Movies Inc: The Business of Film

We chat to NY based producer Rachael Fung about the high’s and low’s of independent producing, being picked as Variety’s top producers to watch, the practical realities of different budget levels, balancing competing business and creative interests and we talk a lot about the business behind making FREMONT, Babak Jalali’s fourth feature film, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

The second half of season 2 is back! We kick off with Patrick Walters, Executive Producer of Heartstopper from See Saw Films! Pat chats to us about what it means to be an Executive Producer in Television, working with broadcasters and streamers, creating unique stories for global audiences, and the importance of building the right team. Pat’s cats also make a brief appearance. 

We all know documentaries can take certain liberties that scripted film and tv shows can’t and those of us operating in the unscripted world are thankful for it! Meet the culprit - U.S. fair use laws. We were joined by Katy Alimohammadi Crown current business and legal affairs at A24 and former partner of Donaldson Callif Perez, a firm renowned for specializing in unscripted and documentaries. Katy carved out some time to run us through the pros and cons of fair use, how it plays out in scripted vs. unscripted productions, using music in music documentaries, and the main topic that made us reach out to her - do people appearing in a documentary need to sign releases or is implied consent enough? Safe to say - the answer was not a simple one. 

Note: We reference this very helpful website in this episode! https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/fair-index.html

There are 2 things we can’t escape - death and taxes. When it comes to making movies, distributing them and collecting gross receipts, having a good tax accountant on board from beginning to end is key. They’ll do more than just file your annual tax returns for you! We were joined by industry veterans Paul Finegan and Andrew Chow from Lutz & Carr to talk us through their average Tuesday, film tax credits, collection accounts, foreign investments in films and the tax implications, as well as much more! 

What in heaven’s name is an NFT and how are filmmakers using it to finance their films? We had absolutely no idea so we went to the leading NFT attorney in the country - Jeremy S. Goldman at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz. He talks us through the different ways NFTs are being used to finance film and what we should be thinking about in doing so, how effective entertainment law is in keeping up with the changing tech landscape, and his views on the Quentin Tarantino/Miramax lawsuit.

It's Oscars week and we chat to Hollywood publicist Sylvia Desrochers about her 20 year career in Tinseltown. From what publicists actually do, to how valuable For Your Consideration campaigns are, and why you need to invest in a production photographer, Sylvia gives us the lowdown on creating buzz in a crowded distribution market.

After 2 years of us pestering Jess Kwan to join us for an episode, she finally agreed! We kick off Season 2 with the current VP of the Concordia Fellowship and chat to her about the evolution of her career from supporting executives, to being the executive, differences in the biz between narrative feature films and docs, what business development in the film industry actually means and the importance of building a network and genuine relationships. 

We chat to Sasha H. Levites and Marcie Cleary who are partners at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, one of the leading firms in the U.S. We pick their brains about keeping up with emerging technologies and new formats (NFTs! Podcasts!), the benefits to talent having an all inclusive team of manager + agent + lawyer, the importance of those long winded indemnification and insurance clauses, and 2 fundamental rules - get it in writing and don't sign anything without having a lawyer look it over and give it the OK.

We chat to Academy Award nominated Angie Fielder and Polly Staniford of Aquarius Films about first starting out, lessons learned early on, the benefits of having the right producing partner, the realities of foreign productions vs. domestic productions and the importance of always listening to that gut instinct.

We chat to Stephen Fitzgibbon about starting his own production company and building a slate, how he transitioned from acquisitions to producing everything from music videos to feature films. We find out how he picks his co-producing partners, the learning curve of navigating rights and transparency as the fundamental value when doing business in this industry.