ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

11 years, 4 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Sounds like what you actually need is a production manager, I'd expect a coproducer to bring not cost money.

Rate - what a PM saves you should be more than their fee. If this girl has contacts out good deals with suppliers that will guide you what you can pay. Ask her how she can save you money and how much she wants, then negotiate. Points are pretty meaningless for small indie productions and the cost of administering them makes them a massive drain.

11 years, 4 months ago - Dan Selakovich

Wait, you just hired her? I'm a little confused about the question if she's already hired.

If she's not a producer in real life, what IS she? As usual, I have to agree with Paddy. What you probably need is a great PM. If her day job is a 1st A.D. or Production Manager, then you've got something.

Usually, on no budget things like this, the producer figures out what it takes to live and pays themselves that. So if her monthly nut for rent, food, etc. is 2 grand and her time commitment is 4 weeks long, that's $500 a week. If she wants more than it takes to live, she doesn't understand no budget filmmaking, and it's probably not a good fit. On a normal mid budget feature, the rule of thumb for producer pay is 2.5% of the budget. So maybe that will help you figure this thing out.

As far as points go, be very careful here. Points are complicated. They certainly can not be gross points. Usually points are divided 50/50 between the investors and producers. But whenever I did a points breakdown (I was partners in a production company 25 years ago), the investors got all money until 110% of their investment was returned before the filmmakers saw a dime, then it went into a 50/50 split (the idea was if the investors made a profit, they'd be more likely to invest in future projects). So half the profit points was what I had to work with. If I gave someone 2 points, the reality was 1 percent of the total profit minus the 10% bump for the investors.

Add to the fact that knowing when a picture actually goes into profit is hard to determine. Is publicity part of the budget, for example? Is that plane ticket to L.A. to meet with distributors or acquisitions people part of the budget? The only way any of this can be accomplished with any clarity is if you sell the film outright. If it cost 100 grand to complete, and the next day you sell it to the Lifetime network for 300 grand, then you've got a clear profit on which to base a points system.

11 years, 4 months ago - Marlom Tander

Nena, POINTS? If she's good, then she'll have a very good idea what the points are likely to be worth. If she is likely to conclude that their value is likely to be nil, then she might well get offended by the offer and wonder if you are taking her seriously. I think you should make her a cash offer you can afford and let her decide if the kudos makes the lowball pay worthwhile.

OR are you going to offer both points and a sales role? If she has ambitions to be a producer then the "I'll make it, you sell it", line might play well, and neatly makes monetising the points her problem :-)