1. Media
Corporate Finance
Corporate finance within the media is a way corporations help finance peoples films, in return for
much more than they invested themselves. Following this due to them wanting a healthy return
fromyour production,theymustbelieveinyourideas,andconsiderthe successof it once made and
published.Howeveralotof pre-productionworkmustbe incorporatedintothismethodasyoumust
pitch your ideas towards these cooperate companies. Things such as a marketing plan, film ideas,
budgetcostand all the general planningmustbe complete foryourideatoevenbe considered. This
isbecause theyneeda clear view of your idea and whether personally they believe it would work,
and a clear view can be shown to them of how this will realistically make the company its money.
However due to their investment within your idea they will want to add their own opinions and
voice their own ideas about your approach to the production. When considering this option you
must make sure you don’t lose control of your own production, as a lot of investors will be
experiencedinthisfieldsuchasthe filmmakingindustryastheymayof done thistype of investment
beforehand, but it is key you don’t lose control.
An example of this would be marvel studios itself. Disney who are a very successful worldwide
corporate,financeswithinproductionsitself. Theyhave averysuccessful andsolidfinancialbase and
spendtheirmoneyonotherfilmingproductionsawayfromtheirown.Anexample of this is the film
‘avengers: the end game’, who as know is produced by Marvel studios (who itself is owned by
Disney) andisthendistributedbyWaltDisney.Thisexampleshowsushow common it is for popular
films within the industry to be supported by cooperate finance in order to be funded in general.
2. Distribution Right
Distributionrights is a legal agreement that allows a person or company to sell another company’s
productsor services.A distributionagreementisalegal agreementbetweenasupplier of goods and
a distributorof goods. Within the Film and TV industry this could mean an idea or a shows rights to
another individual to either re-invent it or carry on from where it’s at.
An example of this, is a film series called DNA which was made Danny Boyles ’28 days later’. The
distribution rights for this were sold, which meant all rights including, worldwide formats like –
cinema, DVD, tv etc where sold, to the cooperate 20th
Century Fox and fees from that helped fund
future production.
Sponsorship
Sponsorshipwithinfilm andTV,iswhere a brand pays a filmingproductiontohave theirproductsor
brand logovisuallystatedwithintheirfilm.The sponsorshipusuallyconsistsof acharacter
mentioningabrandsname,ora logobeingshown,somewhere withinscene.Itmayevenbe a
productplacementwhenadbreakoccur, an example of this‘coronation street’where adsare
shownbefore the showstarts,and in-between adbreaksuntil the endof the show.Whenbrand
promote themselvesinconnectiontoashow theyhave to ensure the targetaudience linkedtothe
showissimilarto theirown in orderfor itto be successful,andcreate awarenesstothe branditself.
Whencreatingthese advertstopromote theymayevenconsidercreatingthe adto match the
theme of the show.A visual example of thisisthe ‘compare the meerkatcampaign’whichcurrently
surroundsthe show,where the aditself issetonthe setof CoronationStreetbringthe twotogether
as one.
3. Thisway of promotionwithinabrandallowsviewers toknow whatthe program issponsoredby,
and creatingbrandawarenessforthe brand,and it productswhichare shown.Howeverthisisnot
insuredproductplacementasitisnot 100% certainthat viewerswill buytheirproductsfromthe
productplacement,howeveritisstill a greatway forfilmor TV productionstofinance/fundthere
filmingproduction.
Product Placement
Productplacementitselfisverypopular,inall formsof visual media. Productplacement,alsoknown
as embeddedmarketing,isa marketing technique where references to specific brands or products
are incorporatedintoanotherwork,suchas a film or television program, with specific promotional
intent. Itsaim is to subtly promote their products through a non-traditional advertising technique,
usuallythroughappearancesinfilm, television,orothermedia,inhope thatthe viewerswill want to
buy or use their products or services as an effect of seeing it within a film, or tv show. The general
ideabehinditiscreatinga initial brandawarenesswhere itwillbe associated with the film or show,
so the nexttime theysee itin stores the brand has a link which pushes any people to buy it as they
have the same mind set of if it’s good for them it’s good for me.
An example of thiswithinthe industryisquite clearlyeverywhere howeverthe one Ifind interesting
is the mock of ‘product placement’ itself in the film Wayne’s world, where in the scene they are
saying how they don’t need or want the money from product placement while acting out a ray of
productplacementswithinthe filmitself.Whilethe whole thingitself is a skit, the would have been
paidby the company’sbeingshownto promote theirproductswithinthe movie. Brandsuch as pizza
hut and Pepsi are being shown which is hoped to have an effect on the audience to want to
themselves buy the products.
4. Franchising
Francizing is where production companies, use third party manufactures to help them promote
there filmorTV showthoughproducts.Inorder to spendlessmoney though manufacturing related
business,filmproducerscandecide to licence company’s andbrandsthe rightto sell products which
are copyrighted to the certain brand or image. The main benefit for this is that the licensee helps
expenseswithinthisprocess,whichisa more money efficient way as they are not having to pay for
their own costs of manufacturing but receive the benefits when they get a advance payment for
each productwhichissold, as well as the royalty payment which are at average around 8% of gross
revenuesfromsales.Howeverif the movie orTV show doesnot succeedandproductsdon’tsell,it is
lefttothe manufacture todeal with the backlash of low sales, which can be a very risky industry to
be in as you can ever fully know how the audience will respond.
