Either You're in or You're in the Way by Logan Miller

Author:Logan Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

PART V

DANCING AROUND THE FIRES OF GREED

MONEY, WHERE DOES IT GROW?

NO MONEY, NO movie.

Raise money.

Raise money.

We gotta raise money.

How the hell do we do that?

We don’t know anybody with big money.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing in this entire struggle came close to exceeding the anxiety produced by the hunt for money. Nothing.

Most movies, at least most of the movies that make it into a theater, are the product of a studio: Fox, Universal, Warner Bros., Disney, Sony, etc. These studios have production companies responsible for manufacturing movies. Typically, a producer is the head of one of these production companies. The studio is essentially the bank. The producer secures a loan from the studio and makes the movie.

So why not take our movie to a studio and secure a loan? Because we had no credit. The studios are not in the subprime, easy lending business. We would not qualify for one of their loans under any circumstances. Nobody in Hollywood was going to give us a chance to direct and act in our movie. Nobody. It was too risky.

A production company might buy the script from us with Ed Harris attached. Might. But then the production company would, in all likelihood, marginalize our involvement, or get rid of us entirely, bring on a new writer or writer(s) to mutilate our script, and then, five years later, if ever, get a loan from the bank and produce our movie. Chances are we wouldn’t even recognize our story once it was thrown on the big screen.

We could live with failing on our own terms, but we couldn’t live with failing on someone else’s. If we made our movie and it failed, we could live with that. But if someone else made our movie and it failed? Well, that wasn’t an option.

We would need to be the studio and production company. And in order to accomplish this, we needed money.

But where to find it?

Everybody loves movies. Most people are fascinated with celebrities and the mystery behind making a movie. Most people, that is, except those in Hollywood. It’s what they do every day. The charm has worn off. But people outside of Hollywood? They can’t get enough.

We needed to find an investor that wanted to rub elbows with famous people, hang out on set and watch the camera roll, someone who would mount the poster on his wall like a Picasso. Someone far from the jaded world of filmmaking. Someone who still felt the magic each time he watched a movie. And that was the opportunity we could provide him.

What’s more, there was a new tax incentive. Prior to 2001, movie financiers had to write off their investment by amortizing it over ten years. A pain in the ass. But now a financier could write off the entire investment in one year. This write-off also carried with it the prospect of gain. If the movie was successful, the financier would make money on a wad of cash he had already written off.

So we packed our bags for Northern California, determined to stay until we raised the money.

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