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5. Management: People Committed to the Project
- Southern Illinois University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
61 5. Management: People Committed to the Project Once again, we first have to ask, “Does this section have to be entitled ‘Management ’?” which is the traditional corporate-type business-plan title for this section dealing with the people involved. The answer is “No.” In fact, under some circumstances using the term “Management” as the title of this major section in a business plan could be confusing or misleading. For example, if the investment vehicle is a member-managed LLC, and the filmmaker wants to include the narrative biography of a film’s proposed director or director of photography, but such individuals are not involved in any way in the ownership or management of the investment vehicle or the production company, then it would be inappropriate to include their biographical information in a section entitled “Management.” They are not management of the company. On the other hand, they play critical roles in the production of a feature film and its potential for success, so including their bios is likely to be very important to prospective investors. Some business-plan consultants suggest that the information relating to management be included as a subsection for the major section called “The Company” (see chapter 4). But for film-related business plans, especially for a start-up operation , there may be so little information to disclose about a company that treating “Management” as a company subsection would not make sense. The section title “Management” is more appropriate for a corporate investment vehicle to be formed upon funding; the very likely the reason why most business-plan consultants recommend the use of this section heading is because they are used to using the corporation as the investment vehicle. On the other hand, some of the people involved in the development, production or distribution of a feature-film project, whose bios need to be included for review by prospective investors, are not involved with the corporation as management. They are independent contractors who are going to be hired to help perform specific services with respect to the film project once the project is funded. Management 62 For these reasons, it may better serve the needs of film-related business plans to use another title for this important section. As an example, “People of the XYZ LLC” may work when a member-managed LLC is the investment vehicle. In the alternative, “People of (title of the film)” may work when some of the people are not involved as owners or management of the particular entity, but letting the prospective investors know who is involved and who may be making significant contributions to the project is still essential. Such titles are broader in scope than the title “Management” and may work better for that reason for the section with the narrative biographies of the key people associated with the project. So again, when writing a business plan for the project financing of a film, it is important to adapt to the special circumstances of feature-film development and/or production —it is common for independent films to hire numerous professionals as independent contractors or temporary employees solely for the purpose of developing or producing a specific film. This section is important for raising money for film projects because investors tend to rely heavily on the backgrounds of the key people involved when making a decision to invest in any start-up venture, and a filmmaker must convince these prospective investors that he or she not only knows which pieces of the puzzle need to be brought together in order to produce a quality film but also that he or she has actually identified and communicated with several of those key people, and they have expressed interest in lending their expertise to the project. Whose biographical information ought to be included in a film-related business plan? People functioning as executive producers, coproducers, associate producers, line producers or production managers, screenwriters, directors, directors of photography, actors and casting directors are typically some of the narrative biographies seen in business plans relating to a film project. These choices also depend on who is the moving force behind the project. If a stunt person, as an example, is seeking to put together the financing for a film project, he or she may also serve as a producer, owner of the production company and in a stunt supervisor’s role. Any person involved in the development, production or distribution of a motion picture may decide at some point in their careers to...