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Where The Money’s Coming From

April 22, 2010 by Hollywood

An upcoming article in UK Film Finance magazine interviews Jeff Steele of the incredibly informative and entertaining Film Closings blog. If you’re an independent filmmaker who is now or will one day be seeking financing from private backers, you should be reading this guy daily. He’s also now writing a syndicated column for the Huffington Post.

Jeff has posted parts of the interview on the blog, where he explains that indie films that were once being blindly backed by Wall Street investment firms and banks are now finding money from other, savvier financiers who have done their research and who demand transparency in their deal making:

Kingsley Marshall: Who/what has stepped into the vacuum left by the exit of banks and Wall Street from movie financing?

JEFF STEELE: I’m seeing new equity coming back into the market, as well as some gap funds, so business is definitely starting to pickup.

Kingsley Marshall: How different are these new financiers from their predecessors, if at all?

JEFF STEELE: The new financiers (both equity and debt) are so far proving to be more sophisticated and informed than their predecessors — they are either drawing from their own prior experiences or utilizing finance advisors to back them up. They demand more transparency in their deals (which is great for everybody), they’re more interested in partnering with other similar financiers (instead of trying to be the sole debt financier or equity investor), they’re generally not interested in financing 100% of the pictures, and they’re insisting on utilizing production tax credits.

The gist of the article: while it’s still incredibly difficult to find financing, the great freeze of 2009 is behind us. Financiers are once again willing to take a bet on Hollywood; it’s the practices of the financiers themselves that have changed, rather than the films.

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