The Institute for International Film Financing (IIFF) is an innovative, independent social-impactorganization that endeavors to bridge the gap between the worlds of filmmaking and finance for the benefit of all stakeholders — including the public at large. Founded in 2003, IIFF is incorporated in California as a not-for-profit, public benefit corporation. IIFF is headquartered in San Francisco and has chapters in the SF Bay Area, New York City, New England, Florida, Los Angeles, and Switzerland.
IIFF is coming to Boston!
After successfully establishing chapters in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, New England and Los Angeles, the Institute for International Film Financing (IIFF) continues its monthly, multi-city gatherings at the junction of film and finance with a special event in downtown Boston, MA. This month's New England Townhall Meeting in Boston, MA, is graciously hosted by Exemplar Law Partners and Suffolk University Law School.
This "grassroots" community meeting is designed to introduce IIFF to Connecticut's filmmakers, entrepreneurs and financiers as well as the public at large. Our goal for this and future gatherings is not only to provide unbiased insight & education about the business of film —and film financing in particular— but also to foster & inform productive relationships between attending professionals. The event features a powerful roster of highly topical speakers from the worlds of film and finance. We are delighted to welcome real-world financiers among our guests for the evening.
The evening's presentations plus panel discussion will address key issues relevant to filmmakers, financiers, and anyone interested in the economics, business mechanics, and financial dynamics of film. They will be followed by Q&A time. Attendees will also have ample opportunity to interact & network with our distinguished presenters and panelists and amongst themselves.
Program Details:
PROGRAM SCHEDULE 6:00-6:30 pm ... Registration and introductions 6:30-7:45 pm ... Three featured presentations with Q&A (4x20 min) 7:45-8:00 pm ... Networking break (15 min) 8:00-9:40 pm ... Four featured presentations with Q&A (3x20 min) 9:40-10:00 pm ... Moderated panel discussion with Q&A (20 min) 10:00+ pm ... Community time at area restaurant MODERATOR The event will be moderated by Donald Bertrand, a veteran financial-sector corporate attorney turned private-practice lawyer who provides entertainment law services in Connecticut and New York. Don's law office in West Haven, CT (www.ctLawHaven.com) represents various clients on a host of screenwriter, composer, producer and filmmaker issues.
PRESENTERS
"Alternative capital structures for film financing" by Christopher Marston, a prominent member of the Boston financial and legal community, focused on financial structures for corporations and the entertainment and film industry. As the Founding Partner of Exemplar Law Partners, Christopher works closely with Exemplar's emerging enterprise clients as a strategic partner by combining his advanced business expertise and education with his legal savvy to take clients to the next level. As a former Chief Financial Officer for a technology company, Christopher serves our Exemplary clients in the areas of Corporate Structuring, M&A, Venture Capital, Valuation and Leveraging of Intellectual Property, Contracts, Start-Up, Licensing, and Negotiation. In addition, Christopher serves as outside General Counsel and business partner to mid-market companies across industries. On the Business Consulting side, Christopher also assists his business clients in raising capital, building management teams, pricing strategy, market positioning, partnering, and venture capital and angel connections.
"What Filmmakers and Financiers Need to Know About Digital Distribution" by Scott Kirsner, editor of the blog CinemaTech (http://cinematech.blogspot.com), which covers the intersection of filmmaking and new technologies. He is also a weekly columnist for the Boston Globe, and a regular contributor to Variety and BusinessWeek. His most recent book is "The Future of Web Video: New Opportunities for Producers, Entrepreneurs, Media Companies, and Advertisers."
"Strategically Funding Independent Films Using Tax Credits and How an Independent Film Recoups and Profits" by Vinca Liane Jarrett, who today with her newly founded legal practice in conjunction with FilmPro Finance LLC, has become a leading innovator and representative in the entertainment industry. Attorney Jarrrett represents a variety of established and budding filmmakers from the organization of their film companies through finding distribution for their projects. She attends dozens of key film festivals, assisting clients negotiate deals and packaging clients music and film projects. Additionally, through her company FilmPro Finance, LLC Jarrett makes introductions to producer clients to potential sources of financing. In 2002 Jarrett formed the company FilmPro Finance LLC assisting primarily A-list producers establish funding for a slate of pictures from various sources that include bank financing, co-production and equity.
"Film Financing for the Short Film?" by Kevin Anderton, a Boston University graduate (MFA 2000) who founded Midnight Chimes Productions in 1999. Since then he has assembled a group of similar-minded talent to make over 60 shorts. In an effort to support and grow the local film community, he runs networking events, promotes local events, and has worked on several short films in the Boston area in such roles as set designer, gaffer, and key grip. His professional credits also include the IMAX film Kilimanjaro: To The Roof of Africa and The Good Son. His full resume and filmography can be found here.
