The more I embrace the role of Producer, the more excited I feel about the process. This is a learning curve for me and so reading this article in the Hollywood Reporter, on the Locarno Pro StepIn 2025, encourages me to dig deeper into the industry. Not just how it works today, but how we can improve the process of it.
This for me, includes educating investors on how to finance film production and what to expect.
“The four topics at the center of this year’s StepIn program were: independent production between public and private financing; independent distribution today: “The art of taking risks and how to handle it”; festivals and the press; and building a truly inclusive audiovisual industry.”
“The sections also compiled various recommendations, including: create public–private partnerships to strengthen production companies and enable “higher-budget projects without losing talent to other markets”; recognise entertainment as an asset class by educating investors in Europe…”
The area of public-private partnerships excites me most, because I feel this would offer a greater confidence to investors to show a mutuality of risk and reward. I have felt for a long time now that the UK’s over reliance on public funding, is causing a major problem for independent producers and the growth and sustaining of the industry.
During one of the sessions I attended for this year’s Screen Summit, at the BFI in London, we were informed that BBC Films has a budget of £11m and Film 4 around £20m, for the funding of film production. This causes a major log jam of projects, in the annual applications for funding.
What are your thoughts about this? What models for alternative distribution are there, that can increase the amount of ROI for film producers and investors?
For me, I’d love to get a look at this report and then I’ll report back later, to the community.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/independent-film-ris...
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And here’s the aforementioned report:
https://www.locarnofestival.ch/it/dam/jcr:de5cfd4f-7747-4813-b54b-8123ee...
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Liked this guy's thoughts. He doesn't like same -same safe stuff. This is the future.
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"The independent film industry can’t afford the risk of not taking risks: I agree, Geoff Hall. One of the things an indie filmmaker can do to make sure their film stands out is take a risk, like making a movie that has a unique concept. The great thing is, that risk doesn't have to cost a lot of money. A filmmaker can think of a unique concept that takes place in a house or think of a regular concept that happens in a unique location. The risk/uniqueness of a movie makes it stand out in my opinion and gets me to watch the film.
Taking risks can also apply to indie movie marketing, like setting up a low-cost social media marketing campaign that gets people to solve a mini mystery that's tied to the big mystery in the film.
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Jon Shallit indeed Jon. The future is diverse. Sameness only breeds boredom.
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Maurice Vaughan Hey there Maurice, the risk I suppose, begins when we put pen-to-paper and then it gets really serious when we venture out into the production landscape and all that it entails.
“Taking risks can also apply to indie movie marketing, like setting up a low-cost social media marketing campaign…”
Indeed, social media campaigns are a great way of spreading the word about the film and engaging with your audience. Yes, if our story is about a mystery, then design a campaign which has people solve a mystery. Good idea!
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The winner of the campaign gets to have the solution for the mystery in the final script revision. And co-producer credit, and writing credit. People will give like mad for that. Have various levels of giving and for lesser levels, use other suggestions they make about various props and locations, if it is animated.
They could be an NPC character. Even with their real names, if they give enough and give permission.
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Here’s an opening quote from the report:
“The diagnosis: cinema’s future depends on its ability to reframe risk across the ecosystem - not as a liability but as the driving force behind originality, impact and audience growth.”
The ecosystem it seems, in the StepIn Report covers four areas - financing, distribution, visibility, and inclusion.
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And there’s more from the report:
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIPS enable production companies and investors to build up a diversified asset base in the form of library rights to recoup their respective investments. In the U.S., library rights are valued highly enough that banks use them as collateral for loans to their owners.
I’m interested in this focus on ‘library rights’. For any US Producers out there, can you tell me please:
1. How are the library rights are collated?
2. How is the value of each asset assigned?
3. How is this document presented to the potential financiers/banks?
Thanks.
