The federal film and television incentive known as Section 181 expires at the end of 2011. 

If you have not grandfathered your film or series, then you must do so now, before the end of the year. If you do it correctly, then your film or series (up to 44 episodes!) will remain eligible indefinitely -- which can be a powerful motivator for potential investors. 

You do not need to have investors to be grandfathered; you just need to memorialize a few things before year’s end.

Section 181 is a very lucrative, accelerated tax deduction that American investors can use to offset passive Income (e.g. income from residuals, royalties, real estate, oil & gas, etc.), or all income (including wages) if the investor participates in the production.

The incentive allows...

A learned colleague once said that the three biggest obstacles to getting a movie made are unions, agents and producers.

Generally speaking, that’s true, but it ultimately depends on which side of the table you’re on at any given moment.

From the financing side, unions and guilds are dicey because they tend to come to the table with an antagonistically defensive posture -- not wanting to play ball. 

They’re viewed as being uncompromising, with an all or nothing, zero-sum strategy. Interestingly enough so do producers and agents, especially when squaring off against each other.

The unions were never agreeable to begin with, but they honed their modus operandi after decades of being shortchanged by scrupulous and unscrupulous producers alike (mostly the latter).

Though they prefer to call themselves guilds, they are...

Hedging production currency is probably one of the toughest decisions a producer has to make. It’s the practice of managing losses, not capturing gains. 

While putting the finishing touches on a financing package, an announcement comes out that Germany is now going to have to bail out Poland -- in addition to Portugal, Spain, Hungary, Iceland, Greece and others. 

Over the next few days, you watch as the Euro moves against the dollar from 1.64 to 1.50. 

So what does that mean? is this a good thing or a bad thing? Should you buy now or wait for something to turn around?

Manufacturing a film could be described as an endless succession of zero-sum decisions. 

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. When shooting in foreign country, those actions tend to originate with the crew -- while the reactions come...

Once upon a time, there was a producer I knew who held onto his projects’ pre-sale deposits for almost five years, before a collection account company pried them from his grasp. 

Even though his projects (plural) never got made, he nonetheless felt entitled to hold onto his perpetually stalled films’ deposits.

It seriously pains me to think about how much foreign distributor cash is tied-up in projects that have stalled or fallen apart, due to financing, talent, legal, or some other issues.

Think about it: When a producer pre-sells a territory, the payment terms are generally a 20 percent deposit upon execution of the short-form sales agreement and 80 percent upon receipt of the notice of delivery (NOD).

So, that means for all these delayed or problematic indie film projects, in all the different territories, ...