Film Financing

I am a huge movie buff. As an entrepreneur, I love to explore how some film projects get financed. I decided to do some research into the world of film finance. One company I discovered was the Institute for International Film Financing. According to their website:

"The Institute for International Film Financing ("IIFF") is an innovative, independent social-impact organization dedicated to bridging the gap between the worlds of filmmaking and finance. IIFF's one-of-a-kind mission is to prudently expand the scope and appeal of film financing in an economically sustainable manner, for the benefit of all stakeholders including the public at large."

The company was established in 2003 by a former investment banker. They bridge the gap between the worlds of art and finance. They find capital and take on projects they feel will not only be profitable, but a socially viable work of art.

The organization puts alot of emphasis into education. They hold several workshops for potential filmmakers and investors alike. In these seminars topics include understanding and preparing film business plans, traditional and nontraditional financing strategies, effective pitch presentations, and legal documents essential to film financing.

They also offer peer-to-peer support for screenwriters who are looking to sell their scripts. The people at IIFF will look at the script and help the author shop the work to potential studios or buyers. These workshops are in place to make sure that big budget blockbusters aren't the only films getting financed. While the big budget movies yield higher return for studios, the independent film industry helps the art-form or film-making grow.

I hope to someday work in the film industry. More specifically I hope to someday become a producer. One of the main jobs of the producer is finding sources of funding for the project. The IIFF seems like a great resource for independent filmmakers and producers alike who are looking for help getting their projects financed. For more information about them check out their website:

http://www.filmfinancing.org

The Highest Grossing Actor of All Time.

Being a huge fan of the movies industry, at first I was surprised when I found out who the highest grossing actor of all time in U.S. Cinema was. I have asked my friends and family who they thought it was and most of them had some great guesses: Tom Cruise? (nope), George Clooney? (nope), Mel Gibson? (nope), Arnold Schwarzenegger? (nope). And so on, and so on....

Believe it or not, the highest grossing actor in American cinema is Samuel L. Jackson. His movies have total grossed almost 7.5 billion dollars. (Yes that's Billion, with a B.) This may be shocking to some, but if you look at his track record, he has been in some very successful films. Here are some of the highlights:

• Star Wars (Episodes 1-3)
• Jurassic Park
• Pulp Fiction 
• The Incredibles
• Iron Man (I and II)
• Die Hard with a Vengeance
• Unbreakable
• and many many more.

Samuel L. Jackson has become one of the most famous and iconic actors of his time. He has starred in over 100 films and has three big budget blockbusters slotted for next year including the Marvel Super-hero flick The Avengers. 

Mr. Jackson doesn't just act in film. He is currently starring in The Mountaintop on Broadway. When asked about his work ethic, he told CBS: "I grew up in a working class family. When I was a kid, all the adults in my house got up and went to work every day. I assumed that's what grown people do. That's what I do. I just happen to have a very interesting job that's kind of cool."

As a businessman and an actor, Mr. Jackson has become one of the most beloved actors in America. He has done pretty well for himself over the past few years as well, making it on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list making 34 million dollars a year.

For More Information Check out the Following Articles:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000168/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2054485/Samuel-L-Jackson-named-highest-grossing-actor-time-raking-7-42billion.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

http://star-currency.forbes.com/celebrity/samuel-jackson

Business Plan Expert Advice

In my previous post I researched individuals who are considered experts in the field of Business Plans. In this weeks post I will explain how I will use their advice in my own business plan.

Dr. Gartner gave some valuable advice. He said that if you physically write out the business plan, you are more likely to succeed and follow through with it. I took this to heart, I feel that planning is the most important part of starting a business. Unless you have all of your projected financials and plans laid out ahead of time, your setting yourself up for failure.

Dr. Gartner also stressed that a 20-40 page business plan is no longer necessary in the current business market. Investors are looking for concise, clear, and streamlined information. I am going to make sure I don't put any "fluff" into my business plan. I want to be straightforward and display the facts and information necessary for an investor to make a critical financial decision.


Daymond John expressed the importance of developing your company into a brand. Your persona and image will play an important part in consumer decisions. I plan on branding Digital Triggers as a youthful, high-tech, and fun brand. We want our customers to understand that we are the young up and coming experts in the internet marking industry.

Mr. John also warned me about over-estimating my company's worth. He stressed that when seeking funding it is important to be honest and practical with potential investors. If you overvalue your company, an investor will see that you don't have a clear understanding of your business plan. I plan on contacting a financial adviser to help me with my numbers before I go before investors. I want my numbers to be practical and realistic so that I won't scare off any potential business partners.

Overall, researching these business plan experts has provided me with important information and advice for my own personal start-up Digital Triggers.


