|
Ray just called me and has asked me to come along to the meeting with a potential movie investor in the movie script we have written.
So what do you say when you walk into a potential movie investors office and ask them to effectively gamble enough money to retire in absolute luxury ...
*UPDATED*
The project currently has several movie investors interested in putting money in, the fun part begins now with most of the money secure, we are now trying to cut a better deal for the production company, and ultimately ourselves.
Ray and I have no experience in this field so what are we going to do? Smile a lot. Be confident. And put to use all those years of studying marketing and sales books that I have read.
The key to any negotiation is to listen to the other party, try to find something, maybe something he himself is not totally aware of, that he wants.
Try to change the situation from a straight unsecured cash loan with high interest repayment, and try to find something that might appeal to him on a different level. Also to allay any fears he might have regarding the money, if he's expectation of seeing a return is higher then the percieved risk will be lower and thus the percentages of the total profits will also be lower.
Also good is that we have most of the funding secured already so we do not need him, if you need someone you negotiate from a position of weakness - ever had a lover leave you when you didn't want, if you feel you need them then you are going to loose any discussion.
Coming from a position of strength we are making him a fantastic offer - to be part of Thai movie history - and not coming as beggars hoping to get a little money to from him.
Anyway I better get organised and make sure my suit is presentable.
More news soon.
*UPDATE*
Don't go into a meeting without the marketing and sales strategy and exact projected figures.
Since Ray and I are the creative guys on the film we were all ready to talk about the movie why we think it will be a hit, the actors, their backgrounds and popularity and why this style of movie will be popular - and the reasons we changed the original ideas to come up with this final solution.
Problem is as he put - this is just content, we don't care about the content all we care about is the figures and how you are going to sell it.
In the end over a friendly coffee house meeting we were able to piecemeal the plan and give figures that were not broken down, including average figures for this type of movie in the industry including unsuccessful movies, average movies and successful movies.
The end result is we email the movie investor the figure breakdowns for each section and the different overseas licensing agreements and average figures available for these so he can evaluate the % return on his investment compared to the possible risk.
All in all it was a reasonable meeting, since the producer who is in charge of marketing and production costs was unable to make the meeting at the last minute.
There is one more meeting next week and we'll know for sure if we start shooting in early December 2006
|
