Film Study Guide

Types of producer guilds and what they are?

• Producers united

  • career producers

• Producers Guild of America

  • no collective bargaining

  • no health insurance

  • they are seen as a boss

What is the hierarchy of a producer?

• Executive producer - brings in 25% of your budget - EP I made 25 EPS in 2025

• Producer

• Co-producer - maybe a foreign company who helped you could be

• Associate producer

  • the assistant who contributes a lot

• Line producer

  • in charge of the budget

  • below the line -deals with the day-to-day production

  • weekly pay

  • boss and part of the crew

What are the duties of a film producer?

• mainly in the development period

  • ideas

    • rights and acquisition of script or material

      • exclusive or nonexclusive

      • perpetuity

      • option

      • who is holding those rights

      • worldwide rights - includes all different kinds of rights

      • film festival rights

      • future technology rights

• come up with ideas - development

  • is this a project I can sell

• put together the package

• financing

• screenwriting

  • table read or staged reading

  • script doctor

  • Writers Guild of America

  • logline- a sentence or two that describes the tone, protagonist, exciting incident, obstacle, stakes

  • Narrative format: compare two popular movies, pitch line

  • documentary format

• financing

• preproduction - getting crews together and you are green lit

  • keys

  • director of photography

  • production designer

  • casting director

  • hair and makeup

  • sound

  • catering

• line producer hires these people

• production- principal photography

• post- production

• distribution and delivery

How to acquire properties (books) what to ask for?

• contact the publisher first

• put together a pitch

• ask for an option agreement

• comics = option the illustrator

• purchase/option/partner/write yourself

What did you need for different properties?

• Magazine/news

  • life rights, book rights, no defaming only public knowledge

• Remake/dic

  • option for original rights, right to use image

• Music

• Podcast

• Social Media

• plays and musicals

• public domain

  • 70 years after the authors death

How do you calculate how well a movie will do?

• Genre

• location

• Comparison films

• Time period

• Budget

What is an option agreement?

• agreement between you and a creator where the creator gives you the rights for a certain amount of time and certain amount of money and in that there will be a purchase price which goes into effect when you are greenlit and have all the money for a film

What is the current state of film financing?

• China is the world's largest box office

• local importance

• coproductions

• franchise and IP

• storytelling and representation

• AI

• local language

different types of pitches?

• elevator pitch - 60 second extended logline

• 5 minute pitch - not full detail - author of book

• full pitch- 10-20 minutes

  • title

  • hello my name is, genre, set in period and place

  • log line

  • synposis

  • audience

  • budget

  • rights

  • Compared to other films

  • 2nd act is the most

Financing Tips

• to get funding for something you have to put it in a separate bank account

• LLC

List the type of budgets

• Micorbudget: 0-100k

• Low budget: 100k-2m

• Mid Budget: 2M-10M

• High Budget: 10M+

• Tentpole: 100M+

Sources of funding and their definitions

• Equity - the cash where they own part of the project

  • anyone

  • production company, family, venture capitalist

  • owns a piece of the film to recoup their initial investment

  • the most preferred

  • recouped based on points

• Loan- debt with interest and capital

  • they HAVE collateral

  • distribution rights

• Pre-sales - international/domestic

  • sell certain rights to the project in order to finance the production

    • sell to a U.S cable network and maybe international tv network

• Tax Credits

  • NYC is 30$, soft money

• Branding - bMW - Product placement

  • don’t have to pay this back

• Crowdfunding

• Deferred - postponing salaries

• Sponsorship donation - fiscal sponsor/grants/gifts

  • 5013 organizations

  • administrative fee of 5-8%

• Gap financing or Bridge loan - loan is taken out based on movie unsold rights generally but not always limited to the rights to distribute the movie - don’t have money yet but will get it - high risk

• Negative pick-up deals

  • purchase for a specific sum after completion

• Slate financing

  • pick up multiple movies at once

• Grants

  • non profit

• Creative labs

  • programs from like sundance

• Fundraising trailers

• NEVER USE A CREDIT CARD FOR THESE PROJHECTS

What to think about when hiring crew?

• talent

• previous experience

• references etc

• watch demo reels

• always ask what their weaknesses - most important

What does on hold mean?

• the crew person is keeping the date available for the production but is not officially hired

What does confirm or book mean?

• you are committing to pay the crew for those dates whether or not it moves forward

What does release mean?

