When Christopher Columbus set sail, people believed the earth was flat – soon after his voyage that perspective changed...
...Until now most people believed media investing was shrouded in mystery and all too often a way to turn a lot of money into a little. We help investors discover that the world isn’t flat – that media industry myths and secrets can be revealed, and there is a smarter way to invest in the entertainment sector with some navigational help from Halyard Productions!
We have attracted capital using the UK Government sanctioned Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), which gives investors certain tax breaks in relation to funds they invest in a company – the team at Halyard Productions has managed over £160m of EIS funds and would be happy to discuss the details of such structures with suitable investors if they wish (please get in touch here). More can be read about EIS at the websites below:
HMRC guide to EIS – www.hmrc.gov.uk/eis/
Enterprise Investment Scheme Association – www.eisa.org.uk/
Discover below a small selection of ways that Halyard Productions is working smarter, working differently to deliver more for its investors:
- A typical independent film is financed by 4-6 different sources of funding, ranging from industry money pre-purchasing the rights to the film in their country to borrowings against tax breaks offered by the country or state where the film is made. Our finance structure is more streamlined and we hang on to more collateral generated when making each film, meaning fewer parties to participate in the money recouped and more assets to sell, therefore making our projects more likely to reach break even
- Our experienced team is able to deliver high production value (the look of a costly studio film for the price of an independent - just watch the trailer for The Divide!), however these same skills enable us, on average, to cut 10-15% from the budget of an independent film. Again, this helps investors get into profit at an earlier stage or makes each project less risky for capital invested
- Following the natural economics of supply and demand, it has historically been the mantra that a big 'name' will bring in the box office and consequently producers had to pay handsomely for the actors in fashion at the time. Not only have many films proven that this is not the case, such as Slumdog Millionaire, The Full Monty and Big Fat Greek Wedding (which all featured relative unknowns when released), but an article in The Times on 29th December 2012 details this lack of correlation between big salaries and box office when analysed by computers used by studios themselves! Also with reference to demand, The US Actors Equity Association statistics reveal that approximately 90% of all actors are unemployed at anytime. At Halyard Productions, we therefore take an alternative approach to casting, focused entirely on talent and appropriate terms to achieve the best result for a given project
- "Nobody knows anything used to be the old movie adage, but producers are now using algorithms to judge a film's chance of success…If there was one group of losers, it was the A-list stars. The box office rankings appear to confirm that a big name is no guarantee of success." Rhys Blakely, The Times, 29/12/12