We’ve been asked on several occasions why our sets seemingly run so well, despite the microbudget. While I understood what it was we were offering to the people we collaborate with, this is helping me see the science behind it.

I received this urgent email from filmmaker Justin Eugene Evans. Printed with his permission.

To All -

Zak Forsman alerted me to a dangerous bill that will dramatically effect entrepreneurship in America. USAToday discussed it, but never named the actual bill.

Here’s the full bill:

http://banking.senate.gov/public/_files/ChairmansMark31510AYO10306_xmlFinancialReformLegislationBill.pdf

It was a bitch to find. I had to do about 4 hours of research…no article would cite the actual name of the bill! I read through at least three other financial-related bills before finding the right one.

This bill is not yet in Thomas (the website that tracks bills).

And, it currently has 114 pages of amendments:

http://banking.senate.gov/public/_files/032310MangersAmendmentAYO10627.pdf

Here is a blog that discusses this:

http://www.compliancebuilding.com/2010/04/06/accredited-investors-under-the-restoring-american-financial-stability-act/

What’s frustrating about this bill is that it goes way beyond fixing Wall Street and crooked banks. If passed it could dramatically alter how we raise money for PPM’s. It will eliminate a huge pool of investors. It will force SEC registration and reporting upon small, private enterprises.

So, we need to call our Senators and explain how this will hurt our business.

S. 3217 is Senator Dodd’s attempt to fix America’s financial system. Unfortunately, he doesn’t stop at Wall Street and big banks. His bill would completely alter how small businesses raise money in America. Buried deep within the bill are provisions to raise the Accredited Investor qualification, eliminate real estate from an investor’s total assets in order to qualify, force small businesses to register with the SEC regardless of size, force bi-annual reporting and eliminate the intra-state exemptions.

Here is Open Congress’ link to the bill:

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s3217/show

The result is simple but profound. According to Scott Shane of Business Week 77% of current accredited investors would no longer qualify.

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/mar2010/sb20100318_367600.htm

Chris Dodd’s camp sees this as a mere adjustment for inflation. That might be true, but some of the fundamentals of businesses, particularly our own, have changed. We don’t need as much start-up capital as we did 20 years ago. Technology has made our industry far more efficient. This would force us to work with a level of investor who expects a far higher ROI. It would force us to compete for investment dollars with bigger corporations. It would force first time entrepreneurs to raise too much capital for start-ups, which contradicts the efficiencies we’ve gained in the last twenty years.

http://www.compliancebuilding.com/2010/04/06/accredited-investors-under-the-restoring-american-financial-stability-act/

Tweet about this. Put it on your facebook page. Call your senator. This is too important to our industry. And, this isn’t just about making films…

…imagine you’ve always wanted to own your own restaurant. You need $350,000.00 to finance it. You don’t think it will make a profit for the first year. After that, you predict it will make a 20-30% ROI and your investors will begin exiting in Year Three. That’s possible under the current law. It would be far more difficult if Chris Dodd’s bill passes…you’d be forced to go to investors who expect a much higher ROI, who expect a faster exit and who earn such huge sums of money in a year that the ROI would represent a smaller portion of their income.

$100,000.00 in profit to someone worth 1 million is fantastic. To someone worth 10 million, it’s a pittance. The wealthy expect their portfolios to grow based on percentages. What’s one person’s 10% ROI is another (wealthier) person’s 1%. Who wants 1% growth on a high risk venture? No one! They’d be smarter putting it in T-Bills.

Chris Dodd’s intent might be good, but the execution is clumsy. We need to reform how major corporations do business in America without killing entrepreneurship in the process.

I’ve begun working with high-networth investors. These changes may not affect Humble Magi at all. But, if you’re thinking of making your first feature film with a budget of 500 grand or less then these changes most definitely affect you. If you’ve ever dreamed of starting your own small business then these new rules will affect you. If you’d prefer to work with smaller sums of money and grow a business carefully with patient investors, these new rules will affect you.

We’re already fighting a battle with six corporations who now control 90% of our nation’s media. This will prevent thousands of us from ever stepping onto the field of battle. Or, worse yet, it will criminalize small-time entrepreneurship. Chris Dodd, I’m a fellow Democrat. I want you to reform Wall Street. I want you to reform lending institutions. I want you to fix the Real Estate business. But, don’t fix a system that isn’t broke. Small business owners didn’t cause the 2008 Great Recession. Big businesses did. By burying Reg D and SEC reforms deep inside S.3217 you’ve proven two things to me. You don’t have my best interests in mind…and you hid it deep inside a bill because you know it’s wrong.

And here is Justin’s letter to his Senator. Consider it a template to write your own Senator(s) today.

