“In the Trenches…With the Producers”
by Kathryn Arnold – Entertainment Expert Witness

I often receive inquiries from around the world on how best to go about obtaining film financing. Projects come in all shapes and sizes – a wide array of genres, varying budgets and an assortment of experience levels. In every case, the biggest questions are: How do I put together financing for a movie? What elements need to be attached? Where does the money come from?

To get an accurate picture of what is going on in the industry today, I reached out to good friends who work on all sides of the equation as producers, financiers and distributors, both on the foreign and domestic front. The first interviews in the series are with Cindy Cowan and Jonathon Dana who have been in the trenches for many years as producers, financiers and distributors, and have a vast amount of experience to pull from. Let’s pull back the veil a bit and take a look at what is happening on the streets of independent filmmaking.

KA: Cindy you have been a producer, financier and distributor, what is your background….

CC: In 1995 I co-founded Initial Entertainment Group (IEG) with Graham King. During my time as president, we had a good run that included: an Emmy nomination for Rent-A-Kid starring Leslie Neilson; Emmy, Golden Globe and People’s Choice nominations for If These Walls Could Talk; a United Nations Award for Savior starring Dennis Quaid; and we produced the Oscar winning Traffic starring Michael Douglas. We also did Very Bad Things and Robert Altman’s Dr. T & the Women.

In 1999, I sold my two-thirds stake in IEG to Splendid Films and started Cindy Cowan Entertainment where I produced Scorched, and Fifty Dead Men Walking. (For a full bio please go to Cindy Cowan)

Jonathon you have an MBA in marketing and a Ph.D in Organizational Behavior, and are considered one of the pioneers in the industry. How did you get involved in the film industry?

JD: I entered the movie business right out of school in 1971 and my first feature film, the documentary “Sandstone” was released successfully in theaters in 1975 and was recently profiled on The History channel. I served as Director of Acquisitions and Development at The Samuel Goldwyn Company, President of Motion Pictures and Television at the Atlantic Entertainment Group, and President and CEO of specialized distribution company Triton Pictures.  I’ve had some luck with some prize-winning films at both Sundance and Cannes, and have been involved with such dramatic films as "The Spitfire Grill," " Patty Hearst," "Palmetto,” "Wish You Were Here, and "Noel";  comedies including "Valley Girl","Teen Wolf," "Drowning Mona,” and “Scorched;”  foreign language films "Toto the Hero", "The Hairdresser’s Husband," and "Soldier of Orange"; and feature documentaries including "A Brief History of Time," "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse,"

Currently I serve as Executive Producer on movies, or Consulting Producer, and also occasionally I will serve as Producer’s Representative on movies which other people produce and I then organize the distribution and supervise the marketing, usually world-wide. (For more information please go to Jonathon Dana)

To read the whole article, click here.

The Expert Witness Network free search directory at Witness.net contains many expert witnesses in many different niche areas.  One of these niche areas is structured finance expert witnesses.  To see our listings for these types of experts, click here: Entertainment Expert Witness

As a consultant and expert witness in the entertainment industry, the vast majority of cases that cross my desk are for economic damage or loss of wages claims. Most of the cases have been for personal injury, worker’s compensation, copyright infringement and wrongful death, with claims ranging from $250,000 to $90 Million. In all of the cases, whether settled in or out of court, the final settlements were for significant dollars.

Clearly the way these settlements are paid out can have an effect on one’s tax liability. Having never been the recipient of such a large claim, I had never looked into how the payout would be distributed or the choices available in the marketplace. However, I have recently been introduced to a concept called “Structured Settlements” which I found to be quite interesting and worthy of sharing with you. 

For Full Article…

View the entertainment expert witness profile of Kathryn Arnold in our expert witness directory here.

The large majority of lawsuits that involve individuals in the entertainment industry revolve around lost wages or fees. These claims often allege millions of dollars in lost earnings depending on the role the person plays within the industry. Given the exorbitant amount that some actors, writers, directors and producers earn, it’s easy to understand how often these claims get made. However, the operative word in this scenario is some.

The question one should ask is how do you best determine whether a particular individual should be categorized into that rare group of earners? In other words how do you determine whether the claim is purely speculative or can be proven within a reasonable degree of certainty?

For Full Article…

View the entertainment expert witness profile of Kathryn Arnold in our expert witness directory here.
 

Of the thousands of screenplays written every year, only 450 to 500 of these are "lucky" enough to be made into motion pictures. Of those produced, less than half are released in theatres and of those remaining, only a portion are released directly to DVD.

Those released directly to DVD and other media do not warrant the costs associated with a theatrical release and thus the producer/distributor mitigates the risk of negative cash flow. While major movie studios finance a number of these motion pictures, the range of stories they are interested in telling is limited, requiring producers to finance their movies outside the studio system and navigate the world of "independent film financing."

Whether a movie is produced by a major studio or independently, the expansion in world film revenues since 1970 has grown from $1.2 billion to over $15 billion annually.1 The MPAA further estimates that the entertainment industry generated $27.5 billion in California in 1996, compared with a U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimate of $13.1 billion. The entertainment industry is big business. To put it in perspective, of the core industries that drive California’s economy by exporting goods outside the state, motion pictures are the tenth largest and the fourth most rapidly growing.2 It is a high-wage sector, with average salaries 70 percent higher than salaries in other businesses statewide. A similar study conducted by Monitor Company, found that the movie and television industries contributed over $16 billion to the State of California’s economy, directly employing 164,000 and indirectly employing another 184,000 people. This allure of riches entices many into the industry, but very few succeed.

Read the full article here: "The Entertainment Industry – Points to Consider When Evaluating a Case":

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