Tax Credits and the Film Industry

A few years ago everyone knew that California was the motherland of all things movies. California has Hollywood, Los Angeles, and Burbank. It’s the home to some of the largest film production companies. It’s where all the stars live, and Hollywood houses the Walk of Fame. If anyone wanted to make it in show business, they moved to Hollywood. According to an article on Forbes.com “Fifteen years ago 64% of the top 25 live-action movies were filmed in California.” Today, unfortunately that number has fallen to 8%. California doesn’t even rank 2^nd in the highest film production locations.

According to a report from FilmLa stating, “with the exception of California, all of the top five locations last year were places offering “substantial uncapped film incentives programs”. Uncapped means that the state does not set a limit on how much it will spend in a given year.” Currently California has a $100 million cap in tax incentives. Apparently there is new legislation in the works. Louisiana, Georgia, and Canada are locations that have greatly been benefiting from this tax cap in California. Louisiana not only had a total of 18 big movies produced with in the state. A total of 13,690 jobs were created from this. Even though Canada had more jobs created, a total of 14,170, they produced 15 big movies, 3 less than Louisiana.

                     

                                                   Chart provided by FilmLa report.

According to the Forbes article, producer Ram Bergman says, “Movie people are nomads. We go where the best deal is”. It’s this kinds of change in the industry that is really hurting the state of California. There are a lot of freelance/contract workers that are missing out, because the work isn’t there anymore. If they want to make money, they need to move to where the production is happening, and in 2013, it is not California. Unless that legislation goes through, and the tax capping changes, production will continue to migrate to where they can get the most for their money. Right now that is states like Louisiana.

To read the full report you can download the PDF from FilmLa.  

Barely a statistic.

The Oscars are coming up soon. The Golden Globes are behind us, and the Emmy’s aren’t too far into the distant future. According to an annual study done by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, out of the 2,938 people that worked on the top 250 (domestic grossing films) in 2013, sadly, only 16% of them were women. Of that statistic only 6% of those women were directors. These numbers are actually a decline from previous years. Out of these numbers the majority of women are working in the drama, comedy, and documentary genres. It’s rare to find women directors, producers, executive producers, cinematographers, editors, and writers in the sci-fi, animated, action, or horror genres. According to the Directors Guild only 14% of women directors, directed TV episodes in 2013. Tragically of the 200 shows reviewed last year, 38 of them didn’t even hire any women.

According to the Huffington Post, within the business world, only 16.9% of board seats belong to women, and 10% don’t even have any women on the board. Even though statistics show that 85% of women make up the consumer buying decisions. It would seem if you wanted to know a better way to increase sales, profit, etc., you would diversify your board to find out what the 85% would want. Or one would think?

Even with those grossly shattering statistics there are numerous women, within those industries, fulfilling their dreams. Sheryl Sandberg, Jill Abramson, Oprah Winfrey, Anne Sweeney, Susan Wojcicki, Bonnie Hammer, Ellen DeGeneres, Sue Naegle, Diane Sawyer, J.K. Rowling, Kathleen Kennedy, Kathryn Bigelow, and Megan Ellison (just to name a few). These women range from CEO/COO’s of major networks/companies, entrepreneurs, writers, to Hollywood directors and producers.

According to an Indiewire blog the new Gamechanger Award will be given out at SXSW (South by South West). This award will be given to a female filmmaker, with a grant of $2500 as a prize. Gamechanger Films was founded to invest in women directors of feature films.  They are trying to close the gap between 50% of females, who graduate from some type of film school, to only about 5% moving forward into Hollywood directing.

I made a movie, now what do I do with it?

You’ve poured your heart and soul, and literally all your money, into making your first movie. Now what do you do with it? There are a few different avenues that an independent (or student) filmmaker can take once they’ve completed their feature film. There’s distribution and submitting to festivals. Depending on how much money you have left because both options can have hefty expenses. You can also start up a crowdfunding account to fund the release and/or distribution to your film.

There are a few options with distribution. You can select to hire an agent (a professional, with all the connections, to market your film), or you can distribute yourself through POD’s (print on demand). There are websites available like Distribber or CreateSpace. Each website has pros and cons to it. There are start up costs associated with each website. You should always read the fine print. It all really depends on how far you’d like your movie to reach. If you are striving to go international, you may definitely want to consider an agent. Most of the POD’s are only throughout Canada and the United States. Something else that is available would be a producer of marketing and distribution (PMD). Again, you want to read all the details that are involved in hiring an agent and/or PMD as well going the POD route. The last thing you want to do is give away any rights or royalties.

Today there are thousands of film festivals all year round. However, submitting your finished film to a festival isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are fee’s associated with entry. It’s also not a guarantee that you’re film will be allowed entry. If your film is selected, that doesn’t mean you just show up, and it’s a free ride to the top. You still have marketing and promoting to do during the festival. Indiewire.com has a good starting point for a list of film festivals.

This is just a discussion. I do not promote or profit from any websites discussed. 

Net Neutrality, Business Entities, and The Problem of Overprotection of IP

What is net neutrality? Net neutrality according to ocf.berkeley.edu it “is a network design paradigm that argues for broadband network providers to be completely detached from what information is sent over their networks.” This has been a very hot topic lately. As talked about in the podcast with Suffolk University it’s all about the information being pushed through those broadband networks. Net neutrality according to FCC chairman “it’s regulating the on ramp to the Internet”. Should the FCC reconsider its current plans? Is this constitutional? According to Professor Daniel Lyons, Boston College Law School there are pro’s and con’s to both sides. This is an oncoming debate, even since this podcast back in 2011, as according to a post in Forbes.com. The two sides are extreme opposites. 