• producer no longer needs or wishes to hire the crew person

What does challenge mean?

• crew person first or second hold

• if second you have to challenge for their time

What is most favored nation?

• rates are same across each department

What hiring paperwork do you need?

• deal memo - rules that are agreed to

• NDA - confidentiality

• start paperwork - compensation etc

What do know about Union film agreements in funding?

• union actors are in first position to be paid

What is an in-lind donation?

• when goods and services are donated and not oney

What is a sales agents?

• specialize in selling rights to projects

What are the type of rights available?

• US domestic TV rights - cable or tv networks

• International foreign TV rights

• Domestic DVD rights

• US theatrical rights

• International theatrical rights

• mobile rights

• digital rights

Investor and Producer Pool

• Profit participation - everyone who you have promised aka backend

What is the circle?

• 100% of the profit that the film has made

• 50% goes to producers and talent

• 50% goes to investors

• whatever is left goes to you the producer

• you have 100 net points you can give away

What are gross points?

• 5 or 6 people in the whole world have these things

• 1% of the box office gross

• 1 net point is 1% of the profit after the film is recouped and all the costs are paid back

What is a point?

• One point is one percentage

How much does a theater take?

• 50% of the gross profit

Explain the process of costs recouped.

• You start with 100% of gross profits from movie theaters

• The distributor takes their distributing fee which could be 25% they also then take off any P&A costs and the promoting fees

• P & A marketing or publicity - unit publicist on a film

• The money left over goes to outside investors - anything that will recoup our budget and those we have to pay back

  • Take into account rate of interest

  • 10% interest = 1.1

• Pay off the loan and the equity

• Now we go to our profit circle

Distribution costs?

• direct cost of distribution

• marketing and sales costs

Explain tax credits or soft money?

• each state has eligibility requirements

• rebate - pay you back

• 30% in new york

• transfer credits: the state can sell a credit to a company that needs it

What is recoup?

• making the money back

What is a net point?

• percentage of profit minus costs and after recoupment

What is a gross point?

• gross profit straight from box office

Profit share/participation?

• Anyone who shares profit in film

Parris Passus- side by side - if you have two equity investors when they recoup they each get 50% of the profit at the same time

A property - an intellectual property- magazine

Gap financing- unsold territories - hasnt been sold loan based on what hasnt been sold yet sales agent goes out and sells all the territories and they get sales contracts with amount on it- minimum guarantee - international distributor guarantees a minimum that whoever sells that recieved - did not sell france or germany go to bank and say you can have those we did not sell collaterol against that gap or bridge- go back to territories you want to buy it now - risky

Describe a distribution waterfall?

• buyer distributor - recoupment of bank financing guild residuals

• sales agent commission

• sales agent recoupable expenses - marketing and press - sales agent takes 50,000 you agree to

• producers rep if aplicable

• rest goes to prod company

• debt

• investor

• deferral

• prod

Why would you give a bonus?

• Incentive to promote film

sold france for 2,000 taking sales contract to the bank commission sales agent may have deduction

Explain what CAMA is?

• Collection agency management agreement

• multi party agreement signed by all parties with a major financial interest in the project

• overrules underlying agreements

• collection account in third party

Explain international sales?

• Usually for markets or festivals

• commission 10-20 to the sales agent

• Dollar amount - MG - minimum guarantee

  • the minimum amount your movie will make in a location, if the movie does better I will negotiate a percentage of success

• Sales fee - marketing materials

What are the duties of a writer?

• to bring your vision to life

How can you find a writer?

• research films you like

• call agents and managers

• short pitch

• work for hire

• partnership

Things to remember when negotiating with a writer?

• dont let them run away with your idea

• need a contract saying you own all the rights

• right to consult

Who is the 2nd most important?

• The director

How to find a director?

• word of mouth

• outreach to comparable projects etc

The casting director how to find?

• personal relationships

• casting society

• etc

What are the duties of the casting director?

• read and break down script

• set parametes with proucer and director

• understand tone

Important terms and definitions

• breakdown sheet - list of each role and description of age, gender, ethnicity and physical attribute

• head shot - photograph of actor with resume attached

• audition

• call back - see an actor work more in depth

• sides - portion of a scene from films screenplay given to an actor before they audition for that role

• union or non union sag rules

• per diem - per day daily spending money for those who go out of town

• extras casting- no speaking lines

• background and day players

• casting schedules

• back end and credit - do they participate in the profit circle

• perk list

• LOI- letter of intent

• pay of play - you pay them even if it does not go into production

• turnaround - time between shoots legally 10 hours

What do you need to employ a minor?

