New Year - Headlines & Themes
+ why I won't bore you with predictions
Happy New Year to you all!
How is it feeling to be back in saddle in a fresh new year?
I don’t know about you but I’m already getting ‘prediction fatigue’ and it’s only a few days in lol. I’m going to opt-out of boring you with any of my predictions because hey, really who knows what’s going to happen anyway?
However the headline for the year is this - if you’re a traditional production company used to the tried and true way of financing your projects you need to seriously consider adapting innovate funding models to get things over the hump and into production this year.
Ironically what’s ‘innovative’ to some of the more established companies is not really new NEW in the sense that the independent film financing model has relied on these methods for a few decades, but we’re just now seeing it adopted by TV producers and companies to both scripted and unscripted projects. Things like tax incentives and leveraging debt are old hat for independent producers but in some cases, newer concepts to the Series community. As film producers, we’ve worked with equity investors as an extension of ourselves since they are so fundamental to getting films made. Series world take note - don’t be afraid of involving equity investors if you have a solid path to ROI on the other side.
Another theme that I’ll be closely adhering to this year is solidifying my strategic partnerships with a small handful of sales agents and distributors with whom I have a good shorthand, solid trust, and whom I see as true collaborators bringing as much value to a project as I am. Some of these are multi-decade relationships and others are newer, but I have my short list of companies who I’ll be leaning on as proper partners and co-producers for my slate of film and series projects.
If you’re a production company reading this and wondering why I’d want to involve distribution companies in co-producing a project, it’s because in a contracted commissioning environment, you'll want to lean into distributor-led funding models. In fact, it’s the first call I make with projects I’m taking to market these days. I’m lovingly calling it ‘the no commission finance plan’ :)
And lastly, I’m sure you’ve read all the predictions of FAST taking over the distribution universe and some of that may be true, but what most predictions pieces fail to acknowledge is how content creators can benefit from that. I see how studios and distributors with lots of titles and catalogue can benefit, but for production companies and individual producers, what’s in it for us except revenue down the line in our distribution chain? I want to establish how we can leverage FAST for funding our projects in the first place.
OK that’s enough ranting for now :) If you’ve read this far and think you want to dive deeper into all this I’ll be covering it in more detail and more specifics in my upcoming Funding Strategies Playbook course which you can register for here:
Got Predictions or Thoughts?
I’d love to hear from you below - let me know what you’ve got!
Or email me at stacey@filmspecific.com.
Onwards to the new year and talk to you again soon!
Stacey
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FAST... are yous and anyone else coming to CES? Ai and Netflix at Aria? I'm there and excited for some "predictions"!