Hi,
I am an assistant producer for an up coming series (Thorn Trees) and was wondering if anyone here knew some tips about vetting potential producers and investors? There have been some that have reached out to the crew but we have concerns. Is there anything specific we should look out for such as the name of their company (if they are an investor or producer?). Thanks for any assistance on this!
All legit Companies are registered with States. Check the state franchise tax board.
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William R Ward If you want to vet someone, there is research to be done and there's no way around it. What Dan Maxxx said is, with respect, entirely untrue. All "comanies in good standing" are registered with some state somewhere, but that doesn't reflect on their capability at all (just their state of registration) and it says nothing at all about the people involved. I would say that over 20 years the number of legitimate investors I have dealt with whose names you are going to find anywhere is... about 1%. As far as producers, do check out their imdb but remember that's crowd-sourced information, and anyone can and do put up fake credits all the time. You also have to look at the credit itself. A "producer" credit on a show may or may not mean anything at all, especially if there are several others. There is a person on S32 here who is touting himself as a Film Financier and Executive Producer... but his listed background is only an Associate Producer on a short and "Executive Producer" on a project he just announced... which means it may not even be written yet but certainly isn't funded. So his XP skills are... nonexistent at least officially. In short, you need to interview these people and ask some hard questions. If they are going to try to sell you on a "pitch package" for several thousand dollars - they have outed themselves as not real. If on the other hand, they are pitching themselves as part of your team and can bring you things you REALLY need (like proper production budgets, development experience, supervisory and production management experience) at reasonable rates, they are likely real. The question you ask yourself then is do you need them on your team?
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Investors are easy. Send them your investment contract - if they sign it and write a check that doesn't bounce, they're legit.
For producers, define (before talking to them) specifically what you want them to do and when, how much they'll get paid and when. Be sure and included a milestone before paying them anything. Lay it out and see how they react.
For either investor or producers, if they counter with a reasonable change (that is, negotiate in good faith), they're probably okay.
If they start hemming and hawing and trying to get something for nothing - walk away.