“Tom Trenker’s Hollywood Profits Quantitative Drivers of Motion Picture Profitability” presented by Donald Bertrand, a veteran financial-sector corporate attorney turned private-practice lawyer providing entertainment law services in the Connecticut and New York. Don's law office in West Haven, CT represents various clients on a host of screenwriter, composer, producer and filmmaker issues. Don is a graduate of Yale Law School. Upon graduation, he joined a prominent Hartford, CT-based insurance & investment firm where he managed the Law Department's Financial Services Practice Group as Vice President and Insurance & Investment Products Counsel. Don has now transitioned to an area of law practice where he can apply his extensive legal knowledge and background to issues involving his lifelong passion for the cultural and creative arts, principally film. In this area, Don seeks to apply fundamental business law principles to the creative endeavors of the talent and entrepreneurs that he meets.
Other Presenters – To be Announced
IIFF New England Townhall Meeting (Thursday, October 4, 2007) Suffolk University Law School - Sargent Hall, Room 170 120 Tremont Street, Boston, MA
SIGN UP ONLINE AT: www.filmfinancing.org =============================================================== Time 6:00 pm ET - 10:00 pm ET
Location Suffolk University Law School 120 Tremont Street Sargent Hall, Room 170 Boston, MA 02108 Suffolk University Law School
New England based producers of the feature film Still Green, developed in Massachusetts, will be making their world premiere at the New England Film and Video Festival on Sunday, October 7th at 2:30pm, with an additional screening Monday, October 8th at 5pm, where it will be awarded the Best Narrative Feature. The festival will be held at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline MA. After screening at NEFVF, the filmmakers will travel to Portsmouth, NH for a screening at the New Hampshire Film Festival on Saturday October 13 at 7:40pm.
Still Green stars Sarah Jones (HBO’s Big Love), Noah Segan (Brick, Cabin Fever II),Ryan Kelley (Mean Creek, Smallville,) and Douglas Spain (Band of Brothers, But I'm a Cheerleader). Directed by Jon Artigo, (Rutland, USA, Freedom Park),Still Green follows a group of recent high school graduates who rent a beach house for a last vacation together before going their separate ways. A tragedy tests their friendships, as the characters respond in a controversial manner.
The movie's indie rock soundtrack includes six bands from New England. Local Producers include Andrea Ajemian and Writer Georgia Menides of Worcester, and Doug Lloyd of New Hampshire. The team’s last feature film Freedom Park, was shot entirely in Massachusetts and ran for a combined 15 weeks at 9 theaters throughout MA during the fall of 2004. The cast of the award winning, family comedy Freedom Park included Red Sox legends Jerry Remy and Luis Tiant, and WAAF morning personalities LB and Spaz.
Although Still Green was shot along the gulf coast of Florida, post-production was done out of their production office in Worcester, which included months of test screenings and new edits. While shooting in Florida during summer of 2005, the crew overcame Hurricane Katrina, sand flea attacks, red tide, major sea turtle interrogation, and a stolen high definition camera. Although producers spent months dealing with the insurance situation, they were able to re-shoot the missing scenes six months later. “We are finally done with the film and excited to premiere it at home, where I initially wrote the story the script is based on,” says Ms. Menides, as she prepares for the film’s festival run. “This production has left us with the confidence that we are ready for whatever challenges lie ahead. This is all part of making an independent film.”
The filmmakers are in development on their fourth feature We Got the Beat, a teen comedy set in 1983 about the first ever boyband, starring Michael Copon (One Tree Hill, Power Rangers), scheduled to shoot in Massachusetts during the spring of 2008.
In July 2000 I was teaching a journalism class at American University Paris and brought my students to Amnesty International for a conversation about genocide. As we were wrapping up, the Amnesty representative ushered us into a room and over to a large cardboard box with a bright blue fabric peeking out. Have you ever worn a burqa before? she asked. As I pulled the tent-like garment over my head and imagined being forced to wear it, I thought about what it would be like to be invisible to the world. That’s when I knew I wanted to produce a film about Afghanistan and help Afghan women to become visible again. The challenge was finding a way for the film to resonate with an American audience.
A year later, after the attacks of September 11th, the ability to draw the connection between Afghanistan and us seemed obvious. Three months later, I traveled to Afghanistan to film the growing humanitarian crisis and the aid workers who were struggling to respond to it. I was looking forward to seeing women shedding their burqas, liberated from the medieval laws of the Taliban. But when I arrived, all the women I encountered were still covered head-to-toe, allowed only a small mesh patch for their window to the world. When the documentary I was working on failed to sell, I vowed to return to this place that captured a piece of me with its beauty, isolation and sorrow.
What I could never have imagined then is that as I was filming in Afghanistan, there were two women living in my own backyard who were opening their eyes to the world in new and profound ways after losing their husbands on September 11th. Four years later I would return to Afghanistan with Susan Retik and Patti Quigley, whose loss gave them permission to shut out the world, but whose compassion forced them to have a leadership role in it.
It was important to me to tell their story because as the world has become increasingly divided by politics, ethnicity and religion, Susan and Patti affirm a common humanity that we all share. From the beginning, they recognize their Afghan counterparts as individuals—women they identify with and feel a connection to—rather than a monolithic, nameless, faceless group, as often happens during the world’s tragedies.
