It is highly regarded as common sense to “not put all your eggs in one basket”. Yet most film investors, win or lose, get out after just one or two investments. This is not good for them and it is not good for the creators, either.
Just like the filmmakers, investors in Indie Film tend to
Let’s say you were one of Twitter’s initial hires. The IPO has made you a multi-millionaire. Being in the Bay Area you’ve had a front row seat (courtesy of The San Francisco Film Society) how strategic film investments at critical times can make great cinema live (BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, FRUITVALE STATION, SHORT TERM 12, TEST, and so on). You have an idea that if contribute a bit here and there you can help bring the Bay Area Cinema Renaissance into being. Now you are trying to figure all you need to know about investing in film. Where are you at? What more do you need to know?
You may have been noticing, that I am on a mission to create a sustainable investor class. It can be done. Part one is creating a new infrastructure — and that will come through Institutionalized Staged Financing. Part two is an educated investor base. And this, the third part in this blog series of what an investor must have, is part of that second part.
If you have half a brain and STILL want to invest in the film business, you know you need access to one thing: quality projects. But how do you get that? The truth is that accessing quality projects is a barrier to entry for any but those of the deepest pockets. Sooner or later most wise investors realize that are shut out of the top projects and their only chance of success is dumb luck. If we want to develop a sustainable investor class, we need to develop a method for them to participate in true quality.
If new financiers don’t find the quality projects, chances are they won’t last. How is the industry to sustain, let alone grow and evolve if it is just the same old same old? We need a plan to
As I mentioned last week, if you have half a brain and STILL want to invest in the film business, you know you need access to quality projects. But generally speaking there are a few other things you want too. I think this post subject (TASIC) can become a regular weekly column. Today we will explore the phrase that should be on every potential film investor’s lips: a portfolio approach to investment.
Knowledgeable Investors are not going to bet the horse or house on one trick pony. Wise players want
In my 38 Ways The Film Industry Is Failing Today post, I cited at #2 “The film industry has never tried to build a sustainable investor class”. That was over two years ago. What progress has been made?
The need for greater transparency, access, education, and community in film investment circles is only now being generally recognized in the film industry. For over a century, the powerful kept close hold on the financial side of things, limiting access between creators and supporters. This required always paying a visit to
It’s pretty simple. When people make money doing something, more money enters that system. And it is pretty simple in the reverse: when some people make a bucketload and those that invested in it make virtually nothing, less money flows into the system.
If distributors don’t pay creators their fair share of the profits, their won’t be movies made. Or maybe the investors will get wise and stop selling the distributors the film. After all we are at a time that you can really do it yourself (by doing it with others). And to be clear, “fair share” doesn’t mean paying them what contract swindles them out of — it means paying them an ethical cut. And that sure in hell ain’t 12.8% of the profits — which is what happened on one of the most successful indie films of recent times.
