to be present to continually earn wages.
 
As we began working 14-16 hours days – the hype and glamor that often surrounds the entertainment business was nowhere to be found — and so began our true education into the world of film production. 

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Truly Free Film

Buffalo 8: The Realities of Raising Capital for a Feature Film

 By Matthew Helderman, & Luke Taylor

Introduction
The difficulty in raising capital for any venture is two fold: first off, the market is crowded with opportunities that are currently earning strong returns. The stock markets, the bond markets and the traditional high yield sectors of real-estate, speciality finance and lending all present solid outlooks financially.
Second off, speculation is the killer of many financial deals. Being pragmatic and logical – who wants to invest in an opportunity when the return not only is unlikely but the timeline is completely unknown?