Dear Senator Bingaman -

My name is Justin Eugene Evans. I’m the founder and CEO of Humble Magi, an independent film production company in Albuquerque. We’ve recently completed our first feature film. It’s won four awards and been accepted into ten festivals. More importantly, it’s doing well at Cannes and my investors will make a profit within 12 months.

If you vote yes on S.3217 you’ll destroy the business I’ve been building. Let me explain why:

1.) EFFICIENCIES OF MODERN FILMMAKING
A technological revolution is still occurring in the film industry. For the last 20 years it has slowly transformed production. Now, it is transforming distribution. At long last, I can raise a modest amount of money on my own and distribute a motion picture across the United States. These efficiencies have dramatically reduced my needs for capital. I completed my first film with only $200,000.00. We’re distributing it by raising $500,000.00. The ROI for my investors is in the 20-30% range. What would have cost me several million dollars in the 1990’s now only costs a fraction of that. As with all American industries, we’re becoming more efficient.

2.) BIG INVESTORS DON’T CARE ABOUT SMALL RETURNS
However, I need access to small investors in order to make a small budget motion picture. A healthy return is largely a matter of the investor’s perspective. If I can deliver $100,000.00 in profit to an investor worth 1 million dollars that investor will be quite pleased. Someone worth ten million would consider such a small return a waste of their time. One investor’s 10% is another’s 1%…

3.) CHRIS DODD’S INFLATIONARY ADJUSTMENT IGNORES THE DISRUPTIVE POWER OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY
…and that means Chris Dodd’s inflationary adjustment, which seems harmless, has the potential to eliminate the very investors I need to make motion pictures. It’s already a tremendously unfair battle that I wage on a daily basis. Six corporations control 90% of our nation’s media. I’ll fight that fight. That’s how much I love my job. But, please don’t think it’s a fun fight, a fair fight, a truly American fight. I fight this battle with multi-national corporations because my government fails to enforce the anti-trust laws that should have broken up The Six Studios twenty years ago. I don’t have a choice.

4.) ADDITIONAL REPORTING AND COMPLIANCE REGULATIONS MEANS ADDITIONAL LEGAL FEES
My budget is strained as it is. The legal fees on properly setting up a feature film are at least $5,000.00. That’s roughly 2.5% of my budget. For my big-budget competitors, who spend less than 1% of their budget on legal fees, an increase will be unwanted but unremarkable. For me, it’s a killer. You’re making me reduce my crew size, my shoot days, my marketing budget. In short, I have to choose between proper legal representation and the craftsmanship of my film.

The only weapon I have is making micro-budget feature films that look, sound and feel like bigger budget studio movies. The capital I need to do this comes from a very specific type of investor…the angels Chris Dodd wishes to eliminate from the accredited investor pool. If 77% less Angels are allowed to invest, if I’m required to spend even more of my budget on legal fees to ensure we comply with multiple state regulations rather than one unifying set of laws, if the database my broker-dealer is whittled down…you’ve killed my business.

IN SUMMARY:
I’m trying to do what Walt Disney did during the last Great Depression. I’m building a small business with big ambitions. We know what the public wants and needs to see in a theater. We’re very good at our job. We’re not big enough yet to go after institutional capital. We need access to the very capital this bill will eliminate.

Don’t kill my company, Senator.

We all know Wall Street needs reforms. We know the banks must be reregulated. But, changing Reg D will destroy my small business. I’m a Democrat. I’ve read the bill. I understand that it was well-intentioned. But, Chris Dodd’s wrong. He’s flat-out wrong about how entrepreneurs build companies in America. He doesn’t understand how technology has reduced the needs for hundreds of industries, how we’re more efficient than we were 20 years ago, how we’re capable of making a new industrial revolution with desktop computers, 3D printers, high-speed internet connections and digital cameras. Don’t make me compete with bigger businesses who need more capital because they’re at a later stage of development. Don’t make me compromise quality for short-term profits because higher-end investors demand greater returns and faster exits. Do the American thing. Enable me to build a company for the 21st Century. I’ll do the hard work. I promise. I’ll treat my staff fairly, I’ll get up early, I’ll stay late and I’ll spend my investor’s money wisely. Meet me half way and tell your fellow Senators to vote no on S.3217 or remove the Reg D changes. If you do that I’ll build a company for the ages.

PS – Can you please get Section 181 reauthorized? HR 4213 just needs a nudge. It would help reduce my investor’s risk. Much obliged.

Between 1970 and 1972, my dad was one of the premiere cocaine smugglers operating between South America and NYC. He was uniquely an independent practitioner, meaning he did not operate under ties to organized crime. And his innovative scams were all designed to protect the people carrying the load, so if it got hit, they had excuses down the line that allowed them to walk away. Here is an interview he did under the alias “Zachary Swan” to promote the book “Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade” by Robert Sabbag. A couple years ago, my brother made a digital archive of the recording which I’ve provided below.

