About Me

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Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Founder of SoKap, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding go to guy, indie filmmaker, father, mustard maker, meat lover, pseudo vegetarian, devout humanist and overall good moralist.

Feb 26, 2008

assumed fee - realistic fee = equity

On our next project I am going to implement this negotiation practice as I am also going to self distribute the film and this may actually help the film have legs on the web from a viral sense.

I'm going to use the equation AF-RF= E. This basically means I am going to get rate card quotes on the work from my crew and then subtract the rate I'm actually going to pay them to come to an equity ownership number that will be based on 1 dollar equaling 1 unit of equity. All of these equity units added up will equal up to a maximum of 30% of the films value. I am then going to keep 20% for myself and give 50% away to the funders of the project on a straight pari pasu agreement on every dollar coming in.

By having your crew truly involved in the upside I do think you will benefit in viral campaigns. My crew on this film will be around 50 people. That's not a lot but it is enough to begin a successful campaign on a low budget film.

This technique will be used for all expenditures, not just labour. If someone quotes me 200/night for a hotel room...i'll request 75/night and give them 125 shares of the project. If they say no...i'll take my business elsewhere until I can meet my budget and find the right partners in production.

This is not a new idea, but one has not been successful in the past due to restrictive distribution methods. With online and non exclusive deals being signed with hundreds of marketers per project this method may lead the way to increased interest and involvement in independent film making

So I'm looking for a VFX house....any takers?

Feb 15, 2008

pseudo metcalfe experiment

Ok...lets assume that we all know a bit about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe's_law.

In the world of film piracy where most of the complaints come from people who feel:

1. They are being gouged on ticket and DVD prices from studios and that they are not getting value for their money, and

2. Overseas economies are having to pay up to a days or sometimes a weeks wages to have access to quality cinema....

there is a need to offer incentives to go to the cinema again, all the while creating the funding for the movie so that it can get made with the best available skilled people.

If one person was able to own a fractional piece of a film by pre-buying this film at a set price of say 10 dollars, and then as a result of that was given the right to market the finished film at a reduced price to the audience at fair market value as the film would essentially be debt free at delivery....and lets say that person was rewarded an affiliate coupon for doing this work at say 10% of the purchase price...lets do the math.

Tom is one of 500,000 people who pre-buy the next Philip Seymour Hoffman movie at 10 bucks thus making the film funded to the amount of 5MUSD.

Tom knows, and his friends know that they can buy the finished film off Tom for 5 bucks once the movies is finished and Tom receives .50 cents for his effort. If Tom attracts 20 friends he can now take that 10 dollars and put it back into the system or use it to purchase other goods in the media cycle.

If enough people play this game then most people can have access to films they want to see and are also fractional owners...which makes them aware of piracy and how destructive it can be as they will be affected by it albeit at a micro level.

This is part of the Biracy Movement and is what we are building online. We are not visible as of yet but if this interests you...reach out and tell me your thoughts.

thanks

Feb 8, 2008

My wine project

Here is an overview of our wine investment offering. Please contact me or Murray Swales to to discuss if you are interested in investing.

SKAHA CELLARS & RESORT LIMITED PARTNERSHIP


THE PROJECT

Skaha Cellars & Resort Limited Partnership (the “LP”) has been formed for the purpose of developing a very unique 103 Acre environmental gem parcel of land in Okanagan Falls B.C. The Limited Partnership expects to develop the property in a phased manner. At the completion of each phase of development a review of alternatives and their potential returns will be made to ensure maximum return to the partners while limiting financial exposure. The complete plan includes the following stages:

  1. Plant approximately 28 acres of vineyard;

  2. Develop an international wine brand with our own grapes, together with grape suppliers from South America, Europe, Australia and the United States;

  3. Develop an environmental best practices hotel/spa/condo complex, of approximately 80 rooms / units; and

  4. Develop a unique wine sales facility.


EQUITY FUNDING REQUIREMENT

Up to $10,000,000 (Minimum $5,000,000) for acquisition, planting of vineyard, development of wine brand, planning and infrastructure development for hotel/spa/condo complex.


