There are an infinite number of possibilies, and the only question is what is right for you and your partner.

You don't need to have a new company for every film, and you also don't need to have one company for you and one company for your partner. You can do so, of course, but either possibility would lead to unnecessary paperwork.

What you may consider is to have ONE company with two shareholders. You and your partner should decide on the following issues:

1) Who owns how many shares? 50-50 or 60-40? If you two split up, who will own what?

2) You will have to put some money into your company. If so, then would that be a shareholder loan or an investment? Talk to your accountant about this.

3) Who will put in how much money? And who will do what work? I sometimes see a partnership where one person puts in the money and the other does the work, and I also sometimes see a partnership where both people put in the money and both do the work.

4) Talk to an accountant about the tax issues, of which the shareholder loan/investment issue is one (trust me, it's a tax issue).

5) Also talk to a lawyer about the legal structure, and you may also want to talk to a specialist in entertainment law.

Good luck, and tell us how it went. 🙂

quote:

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Originally posted by DGS

Hi Everyone,

I have undertaken the role of Executive Producer in a feature film to which I will be financing.

I have experience on set and in post making films but this is my first time as a producer, especially financing a film.

I plan on making a few feature films over the next couple of years and am looking for some guidance on how to structure everything.

This is what I have in mind, if you could let me know if its correct or if I'm going in the wrong direction before I waste money on an Entertainment Lawyer telling me what to do.

I want to form a main production company that will own the films, intellectual property and the script for each feature film we do.

There will be two companies that have an equal shareholding in this production company.

One will be mine, the other will be my business partner who is the writer / director.

Each film we do would be a new project.

What I am not clear on is the film offering process, would each film would the production company do a film offering to each of the two producers companies?

Or should each film be its own company that has shareholders?

Is this a sound structure or is it done completely different?

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Three suggestions:

1) look up books by author Mark Litwak. http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Litwak/e/B001K85GR8/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1284412476&sr=8-1

2) find experienced Producers and ask their advice. For one POSSIBLE person who MIGHT help, go to www.cinematography.com and look up http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showuser=4653 It's my understanding that he has some experience and may be willing to help you.

3) Look for help here: http://www.ifp.org

Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com

A lawyer is not necessarily a bad idea. It never hurts to have someone with expertise look over your contracts, help to organize legal aspects like setting up a company and such. I would say the important thing is find one with a good track record, and someone who really understands the budget range you are in, like if you have 500k, you don't want people handling 50m movies.

Cheers,

Mike

making low budget dreams come true