In late April, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") issued a warning to premature investment crowdfunders, and the SEC's warning contains implications for filmmakers.
By the time you read this, the networks may already have announced the pilots they are picking up to series from among the ninety or so that were produced this year for ABC, CBS, CW, FOX and NBC. Certainly the relative success that CBS had with its schedule and the more limited slots FOX has available influenced their rationale for picking up fewer pilots to production than ABC and NBC.
As most independent film producers now know, on April 5, 2012, President Obama signed into law the so-called Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act (H.R. 3606). The new law combines several pieces of stand-alone legislation and refers to each section as a Title.
The pilot season is over, the scripts have long since been turned in and most productions are in post. This is a good time to look back on the fate of last year’s pilots before we begin to contemplate this year’s product.
Gaspare Benso, CFO and EVP of Paramount Picture’s Worldwide Home Media Distribution group was a recent guest lecturer in my UCLA Extension “Business of Entertainment” class. He provided some fascinating insight as to where the ancillary markets for feature films are currently deriving the majority of their revenue from and how that may change in the upcoming years.
If we step back and analyze the world of film finance sources, for purposes of determining which is the appropriate initial documentation with which to approach such sources (when actually trying to raise money), we can divide that world into two broad categories: (1) industry sources and (2) investor financing.
The new crowdfunding law passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by the President (H.R. 3606 - the Crowdfund Act) sets out specific requirements for funding portals at Section 304(b). The term "funding portal" means any person acting as an intermediary in a transaction involving the offer or sale of securities for the account of others, solely pursuant to section 4(6) of the Securities Act of 1933, that does not:
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