Offering Additional incentives to financial investors

State film credits and grand-father scripts of section 181 of the Internal Revenue Code can offer investors a added incentive to invest.  If you are not familiar with Internal Revenue Code section 181, as a film maker shame on you. Federal job act allows for a production tax incentives. Section 181 allows for a 100 % tax deduction for motion pictures and TV series, oppose to film amortization over a 15 year period.

Section 181

An investor will be able to make an investment with your project for a great ROI without giving up the 100% immediate deduction in the current year committed. Here are some of the guidelines to follow to become eligible for this deduction. http://www.thewrap.com/movies/blog-post/grandfather-your-section-181-benefit-today-32265

“75% of the motion picture must be shot in the US to qualify for Section 181.
- There is a 15 to 20 million dollar budget cap.
- There is no minimum film production budget cost.
- TV pilots, TV episodes (up to 44), short films, music videos and feature films all qualify for Section 181.
- Section 181 can be applied to active income or passive income.
- Investors can be either individuals or businesses.
- Section 181 is retroactive.
- There is no expectation for film distribution or film completion. 
- The motion picture’s corporation issues Schedule K-1’s to the investors so they can take advantage of Section 181”.

For an investor the qualify deduction allows tax rebates and incentives, additional federal and state incentives, may have NOL to carry-back two years or carry-forward for twenty. If investors are set with this years tax incentives, make sure you take advantage of the grandfather rule in section 181 benefits.  Every dollar counts, so think like an investor.

State Tax Credit

Most states like, Louisiana offer tax credits up to 30% of the production budget and additional city or parish credit that may be used to offset tax liabilities. There are standard applications to apply for these credit and they are disbursed first come first served.

http://louisianaentertainment.gov/index.php/film/news/

Louisiana guidelines and clear and straight to the point. Production must be held in the state of Louisiana, a minimum of $300k and above and below the line cost are included. If your not happy with that, after an CPA audit has taken place, the production company may request the state of La. To purchase the film credit for 85% of the certified value. How is that for incentives!

What are the correct steps to finance your indie film?

With the current US finance market and economy in turmoil and sputtering on the road to success. Now is the time to convince alternative financial sources to think out side the box on what is the next boom to invest in.

There are hundred of private investment firms that are commissioned to select wise investment to grow funds and create high level yields and strong return on investment. Can your indie film be that investment?

What types of financing opportunities are available?

Two alternative funding sources I would like to recommend are, AKAMAI Capital,

Website (for more information): http://akamaicapital.com/ and New Market Growth, Website (for more information): http://www.newmarketsvp.com/.

Each of these funds offers financial options from equity; loans, hybrid financing and gap loans for specialize funding, such as film.

• Companies unable to qualify due to stringent underwriting from traditional loans
• The funds target capital needs from season companies
• Companies that will assist socioeconomically distressed area’s

Your financing should include Print and Advertising to let the investor know that you are thinking about repaying the investment.

Sounds exciting, next you need to know how to qualify?

Before turning in your financial package for consideration, the company should take the following example as the investment criteria:

• Management Team
• Business model
• Competitive Advantage
• Market Solution
• Current Sales & Marketing
• Project Sales & Marketing
• Exit Strategy

The above criteria should be address in your company business plan.

 Other helpful information

What ever your company lacks on paper or experience, each of these financial partners can help you build a strong and reliability business that can grow the company assets and profits. Each provide a season management team with a wealth of general and specialized business to meet your needs.

Each company will support management from beginning to the very end of the venture.

Listen to your customer, therein lies the truth

MARK CUBAN

Through out Mark’s twenty-Five plus years of business he has faced a muiltude of challenges from investors to sales and customer service. When purchasing Landmark Theater chain, Mark has set up a blog to find the answer from customers like you and I to come up with a solution to place body in the seats of Landmark movie theaters. http://www.businessinsider.com/james-harden-got-where-he-is-today-thanks-to-a-great-cover-letter-2012-5

As a customer and connoisseur of the film experience, I think what is missing is the basic ideal of business; product, pricing and marketing. Like many film exhibitors Landmark depends on studios to provide a complete product that consumers want to view.

Product

What’s missing is the studios no longer have the glamor of hollywood in corporated in their film. The scripts lack sustains and what was once a world to escape, even just for a few hours, we as customers are left without imagination as if we wrote the script ourself.

Hollywood has failed the theater exhibitors in providing film characters we idolize and reverence on the big screen. Instead we are left with weak dialog and special affects for our money. There’s no longer anticipation for the next 007 film with the latest gadgets and smooth words of flirtation with Ms. Moneypenny.

 http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Criticism-Ideology/Exhibition.html

Pricing

Although major studios no longer control and own the film exhibition market, there are some signs of influence. One can suggest there seems to be in place still to this day “the run-zone-clearance system”. It’s what the oil companies call zone pricing. Ticket prices in one area is higher than another area for the same exhibitor chain. Role out release date, from cities to states all under the direction of major studios prividing films.

