Have Film/Entertainment led financing strategies proved to be recession proof?

Aaron Kaufman, Luc Toutounghi, Steve Morales
How sustainable has performance been in the wake of for instance:

• “ … The last-minute demise of a prestige picture is a rare spectacle in Hollywood – one that is painful, expensive and damaging to all involved. … But such disasters may become more common as an increasingly nervous film business comes to terms with a sharp decline in home video revenue and with the diminishing leverage of even the most popular A-list stars, like Mr.Pitt.” (New York Times: “Money Worries Kill A-List Film at Last Minute")
• In your view is this a one off episode? Or the likelihood “… such disasters may become more common… “ – why or why not?
• Is it harder to raise cash for film financing as a strategy?
• Are certain sectors more affected than others - which would they be and why?
• Has the recession scaled back the number of films being made? From whom and how is cash currently being raised? Risk premia that are being charged for the same
• Do you believe that hedge funds have and will play an important role in film/entertainment financing?
• Investor concerns and how they are being dealt with?

Date of webinar: 06. Aug. 2009 (16.00 Swiss Time) (10.00 EST)

Biography of Author: Aaron Kaufman, President of Overnight Films: In his previous position, he served as a principal at Barbarian Films, LLC. He was vice president of Spackman Group a private equity firm based in Hong Kong which specialized in media investments. He began his career in film finance working as SVP of business development for Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures Group.

Luc Toutounghi has more than 25 years experience in the international financial services industry, operating from Switzerland and the UK. Companies worked for include Merrill Lynch, Nomura, Nikko and Yamaichi. In the last few years Luc has specialized in film finance, leading the Kreis Group’s Swiss film finance and production company Archangel SA. He was one of the Executive Producers of the 2008 Oscar Winning short animation film Peter & the Wolf in association with Archangel SA.

Steve Morales is Executive Director at the Franklins Springs Family Media Fund. Franklin Springs is a fully-integrated film production studio with the in-house capability for script writing, HD cinematography, post-production editing, DVD authoring, distribution and fulfilment.

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