A verypopularexample wouldbe the McDonaldshappymeals.AsMcDonaldsisone the biggest fast
foodfranchisesgloballyitwouldbe a good platform to help create brand awareness and sell brand
productsthoughthere ‘happymeals’.The generalised targetaudience is a younger one, so film and
shows which are advertised are generally aimed towards the lower age bracket, in order to reach
the audience itself. The happy meal is well known for their box packaging and toy inside the box,
alongwiththeirmeal.Thisapproachreachesthe audience as it adds an aspect of fun to them going
out and eating. This is an amazing way of promoting a film or TV show, however considerations
towardscopy rightsmustbe considered, and how the campaign is show must line up with how the
production teams ideas in order to avoid being sued, for presenting the brand in na incorrect way.
Crowdfunding
Anotherpopularsource of creatinga finance fora production,isthoughcrowdfunding.
Crowdfundingiswhereyoureachoutto the general publicandaskfor donations towardsyour
course such as a mediaproduction.Thiswaycan be verysuccessful wayof notonlygeneratinga
finance butalsocreatingmore unintendedawarenessforyourproduction.Thiswaytakesthe
general approachonsocial mediaplatforms,inordertograb the as much profiledattentionas
possible.A goodexample of thiscause is‘gofundme’wherepeople create there causesandpromote
them,witha visual representationof the progressthemhave made until theymake theirsetfinical
goal.In orderto create the interestaroundthere crowdfundedtheygive adescriptionof theirfuture
plansand ideasinorderto sparkthe interestaroundthere production.
5. Howeverthe downsidetocrowdfundingisthe possibilitythatpeopleare justgoingtoinvade your
productionandfollowwhatyouare doingratherthan helpingraise the moneyforittofurther.
Howeverthere will be apercentage whichwill helpsupportthe production andhelpcontribute
towardsthe successof it,by donatingthe moneytohelpfund.While there are people whowill
supportthe issue andengage intothe cause by sharingthe postyet won’tdonate.
A goodexample of thisbeingasuccesswiththe filmindustryisveronicamars,the TV show which
was cancelled,anothercrowdfundingsitesuchaskickstarter raisedenoughmoneyforthe shoe to
be turnedintoa film,onlythoughthere passionforthe show.
Private Financing
Sometimesfilmscanbe funded by private sources of finance, however you generally find that this
means the scale of the film is smaller as film production has been funded by the film makers
themselves.Thiscanmeananythingfrom getting every single bit of your savings borrowing money
from people you know getting loans, just to gather as much money in order to fund it, while this
approach does seem quite drastic many people have taken it in order to get where they are. An
example of this is ‘Kevin Smith’ who created the film ‘clerks’. In order for him to acquire the funds
for the film, KevinSmith sold a large portion of his extensive comic book collection in 1993, maxed
out eight to ten credit cards with $2,000 limits, dipped into a portion of funds set aside for his
college educationandspentinsurance moneyawardedforacar he and Jason Mewes lost in a flood.
6. Howeverthere are alsootherapproachessuchas sourcingprivate investors,whoinvestintothe film
if they believe it is able to create a profit however the private investigators may expect a say into
how production runs as the people investing are normally affluent professionals within the same
industry,aswhattheyinvestinto.Anexample of investors can be shown though the funny story of
how ‘Monty Python’sLife of Brian’ the filmwasable tobe funded. A weekbefore productionbegan,
the producers,EMI Films,gotspookedbythe subjectmatterandpulledout.Luckily,the Pythonshad
a fan willingto fundtheirfilm:George Harrison.The former Beatle sold his home in London to help
raise the $4 million budget needed. Harrison formed the production company Hand Made Films
(that would later produce the films: Time Bandits, Withnail and I, Lock Stock and Two Smoking
Barrels and 127 Hours) and oversaw the financial side of Life of Brian.
Public Finance
Withinthe UK one of the mostsignificantsourcesof fundingforfilm production mainly comes from
publicfinance.Thismaymeanthe fundingwhichcomesthoughmightbe from a body who is wholly
or partly publicly funding (such as the BBC or Chanel 4 – though BBC Films and Film). This might
mean it comes from a part autonomous agency, such as the British film institutions or Film
Birmingham, who often funds productions. However it might mean that it comes from a body that
‘collects’public money and uses it for film production, like the national lottery, who channel their
moneyinpeople likethe BritishfilminstitutionandfilmBirmingham. Anotherway of private finance
isfrom the governmentitself,fromfivingtax breakstfilmproduction,whichmeanstheyare allowed
7. to pay less taxi than normal within the business world to help fund, while they are not technically
giving them money, they are just lowing costs so they can save further.
