As an independent filmmaker, my job is to find funding for my projects and to make sure I deliver my investors, who have trusted me, with what is always a substantial amount of money, to give them a positive and profitable ROI on their investment. It basically comes down to just a few factors. One is the ability of the director and his cast and crew to execute the material to create a professional looking and emotionally positive viewing experience and the distribution deals attached to a project. One is in the control of the creatives and the other is in control of accountants that will do anything to make sure their distribution company gathers in as much revenue as possible without a concern for the creatives or their investment partners. This is the nature of the beast and everyone that is in the entertainment business knows this. Does a slate of films increase success?. Studios like to sign A-Listers to slate of films which is very risky because an A-lister may shine in one genre but bomb in another and the only constant is the A-Lister’s salary. Some A-Listers’ salaries can be as high as $15M a picture and even beyond that. At $15M, given you have a 30 day shooting schedule, said actor is being paid $500,000.00/day. Napoleon Dynamite’s whole budget was $400,000.00 and it grossed $46.12M worldwide. You can literally make 37 Napoleon Dynamite films for $15M and yield a $1.7B gross return. Is it within the realm of possibility? Yes. Is it realistic? Not really, but this is a comparison built on the ridiculous logic of the film industry on the fantasy value of one actor. With any film budgeted at $2M or higher, the SAG scale union wage is $1,204/Day or $4,180/Week. SAG does have Premium Wages for certain actors although there is no real definition of that term. Out of 160,000 SAG/AFTRA members, you can find a cast that will gladly accept a job especially if the script is great. You can have a slate of 5 films with budgets of $3M each. What kind of films do you want to make? Ideally, films that will make a profit. The movie industry is a gamble that doesn’t show its cards until the final bet is called so it’s a lot like poker. Now just under a Royal Flush, the best hand to have with a slate of films is a Straight Flush; five films of the same genre with each one different than the last one. That’s not to say you don’t have some wiggle room, just be informed of the market shares according to genres. Five actions films would statically bring in more revenue than five drama films. After that, you, as the investor, just have to decide what suit (genre) you want to risk it on. That’s where we, the independent film community, come in and do our best song and dance to convince you that we have the best stories, crew and talent you will need to receive the best possible profitable and rewarding Return On Investment. I’ve got my tap shoes on. Let me entertain and wow you! We can fashion any type of slate you want to fit your needs.