THE PROPERTY

The property is comprised of three distinct areas, with separate zoning potential:

  1. Approximately 28 acres of Agricultural Land Reserve, Class 1 grape land, which requires some contouring to eliminate frost pockets and ensure maximum potential for the land;

  2. Approximately 15 acres of flat valley bottom. The valley is suitable for planting grapes or development as residential (requires rezoning), commercial (currently zoned specialized commercial) or vineyard (an allowed used under current zoning); and

  3. Approximately 60 acres of rocky hillside, surrounding the 15 acre parcel on three sides, which should be a protected area for mountain sheep habitat and lambing area. This parcel is also zoned specialized commercial.

Subdivision of the property into three lots, to segregate the 28 acres of agricultural land (two lots - zoned agricultural) and the remaining upland and valley areas zoned specialized commercial, has been approved by the regional district. Rezoning is only subject to approval of a restrictive covenant preventing building on the sheep habitat on the upper portion of the property.


VALUATION UPSIDE

Land Discussions are underway with the Province of BC about “swapping” the upland portion of the property for adjacent level crown land. The land acquired by such a swap must be used for commercial development, such as an addition to the hotel / spa.

Brand As Okanagan wines become more mature and available on the global market, their limited availability compared to other regions makes them more desirable as demand increases and supply is limited. Additionally, having the Brand represent the concerns of the planet and be supported by media people with reach, will drive the brand equity component of the Project making it desirable for travelers and investors alike to visit the Project once completed.


USE OF FUNDS

Phase I – Acquisition and Planning

Land acquisition and related costs $ 2,565,000

Contouring of agricultural land 250,000

Planting 28 acres 700,000

Subdivision / rezoning (no residential or crown land acquisition) 100,000

Contingency 385,000

Total Phase I $ 4,000,000

Phase IIA – No Residential or Commercial Development

Phase I Costs $ 4,000,000

Plant 14 acres 350,000

Contingency 150,000

Total Costs – Phase IIA $ 4,500,000

Phase IIB – Residential / Commercial Development (will require additional funds)

Phase I Costs $ 4,000,000

Infrastructure (roads, water, sewer, hydro, telephone) 3,500,000

Construction (portion of first 50 Units) 2,500,000

Total Costs – Phase IIB $ 10,000,000


EXIT STRATEGY

Sell at Phase IIA

42 acres of planted vineyard $ 7,350,000

Total Costs to Phase IIA 4,500,000

Estimated profit - 3 to 4 year time frame $ 2,850,000

Sell at Phase IIB

Approximately 50 Units $ 33,500,000

28 acres of planted vineyard 4,900,000

38,400,000

Total Costs to Phase IIB 28,000,000

Estimated Profit – 3 to 4 year time frame $ 10,400,000


CONTACT

Murray Swales, CA; 604-209-5994; swales@telus.net

Feb 1, 2008

Semantic Web Film Trust

One of the biggest problems that is trying to be solved at the moment is that of the functional semantic web. Below is an interesting Abstract and paper from Jennifer Goldbeck on her proposal for a website called Filmtrust. Its worth a read as in the future it will be a critical component to the future of motion picture finance.

Generating Predictive Movie Recommendations
from Trust in Social Networks

Abstract.

Social networks are growing in number and size, with
hundreds of millions of user accounts among them. One added
benefit of these networks is that they allow users to encode more
information about their relationships than just stating who they
know. In this work, we are particularly interested in trust
relationships, and how they can be used in designing interfaces. In
this paper, we present FilmTrust, a website that uses trust in webbased
social networks to create predictive movie recommendations.
Using the FilmTrust system as a foundation, we show that these
recommendations are more accurate than other techniques when the
user's opinions about a film are divergent from the average. We
discuss this technique both as an application of social network
analysis, as well as how it suggests other analyses that can be
performed to help improve collaborative filtering algorithms of all
types.