Entrepreneur
Justin Swibel
Colorful Realm
Fund: $500,001-$1,000,000
Wall Street financial advisor, I’ve composed a pitch deck that takes a risk-reduction approach and reinvents the concept of development and packaging in regard to the feature film industry. My plan eliminates waste, emphasize deadlines, and equally important, is based on three years of sweat equity and planning that has entailed extensive scheduling and budgeting. Comparable hard data is utilized to justify and explain the allocations I’ve made, time schedules and spending timelines are precisely outlined, and the investor is prioritized. Unlike other film finance opportunities, the offering my financial advisor and I have put together aligns the interests of investor directly with my own. Additionally novel are the contractual ideas I propose in terms of working with intended studio partners on each project to reach fair agreement about profit participation. Because of your background as someone with an eye for special properties, I would be happy to share further information, including the full-length Offering Memorandum, or "pitch deck," via email and/or phone.
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WHY THIS IS NOT A TYPICAL FILM FINANCING PROJECT
Most film development financing projects do not focus on reducing risk for investors, instead
focusing exclusively on the creative part of the project. This is why most them fail financially before
they get a chance to be shown to the public. We have hired an experienced financial advisor to advise
us as to how to structure the development financing and reduce financial risk as per below.
* The scripts for these films will be polished by Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, and
producer, Roger Avary. Roger was awarded an Oscar for best original screenplay for co-writing the
1994 American crime film “Pulp Fiction” (1994); he also co-authored the 2007 Fantasy/Sci-Fi film,
“Beowulf” (2007). As a writer and director of movies, Roger’s projects have cumulatively grossed
over $ 244mm to date. Roger will accept WGA modest minimums for his writing services against
full fixed fees as highlighted in the Development Budget (Exhibit 1, Page 1). Roger will also serve as
the director of “Pairs,” one of the two films in this project’s slate.
* 1,452 Storyboard Templates have been completed for “The Dark Feminine,” one of the two films
which this offering will finance in terms of development and packaging. The other film, “Pairs,” will
also be storyboarded. This approach, while time-consuming, ensures that the films will stay on time
and adhere to expense budgets, unlike many film production projects.
* The two films are both situated in subgenres of romance, which historically have produced
substantial receipts.
* The projections included in this memo are based on specific film industry hard comparable data
(See pages 22-26 for comparable data; see page 21 for projections).
* This offering proposes a unique deal structure with major motion picture studios that will ensure
that the professionals and, therefore, the investors, will avoid the “accounting hell” associated with
the usual net points contracts (from which professionals and investors receive a portion of the net
profits as accounted for by the studios). Our structure is a hybrid in that the contractual
arrangement calls for adjusted gross points (off the top line) after an upfront negotiated studio
“cash break even point” is achieved.
* The interests of the investors are perfectly aligned with those of Justin Swibel, the orchestrator of
this project, in that investors will receive a portion of all revenues received by Justin Swibel’s
company, Colorful Realm (“CR”), from ALL film-related activities thru 2024.
NOTE: If you are not assuaged by the aforementioned bullet points and story synopses that follow on
the next page, you may not want to invest the time in reading any further. Thank you for your
consideration.
Profit Participation entails 25% of Colorful Realm receipts thru 2024 plus 75% of all film (post-release) cash flows distributed to seed lenders until the original $ 900k is returned; thereafter, note holders will receive 25% of the receipts received by CR after $ 300k annual compensation is paid to Justin Swibel.
Wall Street financial advisor, I’ve composed a pitch deck that takes a risk-reduction approach and reinvents the concept of development and packaging in regard to the feature film industry. My plan eliminates waste, emphasize deadlines, and equally important, is based on three years of sweat equity and planning that has entailed extensive scheduling and budgeting. Comparable hard data is utilized to justify and explain the allocations I’ve made, time schedules and spending timelines are precisely outlined, and the investor is prioritized. Unlike other film finance opportunities, the offering my financial advisor and I have put together aligns the interests of investor directly with my own. Additionally novel are the contractual ideas I propose in terms of working with intended studio partners on each project to reach fair agreement about profit participation. Because of your background as someone with an eye for special properties, I would be happy to share further information, including the full-length Offering Memorandum, or "pitch deck," via email and/or phone.
