intro

Inspired by various blogs here – I feel I should share the teensy little I know about the business side of things in film. The fact that I work at a company (as opposed to being freelance) makes it all a bit weird – wouldn’t want to get my colleagues or my boss complaining about divulging “industry secrets”.  But in general the non-transparency of the business is probably a result of the fact that so few people are doing it, rather than a deliberate attempt to hide things.  And, haha, in general people seem to think the financiers and the studios are the bad guys, and usually the director/producer would have to wage a Lord of the Rings type battle to get their movie done, and success would come despite of the greedy and ignorant “suits”.  Well, as with most things, the truth is probably somewhere in between…

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So… to start off, what is it that I exactly do? Even my family keeps asking me the question, and I have a hard time explaining.  

Essentially, my role involves putting together things so we can get a movie made at my company.  This involves screening ideas, choosing the project, securing the financing, negotiating out the contracts with the key people in the movie (i.e. director, producer, scrīptwriter), pre-sales (sales before the movie is completed), and sales (after the movie is completed), after sales (delivery of actual movie materials and documentation), marketing (film markets, star tours) and unfortunately and inevitably, handling various disputes when all is said and done.  Evidently it is impossible for me to do all of these things by myself – I have various bosses and various colleagues in other departments that take care of different tasks.  But pretty much I am involved in all of these facets to varying extents, we’re not a big team so we make do.

Maybe whoever comes across this can let me know which aspects you might be interested in knowing more about…