5 Rules for Vetting Your Producer’s Rep
We producer’s reps are generally known to be slimy used car salespeople. It’s not always the case, but there’s a reason the stereotype exists. Heres’ how to vet your rep, (include me on these too)
The term producer’s rep has been given a bad name. A lot of people think that Producer’s reps are just money-grubbing middlemen (or middlewomen, or middlethems) who don’t add any value to your project. As a producer’s rep myself, I’d like to take issue with the narrative that producer’s reps are slimy con artists who will overcharge you without adding value. Unfortunately, I can’t. For the most part, the rumors exist for a reason.
So with that in mind, here are 5 ways to vet your producer’s rep. If you want to sign up with me, do the same.
Ask what their upfront fees are.
If you’re simply looking for a rep to broker your completed film, then the upfront fees should be very low, or nonexistent then they’ll take a piece of the pie for the length of the deal. There are producer’s representatives who operate on a service basis, I.E. they’ll be paid a few thousand dollars with half up front, half on success. In theory, you end up paying less this way, but the incentives are not always in line with the filmmaker’s best interest.
I’ve heard stories of other reps charging 5000 dollars to represent a film to various sales agencies. If the Rep got you a deal, the rep would then retain 35% of all money from that deal. This is without even negotiating for a better deal with the sales agency, essentially just making a few calls and writing a few emails.
Not all service deals are bad, but you have to do extra diligence if that’s how your rep operates.
Also, it should be noted that if you want your rep to do anything other than basic brokering, you should expect to pay them. When I work with filmmakers at an early stage to guide investment decks, help attach talent, write business plans, or any other consulting-oriented services, you should expect to pay some not-insignificant fees. Nobody on a film shoot should be asked to work for free, including us. We still have bills, and it took a lot of investment for us to develop our skills and contacts.
Related: What Does a Producer's Rep DO Anyway?
For straight representation/brokerage services, I charge nothing upfront, and as of this writing, I don’t even charge recoupable expenses. I charge 10% for connection to sales agents, and 18% if I sell directly to buyers. (Generally only domestically.) I also negotiate with sales agencies and buyers to get you/us the best possible deal.
That being said, brokerage tasks for completed films are the only thing I don’t charge upfront for. For other tasks, I either charge by the hour or by the job, sometimes with performance bonuses or deferments.
2. Ask them if they watched your movie.
If they’re offering to represent your movie, they had better have watched it. If they try to say that they don’t remember the film because they watched 8 last week, they’re probably lying. I watch 5-8 a week. If I’m making an offer I’ve probably watched it all. If I don’t think I can sell it, I stop after 20 minutes.
Most sales agents and Producer's Reps have a similar system. If they can't say some specifics about your film, they're probably lying about watching it.
3. Look them up on imdb.
You want someone who’s not all talk. You want to see some associate, co-, and executive producing credits on their IMDb. I generally ask to be credited as an executive producer because it’s the most accurate credit for the job I do.
If you want to check out what I’ve done, here’s my imdb,
4. Ask them who they have direct relationships with
Any good rep will have existing relationships with some sales agencies. That’s why you would want to hire them in the first place. Great reps will have direct relationships with buyers. If they can’t list out a few sales agencies that they’ve worked with in the past off the top of their head, then they’re probably not going to do their job very well.
While I won’t list the ones I’ve worked with here, I will tell you if you ask me when on a call or after you submit your film below.
5. Call 3 of their previous clients
This is true for both Producer’s Reps and Sales Agencies. You’ve GOT to call the clients of your rep and ask for a reference. If you ask for references and your rep gets upset, then it’s likely a sign you shouldn’t use their services. Honestly, It’s better if you just look up those filmmakers on IMDb and call them yourself. You can find all the necessary info on imdbPro.
Thanks so much for reading! If you’re looking for a producer’s rep, you should check out my services page. If you’re not quite there yet, but want to more know about the film biz, you should join my mailing list and get my FREE Film market resource package. Links below in the buttons.
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How to Structure Your Production Company’s Entity
If you want to make a film, you should really start a company (entity) to do it through. Here’s one Executive Producer’s take on how structuring them.
I’m not a lawyer, nor an accountant. I get a fair amount of questions about the legal structure of a Production company and a film. So I thought I would write a blog about how I’ve learned to structure each individual entity, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of each choice. These are
Generally, you’ll want to have one legal entity that exists as your production company, and one legal entity for each project you produce. Generally, your production company will be a general partner in each project, and when each project has run its course, the entity will be dissolved. If you’re producing episodic content, you can probably get by with one entity per season.
Before we get started, I’d like to reiterate that I’m not a lawyer or an accountant. You should definitely talk to one before you proceed in forming a business.
LLC>LP
The way I was originally taught was that your production company should be a Limited Liability Company (LLC) and your projects should each be Limited Partnerships (LPs.) In this instance, your production company would be the General Partner, and all of your investors would be limited partners. This structure offers you better creative control, shields the assets of your investor in case something goes wrong.
The way that your creative control is protected is that only the general partner can make important decisions regarding running the business. As such, any important creative decision remains with the general partner. In exchange for the limited liability protection, your investors are treated as silent partners, and unable to heavily advise on the day to day operations and decision-making of the company.
Given that the General Partner is your production company, your personal assets are still protected.
However, I will admit that I’m just about the only person I know (aside from the teacher who taught it to me) that favors this structure. Most producers I know favor the following structure.
LLC>LLC
The Production Company LLC being the general partner of the film’s LLC and all of the investors being considered full partners in the film LLC is the most common structure I’ve seen in my time in California. The big benefit here is simplicity. Investors are treated the same way that the general partner is, and everyone benefits from the pass-through nature of the entity.
The assets of your production company are also better protected here if things go awry, but the investors are not forced to be silent. This can lead to less creative control for the filmmaker, however, if you were going to run into this with the film being a Limited Partnership, it likely would have ended just as poorly as it would end in this scenario.
S-Corp/C-Corp
Finally, the other primary way you could structure your film is as a corporation. Either an S-Corp or a C-Corp. The primary reason you would do this is to issue lots of shares to potential investors. Practically speaking this would mean more than 10-20 individual investors. This is relatively unlikely for most filmmakers.
Corporations also encounter additional accounting challenges and in many states additional taxation beyond that of an LLC. Corporations are subject to corporate accounting, and then payroll is generally issued as an individual check. For an LLC, you can pass your income through to yourself, which makes tax time much easier. LLCs provide most of the same benefits that you would actually use as a media production company/media project. You can also do that with an S-Corp, but there are additional filing fees that may or may not be of benefit to you. You could also have an S Corp or C corp own or be the general partner in LLCs or LPs that are responsible for individual projects, similar to the LLC outline above. I have known filmmakers to do this in the past. In certain scenarios, it can be quite advantageous.
Again, talk to your accountant or lawyer, as I am neither. I’m just an executive producer who writes a bit too much.
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