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Producers
There are seven key
principles and practices consistently employed by a small core of the
most powerful independent motion picture producers. It is assumed that
you have solid story sense, deep producing craft and a nose for the
audience. The seven are in addition to these, they are all business
related and are substantially easier to implement as a part of your
life and your production empire than the creative talent you have already
hard won. Engaging these seven principles and practices will dramatically
increase your creative freedom, packaging power, and profit share.
Here we list the seven principles. They can be found in more complete
form in The Producer's Business Handbook, available at major bookstores
and libraries. You can also receive a thorough introduction in them
by participating in a two day Producer's Business Seminar, scheduled
monthly. Or if you would like personalized help organizing, or more
importantly engaging them into your production organization you are
invited to schedule a preliminary meeting with us.
The Seven Major Principles and Practices Common Among the Film Industry's Most Successful Producers
1. Each uses an Internal Greenlight System
Understanding a studio's greenlighting criteria allows production organizations to replicate this process in their own shops. The internal greenlight system allows the producer to evaluate the strength of the picture before a studio meeting and even points producers to which studio distribution team will most predictably extract the greatest earnings for each picture.
The discoveries from this absolutely critical process become the center of each picture's financial future.
2. Each operates with Fully Funded Development.
Without question, most production companies fail because of under capitalization. Development is sophisticated, time-consuming and expensive. It should be approached with similar planning and funding as production. Producers must have their own development funding independent of a studio, sufficient to develop a slate of pictures.
This is the foundational practice, allowing each picture to predictably, unshakably move through the development process.
3. Each primarily or exclusively uses Bank Production Financing.
The primary importance of this practice is not the obvious advantages of low bank interest and copyright ownership of each picture. These are both valuable, but even more beneficial is that bank production financing pushes the producer into global distribution relationships for each picture. These relationships are critical to engage essential presale collateral and virtually insures that every picture produced has solid, global distribution, including at least the US and six major foreign territories with collaborative maturity from commencement of earnest development, months preceding production.
This is the catalyst that solidifies each picture's integrity.
4. Each Engages US and Foreign Territory Distribution Relationships for Each Picture During its Development.
Internal greenlights are confirmed first with a US studio and then with a major distributor in each of the six major foreign territories. These confirmations are the second step in each picture's earliest development evolution and the beginning of essential creative and marketing collaboration.
With an average of sixty percent (60%) of all global income being earned outside the US for US pictures, the foreign markets are essential in this process and contribute a broad array of essential elements, including cover-shot clarification and major media market preparation.
This process defines and clears the pathway to each picture's global audiences and income.
5. Each Plans the Rights Liquidation and either Sells Some Rights directly or participates in these sales.
This is beginning with the end in mind. Understanding the vast array of highly profitable ancillary sales areas, planning these rights sales with the producer negotiating and closing some of these sales, substantially increasing the producer's profitability and advancing each picture's distribution power.
This is the key to protecting each picture and maximizing its profitability.
6. Each Participates in the Campaign Management of their pictures in the US and the major foreign markets.
Campaign creative, media planning and media buying exists in a highly sophisticated world of its own. Few producers even understand the semantics. However, knowing your target audiences must have a minimum reach and frequency media buy to deliver minimally acceptable box office gross, allows producers to anticipate each picture's opening week-end with more understanding than trepidation. Studio distribution departments are rarely surprised. They know fairly closely what box office results the campaign will drive.
This is the ultimate topspin for each picture's profits.
7. Each is a Balanced Producer, giving equal weight to creative, audience and profits.
Production of the vision only seems like the producer's primary objective. When the picture is completed, especially if it fulfills the producer's creative objective, is when it is inescapably clear that the picture's capacity to play to its audiences, and return a profit to the producer are equally important with its creation. Balanced producers sustain an EQUAL check and balance between these three. Producers must: understand their creative craft, and remember that audiences experiencing their creations become the picture's income.
This balance
assures the stability of each picture as it passes through the processes
of development, production and distribution
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