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Zachary Swan interviewed by Mark Dorfman on These Are The Times

20. Medicine for Melancholy (2008)
19. Cafe Lumiere (2003)
18. A Mighty Wind (2003)
17. The New Year Parade (2008)
16. Deep Water (2006)
15. Millennium Mambo (2001)
14. Y tu mamá también (2001)
13. Gerry (2002)
12. Before Sunset (2004)
11. George Washington (2000)
10. All The Real Girls (2003)
9. Lost in Translation (2003)
8. Elephant (2003)
7. Half-Nelson (2006)
6. Raising Victor Vargas (2002)
5. Uzak (2002)
4. Old Joy (2006)
3. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
2. Lilja 4-ever (2002)
1. The Son (2002)

some honorable mentions
Morvern Callar (2002), Children of Men (2006), In the Mood For Love (2000), 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007), All or Nothing (2002), Code 46 (2003), The King of Kong (2007), Wendy and Lucy (2008), Punch Drunk Love (2002), There Will Be Blood (2007), Three Times (2005), Vera Drake (2004), 24 Hour Party People (2002), Four Eyed Monsters (2006), The Girlfriend Experience (2009), The Child (2005), Silence of Lorna (2008)

Just got off the phone with Lance Weiler, founder of the Workbook Project. He’s asked me to curate the new subsection there called “NEW BREED” – where filmmakers who embrace and experiment with the evolving realities of DIY filmmaking can give voice to their strategies, processes, successes and failures. I will be seeking out filmmakers making compelling and unique work in a very participatory and transparent way, and inviting them to share their experiences.

As I told Lance, I’m very proud to be a part of The Workbook Project. It is a unique resource in the indie filmmaking community and I look forward to helping expand its reach.

If you have a project, the motivation to blog about it and embrace all things DIY, send me an email.

Unveiling some new promos cut by Rodney Smith of Flyin’ Monkey Films for the upcoming DVXFest. The new films, centered around the theme of “loss”, will debut in March 2009.

The next DVXFest has been announced with the theme of “loss” and Sabi Pictures will be producing an entry. More info about the fest can be found at the official site or by clicking the poster below to go to our individual film’s thread on the DVXUser site.

DVXFEST – official site

PRESS RELEASE :: WEB SITE

PlaceVine today announced the conclusion of its successful beta and the general availability of The Brand Integration Service, a web-based information service connecting marketers to product placement, sponsorship, and branded entertainment opportunities in film, tv, and new media.

I believe we are on the brink of a new indie filmmaking movement. And i don’t mean the emergence of a new sub-genre. Currently filmmakers are focused on the monetary value of their films. And selling it to a distributor as a monetary reward. but say you were to aggregate your film using bit torrent, giving it away for free as Jamie King did with Steal This Movie. his film has been downloaded 6 million times. if he were able to track who and where those people were, he would have something very valuable – a list he could take to advertisers and brands and say, this is my audience. this is the demographic i can offer, lets negotiate and strategize.

And so I come to this… METADATA. At the recent Power to the Pixel conference, this topic was on everyone’s mind. A special think tank I sat in on and observed was put together to address this and other challenges the DIY filmmaking community faces.

How to collect it, what info could be useful to collect, is anybody out there already doing it — these are the questions they asked and we will be asking as this movement evolves. For lack of a better term, I’m using From Here To Awesome to describe this movement from now on. forget the first incarnation of FHTA as an online festival of sorts. It is evolving into something bigger, more inclusive. this new wave is what I will continue to blog about so everything will go under my “from here to awesome” category if you wish to follow these articles.

Would a universal form be ideal? Like what Without A Box did for film festival submissions – fill it out with all your film’s info then open it up to your audience like a Wiki? obviously the tech for something like this is not in place, but I imagine there are ways to do it. perhaps by embedding the metadata into the files of the film, like that which is done with mp3s.

Thinking about this, I pose the question to you… what metadata could be useful for filmmakers who want to sell DVDs, hold screenings, use brand integration, solicit advertisers? And how do we collect it?

Chuck Forsman, who sometimes goes by Chuck McBuck, just won two Ignatz Awards for Outstanding Comic and Outstanding Series. He was also nominated for Promising New Talent. The Ignatz Awards, named for the character in the classic comic strip Krazy Kat by George Herriman, is a festival prize that recognizes outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. The ballot is created by a panel of five cartoonists and is then voted on by the attendees at the event. This offers a unique reflection of the views the professionals and their fans.

You can check out his work at his web site and blog, ChuckMcBuck.com.