Entertainment & Entrepreneurship

I discovered the Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga or  New Zeland Film Commission Guide-- Backend Money - A Guide to Movie Money Flows. The New Zeland Film Commission explains the purpose of the Guide:

This report was commissioned by Investment New Zealand to illustrate how money flows from a movie or television programme back to those involved in its production. The media are constantly reporting multi-million dollar box office successes, million dollar-an-episode fees for cast members on US series like FRIENDS or an A-list star's valuable piece of the "back end". The dollars being generate by film and television, especially large studio productions, appear to be making a lot of people very rich. But what do these figures really mean? What exactly is the 'back end' and who gets a share of it?

This report, written from the perspective of industry knowledge of both industry members and policy makers in New Zealand, is designed to guide the reader through this maze of players and shed light on the roles they play and the way their involvement influences the 'back end'.

The report does not offer a definitive description of how the global industry works. Nor does it purport to represent all the permutations and combinations of the commercial deals and legal arrangements existing within the industry that can improve a 'back end' deal.

 I have never found a better outline. And that's hard for a book author to admit. The Guide should be reviewed by every filmmaker before meeting with sales agents. 

Good Luck!