JUSTIN SWIBEL is the writer of “The Dark Feminine” (TDF) and “Pairs” (P). He
intends to produce and direct the eventual feature-length motion picture of TDF, and
intends to produce P with an established “lead producer” to support director Roger
Avary.
SUNSET TOWN (2002): Before graduating from NYU Film School in 2005, Swibel
made his first short film, “Sunset Town” (ST), a $125K production; he designed and
executed elaborate tracking shots featuring up to 130 background actors for the film.
His lead actor was Larry Yando, who starred as Scar in the successful national tour of
Julie Taymor’s and Disney’s “The Lion King, The Musical”. ST premiered at The Lake
Placid Film Forum alongside films by Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, and George
Romero. Canada’s Anti-Matter Film and Video Festival dubbed ST “a dark and
brilliant farce.” To raise funds for the film, Swibel founded a 501(c)3 corporation that
participated in charitable art-education events and provided employment to several of
Swibel’s fellow film students at NYU film school. ST was screened at NYU and a frontpage
article about the film appeared in the student newspaper.
FAULT (2003): Before graduating from NYU’s elite Tisch School of the Arts (Film/TV) in 2005,
Swibel made a second (highly acclaimed) $95K short film entitled “Fault”, on 35mm with a
crew of Hollywood professionals; Swibel raised the money from private parties. The film
screened at over 60 festivals internationally, taking several top prizes. “Fault” ultimately
screened in Kodak’s prestigious Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Festival De Cannes. "Fault"
is now distributed by Shorts International, home to the short film catalogs of Alfred Hitchcock
and Peter Greenaway, among others. "Fault" is available via Shorts HD, live on DirecTV in the
USA & UK; for sale on iTunes in 23 territories.
MODERN MAN (2006): Swibel made his feature films debut with an experimental 61-minute
“art film” spoof called "Modern Man” (MM). MM was based on Thoreau’s Walden and took
inspiration from Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” and the conceit of “pure cinema”. Theatrically
exhibited in LA & New York in Winter 2006 & Spring 2007, respectively, MM, a one-character,
no-dialogue art piece sort of film was glowingly reviewed by renowned and influential film
critic Matt Zoller Seitz, then of The New York Times, who noted that “Mr. Swibel's style is so
assured, and the film's rhythms are so precise” and dubbed the film "a droll parable...you will
leave the theater seeing the world with fresh eyes.” In 2007, MM was screened as part of a
week-long exhibition at CalArts, the educational brainchild of Walt Disney, on gigantic screens
hanging in the main indoor commons area of the campus. The Whitney Museum has
expressed interest in screening MM as part of an exhibition in the future.
2006-2016: In 2006, Swibel co-founded Becker-Swibel Productions, LLC with NYU colleague
Eric Becker, under which Swibel served as manager and co-president. From 2006-2008, the
Los Angeles-based production company employed a staff of 15, produced and self-distributed
an acclaimed, theatrically exhibited avant-garde feature film. In addition, Swibel managed the
company’s development of intellectual property over the course of ten years, which included
the negotiation and purchase of an 18-month exclusive option for film rights to a worldrenowned
author’s novel. Swibel personally communicated with the author’s estate over the
course of several months. Swibel has authored over ten full-length feature screenplays. He
optioned his first original script to an established production company in 2010, and has
received solicitation and interest in his scripts from major companies, including
Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Escape Artists, Jersey Films, and Andrew Lauren
Productions. Proposals for further development of his projects by these 12
companies contradicted Swibel’s primary intentions for the movies, however; the deals
offered would have ridden Swibel of the opportunity to provide the level of creative
input which he deemed integral. Thus, he moved on from these solicitations and
focused additionally on independent development activity.
