Bianca Bezdek: Financing Feature Films
Filmnut 223
Guest: Bianca Bezdek
Crew Position: Entertainment Lawyer, Advisor & Consultant (Licensed to practice in the state of New York and Europe)
Company: Bezdek Law
Website: http://www.bezdeklaw.com
Bianca Bezdek is not your father’s entertainment lawyer. Intelligent but not stuffy, informative but not condescending, (unless she is friends with you and then all bets are off!) And most importantly, Bezdek is fun and not boring! This interesting hour focused on film finance and some of the different ways to raise money for a film.
There is no getting around the fact that it can be a complicated or intimidating area to delve into, but it is very important for filmmakers to have an elementary understanding of what their options and responsibilities are. Like any other area of filmmaking overlook it at your own peril!
But seriously, if you overlook a creative area of filmmaking you might make a bad movie. Overlook securities laws (regarding raising and soliciting money) and you can potentially open yourself up to civil and or even criminal liability.
Some other points that Bianca hit on that she goes into detail on the show are:
1-Social networking sites as a means to raise financing? Ah, not so much.
2-Calling lists and when you can and can’t cold call.
3-Correcting the Filmnut (me) on my misunderstanding of an important tax law that you don’t want to miss. (Cause I know others have this wrong)
4-States offering filmmakers incentives
5-Foreign presales, what they are, and how to utilize them
6-The importance of Foreign sales agents
7-Gap financing and Super gap financing
All this and more.
If you missed this or any episode of Filmnut you can watch it here:
http://www.thestream.tv/filmnut The episode with Bezdek is number 223.
Comments or questions on this show? Let me know here: http://www.thestream.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1775
Thanks for checking us out!
Jeff Schubert
http://www.myspace.com/powerofnow http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0775806/
PS We’re off next week. The next Filmnut is April 16th, with the writing producing team of Adam Armus and Nora Kay Foster. Currently they co-executive produce and write for the NBC show Heroes. They’re also working on a feature and past writing credits include Xena Warrior Princess, The Practice, Night Starker and many more.