Film Investment Money for UK Films with Itasca

Film Investment Money for UK Films with Itasca

Film Investment Money for UK Films with ItascaFilm Investment Money for UK Films with Itasca helps the UK film Industry contribute £4.6Bn annually to the UK GDP and £1.6Bn to the Exchequer. Film is the UK’s shop window to the world

Film Investment For money for UK Films with Itasca

Raising Investment will be the hardest part of making any film. Understanding film finance structures is crucial to realizing the potential value for investors which is the cornerstone of your investment proposal. These days every investment scheme is subject to regulatory oversight and approval subject to onerous submission conditions and criteria. Get this wrong and no investor will be allowed to touch you.

Any scheme that offers investor tax relief on investment and exempt from CGT on profits while reducing risk shouldn’t be ignored. Consequently most sophisticated investors will only invest under such qualifying schemes. While stories abound of suspect film Investment schemes, SEIS/EIS are fully approved by HMRC and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Film Investment Money for UK Films with ItascaSEIS is the most generous investment scheme the UK Government has ever introduced for UK tax payers. Claim back up to 64% of the investment from the UK government and pay no tax on profits after 3 years. Even if the investment fails an investor can claim back up to 86.5% of their investment.

SEIS is so generous and it’s all above board! No crazy off shore bank accounts involved, no complex temporary tax loop holes to mess with, and the UK government are crying out for people to take advantage of the schemes and claim money back off them. It’s all above board and regulated which avoids any nasty pay back HMRC surprises as seen in a few notorious recent film investment schemes.

But remember :-
1. Finding qualifying schemes is hard with competition for investors money. You need an attractive, legally & Financially watertight offering.
2. Legal and Accounting bills are expensive, shareholder agreements, Compliance statements, share certificates, Anti-Money Laundering
3. Rules are many, complex and changeable. Break any of them and your investors may not qualify for Tax relief at all.
4. Timing, Percentage shareholding, ‘Full risk’ ordinary shares, connected parties, only directors, no employees, can all trip you up.

For these reasons raising Film Investment Money for UK Films with Itasca becomes easy. Itasca work closely with IFAs, Chartered accountants and Investment agents to ensure investors are always correctly and legally advised prior to any investment being placed. We know how SEIS/EIS applies to films and have experience of how HMRC view the process and materials.

Film Investment Money for UK Films with ItascaFilm Investment Money for UK Films with Itasca is a process. Itasca understands the SEIS/EIS submission process, restrictions, rules and pitfalls. We talk Film speak, but to make a coherent investment proposal work we had to learn how to speak with the legal and financial folks in order to pitch to Investors in their terms, which vary greatly. We can help you produce the required documentation in the required language, to gain approval and investor acceptance, together with how to reduce and manage risks through the use of proper controls, born out of sound financial and film production experience and expertise to ensure you have minimized investor’s investment risk to ensure your offering is more attractive than any alternatives seeking their investment. There is plenty of competition for their investment dollars. But none as seductive as Films.

Film Investment Money for UK Films with Itasca means we can provide know how and experience when it comes to helping you prepare and apply for SEIS & EIS status status for your film projects. We even run investor roadshows with trailers, talks and Q&A, where we address and answer all the questions and issues that arise specifically from SEIS/EIS for film investment. We try to make the whole process as transparent as possible to illustrate where the risks are together with the mitigating controls.

Film Investment Money for UK Films with ItascaThe big Hollywood players own their own studios and cinemas and staffers so from creation to release, money is kept internally with box office returns the only outward measure of revenues without meaningful costs. Money just moves around internal departments, little transparency in that model.

Not so with the independent film making process. It is very convoluted, involving many third parties and partners at every stage, each of whom are looking to be paid up front of for a revenue share. Key to managing risk is a) understanding how to ensure the product is made, thereafter sold, b) where the money is spent during Creation stages and c) where sales revenues come in from and go out to and why.

SEIS: The Young Business Owner

Here is a simple to understand infomercial to kick you off. It’s very generic but provides a good grounding in SEIS. If you struggle to understand this or how it applies to making Films then you need to think about calling us in to help you with the preparation and filing of your SEIS or EIS Application and approach your investors.

SEIS The Young Business Owner from School for Startups Ltd on Vimeo.

SEISwindow.org Content created and developed by School for Startups www.schoolforstartups.co.uk

We can help you deliver your project from script to screen if you’re interested please contract Malcolm Walker at Itasca films on 020 7494 08885

When should I start thinking about funding for my film?
Once you have secured the idea, the very next thoughts should be how to finance its creation. Making films is a series of processes within a well understood framework focused at revenue generation.

