Hollywood Road

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After securing the completion guarantee of the film, Murphy returned to his own job, making shooting schedules, drawing shot-shot artwork and scene sketches, communicating with photography director Philip Lascher and art director Helena Espora, and The four identified actors Robert Downey Jr., Jessica Alba, Dwayne Johnson and Gina Carano analyzed the roles, and also coordinated the action scene design with Chen Hu, who supervised their training.

These tasks kept Murphy extremely busy, and the importance of pre-production was self-evident, and the director and producer were the core of it.

So far, the crew has received a total of $5 million invested by Murphy's Stanton work in advance and $10 million invested by Twentieth Century Fox itself. Although this money is only a quarter of the total production cost, it is enough to guarantee The preparations for the production team started smoothly.

Moreover, after recruiting the American International Insurance Company as the project's completion guarantee, 20th Century Fox's stagnant financing work immediately made a breakthrough. Two private equity funds and a bank have agreed to inject 20 million US dollars into the film crew. Three other funds are in talks.

Since 20th Century Fox has a wide range of distribution channels both in North America and overseas, most of the overseas distribution of the film will be handled by the overseas branches of 20th Century Fox. The overseas copyright pre-sale of the film can only be said to be better than nothing. , The production funds of the crew are more from various financing.

Large film companies, especially those with distribution capabilities, are undoubtedly safer for investors.

The so-called channel is king. Production companies with this element undoubtedly have the greatest competitive advantage. With the market under control, the risk of film investment is also greatly reduced.

A company with strong distribution capabilities like 20th Century Fox has an inherent advantage when penetrating to the upper end of the industry chain. They have cultivated a keen judgment ability in a large number of actual battles facing the market and facing away from the production company. For companies, whether they are private or institutional, the distribution link is the cramp in the entire industry chain and the middle part of the dumbbell.

With this guarantee, the market-oriented channels for films are undoubtedly the most open.

There are various ways to finance films, and the most common one is undoubtedly a bank loan, which is not much different from ordinary commercial loans and does not involve the copyright issue of the film.

The most complicated ways to finance a film are the other two—private equity and tax financing.

Just like Murphy's Stanton Studio, private equity funds invest in a film not for interest, and film private equity investment funds are usually raised by private equity funds with different types of financial products such as high-yield bonds, low-yield bonds, and preferred stocks. To attract investors with different risk tolerance,

It is itself burdened with huge interest pressure, and it is definitely necessary to pursue more returns.

The purpose of their investment is to share the profits of the film, and also to enjoy the copyright income of the film.

However, the copyright of the film is the taboo of big Hollywood companies. Generally, they will not share the long-term income of a film with private equity investors. They will generally agree with the investor to repurchase the financing party’s shares within a specific period of time, which not only preserves the copyright of the film The integrity of the project also guarantees a good exit channel for investors.

With sufficient financing channels, the follow-up investment of "Deadpool" is also guaranteed. After Paul Wilson passed on many location materials suitable for shooting from Australia, Murphy brought Philip Raschel, Helena Espora, David Robbie and several producers rushed directly to Australia to investigate and determine the location that was really suitable for shooting.

Originally, he wanted to hand over the crew's affairs in Los Angeles to Kara Firth. Kara Firth would also go to Australia to handle business and chose to go with him. Murphy had to pass the auditions for some less important roles The job was temporarily handed over to Seth Rogen, who served as his assistant director this time.

"I'm going to Australia to deal with tax incentives."

In the first-class cabin of the plane, Kara Firth unbuckled his seat belt and said to Murphy sitting next to him, "This is also part of the investment."

"Is the tax break considered an investment?" Murphy was puzzled, "You bring so many documents just to do this?"

When they went to the airport together before, he saw Kara Firth carrying a lot of materials and contract texts.

"Before filing for tax incentives, I must prepare a sufficiently attractive business plan and project description, a director's self-report, a list of the main creative team, as well as a shortlist, script, plot overview, and starring or starring candidate list."

Karla Firth replied, "With these materials, we can really get preferential funds from the Australian government."

Murphy nodded. In fact, since the establishment of the film project, Kara Firth didn't care much about the crew's direct involvement in the preparation of the film, and basically handed it over to him. He was doing more support work for the crew, such as raising money. funds.