2016 TO DATE: Swibel completed, for the pre-visualization of TDF, 1,452
storyboarded frames with corresponding floor plans that indicate camera, set, and
subject details for every planned shot. Swibel believes that with a compendium of all
frames to be shot in hand, he will be able to enlist experienced established Hollywood
craftsmen to join his technical staff convinced of the fluidity of the process without
them having to worry that he is an ill-prepared newcomer. In addition, having the
entire movie pre-visualized will afford the production team of TDF the fantastic
opportunity to employ highly strategic planning, which will maximize the use of time
and money and ensure that everyone on set, as well as in the production offices and
corporate headquarters, knows exactly what material is being shot each day, and how.
Swibel also spent time during this period nurturing a relationship with Roger Avary,
an Oscar-winning screenwriter, who ultimately expressed interest in collaborating on
TDF and Pairs. In summation, Swibel is experienced in all aspects of film development and production, including previsualization,
screenwriting, directing, producing, post-production supervision, finishing, marketing, and distribution strategy.
FINANCIAL PROPOSAL ASSUMPTIONS - COLORFUL REALM (“CR”) (1)
CR proposes to produce two movies “The Dark Feminine” (TDF) and “Pairs” (P) — see
detailed description in offering memorandum.
The Budgets are respectively $ 39mm and $ 28.5mm — see Exhibit 4, attached, which
provides industry comparable for similar movies made. Note that a substantial part of the
budgets are dedicated to attracting A-List actors as these films are delicate psychological
dramas require high talent.
Justin Swibel, the writer of the scripts, will also act as a producer of the films and the director
of TDF — see credentials, attached. Roger Avary, who will be the director of P, is an Oscarwinning
writer and director of movies that have cumulatively grossed over $ 244mm to date.
It should be noted that 3 years of sweat equity has been put into these projects, not only to
write the scripts, but also to create detailed, comprehensive storyboards, which should
significantly ease in the production of the films and allow them to stay within the time and
$$$ budget.
Before the studios commence shooting a number of items have to be attended to. These items
require an estimated budget of $ 900k — see Exhibit 1 for details.
CR proposes to raise the $ 900k in the form of participating Notes — see Term Sheet, attached
as Exhibit 5. The Notes will be entitled to:
25% of CR receipts after the original $ 900k is returned thru 2024.
In the projections attached, we have assumed that the films will realize gross receipts of 5X,
10X, and 15X their budgets. These assumptions are supported by the data in Exhibit 3, which
shows the historical gross receipts vs. budget for a number of comparable films.
Given the assumptions detailed in Exhibit 2, CR investors are expected to receive distributions
of between $ 2mm and $ 12.1mm.
These distributions would amount to between 2.2X and 13.5X the seed investor’s original
investment.
Under the worst assumptions, 2.2X the $ 900k investment would be returned to investors.
(1) CR is wholly owned by Justin Swibel and is dedicated to any and all CR film-related
activities and projects.
Dear Investor,
I hope this finds you well. I’m writing to check in and let you know in more detail about several appeal options that are now available to investors for the film finance venture which this profile page concerns.
City National Bank (CNB), as you may know, finances 70 percent of all Hollywood and Broadway projects, including those produced by Warner Bros., Disney, and Netflix. A Senior Vice President of CNB has recently expressed enthusiastic interest in the pitch deck we've submitted for consideration. Thus, the bank has expressed interest in working with us to aid potential investors who are confident in the project and would like to take part by underwriting any or all equity pledged for the $ 900k in seed capital we are currently seeking to raise in exchange for a promissory note attesting to a guarantee that a year from the date of issuance, the investor will reimburse the bank should the project default. Below, I’ve included a summary of the three models in which CNB has expressed interest in issuing funds to help make this more profitable for our investor(s).
a) CNB has agreed to issue a $ 1m unsecured line of credit, which would underwrite private wealth pledged and defer investment, in exchange for a promissory note from a private investor(s). We would utilize the extra $ 100k to make debt payments until cashflow begins, at rate of 5-6.5 percentassigned interest.
b) CNB has agreed to issue a single draw of $ 900k. The investor would be responsible for paying off principal plus interest over the course of 12 to 36 months based on which model is preferred.
c) CNB has agreed to subsidize a guarantee in the case that a cash investment of the $ 900k I seek to raise was made. The bank would utilize the equity as collateral and issue my company a secure bank note for the sum. This option would at least develop a relationship with the bank and maintain liquidity for the company, thereby establishing credibility.
