FILM DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION

IFDC has adopted a new plan of operations, emphasizing three main areas of film production and finance; Co-financing, acquiring product in the development stage, and its own film production. This, coupled with film distribution through our parent company’s new film distribution subsidiary, makes up the new revenue model for the Company.

CO-FINANCING

Co-financing is a very lucrative and financially viable process for a new company. Co-financing is where a company such as IFDC goes out looking for films that are already financed at 50% or more, the optimal is about 75%. This will afford IFDC the perfect opportunity to come in with the remaining funds and as co-financier/executive producer.
This is beneficial for several reasons, first we are "last in", meaning we have a shorter investment span then other investors and we will also negotiate to be first out. Many times a film has to start by a certain date due to actor availability, state incentives, or other time limits that force the film to make favorable deals so as to not lose the film.
The average co-financing deal usually works like this:
We would review the project and make sure it meets with our requirements of:
Good Script
A solid Director
Actors of some prominence

We would also want the film to have some type of distribution already in place from foreign, domestic or both. If the project meets with our project requirements we would partner with the production and bring in the remaining cash.
For our investment we would expect the following:
On average somewhere around a 110% to a 130% return on our investment. Once IFDC and all other investors have recouped, then all additional income from the film would be split on a percentage basis based on the amount of the individual investor’s original investment. In addition, IFDC would receive a presentation credit in the opening titles and normally one or two executive producer credits. This not only builds IFDC’s brand name nationally and internationally it also helps us gain the respect of our peers in the industry. IFDC will constantly be on the lookout for these types of co-financing projects.

ACQUIRE AND DEVELOP ORIGINAL PRODUCT IN DEVELOPMENT STAGE

Acquiring original product is all about finding projects at an early stage, usually with a finished script and possibly a director, producer or actor attached, or some amount of equity, usually in the range of 10% to 25%.
The requirements are very similar to all of our production strategies
1. Well written salable script with a genre that is on the wave of coming into popularity.
2. Salable actors attached or interested
3. Director of some prominence (actor directors for example)
4. Projects that have some hard money attached
5. Projects that have some form of distribution (rarely found at this stage)
6. Projects that have some studio interest (rarely found at this stage)
Acquisitions are a bit of a numbers game, but this is helped with a fair amount of market research and knowledge that will minimize our outgoing risks. IFDC will seek out projects that have many of the bullet points listed above, we will then “option” the projects for a period of one to three years for as little money as possible, sometimes without any cash up front at all.
IFDC will then set about developing the project to get it to the point of funding. This will include script re-writes, attaching actors etc. We will also use any director or producer already attached to the film to help with the work thus enabling IFDC to have several projects developing at once while not straining our resources; we have the individual filmmakers do the lion’s share of the work while we supervise and advise.
If the project gets to a point where we think it is strong enough, we will attempt to procure financing through traditional film financing sources such as foreign and domestic deals. If we think the individual project is strong enough, we can try to raise a portion or all of the money ourselves through private investors.
If we are unsuccessful at any stage of the game we can stop devoting resources to the project and allow its option to simply expire.
With this strategy IFDC only harvests the best and strongest projects to proceed forward into production. The pluses to acquisitions at the development stage are, we able to guide the development process along, gearing it for success, steering the important decisions such as cast, director etc in a direction that will help make a more successful and profitable film. In addition we will be able to gauge the viability of the project with a small investment and will not risk big dollars, resources, and time before we can establish if the film is marketable or not.
The negatives are simply that we will spend small amounts of cash developing projects, some of which we will not bring to fruition, and so those projects will be a loss, but the films we do move forward on will be much more assured of financial success.