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Here’s a great quote from the report. I like this guys thinking, when it comes to strategising about distribution:
“Time and again, it’s the bold, the strange, and the singular that cut through the noise and resonate with audiences. From Anatomy of a Fall to Poor Things, from Past Lives to The Zone of Interest, from Moonlight to Parasite — these films aren’t statistical anomalies. They are evidence that risk isn’t the enemy of success — it’s the engine of it. For distributors, then, the challenge isn’t to avoid risk, but to take smarter, more strategic ones — championing originality not in defiance of the market, but as a way to redefine it."
— Marcello Paolillo, StepIn Project Manager
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Hey Geoff Hall - far from an expert on this but the little I know and your post prompted me to do some research - short answer to your questions:
U.S. producers / financiers treat library rights as a FINANCIAL ASSET CLASS.
Their value is realized through aggregated rights schedules, third-party appraisals, and secured-asset lending — much like a publishing catalog or music masters portfolio. Assets are presented to banks typically through a Library Valuation Report or Collateral Schedule.
I found it surprising to hear that streaming representatives are pushing back on this idea of reinvesting European-produced funds back into the local ecosystem... just kidding. ;)
This report is an important share - thank you Geoff.
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Geoff Hall This is one of the core attitudes and intentions behind the FilmPod structure which we have been developing, and which is now being implemented over the next year. Not only are we reframing the risk, so to speak, we are going one better that studios in many cases in mitigating risk. BUT one of the important things we have learned is that it is increasingly pointless to deal with major studios or anyone in the distribution and funding ecosystem who relies upon them. They have no ability to change gears and for the most part they haven't the money anymore to invest or license your work (the revenue malaise trickling down from the studios to them because they are, in essence, single client businesses). Reaching out to non-film industry has shown far more promise for us, and is in line with the sea change in media creation and distribution which we are in the middle of. This requires that you can also reframe your product to the interests of the non-film investor. That sounds like a difficult task and it can be. The FilmPod allows this kind of refocus. The concept just by itself got is into the sem-final round of Pepperdine's 100 Most Fundable Startups this year - even without any structure in place. Now we're attaching it to three features and a series, and more coming up.
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Sebastian Tudores thank you, Sebastian. The report highlights how film is viewed by financiers as an asset class, but sadly doesn’t tell me how they are viewed in the Europe. So, it’s a third party assessment of the library of rights, and not how much the production company values them at by the allocation of budgets to the various projects? Did I get that right?
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Shadow Dragu-Mihai, Esq., Ipg thank you, Shadow. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with those projects attached to the FilmPod.
Can you please say a little more about how risk is mitigated with your model? Thanks again.
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sure thing Geoff Hall - and you are 100% correct. what matters at valuation is not budget but ongoing/future market value of those assets. So the market value of screen rights comes from what they continue to earn, not what they originally cost. More technically -- Library Value = Current Cash Flow (actuals coming in at time of assessment) + (Discounted) Future Cash Flow, which is the expected lifetime revenue from any kind of transactional source applicable. I hope I understood your question correctly :)
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Sebastian Tudores gotcha! So, for a new company cash flow could include production investments, but probably at such an early stage won’t include revenue. In that case the company needs to have identifiable revenue, before its Library Value can be assessed?
One question comes to mind about the third-party assessment and that is what kind of companies do this kind of work?
Thanks again for your forbearance and patience with my questions!
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Geoff Hall never a problem! :) when I know, more than happy to share, and when I don't, great opportunity to expand my knowledge a tad too!
for example, the two names I had heard of for valuation (Houlihan Lokey & FTI) I now know don't really engage with libraries under 25M that much. I will assume you're not in that bracket... YET!!! :)
So I asked my 'buddy' GPT to scour for more approachable ones in Europe specifically, and it came back with:
Olsberg SPI (UK) – often works under public-funded programs.
Nash Film Finance (UK) – independent advisor who collaborates with accountants for library valuations.
The more you know, the more you know, as they say lol
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Sebastian Tudores ah, you are priceless Sebastian. Thank you so much. And thanks for the “YET” encouragement! I’ll stick a post-it in my study with that on it, as a reminder.