The appealing aspect of option A is that if we successfully achieve targeted objectives per the time schedule in the offering memorandum, we will successfully avoid having to need an investor issue funds to the bank without also achieving return, in the form of a percentage of my fixed compensation for the movies, which will go into Colorful Realm, and of which investors will earn 25 percent through 2024, of everything I earn, unconditionally, from any and all of my film-related activities. I have also preliminarily discussed the issuance of some or all of the cumulative budgets for both pictures should that financing option become necessary for the movies, themselves. All that would be required for them to issue funds for the films themselves are copies of the budgets (which they have agreed to have no say over), a list of the major players involved with the projects, and an minimum guarantee for a distribution agreement, meaning that if the development and packaging period is a success and the studios and high-end companies agree to distribute based on the package but do not want to finance the pictures, CNB has expressed overt interest in taking on the projects. CNB financed movies for between $ 500k and $ 100m. The “sweet spot” for a movie they finance is between $ 20m and $ 50m. The budgets for the movies in this two-slate package are $ 37.5m and $28 m, respectively, which means these projects are ideal for the bank, which a fee-based generator and which will charge a fee for its services based on a given project’s particulars.
In summation, the bank has expressed interest in essentially enabling an invest to potentially draw return without ever having to extend capital. That is, if option A, as outlined above, was exploited and we were able to achieve our targeted objectives for the 4-month development and packaging period outlined in the Offering Memorandum, our company, Colorful Realm, would soon afterward begin to earn revenue in the form of fixed compensation due to our company’s principal, Justin Swibel, for services he will render as a writer, director, and producer on the movies. His compensation will be channeled through Colorful Realm and investors will earn 25 percent of all proceeds distributed to the company through 2024. We believe this offers a highly attractive opportunity to the savvy investor, as the underwritten wealth would then be paid back to the bank from the movies’ budgets, and the investor(s) who have exploited option A, as listed above, will have never parted with any equity at all.
Because of your background and interest in entrepreneurial ventures and business investments, I hope that these options and my explanation of the incentives they offer may prove of interest and relevance to our discussion. If you’d like, I would be happy to discuss further via phone, and am here to field any questions or concerns. Thank you for your valuable time and consideration. It’s always a privilege to be able to reach out.
All The Best,
JS
Both movies are intended for mass audience and wide release via studio or high-end boutique-level production and distribution. One of the film is of the "PG-13" category and the other will constitute an "R" rated film. The former film appeals to both children and adults of all ages, whereas the latter appeals to ages 18 and up.
Dear Investor:
For audiences of PG-13 and R-rated motion pictures with an interest in
stories geared toward themes of romance and redemption, “The Dark Feminine” [PG-13] and
“Pairs” [R] will offer an entertaining two-movie spread that truthfully and intelligently addresses
the breaking out and maturation of love in ways that evoke innocent, childlike notions as well as
more adult, complex understandings. Different from contemporary “slice-of-life” romantic dramas
which engage topical subject matter and are preoccupied with analyzing the psychology of the
characters, “The Dark Feminine” and “Pairs” draw inspiration from modernist cinematic and
literary genres such as Bildungsroman (coming-of-age), Romance (chivalry and love), Tragicomedy
(tragedy with a happy ending), and Parable (moral tale). The films will present stories that find roots
in these genre's trappings and yet maintain an appealing level of mystery around them, satisfying
the audience’s need for movies that are at once modern and archetypal, and, therefore, possess the
longest shelf lives. Movies that capture people’s hearts are the ones that touch upon a recognizable
human trait, and depict it meaningfully and authentically.