Marketing

In recent years exhibitors have tried to fill seats by offering everything from live concerts, special events and give-a-ways to draw viewers. US theaters viewership has dropped over 24% since 2010. The only thing that makes sense is that, each market is different and there is no longer a cookie cutter nation wide plan for most film content.

http://www.baselineintel.com/research-wrap?detail/C8/film_exhibitors_getting_into_the_acquisition_and_release_game_will_squeeze_

Oprah Winfrey

It’s ironic how one business like Landmark Theaters, have a direct affect with the Oprah Winfrey Network. Once again let’s start with product. The OWN channel have selected twenty-four hours of networking programming to build viewership. The larger the viewership the more advertisers are drawn to the channel. Which results into more marketing or sales dollars, more job security and opportunity for public stock growth to investors.  http://www.oprah.com/own

Prior to purchasing content for “OWN” there is an indicator to measure how viewers will react to schedule programmed TV shows. Buyers of the network should ask? were they theaterical releases? How was the film attendence and how long was the run? These questions will help determine what percentage of viewers will follow the film to “OWN”.

Thus begins the negotiations process to buy product you can make money off of and add value to your film library, increasing the company asset and make investors happy.

 http://madamenoire.com/111321/why-isnt-oprahs-own-channel-a-ratings-success/

Conclusion

Create a successful business plan that includes a strong product, sales and marketing section that details how one supports the other. These are all key ingredients that provides a blueprint to a successful business.

Just recently, the history channel partner with Kevin Costner production to create a mini-series of the Hatfield and McCoys.  http://www.history.com/shows/hatfields-and-mccoys

The mini-series drew more than 14million viewers. This long standing american folk legend brough to life showed film and TV executives that, “If you build it, they will come”.  A quality scripted product; excellent price, monthly cable cost for the hole family to view and marketing. The reward for this winning formula is equal to $114m, if view at theater near you, at a $8 ticket price, executives, listen to your customers, therein lies the truth.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/05/31/historys-hatfields-mccoys-shatters-records-with-14-3-million-total-viewers-on-night-three/136394/

Two Experts share their business blue print in Media Success!

MARK CUBAN

A native of Pittsburgh, Pa. Mark Cuban attended Indiana University were he major in Business Administration. Inheriting entrepreneur spirit from his grandfather Morris Chobanisky, Mark chose to put his business skills to work and rent the Bloomington National Guard armory to promote parties and used the profit to pay for out of state tuition.

After graduating from I.U. in 1981, Mark accepted a position at Mellon Bank located in his home town of Pittsburgh. It did not take long for Mark to establish himself by studying machines and networking as Mellon was updating their system to computers.

A year later Mark took his energy on the road and landed in Dallas, Tx were he open a business consulting firm specializing in computer software called MicrosSolutions. A short time later Mark and friend, Tood Wagner wanted to listen to their beloved I.U. basketball games. What came next was the birth of online radio, AudioNet. After renaming the company to Broadcast.com. The company went public and was sold to Yahoo for $6B.

In 2000, Mark was the proud owner of NBA franchise, Dallas Mavericks, other ventures of Mark’s were the purchase of Landmark Theaters, alone with a healthy stake in Lions Gate Entertainment. http://www.biography.com/people/mark-cuban-562656

Oprah Winfrey

In her early years Oprah Winfrey showed signs of outstanding achievement by learning how to read at the age of three. Oprah was surrounded by God fearing followers of the faith, in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her grandmother, alone with church community sensed her anointment to greatness.

Once her mom became settled in Milwaukee, Oprah moved in with her mother. Within time young Oprah found herself alone due to her mother long working hours. Oprah was repeatedly molested by male relatives and family visitors from the age of 9 – 13.

Attempting to escape, she found herself moving in with her father in Nashville, Tennessee where under her father strict discipline, Oprah began showing signs of exceptional fortuity and endurance of strength. Oprah accomplishment were just beginning, at the age of 17, Oprah won Miss Black Tennessee. Prizes included scholarship to Tennessee State University, on air job at radio station WVOL.

Oprah, leveraged her life experience and moved to Baltimore to join WJZ-TV News as a young co-anchor. A natural in front of the camera, Oprah hosted “People Are Talking” a local talk show. Next stop, Chicago where Oprah “turned AM Chicago into the hottest show in town”.

From 1985 to current, Oprah has developed into a world wide brand that is known today only as OPRAH.    http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/win0bio-1




Critical & Key components:
Control and passion in life will transfer to business, are both philosophy that Oprah and Mark Cuban live by. Mark suggest that each entrepreneurs should know how the company will make sales and profit. Additionally, the entrepreneur should no their core business or objective and stay the course.

Although, Oprah has over 500 employees, she control her brand name, direction and future projects as the CEO of her empire.

