Creative Fundraising and Deal Making

Catalog description

This course is about raising money for creative endeavors in the film business. It will focus on both on the film world and the world of television. The course will cover both traditional and non-traditional financing and fundraising in the film world. At its core, this course is about developing a general understanding of fundraising and finance in the world of entertainment and refining the creative skills necessary to develop proposals that allow the student to one day realize a creative vision. In the film world, rights need to be optioned, writers and actors hired, locations secured and production and post-production budgets put in place. When a film is completed, there is often a need for money to market the film at festivals in order to find that elusive distribution deal. The negotiation and structuring of these deals may be a humbling experience, fraught with compromises that affect the creative control over the film. To be active in the worlds of high and low finance as they relate to the arts, producers need a knowledge of financing tools and structures. They also need a general knowledge of the current economics driving the entertainment business. They must also learn about how the tax and securities laws affect the business proposals they are developing. They must follow current trends in new technology. They must learn about foreign and domestic markets and try to spot new opportunities (and dangers) as they develop. This course is also about understanding technology and spotting new trends and new opportunities in the entertainment business.