I was struck by Susan and Patti’s ability to recognize Afghanistan for all of its complexities. True, it is the country in which the terrorists trained to kill their husbands, but it is also a place that had been used as a pawn during the Cold War, only to then be abandoned by the international community – sparking a civil war that would last another decade. The effects were especially cruel for women. Banished from public life by the Taliban, they’ve suffered staggering declines in health. (Afghanistan is still one of the only countries in the world where women have a shorter life expectancy than men.) And when we arrived in Kabul in May 2006, the burqa still defined public life for most women.
Susan and Patti’s mission is simple: to make life better for these women. And so is their message: hatred is the root of terrorism. They aren’t naïve enough—nor do they have enough hubris—to think they can stop terrorism in its tracks. But they do have enough optimism—and enough faith in humanity—to believe that the War on Terror cannot be fought with bombs and bullets alone.
“A truly remarkable story of two women filled with courage and determination.” --- ABC News
“Genuinely inspirational.” --- New York magazine
"Heartbreaking, inspiring and important... "Beyond Belief" is a must-see." --- Cape Cod Times
"An affecting portrait... compelling..." --- The Boston Globe
“I wept like a baby throughout the film.” --- Anthony Kauffman, indieWire
“Beyond Belief” tells one of the most unique and moving stories to come out of 9/11. Every American who advocates killing in the names of the people who died that day should see it. For the rest of us, it's a sobering look at a country in crisis and an emotional journey taken with two awe-inspiring women.” --- Daniel Holloway, Metro International
“This is a movie that everyone must see.” --- Flick Filosopher
Saturday Night Screening, Q&A, and Party Beyond Belief - Sat. 7:30pm, Firehouse
Are you coming to the Boston Film Night this Saturday?
Leave a comment about who you may be looking to meet or what your experience was like last year.
This will be a great time!
6PM & 9PM at Good Time Emporium in Somerville, Massachusetts. There will also be a networking event between the shows and an after party. The movies are FREE to attend while the networking party is $10. More information is available on www.bostonfilmnight.com
Beanywood, the New England Film Movement turns ONE!!!
Come celebrate with us at Boston Film Night where it all started! Saturday night September 22nd from 6pm to 2am. There are two shows of local independent shorts, a networking event, and an after party. Come meet the people in your industry, get connected, and be more involved in your industry. 35% of the shorts playing in the festival this year were made by filmmakers and actors who attended Boston Film Night last year.
Over twenty local indie shorts representing Boston’s emerging independent film talent will be shown. Some notables: A trailer for the feature film Possessions by David Kornfeld, The Terror Training Video by Tom Bennett, Telemarketing Orphan by Justin Fielding, and a semi-naked cooking show Cooking With Canned Goods from Kevin Anderton. Several organizations also will be contributing directly to the programming: Woods Hole Film Festival, The Roxbury Film Festival, The Boston Underground Film Festival, and the 48hr Film Project will be supplying films. Boston Film Night’s goal is to gather the local film community, screen work created over the last year, and energize support for local film. Last year’s event drew over 500 attendees.
What is a media brand and why is it so important for a content creator in today's marketplace? It starts with your signature story and its core message. To thrive, you need to create content with a strong hooking interest and a brand promise. There are simple, effective ways to extend your media brand across multiple entertainment and media platforms.
These are the opening thoughts before Philipa Burgess (Partner, Creative Convergence) begins her panel entitled Creating Value With a Media Brand. Philipa shared many of her inside tips on how to use available resources to make yourself and your product visible, memorable and in turn profitable. There are now many internet tools you can use to create awareness about yourself and your product. Social networks are a relatively recent phenomenon which breaks down the population into regions and interests. This is extremely helpful in tracking the behavior of the audience you are selling to.
Philipa urges you to "know your audience" See who you are directing your energy and products to. Where do you find them? Where can you find out about them? What do they spend their time doing? What do they spend their money on? Using social networks, blogs and searches, you can find out much of this online (for no cost).
Next, do everything that you can to get your name out to this targeted audience. Create "top of mind awareness" through speaking, interviews and guess appearances. Cross promote with people who hold similar or desired audiences. When people become aware of your name, they make associations with that name. What are they coming to you for? What do they know to expect from you as opposed to your competition? These are just a few pointers from Philipa. She has a course: Your Signature Story:From Content Creator to Media Brand. Check it out at www.creativecvg.com
Philipa Burgess is a partner at Creative Convergence, Inc. The Los Angeles-based entertainment firm represents writers and directors such as Cassandra Taylor (XY) and Chjad Beguelin (Frankenteacher) and consults with entertainment and media brands. Most recently it sold two television projects based on books to the major networks, two projects as cable movies and a book to a major studio currently being developed as a feature film. Burgess started her career at International Creative Management (ICM) before establishing a boutique literary management firm that subsequently evolved intoCreative Convergence. She is a speaker, teacher and writer on the subject of marketing for writers and content creators.
