Tag: sustainable investor class

Categories
Truly Free Film

The Really Good Things In FilmBiz 2014

Let's look at the bright side!
Let’s look at the bright side!

Some rituals help keep us focused throughout the year. This marks the 4th time I have looked back at all the good things that occurred in the film biz and listed them out for all of us. Tracking them through year, keeps me from abandoning hope. Sometimes they may just be the silver lining in the storm cloud, but nonetheless they keep me going, keep me convinced that in fact we truly are: building it better together. I hope they do something close to that for you. It’s been a good year, and I have thirty two morsels to tempt you with. And of course the year’s not through yet, so perhaps you have some to add to this too. 

If you’ve encountered elements of this list earlier on my postings in Film Comment and on Keyframe, pay careful attention as I have weaved some new points into all for your reading pleasure. And if you like a little of the bitter to wash down the sweet, don’t forget the list of 30 Bad Things In 2014’s Film Biz here.

Continue reading “The Really Good Things In FilmBiz 2014”

Categories
Truly Free Film

You Will Never Make Any REAL Money With Hollywood

how do you expect to get your money from Hollywood?
how do you expect to get your money from Hollywood?

Why did Mike DeLuca leave an incredibly successful producing career to return to the executive suite at Sony? After leaving the reigns of New Line, he produced Moneyball, The Social Network, and Captain Phillips among others.  It’s hard to match his track record.  Yet he too has given up producing.  Why?

One can only assume the autonomy of producing is more pleasurable than the pressures of running a studio.  One can also assume the confines of Sony are a hell of a lot more secure.  Rarely does one gets paid their value for producing a film, and if it is a project you love and is even a wee bit challenging you are going to watch that diminished fee take another cut or five. If you want financial security or wealth, don’t be a producer.

But there’s always the back end, right?

Continue reading “You Will Never Make Any REAL Money With Hollywood”

Categories
Truly Free Film

What Do Film Investors Need To Become A Sustainable Class

Note: If you’d like to share this, please use this shortened link: http://bit.ly/JKytyB

By now I think you know that creating a Sustainable Investor Class For Indie Film is a priority for me.  I have been sharing my thoughts on a weekly basis in this regard for some time now.  Today is a good time to collect those thoughts and take stock as to where we are. Our future depends on us.

If you want to make films for the rest of your life, you not only need to help increase the pool of capital for such creative practices, but you also have to make sure that the money behaves in a smarter fashion than before. You can’t expect people to just do something because it makes sense.  Knowledge rarely influences behavior. To make change, you need to create a system.  That is the next step.

Right now, we can improve the knowledge base, and it is time we focused on the investor base.

Continue reading “What Do Film Investors Need To Become A Sustainable Class”

Categories
Truly Free Film

Towards A Sustainable Investor Class: Recognize Non-Financial Returns

In my quest to create a Sustainable Investor Class for Indie Film, it is easy to get bogged down in the numbers.  When one says “investor” hopefully we think first of “profits”, but that is not the only thing that positive choices can generate.  After all, we are talking about investing in culture, right?

American art film is under threat.  Independent film that is not based on the “Oops, I Farted!” template (thanks again to Mike Ryan for naming this category for me) is currently at risk.  That which has been deemed commercial is not only what gets the most traction, it often seems all that people want to talk about. Generally speaking, the industry aims to create what will sell; the harder that get,s the lower they reach.  Independent film was once about what we aspire to be; now it frequently seems to be focused on what we wallow in.Do you really want to be part of that?  It is not just about the money, is  it?

I remain convinced that we all entered the film biz driven to make something great.

How do we

Continue reading “Towards A Sustainable Investor Class: Recognize Non-Financial Returns”

Categories
Truly Free Film

Towards A Sustainable Investor Class: Diverse And Deep Industry Knowledge

Potential film investors need to be educated about what is working and what is not, where it works, and what could be done. No one likes to look foolish, but most film investors come to the industry having made their wealth in other fields (or having not actually generated it themselves) and thus often start with a paucity of the necessary and a surplus of the inapplicable.

Investments should be made based on educated choice, not an impulsive or biased guess — and certainly not on the advice of conflicted advisors.

The problem here is

Continue reading “Towards A Sustainable Investor Class: Diverse And Deep Industry Knowledge”

Categories
Truly Free Film

Towards A Sustainable Investor Class: Have A Good Time

If you don’t enjoy what you do you won’t stay with it.  

Freud and The Ancient Greeks all recognized that you need a balance between work, love, and play.  For a system to be sustaining, it should have an equal balance between all three. It has be something you care about, that your labor and time can improve and produce just rewards, and it has to deliver joy. Film investment can be

Continue reading “Towards A Sustainable Investor Class: Have A Good Time”

Categories
Truly Free Film

Towards A Sustainable Investor Class: Deliver Risk Appropriate Returns

The Film Industry has historically sought out “dumb money”, people willing to make the sucker bet.  This is akin to basing the global transportation system on fossil fuel — at a given time ,you run out the resource and have the joy of having destroyed your planet or culture in the process.  Why are we doing this? Isn’t it time this process stopped? Can we just find the photos of those responsible now, put them on the wall, and say “These people destroyed what we once loved?”

It is as if The Studios make sport of trying to make sure that the creators and their supporters don’t earn their fair share.  By now everyone knows both the tales of

Continue reading “Towards A Sustainable Investor Class: Deliver Risk Appropriate Returns”