American Film Market Dailies

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Yesterday’s Programming included:

Finance Conference

PRODUCING STUDIO FILMS WITH INDEPENDENT BUDGETS

Panellists:

§  Ashok Amritraj, Chairman & CEO, Hyde Park Entertainment

§  Miranda Bailey, CEO, Cold Iron Pictures

§  Jeffrey Greenstein, President, Millennium Media

§  Gary Michael Walters, CEO, Bold Films

Moderator:

§  Richard Botto, Founder & CEO, Stage 32

THE FILM FINANCE MATRIX: FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN

Panellists:

§  Anthony B. Beaudoin, Managing Director, Union Bank

§  Tamara Birkemoe, President & COO, Foresight Unlimited

§  Ryan Broussard, VP of Sales & Production Incentives, Media Services

§  Scott Edel, Partner, Loeb & Loeb LLP

Moderator:

§  David Offenberg, Associate Professor of Entertainment Finance, Loyola Marymount

Roundtable: International Awakening: Investing in Gender Diversity for Expanding Audiences around the Globe in Partnership with ReFrame

Panellists:

§  Alison Thompson, Co-President, Cornerstone Films

§  Janet Yang, Producer

§  Marguerite Pigot, Vice President, Outreach and Strategic Initiatives, CMPA (Canadian Media Producers Association)

§  Jonathan King, President of Narrative Film & Television, Participant Media

Moderator:

§  Kirsten Schaffer, Executive Director, Women in Film, Los Angeles

Quotes

Finance Conference- Producing Studio Films with Independent Budgets

Jeffrey Greenstein, President, Millennium Media

“I think the value proposition is definitely the right way to hit the nail on the head… talking about how to get money to make your film, I think the first question is what kind of film is it and where are people going to see it.”

“I would describe foreign sales as an understanding of what the revenues will be worldwide on the worst case basis.”

[on what films work in the international market] “We tend to call action the universal language.”

Ashok Amritraj, Chairman & CEO, Hyde Park Entertainment

“There’s always been a certain amount of equity out there… it’s just that, whether you’re making a million-dollar film or a 20 million dollar film, you’ve got to put the investor in a place where he’s got a shot of getting his money out.”

“From the word ‘go’ you have to be passionate about what you’re going to make because it’s a long road… Today I think, more than ever, is the day of the producer. You really have to want to make your movie, you really have to understand what movie you’re going to make and you have to execute at a high level.”

“Attaching talent is tougher than ever. They have a number of choices today… the competition is tough; the bar has been raised. The kind of material you have to develop has to be not just interesting but provocative to an actor.”

Miranda Bailey, CEO, Cold Iron Pictures

“There was this period of time where you could make a 3 million-dollar movie and you’d be able to make your money back … you have to make sure you’re making your budget for what it is actually going to sell for in the marketplace, which in my opinion is very low.”

“If you can make your movie for lower than [the sales company’s] lowest estimate, you will likely break even.”

Gary Michael Walters, CEO, Bold Films

“We’re moving into larger movies, and with that comes the existential need to have domestic distribution lined up.”

Finance Conference- From Script to Screen

Tamara Birkemoe, President & COO, Foresight Unlimited

“You have to make sure you have the right talent attached and in general you have to make sure that the foreign and the domestic [distribution sales] is enough in addition to whatever equity you have to make the movie.”

“Find the right sales agent for your movie. You want to find the ones that are going to sell your movie the best, the ones that know the buyers they’re going to sell to.”

Anthony B. Beaudoin, Managing Director, Union Bank

“Once you get into budgets that exceed 5 million, you want to have a distribution plan in place before going to the bank.”

Ryan Broussard, VP of Sales & Production Incentives, Media Services

“The incentives are probably the easiest part of financing, even though it is a process.”

Roundtable: Investing in Gender Diversity for Expanding Audiences around the Globe

Alison Thompson, Co-President, Cornerstone Films

“The BFI has brought in a set of diversity standards… if you want to apply for funding through the BFI, you have to comply with these standards, otherwise you won’t get funded.”

Janet Yang, Producer

“There’s more than just talk. There’s a lot more data out there that is so much more sophisticated than what had come out previously. There is simply no reason any longer not to make diverse content.”

[on optimism about the future] “As soon as there’s a paradigm shift, it’s infectious… A lot of paradigms are breaking up and so that’s why I feel encouraged.”

“Overall, I think China has contributed to the basic psyche of representation of Asians [in Hollywood].”

“With any of these programs that are being implemented… the question comes down to: What do you do after that woman or person of color got their opportunity? Is there opportunity for continued success? [because] the system is still skewed.”

Jonathan King, President of Narrative Film & Television, Participant Media

[On spirit of Hollywood] “In some ways, I think the big companies are better positioned to prioritize that (diversity inclusion) because of the structure and the kind of product they make; it’s a machine. They can say ‘I’m going to take a chance on someone… Whereas each independent film is its own operation.”

“We place a high priority on crew on our movies. Everyone’s focused on how many movies were directed by women, but often men graduate from other positions on the crew to directing and the pipeline isn’t really there [for women], so we focus on trying to diversify crew.”

Marguerite Pigot, Vice President, Outreach and Strategic Initiatives, CMPA (Canadian Media Producers Association)

“50/50x2020 obviously is going well if we’re at 44% (films directed by women) in 2018, but the percentages are different across the programs. Where we really need to push is in the higher budget levels, but what we’re told for the higher budget levels is that they can’t get the financing from the international marketplace because international buyers aren’t willing to invest in talent with a lack of track record.”

“We [as an industry] don’t really know how to be inclusive. It’s about being really conscious about training people in how to do the hiring and how to do the retaining of that staff.”