For More Information, Check out the following articles:

http://www.jiu.edu/people/william-gartner

http://www.activefilings.com/startups/planning-ahead-for-a-successful-new-business-launch/

http://www.portfolio.com/industry-news/advertising-marketing/2010/04/15/daymond-john-on-the-power-of-branding/

http://www.daymondjohn.com/power_journal/carving-out-a-niche/

Business Plan Experts

For this post I will be discussing some of the experts in the field of Business Plans.

William B. Gartner, PhD.

Dr. Gartner is the chairman of Entrepreneurship at the University of South Carolina.  According to JIU.edu, "Dr. Gartner is the leading authority on entrepreneurship, new venture development, and the problems of emerging organizations." (www.liu.com). He is a published author and responsible for many award winning articles. He has taught at such universities as: USC, Georgetown University, University of Virgina, and San Francisco State. He is one of the top advocates for business plans in the country.

Dr. Gartner believes that if you physically write the business plan, your more likely to follow through with it and succeed. "In addition, Gartner’s study indicates that entrepreneurs with business plans conducted more market research. They also created cash flow projections that permitted them to get started with required funding." (Huber, 2011)

One key factor that Gartner stresses is that a 20-40 page business plan is no longer needed. Many entreprenurs put fluff into their business plan beacuse they feel that the longer the document is, the more work they put into it. Gartner says:“investors want to see that an entrepreneur has actually examined the market for a product or service, identified potential customers, assembled a capable team, devised a business model and more”

Daymond John

Daymond John is a complete different story than William Gartner. Mr. John is a self made millionaire who had the understanding how to take a small clothing line and grow it on a national level. Using $100,000 in start-up capital, John turned his clothing line "FUBU" into a 350 million dollar corporation.

According to John "Branding is the most important part of a successful business plan.  The plan should be focused, and the business should be able to be marketed in a way that makes it stand out from all of the other similar businesses." He feels that for a business plan to be successful you need to look at your idea as a brand and separate yourself from your competition. In John's mind, when writing your business plan it is important to think of your idea as a "brand", not just a business. This will attract and impress smart investors.

John believes that one of the best pitfalls in writing a business plan is over-estimating your company's worth. When seeking funding it is important to be honest and practical with potential investors. If you overvalue your company, an investor will see that you don't have a clear understanding of your business plan. 

For More Information, Check out the following articles:

http://www.jiu.edu/people/william-gartner

http://www.activefilings.com/startups/planning-ahead-for-a-successful-new-business-launch/

http://www.portfolio.com/industry-news/advertising-marketing/2010/04/15/daymond-john-on-the-power-of-branding/

http://www.daymondjohn.com/power_journal/carving-out-a-niche/

Facebook and LinkedIn Joint Venture?

There have been a lot of rumors lately of a joint venture between social media giants Facebook and LinkedIn. While many people aren't aware of the details of the venture, it has caused both of their stock prices to jump. LinkedIn especially has seen a steady rise in their stock price since the rumors have surfaced.

Facebook has established itself as the standard for friendly, social, interaction, while LinkedIn is the powerhouse behind professional networking. Both have similarities, you create a profile, add a picture of yourself, add your friends and co-workers.  LinkedIn stands out because it allows you to upload a resume, work experience, and specialties relating to your career aspirations. LinkedIn helps you grow your professional network, find a job, find employees, or find freelance consultants.


I think there are many interesting possibilities when these two companies team up. Right now they target compeletly different demographics. Here are some interesting ways these companies could utilize their individual talents.

• Company Pages: On Facebook, company pages are used for marketing purposes. With added LinkedIn integration they could add more in-depth company information. This could allow them to hire employees, post job listings, accept resumes, and network with other companies. 
• Personal Resumes: Members of Facebook could upload their resume to Facebook and utilize their profile to find a job. This could be a paid-service which could be an additional revenue stream for both networks. 
• Personal Professional Pages: Facebook users could utilize LinkedIn's engine to create a separate professional page. This page could be shared with your business connections, while leaving your personal page for friends and family. You could use this professional page to showcase your resume, portfolio, talents, and skills.
• Company Networks: By adding the company page to the Facebook network, employees of a company could talk, hold meetings, and chat using Facebook's services such as
• Facebook chat
• Facebook Video Chat
• Direct Messages
• Status updates

There are many interesting outcomes that come from Facebook and LinkedIn's joint venture. For more information or updates check you these articles:

http://www.tmcnet.com/topics/articles/217854-rumors-joint-facebooklinked-goings-puts-shine-linked-stock.htm

http://www.skillstorm.com/blog/2011/09/linkedin-facebook-talks-partnership/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=linkedin-facebook-talks-partnership


http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/linkedin-stock-surges-on-rumor-of-facebook-partnership/3644

Which Form of Social Media is Right for YOU?