Films can be financed in a variety of ways, and each crew needs to find a few financing methods that are most suitable for their project.

The situation is good now. North America is gradually recovering from the trauma of 911. The federal government vigorously promotes the real estate industry and adopts the strategy of using real estate to stimulate the economy. Housing prices are rising steadily across the United States, and the related loan business of banks is also booming. The national economy A thriving.

With the guarantee of the general environment, Hollywood's financing is relatively much easier.

However, Murphy knows that this situation will change in a few years. At that time, under the economic downturn, financing will be a daunting thing. Investors will definitely talk about risk aversion in the industry. It will also mean less and less money willing to invest in filmmaking.

"Kara, if there is an economic crisis," Murphy asked with doubts in his heart, "do you think film financing is still as easy as it is now?"

"The economic downturn will certainly affect investor decision-making."

Compared to Murphy, who knows nothing about the economy, Kara Firth seems to have studied it, "I think that even in an economic crisis, Hollywood can still attract funds. The most important thing is to do two things well."

Seeing that Kara Firth was holding up the water glass in a showy manner, Murphy urged and made a gesture of please.

"First, whether it's an economic crisis or not, an excellent project and a marketing strategy with a market will always make your project stand out." Carla Firth took a sip of water and put down the glass, "The second point depends on yourself, You are the object that investors deal with, and you are the executor who helps them make profits, as long as you can impress them, investment is not a problem.”

Arriving in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, Murphy and Kara Firth split into two groups. He led his team to inspect the shooting site, and Kara Firth took lawyers and accountants to negotiate with relevant Australian government departments.

Stayed in the hotel for one night, and simply reversed the jet lag. Murphy, director of photography Philip Lascher, and art director Helena Espora first went to Fox Studios to inspect the studio here. During the time, the set, props and art direction team of the crew will come to Sydney first to arrange the scenes shot in the studio according to Murphy's needs.

As we all know, Australia is one of the most important overseas filming bases for Hollywood. In order to attract investment from Hollywood crews and stimulate local employment, the Australian government has also formulated many policies such as tax rebates.

The Fox studio in Sydney is an important project for the Australian government to attract investment from Hollywood.

Better known as Fox Studios Australia, it is a major film studio in Sydney, Australia, located in the former Sydney Showgrounds of Moore Estate.

The studio, of course owned by News Corporation, opened in May 1998 and is one of Australia's three largest film studios.

The reason why Murphy chose to shoot here is not only because he is one of the investors and can get the corresponding tax rebate, but also because it can provide a lot of advanced equipment.

It is undeniable that most of the studios and studios in Hollywood and Burbank are a bit dilapidated and the equipment is very outdated due to the age of construction. The Fox studio in Sydney has only been built for a few years and can provide ideal State-of-the-art production facilities for screens, television, commercials, music videos and other related works, and the studio has also been responsible for providing Twentieth Century Fox with the main TV recording studio, which is also conducive to the promotion of the film.

There is a special office area in the Fox studio. Twentieth Century Fox has reserved more than ten offices for Murphy. Among the many studios, Murphy also chose a large studio and a small photography studio. The shed was used as the location for indoor scenery shooting.

Of course, similar to Hollywood studios, there is also a tourist area where you can see huge posters of many films shot at Fox Studios, including many famous works, such as "The Matrix" and "Red Star". Mill", "Star Wars Episode: Attack of the Clones", and "Star Wars Episode: Revenge of the Sith", which has already begun preparations, etc.

At Fox Studios, after Murphy met with Paul Wilson, he also met with the head of an entertainment intermediary agency. In the future, the shooting of "Deadpool" will use a large number of Australian extras and staff.

This is mainly based on two considerations. The first is to use people to increase the cost. I also know that the labor cost of the film industry in Los Angeles is far higher than that of Sydney, and the cost of transporting a large number of extras and staff from North America to Australia is only air tickets and accommodation. , is a lot of expenses.

On the other hand, the Australian government's preferential tax rebate policy stipulates that since they give a large amount of tax rebate to the film, of course it is not to please Hollywood, but must also benefit Australians.

In the office area, he reached an agreement with the person in charge of the entertainment agency. When Murphy went out, he unexpectedly ran into a person in front of the office building that he had seen the last time he went to Warner Bros. (To be continued.)