About the course
You have a great idea for a movie. You’ve met your writer and had meeting after meeting about the script. You’ve attended a film festival or two and found a hot director and a couple of actors. Now you need movie money to make your short or feature.
This evening workshop will run through the basic financing tools available for any business, not just the film business. These tax-efficient finance structures make the UK one of the most attractive places in Europe to raise money for film production. Find out how they work and how to utilise them.
Who should take this course?
Anyone looking to understand the basics of film finance will benefit from this course. This course will provide you with the elements of a plan to finance your film and get your movie money.
What you’ll learn
- Company Structure (what’s best for your film)
- VCT’s and the bank of Mum and Dad
- EIS & SEIS – Pros and Cons
- Government Film Funds
- Crowd Funding
- Film Tax Credits & R and D
- IP – An extra asset?
- Profit Shares
About Jasmin Morrison
Having previously served as the Investment Manager at London based The Fyzz Facility Jasmin has been involved in the financing of over 100 feature films and has experience working from conception to distribution.
Jasmin Morrison has wide experience as a film professional having worked in production, post production and film finance. In 2019 Jasmin founded Soul Cognition a production and consultancy company which is committed to diverse stories from a myriad of filmmakers.
Jasmin is also an experienced public speaker having presented at numerous events worldwide including at SXSW, Film London’s New Entrants course and having been featured on The Best Girl Grip and Screenster Podcasts. Jasmin also serves as a consultant for Breaking Through the Lens.
About Dave Morrison
Both a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor, Dave was a tax manager at two large firms before spending a number of years running his own (MOBO Nominated) DJ, club and concert business. Â He joined NLP in the late 1990s and his association with the world of entertainment continues, with specific areas of expertise in Creative Industry Tax Credits and EIS share issues. Along with his skills with regards to tax enquiry work, Dave has also represented clients at tax tribunal cases and takes a keen interest in a wide range of technical tax matters.
He was chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants’ Entertainment and Media Group for several years and regularly presents and writes articles on issues salient to both the entertainment and tax industries.
Beyond that, he spends less evenings dancing, now opting to spend his weekends cycling, accomplishing most Audax awards and completing many prestigious British and European rides. He even has a trophy or two at home! He also still proudly holds a season ticket at QPR.
Additional resources
Did you know?
- Raindance members save 30% on all our short courses? You can join online >HERE< and start saving immediately
- This course is FREE for our HND and postgraduate/MA/ students
- This is part of the Producers’ Foundation Certificate
- You can book a free 1-1 consultation about our full-time degree courses HERE
- The Raindance Guarantee:Â If this course fails to meet your expectations, let us know at the break and we will make a full, 100% no-questions-asked refund
- We don’t teach ‘filmmaking’ at Raindance. At Raindance we make filmmakers.
Carlos Cardoso –
This course was a fantastic learning experience about a subject I didn’t know much about. The lecturer has been there, done it and collected the awards.
The only thing stopping me from giving 5 stars is that this subject is very deep and 2 hours and a half is not enough to get into the nitty-gritty of the various options. Perhaps having an advanced version of this course as a follow-up for people who’ve taken the first one?
Still, heartily recommended for ALL filmmakers, not just producers.
Nasreen Cullen –
Very interesting class.
Covers a lot of information and provides working examples of how various aspect of movie money work (or dont work!).
We were also provided with a lot of resources to refer to for our own projects which will certainly help when starting on our next film!
Bruno Catarino –
Amazing talk, the lecturer was really nice and knowledgeable, and it wasn’t just theory about how to finance a film. She actually used a lot of examples from her own experience, and most importantly, gave us lists of many entities and schemes worth checking out when financing a film. Really useful to help understand what we don’t know, and what to google for, and where to focus our further learning in the area.
Simon Craven (verified owner) –
As someone who came to this with experience in conventional corporate finance, I found the Movie Money evening course an excellent use of an evening. A lot of the structures and conventions of finance in film-making are very different from normal PLC practice so I was very glad of the opportunity to get all those differences understood and absorbed.
At last I feel I have my head wrapped round the cascades, the pools and the corridors. The immediate benefit for me is that I feel my feet are on much firmer ground as I start talking to potential sources of finance for a short and a feature project.
In addition to the material itself I need to say a few words about the quality of the tutor, Thembisa Cochrane. Her sheer presentational style is epic. And that’s coming from someone who used to teach it, at London Business School, and has done it a lot in corporate life.
To take a complex, technical and potentially dry subject, and make it genuinely entertaining and absorbing over three hours of a winter evening, is something really special.
Zak Brilliant –
I thought this session run by Thembisa Cochrane was excellent. Lots of dense information was relayed in an easy to understand fashion. I strongly recommend this part of the course.
Serena –
Anyone with a serious take on making their first film should do this class first!! Fantastic tutor, highly knowledgable and easy to follow. Recommended
DC –
This course is an absolute must for filmmakers who want to achieve a better understanding of how film financing works, and more importantly, how to get their hands on the money.
From selling your film before you’ve shot a single scene, to how the government can provide financial incentives, Movie Money is packed full of relevant information and resources that will help filmmakers achieve their goal of producing, shooting and delivering their film to market. Worth every penny.