Social media has EXPLODED over the past 5 years. Once a novelty has become one of the most powerful marketing tools available. Social Media marketing has gained an expansive amount of popularity due to its cost effectiveness, ease of use, broad appeal, and mass distribution. It has given power to people with small marketing budgets to send messages to their potential clients no matter how small or niche the industry.

Businesses big and small have jumped on the social media marketing band wagon. Managing an account on every single social network is time consuming and not effective for smaller businesses. It is important to realize which social networks your demographic uses and how to effectively use it. By targeting specific social media networks and ignoring others, you can dedicate your time (and budget) to the most cost-effective marketing channel.

The first thing to consider when choosing which social networks to join is whether or not you are part of a niche industry. If you have a general content than creating a Facebook fan page and a twitter account could suffice. You will be able to target people in your area using Facebook and then redirect them to follow your Twitter account. For niche industries, you may want to promote your business more direct networks such as Digg or Reddit.  If you want to create a professional profile for business to business networking, I highly recommend LinkedIn.

Another important thing to consider is how much content to share and how often. If you want to distribute a lot of content to your followers, you may want to use Digg, RSS feeds, Delicious, Stumble Upon, or your blog. If you plan on giving short updates or holding contests, you will want to take advantage of Twitter's abilities. You should also set up these networks to your smart phone or mobile device so you can send updates to your followers no matter where you go.

There are also many services that can aide in managing these social networks. I would recommend checking out TweetDeck and HootSuite. These services allow you to manage all of your social media sites at the same time along with scheduling updates. You can set timers to when you want your updates to be distributed so that you send out the exact message at the right time, even if you aren't on the computer.

There is no question that social media is a great tool for marketing. I recommend that every business, no matter the size, take advantage of the tools associated with social media. However, it is important to always be aware of change and what is on the horizon. While social media is popular right now, we know technology is changing as we speak.

For more information, check out the following articles:

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/04/08/how-to-target-the-right-social-media-sites/

http://traffikd.com/resources/35-must-read-articles-for-social-media-marketers/

http://www.capecodseo.com/social-media-no-brainers/

How to Protect Your Google+ Account

There is a lot of talk lately about internet privacy and how to control who sees the content on your social networks. Many people feel uncomfortable using social networks like Facebook due to privacy concerns. There is a lot of anxiety over where you’re personal information actually goes and who can see it.

Then along came Google+.

Google+ is the hottest new social network to hit the web and for good reason. This new network has vowed to protect users’ privacy and keep privacy settings simple and transparent. Here are the basics to controlling your privacy, who sees your posts and profile, and other various tips for your G+ account.

Edit Your Account Settings
On your Google+ home page, Click on your ‘options’ button in the upper right hand corner of the page, then click ‘Google+ Settings’. Here you can adjust the following:

• Delivery Options
• Control SMS notifications
• Add or change a phone number
• Photo tagging and geo-tagging
• +1 button permissions

Every option is simplified yet thorough, and leaves no question as to what you’re sharing with the rest of the world. If you want to look at your profile through another contact’s point of view, click on the ‘View Profile As…’ search box on your profile page.

Privacy Optimization While Editing Your Profile
While signed in on your Google+ profile page, click the ‘Edit Profile’ button to the right of your name. Not only can you fill in all of your profile information here, you can change who sees it. Click on any section to edit. A window will pop up with a text field. If you click on the ‘Your Circles’ button, you can change who sees that information. With just one click, you can share with the following:

• Anyone on the web
• Extended circles
• Your circles
• Only you
• Customize a personal list

Understanding Circle Privacy
Circles are a great way to keep your contacts organized. Adding different people to different circles creates a perfect way to keep control over what your contacts can see. Family, coworkers, creepers – you can create any type or amount of circles to share only certain information with. All of your circles are private by default too. Essentially, you could have a professional profile and casual profile all under the same user account.

When you add someone to a circle on Google+, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in one of their circles. However, if someone adds you to one of their circles, there is no approval process – so make good use of your privacy controls and be conscious of your settings.
In a new age of the internet, it is fundemental to know what your identity is up to in the virtual world. Among any other social network, Google+ is leaps and bounds ahead of any other, leaving you finally feeling safe and secure on the web.


For more information check out the following articles:

http://www.buzzom.com/2011/07/how-to-protect-your-privacy-on-google/

http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2011/07/managing-your-google-privacy-using-circles.html

http://betanews.com/2011/08/25/google-forces-facebook-to-tweak-sharing-settings/