“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

The excerpt below is from an article from Pit & Quarry and is a good example of where explosives and blasting expert witness may be required.

Quarry-style drilling and blasting is used to excavate a large construction site in the Bronx.

A water treatment/filtration plant (designated the Croton Water Treatment Plant Project) will be built on site once the excavation is completed. The plant will be subterranean, lying directly below Van Cortlandt Park’s Mosholu Golf Course.

The pictures most people conjure up when New York City (NYC) comes to mind are skyscrapers, the bright lights of Broadway, the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center at Christmastime and Fifth Avenue where only the affluent dare to shop.

One of the most extraordinary sights, however, is outside Manhattan in the Bronx, where a great excavation is under way. The excavation opening is nine acres, and will be 90-ft. deep when completed. A total of 175,000 in situ cu. yd. of overburden is being removed, followed by 950,000 in situ cu. yd. (1.6-million tons) of rock.

Challenge; Solution; Tip

 

There are a number of considerations when carrying out a construction project in NYC. There are the logistics to access the project, i.e., construction materials deliveries and the exporting of excavated materials, which are slowed by daily traffic snarls. Additionally, there are strict security regulations to follow during construction activities that were brought about by the tragic 9/11 event. This includes special drilling and blasting regulations.

Sandvik Mining and Construction and its dealer Contractors Supply Inc., has assisted the contractor, Schiavone Construction Company Inc., Secaucus, N.J., in addressing many of the special regulations on drilling and blasting. This includes supplying efficient, environmentally friendly drilling rigs.

Schiavone is making this project a successful one with its skillful management team. The company has many years of experience in carrying out major construction projects in NYC and has continually demonstrated its ability to complete projects on time with quality results.

Only the complete project’s cost of $1 billion overshadows the excavation phase of it, which is costing more than $127-million. The owner of the project is the NYC Department of Protection (DEP), which is responsible for NYC’s water supply.

Full Article

 

 The legal system in the Cayman Islands operates one unusual, and perhaps progressive, difference from United States custom and law. Operating under British law, the Cayman Islands uses different rules governing expert witnesses. Accident reconstruction expert witness Jeffrey D. Armstrong, P.E. recently testified as an expert in two trials in the Cayman Islands.

Expert witnesses for both sides of the case meet prior to the court date to discuss the case and examine points of fact that can be agreed upon by both experts. Mr. Armstrong explains that these shared points are no longer in question in court and questions in the case only relate to the areas that the expert witnesses disagree. This provides an interesting—and often time-saving—approach to expert witness testimony.

Read more: Cayman Compass.

See Jeffrey D. Armstrong, P.E.’s expert witness profile in the Expert Witness Network directory.

To learn more about many different expert witnesses, visit our free searchable directory at Witness.net.

Great presentation from expert witness Ayman Nassar on Business Architecture as presented to the Baltimore chapter of the International Institute of Business Analysis.

Presentation PDF

Ayman Nassar is a business and IT architect, technical project manager, systems engineer and leadership coach. He brings over 20 years of experience in project management, systems architecture, technology marketing, new product development, new business operations and formation. He is founder of the Islamic Leadership Institute of America, Intercontinental Networks and author of three books in project management and numerous workbooks in leadership development. Click here to learn more about Ayman.

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.

1:00 p.m. Eastern (10:00 a.m. Pacific)

Run Time: 90 minutes

I would like to invite you to attend my audio conference, “Current Hot Topics in Lease Escalations: Avoid Theft by Additional Rentals” on Tuesday, November 16^th.  I will be presenting along with Marc A. Maiona of CyberLease, LLC.

The two costliest line item component issues in a killer commercial lease are fixed rentals and additional rentals. By far, the most expensive and least understood and budgeted for are the hidden costs of additional rentals. The killer lease forms in aggressive money market center cities can take the traditional incremental increases in operating expenses, real estate taxes and utility charges, and cause them to double the fixed rent in four to six years rather than in the traditional 12 to 15 years, even in or especially in a down market. Attend our audio conference to understand why and save on the multiplier effect in leases. View agenda here.

Follow this link to register for this audio conference http://bit.ly/d1JTgQ

Thank you

John Busey Wood

Thompson & Knight LLP

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.
 

For the first time in 70 years, Congress is poised to close the holes in the federal law that allows chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities and other illnesses to be used in the products we use on our bodies every day.

Last week, Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), introduced the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, (HR 5786), which gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to ensure that personal care products are free of harmful ingredients. Existing law, passed in 1938, granted decision-making about ingredient safety to the cosmetics industry.

“Harmful chemicals have no place in the products we put on our bodies or on our children’s bodies,” said Rep. Schakowsky. “Our cosmetics laws are woefully out of date—manufacturers aren’t even required to disclose all their ingredients on labels, leaving Americans unknowingly exposed to harmful mystery ingredients. This bill will finally protect those consumers.” 

Click here for the full article.

Please visit Witness.net to learn about Sue Phillips, a cosmetics and fragrance expert witness listed in our FREE expert witness directory.

Many factors go into the creation of a great distributor agreement. Mistakes in a distributor agreement are almost invisible during the courtship between a distributor and a manufacturer. Unfortunately, those same mistakes grow into glaring errors at the end of a distribution partnership. In order to avoid problems at the time of termination, the creator of a distributor agreement must ensure that unsound clauses are not inserted and that particular phrases are not omitted. Here is a checklist of ten common mistakes to avoid when drafting your next distributor agreement.

1. Too Much Too Fast
2. Termination for Cause Only
3. Annual Termination and Semiautomatic Renewal
4. Exclusive or Nonexclusive
5. Frequency of Price Changes
6. Termination by Only One Party – Not Both
7. Frequency of Amendments
8. What Happens after Termination?
9. Comparison with Proven Industry Agreements
10. Leaving the Negotiation Process Strictly to Attorneys

Visit New Era Consulting to view expanded commentary on each of the 10 Distributor Agreement Mistakes and to learn more about Glen Balzer and his work as a Sales and Marketing Expert Witness.

Additional Sales and Marketing Expert Witness resources available in the Witness.net expert witness directory.