Subject:	[Age-of-Stupid] Last chance to own a piece of Stupid
Date:	Mon, 3 Nov 2008 14:56:43 +0000
From:	Franny Armstrong <[log in to unmask]>
To:	[log in to unmask]

The first big news is that after almost five months of negotiating we have finally sorted out the UK cinema deal and it is not only exactly what we wanted, but it is also a whole new era of film distribution. No really it is. You may know that the usual model is that the distributor pays the producer a pittance, I mean an advance, and for that takes all rights to the film. Which means it belongs to them, the income goes through them (which they then keep 100% of by a variety of accounting dodges) and if the filmmaker wants to have a screening of the film, they have to get permission from the distributor. Clearly we were never (again) going to agree to that. So we came up with a new model whereby we employ the distributor, we keep all the rights, the money goes through us and we pay them a cut. Crucially, this means we will be able to allow all sorts of small-scale school/church/campaign screenings which are not usually possible. We put this idea to a whole bunch of distributors, most of whom ran a mile. But I'm very happy to say that we have now signed up with Dogwoof, a well-respected London-based distributor who managed the enormously impressive feat of getting "Black Gold" (the coffee documentary) into 300 cinemas last year. Fingers crossed we'll be launching at Sundance in January (no word yet as to whether we've been accepted), then the London Premiere in February (we're trying to get permission to put a solar powered cinema tent on Parliament Square), followed immediately by UK cinema release. We're also going to screen at the UN climate summit in Poznan in December. But you'll be hearing tonnes more about all that as it gets confirmed, so I won't bore you now.

And there is a flipside. Usually the distributor would inject a big wadge of cash - to make the film prints, pay for advertising etc - but we felt that what they took in return was too harsh. So we decided we'd rather sell off some more equity, but keep a larger slice of the profits. Obviously we're making this up as we go along, but we're pretty sure it'll mean more money down the line for all our shareholders (investors, crew and us).

So.... as of this minute.... we are selling a final 15 shares of 10,000 pounds each. (Actually there's only 11 left, as 4 got snapped up by crew I mentioned it to over the weekend.) This is your last chance to own a slice of the Stupid profits. The deal is that you give us your 10K (or 20K or 30K etc) and we give you a percentage of the income, paid once a year for ten years. You also get a credit on the DVD and website and tickets to a screening. (Sorry it's too late for you to get an onscreen credit like the earlier investors, as the credits have long since been done). Obviously the risk of investing at this stage, now there's a finished film, is much lower than the earlier stages - when we stood up and said "we've got an idea for a film" - so the percentages are worth less.

If you're interested in hearing more, please drop me an email and I'll send you back the Funding Plan with all the details. We'll try to get the document up on the website later today or tomorrow - http://www.ageofstupid.net/money - but it's first come first served and we were over-subscribed for the earlier funding rounds, so if you're interested, best to get in there quick.

In other news, we've finally finished the website Mk II. Big cheer for Torchbox and our hardy volunteers please: http://www.ageofstupid.net