• depends on state

• tutor etc.

Union rules for casting

• Signatory - a company who signs contract and agrees to conditions

• Taft hartley waiver - allows the producer to petition to the union to use someone who is not yet in the union

• Make sure that wages goes to pension and health fees

Salaries

• Agent - 10% of actors salary

  • they are government-regulated

  • they get no credit

  • negotiating exists with the agent, not the manager

• Manager - 10%

  • not allowed to negotiate

  • can get a producer credit

• Lawyer 5%

  • have negotiable deals

• Publicist 5%

• Assistant

  • salary that the film has to pay

• Glam Squad - hair and makeup

• Dialogue or acting coach - the production pays for this

• vanity person

• perk list rider - something that is in an actors contract that specifies things they want

What does the line producer do vs the First AD?

• line producer makes the bduget

• first AD makes the schedule

• Ad- member of DGA

• liason between the director and the cast

• makes the call sheet

Is the line producer BTL?

• yes they deal with the crew

• extras are also below the line

What should you use for budgeting and scheduling?

• movie magic budgeting

• movie magic scheduling

NYC tax incentive is?

• 30% and extra 10% for upstate new york

What is “everything but the kitchen sink” budgeting?

• first draft of the budget that has everything in it to make the film

  • how many shooting days

What is contingency?

• 10% of the budget that you budget into your budget security to make sure you don’t go over

What is bond stipulation?

• cant start till all the money is in a bank account

What is a bond?

• insurance policy that invenstors require

• 2-2.5% of the budget

• insurance to make sure the movie gets made no matter what happens

  • 10% for post production

What is an audit?

• when a tax credit is being calculated - deals with accoutning

What is pay or play?

• the actors are paid whether there is a shoot or not

What is perpetuity?

• in contracts- forever

What is a top sheet?

• the first two pages - a summary of the budget

What does attaching an actor mean?

• you have a verbal or written agreement with a recognizable actor who agrees to play one role if you get the dunding

What is a line number

• on the budget document the number on the far left

What are fringes?

• total amount of federal tax, state tax, city tax, or other taxes

What is a cash flow schedule

• States wehn you are going to need certain amounts of money for specific costs tied to prep production and post production

What does lock the budget mean?

• this is the final budget you will use

What is the working budget?

• next to the estimated column which shows any changes that could be occured

What is a pad?

• areas or line items you know you have overestimated

What is budget actualization?

• when you enter each paid or payable invoice into the budget in the actual column

Scheduling principles?

• low budget has 3-5 page script pages per day

• cover set - interior location

• DAY scenes firs then NIGHT

• no love scene on first day

• opening scenes not on first days sae with last

• shooting out an acotr - group all specific scenes - only a few days

• company move - pack up everything

What is a stripboard?

• chronological order of the script and shooting’

film makes 10 dollars in theater

theater takes 50%

actor gets 1% thats 1 gross point which is gross box office

the rest goes to the distributor

distributor takes 25% as the fee

then goes to recoupment of your budget

• pay back the bank first - first position - first dollar

• guild residuals

• equity

What does not recoup

• crowdfunding

• product placements

• tax credits

• branding

Does anyone own the film rights to the book, id like to option this book from 12-18 months

put you in touch with author

• pitch them what they thought for the book

  • title

  • logline

  • synopsis

  • what your chanign and keeping as an idea

  • tone and style

• author says yes

  • option

  • rights for a certain amount

    • funding

    • option price

    • purchase price - amount of money you pay if you option this

    • greenlit

the bond company

• collects all the money

• escrow account all the money then you are greenlit

• supervisor

• protects the invetment that is put into the film - check budget and schedule to make sure you are doing a good job as a prodcuer

If you get a fiscal sponsorship you are non profit

equity does recoup, loans recoup against presales or any sales, deferals recoup - anyone who is saying the budget is 10 million - defer half of my salary only defer above minimum

schedule f - sag rates

stick to schedule f because you have to pay fringes

and pay 100,000 as a producer so they dont have to pay all the sag rates

• flat amount you can pay and you can use them as much as you want

scale the lowest amount of money you can pay to actor 1k a day goes up from there