Why are these considered Key:

Every business expert will mention that your business plan should have an mission, objective and know were profits will come from. That is the core blueprint to all business plans.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222524

Using RSS to target indie film to distributors

To the technology world, RSS means, “Really Simple Syndication” not sure what that means? Well, let me say if excused correctly, it will mean additional traffic or attention directed to the target of your choice. Hopefully, that’s your indie film you’re bring attention to.

Digital Marketing

The internet has allowed indie filmmakers to advertise their film to the world and optimize their project to viewers for a minimum cost. By syndicating your film website with the following internet social media tools like, facebook, google plus, twitter, linkedIn, youtube, viemo and Imdb, filmmakers can grab the attention of audiences for a fraction of normal print and advertising cost of traditional film marketing.

Film Applications

Movie goers no longer rely on the weekly Friday or Saturday night to seek there entertainment, now there are mobile apps, laptops, iPads, Kindles all equipped with software that allow fans to download the film of their choice. Connecting to the audience is the objective, for distributors of the digital market. Reach them where they are, on the phone or searching the web using the tool of choice and converting apps to VOD on mobile device.

Independent Monitor

Never fear, free internet application are here, that allow indie filmmaker to monitor the movie “Key Performance Indicators” (KPI) campaign. If your objective is to increase awareness or prompting a product purchase, they can all be monitored by placing KPI’s goals in place, generate a KPI target and agreeing to the target goal.

Filmmakers can use college interns to set up and maintain the digital marketing campaign, list the duration, channels. Interns can suggest the online objective KPI goals and target. Improve the “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO) a webmaster tool that help fans to find your project and offer strategies that will maximum the conversion rate.

Self Film Distribution made eaiser

Self film distribution is on the move, no longer is the platform limited to showing your project at film festivals in hopes of sales agents offering negative pick up deals.  The digital marketing world can help establish independent filmmakers with online opportunities increasing public awareness.

Self-Distribution Websites:

With the help of sites like, SnagFilm, Open Film and Indie-A-Go Go for example, these sites raise revenue, sell ad space and share the revenue percentage with the licensee keeping all rights. SnagFilm and Indie-A-Go Go, also offer the filmmakers to earn full revenue from any DVD distribution deals.

Mopix is the newest addition to the self-distribution world and it’s currently in a beta stage. It’s an application-based platform for content. Filmmakers or distributors can upload all content they would normally put on a deluxe DVD. The price is set by the filmmaker and is made available for viewing using the Mopix application.

Launched recently, Stonehenge Production’s Film applications are also custom designed for each client and include such features as social media integration, social activism components, games and in-application purchase options. The filmmaker maintains 100% of the revenue generated from a Stonehenge developed application and is only charged a startup cost of $680. 

Egg Up, is an online media distribution application that facilitates both film rentals and sales by enabling a filmmaker to distribute films on multiple platforms and websites with creation of what they’re calling an ‘egg’. The filmmaker is able to distribute the film on one’s own website and other online retailers without any set-up fees. Their plans range from a free, 8GB storage plan to a larger storage space offered at $99.99 a month. 

Each year there are more and more website dedicated  to launch film projects to assist indie filmmakers with distribution. Filmmakers no longer need traditional distribution method with the advacement of technology. 

How to select the correct sponsor for you?

Weather you’re the local Boys and Girl club or the next number one draft pick preparing for the professional level of your sport, beware of your agent sending out generic sponsorship packages that are lacking strategic alliances.

In the past corporate marketing and advertising departments were unable to quantify the value of sponsorship packages they were asked to participate in, they were given the sky the limit pitch for providing a check for the event. That is no longer the case, advertiser have learned to calculate the value of the marketing and able to determine the rate of return for each sponsorship campaign.


What's your strategy?
Strategic alliances are something that is over looked on both sides of the campaign. Both must do their homework and research to consider the lifestyle, target consumer, emotional connection, but more importantly, what is the impact their market share. The main questions are how do you know if it’s the correct fit.

Before the sponsorship package reaches the potential client, the brand value must match and meet the value of all parties connected with the project. The athlete must have complete by in and have corporate loyalty for maximum results. Is this a product that the athlete will use if he does not receive any benefit or compensation?


Blue Print to Activate Plan
From a corporate perspective, the opportunities to build a stronger brand alliance value with the event or athlete they are partnering with. Linking or collaborating brands can be brilliant or it may show a flaw and misconception to the target consumer. Prior to any contract signed, corporate analyst review the economic cost and effective measured by increased sales, additional exposure and over all brand achievement.

Entertainment marketing has evolved to a detailed scientist research database of reliable information of do’s and don’t. IEG sports sponsorship report provides audience research newsletter discussing everything from sponsorship strategies, selling points, associations and who is seeking deals. IEG sponsorship content is subdivided into industries, property types and sponsorship topics. As a novice, you can now speak the same language as professional advertising marketers and branding companies. Consider this the equivalent as the, Internal Revenue Code book used by the IRS. A subscription is just a click away!