1st Edition
Independent Film Finance A Research-Based Guide to Funding Your Movie
For aspiring producers and directors who need to learn film finance from the ground up, this revolutionary new book teaches the fundamentals, through the voices of more than 60 successful independent producers. Using a research and data-based approach, award-winning professor David Offenberg combines the wisdom of well-known and successful producers into one fun, easy-to-follow guide.
Within, readers will learn how to talk to potential investors and what those financiers will expect from them in return. The book is also packed with informative anecdotes and examples to enrich each chapter and contextualize the film financing landscape. As the book progresses, equity, debt, revenue, profits, and their role in your movie will be explored. Accessible information about tax incentives and profit participations is included to help emerging filmmakers build out a workable financing plan. The book combines hard numbers and data sets, with direct guidance from successful producers, to construct a holistic overview on how you can turn your new-found financial knowledge into funding for your movie.
This ground-breaking book is a must-read for any aspiring producer or director who wishes to gain an informed and easily digestible understanding of film finance.
Part 1: Business and Finance Basics
1. The Wisdom of the Crowd
2. The (Movie) Business
3. The Language of Business
4. Debt Financing
5. Participation and Deferred Compensation
6. Tax Incentives and Soft Money
7. Budgets
8. Four Paths to Funding Your Budget
Part 2: Financing Your Film
9. First Law of Film Finance
10. The Market Value of Your Film
11. A Financing Plan
12. Equity in Independent Film
Part 3: Beyond the Basics
13. Experience Matters
14. People Matter
15. Pipelines Matter
16. Luck Matters
17. Many Other Things Matter Too
18. Action Plan
Biography
David Offenberg is an Associate Professor of Finance in the College of Business Administration at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and is amongst the world’s leading academic experts in entertainment finance. Dr. Offenberg won the most prestigious teaching award for finance professors in 2018 and the Financial Management Association’s Innovation in Teaching Award. He is frequently quoted in the press, with mentions by CNBC, The Hollywood Reporter, NPR, Vanity Fair, Wall St. Journal, and The Wrap.
"This is the ideal book for those looking to peek behind the curtain of how films are actually financed and therefore completed. A must read for independent producers and filmmakers." – Josh Ellis, Professor at Miami Dade College
