John Jaquish
New member
I was wondering if anyone could give me some information on starting a production company. I want to start one, but I don't have any idea where to start, and exactly what is involved.
Starting a Production Company
- Thread starter John Jaquish
- Start date
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markcheng
Guest
the first couple of steps are similar to starting any business- You should first start looking at the different types of company structures- S-corps, C-corps, LLC's, and Sole Proprietorships. The differences you should be concerned about have to do with how much legal liability you want to have, the tax structure, and the cost to create each company.
Once you've decided that, your choice will effect how you go about naming the company. So will the state/country you live in (just occured to me, I'm assuming you're in the U.S.). In some instances you may need to make sure that the company name you're using doesn't already exist in the region you want to set up shop (could be local to your state or you may want to make sure country-wide the name isn't taken).
(so far, no exciting film stuff!). You may want to talk to a lawyer or an accountant about how to do the steps above. I created my LLC 5 years ago. It can be done for a couple hundred dollars. You could pay more to have someone do all the paperwork crap. I did that by going to The Company Corporation that does it for you.
While all that's going on, you can think about what exactly you want to specialize in (or at least start doing since you may want to do 'everything'). Get biz cards made, a cell phone, domain, website (you probably know this stuff).
hope this helps! It seems daunting, but it's not that bad. Plus, when you've finally gone through it all, you'll be an ace and dishing out advice like me
heh, heh.
Mark.
Once you've decided that, your choice will effect how you go about naming the company. So will the state/country you live in (just occured to me, I'm assuming you're in the U.S.). In some instances you may need to make sure that the company name you're using doesn't already exist in the region you want to set up shop (could be local to your state or you may want to make sure country-wide the name isn't taken).
(so far, no exciting film stuff!). You may want to talk to a lawyer or an accountant about how to do the steps above. I created my LLC 5 years ago. It can be done for a couple hundred dollars. You could pay more to have someone do all the paperwork crap. I did that by going to The Company Corporation that does it for you.
While all that's going on, you can think about what exactly you want to specialize in (or at least start doing since you may want to do 'everything'). Get biz cards made, a cell phone, domain, website (you probably know this stuff).
hope this helps! It seems daunting, but it's not that bad. Plus, when you've finally gone through it all, you'll be an ace and dishing out advice like me
heh, heh.Mark.
John Jaquish
New member
Okay. Tthanks for the info.
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bigderwigder
Guest
just wondering
just wondering
If i wanted to start a company, just to make my own script into a movie, would it be as hard as if i wanted to make others scripts into movies. I just want my screenplay to be a movie. Or would it be easier to just try and sell me script?
just wondering
If i wanted to start a company, just to make my own script into a movie, would it be as hard as if i wanted to make others scripts into movies. I just want my screenplay to be a movie. Or would it be easier to just try and sell me script?
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markcheng
Guest
not sure about differences between canada and the US, but I think that you can just focus on writing the script and making it sweeet. If you reach the point where someone likes it and wants to buy it from you for $15k, you can either set up your company at that point (doesn't take long), or even just get paid as an individual and let your accountant figure it out come tax time! mc
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bigderwigder
Guest
but i dont have an accountant or anyone invloved with me. how do i find those types or people? nor do i have the funding to hire anyone
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markcheng
Guest
yeah i just mean that what you'd have to do is nothing specific to the film industry. when i first started working, i'd just have H&R Block do my taxes. you give them all your tax info. If you sold a script for $10k that year, you tell them and they'll factor it into what you owe for taxes (again, not sure about how canada is dff from US). if you started doing really well and were selling a couple of these, it might make sense to start a business up. In that case, you'd have a little money to get it going.
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markcheng
Guest
you should talk to a tax planner, but in many cases, the answer is yes.
the fx team that i worked with on my film deducted the costs of going to see horror movies because for them it was considered "research" for work.
i did the same with all of my audio/video equipment
the fx team that i worked with on my film deducted the costs of going to see horror movies because for them it was considered "research" for work.
i did the same with all of my audio/video equipment
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