  • Development
  • Pre-Production
  • Production
  • Post Production
  • Sales & Distribution

Each step incurs resources which cost. You can deal with participants at every step to reduce the costs out the door at each stage, thereby reducing the initial investment ask to make the film. Examples include but are not limited to:-

  • local and national grants
  • Deferments of salaries of key initial cast and crew
  • Post Production Investment in lieu of work
  • Distribution Pre-Sales
  • Product Placements, letters of intent
  • Production Tax credits

All of these can significantly reduce the overall costs of manufacture with little or no call on sales revenues.

Film Investment Money for UK Films with Itasca means we have the experience and contacts in all these areas and can quickly help you realise your initial relationships and investment potential.

How Itasca Films can help me find funds?
Funding a Film is challenging and can be a demoralising minefield for those inexperienced or unfamiliar with the common practices and expectations of the Government and Financial Regulatory Authorities.

The internet will tell you all you will ever need to know about EIS, SEIS and GAAP Partnerships. What you won’t find on the internet, how much, how long and what you as the film maker are expected to deliver. This is where Film Investment Money for UK Films with Itasca becomes easy as we can help explain and fill in the gaps. We are film makers, we speak your language, know your industry and have successfully traveled the pilgrim’s road to investment redemption. We know how hard it is to deal with the City folks.

- Investment Sources
In our experience you will encounter the following types of investment sources.
It’s not meant to be an exhaustive list but gives you a flavour of the
different and varied sources of funding available to you
- Institutional/Private Equity investor
As a privately made film the Private Equity investor is likely to be your biggest source of investment. Generally the approved tax advantaged investments schemes are the most attractive investment vehicle for these equity investors, i.e. tax breaks. Government tax and loss relief schemes such as EIS and SEIS
- Crowd funding, Social Media, Special Interest Groups, Merchandising
With the internet such a powerful and all pervasive platform on which to target various interest groups. Itasca has experience on Kickstarter UK and can help you identify and raise your profile across the social networks to a level where initial mechanising sales can make a meaningful contribution to the initial film development stage
- National and Regional Grants
Film in a particular location or region can often open up opportunities for local regional grants Leveraging Local and Regional Grants. These are often managed through Regional film councils; many of who Itasca already has links with and can assist or manage the relationship
- Pre-paid Product Placements, Advertising
It is also our experience that investors hunt in packs or at least are aware of complimentary and cross deals and investment partners they can help you source. Itasca successfully negotiated a product placement deal through such a cross partner introduction.
- Distribution Pre-sales.
Remember this is a digital age, of digital content distribution over digital platforms (iTunes) to an ever increasing number of digital and increasing mobile end users devices of superb quality of both sound and vision.

Itasca has recently secured an exclusive global digital distribution deal directly with a world leading theatre Distribution Company.

How Itasca Films can help me produce Investment Materials?
Again in our experience you are likely to have to prepare the following materials to support Investment sources listed above. It varies by type but in essence you are expected to be able to demonstrate how you arrived at the investment ask. This means generating a budget for the film.
- Scheduling and Budgeting
To achieve this you need your script in something like Final Draft scripting software or something compatible with Movie Magic. Once imported into Movie Magic, Itasca films has experienced line producers who can help you calculate your daily filming costs to produce the Schedule and associated Budget for the film. From this schedule and budget you can generate and substantiate the investment ask.
- BFI Cultural Test & UK Film Tax Credit
Itasca films can also provide an advisory service to prepare and gain approval from the BFI for the UK Film Tax Credit. This qualifies your film as a UK film and gains your entitlement to the UK Film Tax credit (producers tax credit) which provides 25% tax relief on 80% of total budget.

You can still qualify as a UK film, even if you are filming overseas. Providing pre and post production is done in the UK you are entitled to claim the tax relief on the sections worked on in the UK.

- British Board of Censorship
Without this certificate you will be unable to have your film shown in any mainstream
UK cinema without this certificate. Again Itasca Films have experience in this
are to help you
- SEIS & EIS Investment schemes approval
Can you can find £50,000 to pay for Legal and Accountancy firms to prepare these from scratch? Or you can leverage the many Itasca Films man hours of preparation to only have to pay for the final due diligence and formal preparation of these documents. You will need most of the above ready for submission for the final completion of these forms. Itasca Films can assist with the preparation at a fraction of the costs and in language you understand.
- Information or Investment memorandum
Once you have gained approval for your chosen scheme(s) you need to pull all that legal and accounting documentation together with all of the creative, scheduling and budgeting, crew and cast information to produce the Investment memorandum – in Short:-

  • What am I doing
  • Why are we doing it
  • Who is in it
  • When we intend to do it
  • How much will it cost and what are the expected returns

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