NESTA suggestions:
"Here tell us what you currently estimate to be the cost of the project beyond the NESTA funded phase. This should include amounts and your current plans for covering these costs. At Q8.4 we will require specific detail on this e.g. who the potential external sources of funding are and what stage discussions have reached Please include here any finance that will come from you or other team members and any in-kind commitments."
Beyond the development phase, the production estimate for SANCTUARY is estimated at XXXXXXXXX, broken down into XXXXXXX for the film production and XXXXXX for console production. The plan for covering the production budget is to approach potential funders on the strength of the initial outputs from the NESTA award.
At least a further £5,000 will be needed to cover the costs of marketing and distributing additional film prints. This would be sought once the film was received favourably.
Once SANCTUARY is released for sale, the company should not incur significent direct costs to achieve the aim of this project. A minimum of £5000 will be spent on preparing a package for potential licensees, publishers and buyers of the IP.
As the current IP owner, committed to its realisation as an interactive film franchise, I will continue to finance development of the property and pursue sales opportunities beyond SANCTUARY. There will be a cap of £10,000 a year on this activity (based on projected earnings as a consultant) without further investment.
I also intend to secure a graphic novel deal based on the story. This will assist efforts to secure studio investment in the feature film idea.
The feature film, "ten weeks in the head bin", is only realisable by a major entertainment studio such as Warner, Sony, Universal, Dreamworks, Viacom (Paramount), Disney or Fox. It is not the intention of the company to attempt to finance this film.
The current estimate for producing "ten weeks in the head bin" as a studio feature film is US$80 million. A "AAA" rated console game based on a film license is now typically budgeted around US$30m. The estimate cost of producing "ten weeks in the head bin" as a re-mixable film (along the lines of SANCTUARY) is US$81 million.
The company will need to recoup royalties from organisations using the film assets for commercial use. A technical hurdle will be enforcing the not-for-commercial re-use license. It has not been finalised whether the re-mixable film will be released soley under UK law, US law, or a combination of both. Legal proceedings will be instituted in any relevent juristiction if need be.
The company will need to manage any royalty streams setting from legal re-use of the assets. There will be an ongoing cost for project accounting of this nature, offset by staff available through stake-holders (e.g. thequality.com).
Ongoing online community management costs can have a ceiling of £500/month.
The online community will be an ongoing proposition if it is successful. As is the model for this kind of venture, it should be possible to cover the overheads of running the community site (e.g. bandwidth, support, moderation) through advertising or sponsorship in-kind from vendors who benefit from its existence (e.g. hardware manufacterers).
Posted by .M. at October 17, 2003 02:09 PM