Professionals (see pages 8-12) included in the forecasted development of
these movies, which this pitch deck most immediately concerns, will bring to the table varying
levels of substantial experience in the film industry. Professionals participating in this venture will
bolster the strength and quality of these projects with awareness of the ways in which a movie
must deliver a strong plot, interesting characters, inventive cinematic development, opportunities
for the actors to display emotion, and clear and intelligent presentation of thematic ideas. When
casting each of these movies, I intend to include in the rosters several more A-list names than is
typical for mainstream studio films. Because these movies both convey dramatic scenarios, I’m
confident that offsetting delicate nuances in the scripts with star talent will ensure high quality
and bridge the gap for audiences, making the emotions palpable and immediate.
Please see above bio about Justin Swibel, in addition to the following:
ROGER AVARY is the intended co-writer of the rewrites of “The Dark Feminine” and “Pairs”, and is the intended director of “Pairs”.
In 1994, Avary, a Canadian-American film and television director, screenwriter, and producer, was awarded an Academy Award for his work as a writer with Quentin Tarantino on their screenplay for “Pulp Fiction” (PF). The screenplay for PF earned Avary and Tarantino additional accolades, including a BAFTA, the Boston Society of Film Critics Award, the Chicago Society of Film Critics Award, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, the New York Film Critics Circle Award, and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay.
Also in 1994, Avary wrote and directed the French neo-noir crime thriller “Killing Zoe” (KZ), which Roger Ebert hailed as 'Generation X's first Bank Caper Movie.' KZ is notable as the first feature film to utilize swing and tilt bellows lenses in its production. The film was honored with Le Prix Tres Special at Festival de Cannes, the same year that PF took home the Palm d'Or. KZ continued to win awards worldwide on the festival circuit, including Best Film at Japan's Yubari International Film Festival and the Italian Mystfest. The film was celebrated by the Cinemathique Francaise, who heralded Avary as the “Antonin Artaud of Cinema” during its Cinema of Cruelty retrospective.
In 2002, Avary wrote and directed the filmed adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel “The Rules of Attraction” (TROA), which he also executive-produced. TROA is notable as the first studio motion picture to prove reliable use of Apple's Final Cut Pro editing system. Avary became an Apple spokesperson for Final Cut Pro 3, appearing in print and web ads worldwide. His film within the film, “Glitterati” (2004), used elements of Victor's European trip and was shot entirely on digital video with a crew of two (Avary and producer Greg Shapiro). In 2005, Avary purchased the rights to another Bret Easton Ellis novel, Glamorama, which is in development at Avary's company for him to direct.
In 2006, Avary penned the movie adaptation of the hit Konami video game “Silent Hill” (SH) for French director Christophe Gans. SH debuted as #1 at the U.S. box office and has been embraced by video game fans as one of the first game-to-film adaptations that is true to the imagery and spirit of its source material.
In 2007, novelist Neil Gaiman & Roger Avary wrote and produced the filmed adaptation of “Beowulf” for director Robert Zemeckis (“Back To The Future”, “Forrest Gump”) and Paramount Pictures. Utilizing a complex process of digitally enhanced live action, the film tells the oldest English language story through the use of the most modern technology available. The film debuted as #1 at the U.S. box office.
In 2017, Avary directed a French language filmed adaptation of Jean Cocteau's onewoman play, “La Voix Humaine”, starring actress Elsa Zylberstein. Also in 2017, Avary wrote and directed the dark comedy- thriller, “Lucky Day”, for producer Don Carmody, and starring Luke Bracey, Nina Dobrev, Crispin Glover, David Hewlett, and Tomer Sisley.
As a writer and director of movies, Avary’s projects have cumulatively grossed over $ 244mm to date.
Justin Swibel intends to seek a "first-look" deal with a major studio or high-end boutique production company in the aftermath of these two movies' releases. Since his days at NYU Film School, Swibel has generated a significant amount of intellectual property in the form of screenplays and treatments. In addition, he has in the past optioned a novel from a world-renowned author and has located several other literary properties in which he is interested in adapting for the screen in the future. He anticipates that there will be at least 2-3 additional major motion picture projects to be developed and/or made following the making and release of the two movies for which he now seeks to raise privatized development and packaging financing,