All articles by Richard Brass
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Features
Online Distribution - The trouble with downloads
Opinion may be split on whether online downloads are the future of home entertainment but everyone agrees on the key limiting factor to the expansion of downloads: bandwidth."What we're waiting for is broader, more reliable, more ubiquitous bandwidth," says US analyst Roger Kay. "Video as a data type is as ...
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News
Home Entertainment: A bolt from the Blu'
When Toshiba announced in February it would stop developing high-definition DVD players, it marked the end of a format battle that looked like it might rival the VHS vs Betamax videotape war of the 1970s and 1980s.Toshiba's announcement cleared the way for Sony's Blu-ray to take the next generation of ...
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Features
Production - Joined up writing
In the beginning was the word. Then there was the motion picture. And now it is increasingly difficult to tell the difference.The film industry is going through a book adaptation frenzy. While this has been an important part of the inspiration for films since the industry began, today books are ...
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Piracy - Deep Impact
When Los Angeles-based independent film sales agent Barbara Mudge was in Russia recently trying to sell a film, she ran into a barrier that was starkly different from the usual distributors' objections about weak plots, lack of stars or price.'The man said: 'I can't buy your movie because it hasn't ...
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Features
Piracy - 'Internet piracy is far and away our biggest threat'
The rise of internet file-sharing has opened a whole new front for piracy of all films - not least independents. The availability of films for download on the internet even before their initial theatrical release makes the prospect of profitable licensed distribution of independent films in some territories even more ...
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Features
The little black book
When deciding where to locate a shoot, the crucial factors might seem cut and dried. What are the tax breaks' Are there decent production facilities' Is there a skilled local workforce' What locations are needed'But such hard-headed considerations overlook an aspect of film-making that has a major impact on the ...
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Features
Locations - 'I've always tried to enjoy wherever I go'
When it comes to hardened veterans of international film production, they don't come much more experienced than Anthony Waye.Executive producer of Casino Royale, he has worked on no fewer than 10 Bond films, and his remarkable record includes working as assistant director on the original Star Wars, The Elephant Man, ...
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News
'Right now, there's a perfect storm in film' - Laura Fazio on film financing
The global film business is being revolutionised as billions of dollars of bank finance pours into the sector. Laura Fazio, formerly managing director and North American group head for corporate finance and origination's media industry practice, Dresdner Kleinwort, gives Richard Brass her assessment of the situationOne name close to the ...
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Film investment: bursting with cash
The global film business is being revolutionised as billions of dollars of bank finance pours into the sector. Richard Brass explores why institutions are more willing to embrace risk, and asks banking luminaries whether they are taking on too muchThe dramatic developments in film financing over the last few years ...
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'Our focus now is much more on the slate facilities' - Anthony Beaudoin on film financing
The global film business is being revolutionised as billions of dollars of bank finance pours into the sector. Anthony Beaudoin, senior vice-president and manager, film finance, Bank of Ireland, gives Richard Brass his assessment.Until four years ago, the Bank of Ireland had no involvement at all in the film industry, ...
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'There's only a handful of banks now that are willing to do the smaller deals' - Adrian Ward on film financing
The global film business is being revolutionised as billions of dollars of bank finance pours into the sector. Adrian Ward, vice-president of the entertainment, sports and media group, Israel Discount Bank, gives Richard Brass his assessment.Not every film financier is abandoning the single-picture deal and piling into multi-picture slate deals ...
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News
The big cinema squeeze
European exhibition has seen an influx of private equity in recent years. But can more profits be squeezed out of Europe's saturated cinema market, asks Richard Brass. Navigate links (right) to see the state of play in leading territories. When Cineworld floated on the London Stock Exchange at the end ...
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News
Exhibition: clean windows
Calm is restored after the furore over release windows, but the issue remains a live one. Richard Brass reports. Tensions have been running high between exhibitors and distributors over narrowing theatrical and DVD release windows, but for now the storm has abated.Earlier this year, Twentieth Century Fox attempted to release ...
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Cine Expo talking point: alternative means
Exhibitors struggle to find alternative revenue streams, reports Richard Brass.For exhibitors it is the holy grail: how to maximise the use of all that expensive real estate by getting paying customers through the doors at off-peak times.However, despite regular announcements of its imminent expansion, using cinemas for anything other than ...
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Film business training: adifferent class
Europe is getting serious about film business training. Richard Brass looks at the upturn in formalised training across the continent, and speaks to graduates from some of the key courses. In most companies, the thought of letting anyone without training loose on the financial, accounting, marketing, legal and sales operations ...
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European film business training: Ateliers Du Cinema Europeen (ACE), France
Europe is getting serious about film business training. Richard Brass speaks to graduates from some of the key courses.Well established in the industry and working at the time on a comedy with Italian stars Enrico Lo Verso and Monica Bellucci, the Serbia-born, French-based producer Cedomir Kolar signed up with the ...
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European film business training: Media Business School, Spain
Europe is getting serious about film business training. Richard Brass speaks to graduates from some of the key courses.A solid business training should be an essential part of any film-maker's education, says Alex Marshall, who completed the six-month Mega course at the Media Business School in Spain in 1999. He ...
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European film business training: Screen Academy Wales, UK
Europe is getting serious about film business training. Richard Brass speaks to graduates from some of the key courses.When he started an MA in film producing and business management at Screen Academy Wales in September 2005, Ed Casey was sceptical about how beneficial the business-focused parts of the course would ...
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European film business training: Film Business Academy, UK
Europe is getting serious about film business training. Richard Brass speaks to graduates from some of the key courses.Nina Roman is one of the students in the inaugural year of the Film Business Academy's MSc in management (film business stream), which ends in July. The experience of being one of ...
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European film financing: a private phenomenon
A $500m deal between Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Bob and Harvey Weinstein raise $490m in equity through Goldman Sachs. A $500m deal between Virtual Studios and Warner Bros. A $600m equity deal between Relativity Media and Sony and Universal. The figures from the equity funding boom among Hollywood studios ...