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Diversification of funding sources:
First of all, we would like to remind you that a film producer is not a financial institution, nor is it a rich heir with staggering capital that allows him to speculate on the stock market or on any land or other market.
On the contrary, the film producer is first and foremost a senior film technician. As such, it is culturally and artistically equipped enough to support the blossoming of a cinematographic work, from the writing of the screenplay to the final copy of the finished product and its presentation to the public, via all the stages of film making, such as the search for financing, the rational management of production and the organization of filming and post-production.
That being said, it is necessary, in order to advance in the reflection, to look now at the present and possible possibilities that may provide him with the means to invest more in national production.
Already, we can see that it has only one window in our country, in this case that of the aid fund, which significantly reduces the scope of its intervention because it must be remembered that a film project that does not receive funding from this fund is virtually buried, regardless of the efforts invested in its design and writing.
Of course, there is another funding window, that of one or other of the national television channels. The practice of production has shown, however, that this window has become increasingly random to the point of no longer constituting any guarantee for the producer. However, it must be reactivated by instituting it once and for all.
For all these reasons, we want to quickly engage in a global and without taboos with the public authorities in order to put an end to this situation of precariousness by imagining to invent the solutions adapted to our will to go resolutely towards the before.
By thinking aloud, we can already identify two types of solutions: those that depend directly on the will of the public authorities and those, including the municipal or private sector and which, they require consultation prior to the adaptation necessary.
With regard to the efforts requested from the public authorities, we strongly hope that the following measures will be taken:
1) The reduction of tax burdens that dramatically affect the financing of production, such as VAT, IS or IR, for example. However, we are fully aware that this deletion can only be temporary. We therefore propose to limit it to around ten years, for example, a period likely to allow our sector to be sufficiently consolidated and to no longer need an exceptional tax system.
2) The intervention of the Guarantee Fund to guarantee the payment of advance installments on receipts and co-productions in order to facilitate our cash during filming which can not in any case suffer delays at risk of interruptions with dramatic consequences.
3) The obligation for the 2 national television channels to co-produce all feature film films that have previously benefited from the aid fund and to consider pre-purchases for films produced entirely by their authors.
With regard to other solutions involving the municipal sector and the private sector, we recommend the following measures:
1) As far as the regions are concerned, we believe that it is perfectly logical and beneficial for both parties for the regions to contribute to the financing of films that turn totally or partly in their territories. The amount of the participation in question would be proportional to the number or importance of the scenes shot in one of its territories. These contributions can be made in industry or in cash
2) With regard to the distribution and exploitation networks - our natural partners - it would be just as natural to see them involved in the production by means of loans or guaranteed minimums on the exploitation of the films.
This practice practiced worldwide ensures a pre-financing of the production and an assured marketing of the film, because the distributing operator having invested in the production, will strive to assure him a good marketing to recover his investment and to make profits.
3) Regarding the private sector in general, it would be advisable to encourage sponsorship by granting defiscalisation to the capital invested by this means in the production of films.
