FilmFinancing : Editorial

(Last week was the summer workshop of the Atlantic Film Group’s “Film Financing – Getting your film financed”.

The course outlines the current state of the film financing environment. Atlantic get in speakers who are experts in their field, be it Distribution, Sales, Legal etc. and who are (more importantly) currently working in their area of expertise.

The workshop gives a comprehensive overview of exactly what the current environment is for getting your film financed - warts and all.

Course leader and Atlantic Film Group's Head of Production, Alan Harris reflects on Warts and S-Bends)

Last week was the summer workshop of the Atlantic Film Group’s “Film Financing – Getting your film financed”.

The course outlines the current state of the film financing environment. We get in speakers who are experts in their field, be it Distribution, Sales, Legal etc. and who are (more importantly) currently working in their area of expertise.

The workshop gives a comprehensive overview of exactly what the current environment is for getting your film financed - warts and all.

It was these “warts” that were the most interesting element to me when talking to participants during the Wiggin sponsored networking drinks. Whereas the majority of people were extremely relieved to be finally given the real facts from these “horses mouths”, there were one or two who didn’t or wouldn’t accept the environment as it was being presented to them.

Each time we run a workshop we give the participants evaluation forms so that they have a chance to comment on and continually improve the workshops. On one previous evaluations there was the following comment:

“After being on Atlantic’s two day Film Financing workshop you are left with two choices, either give up, or rise to the challenge”.

I personally think this is the best complement that anyone has bestowed upon the workshop.

Is it easy to become a film producer? Absolutely. It takes a trip down to Snappy Snaps to get 500 business cards printed saying Joe Bloggs - Producer. There are no barriers to entry, if you call yourself a producer that is good enough.

Is it easy to make a career as a film producer? Absolutely not. It is tough, tougher than you can imagine.

As with most careers, you need skills and training and experience. You wouldn’t print off 500 cards and call yourself Joe Bloggs - Plumber without first gaining the tools, skills and basic understanding of the S bend so why do people think that producing is any different?

Michael Kuhn Chairman, Head of UIP wrote:

“The most annoying thing about the British industry is that producers do not want to hear the key fact that they need to know if they are to be successful:

Producing the film is only one third of the job: the other two thirds are marketing and "the numbers" - specifically how distribution margins are created and then disbursed

Unless producers understand all three of these aspects of the business - the production process, marketing and distribution margins - they have little chance of being successful. The marketing and the "numbers" are the areas where British producers tend to be weakest.”

A solid understanding of finance plans, recoupment schedules, the flow of funds through the exploitation windows, legal documentation, co-production treaties and agreements, regional, national and international subsidy and funding sources, the sales and distribution processes is as important as a knowledge of the development and production functions.

It is not a question of having an in-depth understanding of all of these areas but a good producer at the very least knows what they don’t know and this enables them to get someone who does understand these areas.

Atlantic Film Group’s film financing workshops do not sugar coat the ever-changing environment that we currently are trying to finance our projects within. We must be realistic enough and courageous enough to accept the reality and continue to learn new skills and build our toolboxes in order to have successful careers as Producers.

As one of our last participants put it:

Not gonna take the lift out,
Not gonna take the stairs,
Why are all the windows locked?

filmfinancing.co.uk

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