It would cost you about $500.00 to file an incorporation. You will need to decide between the two of you as to who would be the President and Secretary, and if one or both of you would be directors.

You will then have to create a minute book, which is a binder (typically black binder) which must have the following:
1) Certificate of Incorporation;
2) Articles of Incorporation;
3) Share certificates, if any;
4) Register of share allotments;
5) Register of share transfers;
6) Register of Directors;
7) Register of shareholders.

You should also do a shareholders' agreement between you two as to who would do what, who would invest how much, and, last, but perhaps not least, what will happen if you two decide to go your separate ways.

If you live in the United Kingdom, you may need a tax registration number for your VAT, and you should speak to an accountant about that as well as any other tax issues. That said, you will need some capitalization to start a film company, and, if you don't have that, you might as well not waste the money on incorporation.

Good luck.

Welcome to filmmaking.net!

If you do not take the company public you will not need numbers 3
through 7 of AMs excellent list. If you will not be incorporating,
you wont need numbers 1 and 2.

quote:

---

Originally posted by MentalVortex
I have read that as soon as the investment money comes in you should form a company. But would the company not already need to be formed before people will start investing?

---

I very much doubt it's a reliable business plan to wait until you get
investors to start your company. Unless of course people are just
handing you money because they believe in you as a person.

quote:

---

Originally posted by MentalVortex
A bit of background - there are two of us and we have no money! So, is it just a matter of picking a name and registering it as a company, and then paying any investment money into the company account? How much money and how long would it actually take to set up the company?

---

That's like asking, "How long is string?" The answer will always be,
"It depends." Starting a production company is exactly the same as
starting any small business. A manufacturing company buys or rents
a building and makes a product. An auto repair company buys or
rents a building and fixes cars. A "production company" make movies.
And they are all started in the same way.

Check out:
http://www.fsb.org.uk/
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/
http://www.smallbusiness.co.uk/

=============================================
The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Thanks so much for the advice you guys.

As an aside to that, I had a really great breakthrough yesterday in relation to the first movie we plan to do (I'm currently finishing off the script).

I had one actor in mind for the lead (a big name in Europe) and someone who I admire greatly as a actor. I tried to get a contact for him through the usual avenues but never even got replies from those sources. As a shot nin the dark I sent a message to a friend of mine who lives not far from where this actor was born, just asking if he could maybe do a bit of digging and come up with an agent contact or something. Here's his exact reply by text:

"Absolutely! He is actually a friend of my sisters. She just called him and he said you can just call him. His number is ********"

I called the guy yesterday afternoon and we had a long chat about the story etc and he's totally into it! Loved the story and then his suggestion was that I finish the script, send it to him, he'll read it and then we'll meet up and he'll do a few scenes to see if I like the way he approaches it. He then texted me his home address and said he was really looking forward to the whole thing.

The other great thing about this is that I now have something additionally tangible to tell investors about, rather than simply, "We're going to make a movie."

But what a result getting that contact! I couldn't believe it 🙂

That's almost like hitting the spec jackpot! You got a star attached to your project. There is nothing investors like better than seeing a name attached to their investment.

Good luck and keep us posted!

You hit the jackpot for sure!

It's very rare that a beginning filmmaker gets this amazing opportunity. Better
make this movie soon. It would be a drag to lose the interest of this actor
because of scheduling delays.

I hope you keep us posted on your progress!

Wonderful! Have you done a cash-flow analysis of what your movie will cost? You don't want to disappoint your star, now your friend, if your movie gets stalled for lack of money and planning.

Thanks everyone,

I know how lucky I am for sure 🙂

To give a bit more on the project - obviously since yesterday's revelation things have gone into fifth gear. We were initially going to pull in all the funding ourselves but today I met with one of the high-profile print media businessmen in my city and told him about the project. He has a list of business contacts (and selling power) that we could never match so I figured I had to give it a go toiday. Told him everything about the project and he said that first off he was flattered that I came to him with it and secondly that he was "actually excited by the whole thing." We're meeting on Monday to go over everything in great detail and he's well on board. He will undoubtedly pull in more investment and in a quicker time than we ever could.

Thanks again for the nice words guys. I know this is a huge opportunity and I'm going to make sure it pans out like it has the potential to! I'll keep you posted for sure 🙂

Wonderful! Just remember to stick it out for the long haul. I know of one project where the producer, a young man, signed on a TV star. But, as far as I know, nothing came of his project, however, because he apparently could not raise the money.

Setting up a Ltd company in the UK is REALLY easy. You can walk into Companies House, fill out a few forms, pay a small fee and you're up and running. Bank account is as simple.

But the bigger point is how will you get business as a production company? Focus on that more than the paperwork, which is really SIMPLE. Especially if you're not making any money, and when you are you just hand it ?the paperwork function? over to an accountant.

Screenplay Structure: http://www.clickok.co.uk/index4.html ; http://www.youtube.com/user/clickokDOTcoDOTuk
Screenplay Formatting: http://www.finaldraft.com/ ; http://www.plotbot.com/