Sole proprietor, partnership, LLC, and corporation, with so many options to business entities where do you start? According to ARC Law Group discusses this in their podcast. The first place to start is asking yourself how much are you investing into your business, and asset liability protection. There are also a lot of tax issues. The first thing you should do it talk to an attorney and an accountant. An attorney can direct you into the right entity for your business. The next step would be talking to an accountant regarding taxation for your business. Another thing to consider is business insurance. Even if you started a sole proprietorship, and your business is growing; it’s not too late to change your business entity. There are tons of tips that ARC Law Group shares in their podcast.

Can you have too much of a good thing? According to Professor Andrew Beckerman-Rodau in his podcast from Suffolk University you can have too much intellectual property. When there’s an overlap of protect it can be harmful. Independently the protection can be beneficial; however, when overlapped with other protection it can become conflicting. According to Prof. Beckerman-Radau this over protection is throwing off the balance of the protection.

When in doubt it is always wise to seek an attorney’s advice. Don’t always assume too much of a good thing is good. It’ best to do as much research as possible, and seek out professional advise, whether it’s legal or accounting. This can apply to new and existing businesses. 

Don't steal it!

As students, amateur videographers, new filmmakers, etc. it’s easy to fall into the trap of using someone else’s copyrighted material without permission. There’s video, photos, and music that work perfectly with your portfolio or project, but you can't just steal them. Unfortunately it’s easy to utilize someone else works, and plagiarize them. Even celebrities have fallen into that trap. Shia LaBeouf, known for Transformers, Disturbia, Eagle Eye, has recently plagiarized work from one of Daniel Clowes’ comics. Not only did LaBeouf originally plagiarize Clowes, but also the multiple apologies were also plagiarized.  According to theguardian.com LaBeouf went as far a hiring a skywriter to blowing up social media. LaBeouf has also used a Texas politicians words (quote) from a debate, and Kanye West’s apology to Taylor Swift as apologies towards Clowes. It’s quite outrageous how far this has gotten out of control. I’m not sure what exactly LaBeouf is trying to accomplish, but he’s definitely spiraling out of control. According to theguardian.com article he’s “the most messed-up former Disney star”. I’m not sure if these young Disney stars have something to prove by demolishing any ties with their former Disney days, or what? (That’s a whole other discussion.) I definitely think that LaBeouf is only getting himself into further legal troubles by consistently plagiarizing, even if it is only copy and pasting a twitter feed. (That’s why there’s a retweet button, right?) It would be wise for LaBeouf to filter things through his manager, before going out and saying things on his own.

On the other end of the spectrum are Bradley Cooper and Liam Neeson. They are suing Vutec Corporations. According to eonline.com a lawsuit has been filed towards these home theater companies because they are using Cooper and Neeson’s photos without their permission. There are tons of celebrity endorsements; sometimes the celebrity doesn’t even receive monetary payment, but they get product payment. According to business.time.com an article by Brad Tuttle “There’s no mystery as to why companies give away swag during the Oscars to people in the movie business. The possibility that a celebrity will Tweet about the product or perhaps be photographed with it more than offsets the cost of giving goods away.” This almost seems like a no brainer for a company to get permission before violating privacy rights. At the very least they may just have to come off some of their products. I’m not an accountant, but I’m sure there’s some type of tax break for giving away freebies. When in doubt it would always be wise to contact the manager/agent of a celebrity before using them for endorsements.

Just a few days ago according to thewrap.com Fullscreen settled their lawsuit for copyright infringement with the NMPA (National Music Publishers’ Association). An article from tubefilter.com also stated that the deal requires that the music videos will have to either be removed or licensed. I have to agree with the NMPA on this one, it is their responsibility on behalf of their songwriters and publishers to take on legal issues like this. It’s not fair for artists to be ripped off. It’s their art, work, livelihood, and they should be properly compensated as well as given the credit for it.

I’m glad that there are Associations, Guilds, and Unions that are there to protect the artists and workers. Most of these organization have representatives, legal advisers, agents, etc. that are in place to help the member.

A good rule of thumb, when in doubt, seek out legal advice.

Book Adaptations

What happens when you sell the rights of your beloved book (or a series of books) to a production company, and a movie is made? There currently seems to be a lot of movies adapted from books. (Not like this is something new.) There are high dollar productions and series of films that have been stemming from books. The Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Twilight, Harry Potter, The Help, the Chronicles of Narnia, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo just to name a few.

The outcome could be in your favor. J.K. Rowling was pleased with the Harry Potter films. She was very much a part of the early process of creating the look of some of the locations. After all, these were all fictional places. Only she would know best. According to an interview on hypable.com she said, “I felt a huge protectiveness and loyalty to the readership. Once I knew it was running, it was fine.“ J.K. Rowling’s relationship with Warner Bros. was a good running one with the Harry Potter series that they have announces a new movie. According to insidemovies.ew.com this isn’t a prequel or a sequel to Harry Potter but a spin off of the wizarding world.

Unlike Harry Potter, the book Mary Poppins turned into a movie was so repugnant for P.L. Travers that Disney was able to make a movie out of that. Saving Mr. Banks is about the story of Walt Disney and P.L. Travers meeting about making Mary Poppins. It took Walt Disney around 20 years for P.L. Travers to give the rights to create the Mary Poppins movie. She was a very difficult woman to please, and Mary Poppins was very dear to her. She thought “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and other songs were foolish. She didn’t like the relationship Disney added between Mary Poppins and Bert, and wanted the animated scenes cut out completely. After the film was completed. She was not openly invited to the release, but had to request her presence from Disney. Unlike the movie (which I haven’t seen, but heard the reviews) she was very displeased. There was no happy ending for P.L. Travers.