Trisha Clarke –
A great course delivered by a real professional – she had been there and done it herself so we heard the way forward to deliver on time.
Thembisa Cochrane is an excellent communicator, and made the dense
subject entertaining as she clearly explained it all in depth.
Flaming-go (verified owner) –
Thembisa knows her stuff, highly recommended. Thank you!
Humphrey –
Thembisa clearly knows her subject and is an excellent communication. She managed to turn what could have been a dry and complicated subject into an informative, easy to follow and enjoyable evening. Highly recommended.
marija.markeviciute (verified owner) –
An avalanche of information was given by an experienced and funny film producer. Recommended.
Jonathan Hall (verified owner) –
Great short course – a kind of Funding and Finance primer, covering all the things you’d hope for. Themibisa pitched it just right – lots to cover, but nothing was skimmed. Thank you.
Cian O’Leary (verified owner) –
This might sound like it’s for the wrong session compared to the older reviews, but it was just with different people running the session. Jasmin and Dave were both excellent and very, very knowledgeable about their respective areas (Jasmin comes from a film financing background where Dave is an accountant). It was effectively two sessions in one. Jasmin’s first hour or so was very in-depth (could easily have felt overwhelming but both Jasmin and Dave were very reassuring) and then Dave ran the rest of the session, often covering similar topics or the same ones but from a different perspective, giving anyone attending an extra chance to get their heads around some of the information. There’s a lot to take in, and it’s not that some sessions are more valuable than others, but this is an area I knew absolutely nothing about before and at least now feel like I have some understanding and a way into the conversation around film financing, where before I was clueless. Even if you never intend to be involved in the financing side of films, this feels like one of those areas where it pays to know the basics. I highly recommend this session.
terri potoczna-fussen (verified owner) –
The description of the movie money course included the word “basic” but this was anything but! If you are comfortable with financial terminology coming at you thick and fast, then great. For me, hoping to learn something, it was frustrating and almost impossible to watch.
Thank you for the slides which are packed with information and at least gives me a list of concepts to look up.
I liked Dave’s slides with the “menu” approach and I found his speaking style easier to follow than Jasmine’s.
I didn’t learn anything from that but yeah, will go back and study. But at that point I might as well just get a book.
Did I stumble onto the *advanced* course inadvertently or something?
RAINDANCE could break down this course into five or six sessions for beginners and just take a few concepts which could be slowly explained with examples. They’d make more money that way! (Just a thought)
On a general presentation note, surely there should be a protocol to ensure good presentation and sound for these sessions. This is the second online course I’ve had from Raindance this week and I’m really surprised that speakers are not using USB microphones and positioning the computer so that it’s comfortable to look at with a neutral background. I’m signed up for a whole weekend course which I was looking forward to but am dreading the sound quality and wondering if the whole thing is going to look like a facetime chat with a friend.
Balbeer –
Brilliant, though perhaps the toughest part of the course, very expertly covered and presented.
Claire Dolman (verified owner) –
The course began as a lively double act, and was packed full of quickfire, useful information. The second half of the course was largely a repeat of some of the opening and could bear some updating. Not much point in talking much about EIS or SEIS beyond the fact that it’s now slate driven and difficult with HMRC. Same with VCTs. If its extremely unlikely they would get involved in film, more time could be spent talking about what’s really up to date – or there could be more examples and case studies. Very difficult to do this kind of course over zoom though, and the presentation was well managed throughout. Perhaps the whole thing should be a double act?
Mary Lewis McRae –
I enjoyed the course, a real eye opener on the financials. Would definitely reccomend.
Rohan Quine –
For anyone who’s not already in a financially privileged position, the raising of movie money is innately challenging, even for those who are experienced in it. This class doesn’t remove that challenge, and doesn’t claim to do so; but my sense is that it does contribute a valuable, reliable, comprehensive overview of the film financing landscape (and probably one that’s not readily available in many other places), which should be useful, provided one follows it up with a bunch of networking, jumping in at the deep end, trying and failing and the failing better and then succeeding, and generally knocking around actively until one completes one’s real-world education… As such, recommended!
janetrsmith –
Great insight and information from industry professionals. Lots to take in and use.
Thalia Murray (verified owner) –
Essential & informative course covering structure of film finance, legal & accounting. There’s a lot of information but Dave & Jasmine explain things very clearly in a way that’s not overwhelming. They’re both extremely knowledgeable, would absolutely recommend!
Igor Ismail –
very good course! very helpful for me as a filmmaker! thanks a lot , Raindance!
Si Skinner –
A smashing class on film finance from Jasmine & Dave Morrison. It really gave me a good perspective of the scale and amount of tasks involved in financing a film. Both obviously more than know their stuff and it’s they’re enthusiasm for movies and the way they are financed that makes them both such capable and endearing tutors.
This is the fourth class out of five on the Producers foundation class that I’m taking and so far its been a really great experience listening and learning from some really top people. Thanks again Raindance.
Jane Gull –
A brilliant class on the ins and outs of film finance. Highly recommend.