Option (filmmaking)
In the film industry, an option is a contractual agreement pertaining to film rights between a potential film producer (such as a movie studio, a production company, or an individual) and the author of source material, such as a book, play, or screenplay, for an exclusive, but temporary, right to purchase the screenplay, given the film producer lives up to the terms of the contract. Overview The agreement details the exclusive rights, including the specified time period and financial obligations. The producer usually has to advance the essential elements, such as financing and talent, towards the creation of a film based on the work being optioned. Similarly, producers can also option articles, video games, songs, or any other conceivable work of intellectual property. Financially, the contract qualifies as a financial option and may be valued by applying real options analysis. The term is often used as a verb in Hollywood. For example, "Paramount optioned a short story by ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Film Industry
The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution, and actors. Though the expense involved in making films almost immediately led film production to concentrate under the auspices of standing production companies, advances in affordable filmmaking equipment, as well as an expansion of opportunities to acquire investment capital from outside the film industry itself, have allowed independent film production to evolve. In 2019, the global box office was worth . When including box office and home entertainment revenue, the global film industry was worth in 2018. Hollywood is the world's oldest national film industry, and largest in terms of box office gross revenue. Indian cinema is the largest national film industry in terms of the number of film ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hollywood Movie
The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of American cinema is classical Hollywood cinema, which developed from 1913 to 1969 and is still typical of most films made there to this day. While Frenchmen Auguste and Louis Lumière are generally credited with the birth of modern cinema, American cinema soon came to be a dominant force in the emerging industry. , it produced the third-largest number of films of any national cinema, after India and China, with more than 600 English-language films released on average every year. While the national cinemas of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also produce films in the same language, they are not part of the Hollywood system. That said, Hollywood has also been considered a transnational cinema, and has produced multiple langu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hollywood Accounting
Hollywood accounting (also known as Hollywood bookkeeping) is the opaque or creative accounting methods used by the film, video, television and music industry to budget and record profits for creative projects. Expenditures can be inflated to reduce or eliminate the reported profit of the project, thereby reducing the amount which the corporation must pay in taxes and royalties or other profit-sharing agreements, as these are based on net profit. Hollywood accounting gets its name from its prevalence in the entertainment industry—that is, in the movie studios of Hollywood at a time when most studios were located in Hollywood. Those affected can include writers and actors, but also production companies, producers and investors. A number of cases of creative accounting have been successfully pursued in court and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in awarded damages. Practices Hollywood accounting can take several forms. In one form, a subsidiary is formed to perform a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Film Budgeting
Film budgeting refers to the process by which a line producer, unit production manager, or production accountant prepares a budget for a film production. This document, which could be over 130 pages long, is used to secure financing for and lead to pre-production and production of the film. Multiple drafts of the budget may be required to whittle down costs. A budget is typically divided into four sections: '' above the line'' (creative talent), '' below the line'' (direct production costs), ''post-production'' (editing, visual effects, etc.), and ''other'' (insurance, completion bond, etc.). The budget excludes film promotion and marketing, which is the responsibility of the film distributor. Film financing can be acquired from a private investor, sponsor, product placement, film studio, entertainment company, and/or out-of-pocket funds. When it comes to reporting the budget of a film, the amount of the budget represents the gross budget, which is the grand total of actual spendi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Real Option
Real options valuation, also often termed real options analysis,Adam Borison (Stanford University)''Real Options Analysis: Where are the Emperor's Clothes?'' (ROV or ROA) applies option valuation techniques to capital budgeting decisions.Campbell, R. Harvey''Identifying real options'' Duke University, 2002. A real option itself, is the right—but not the obligation—to undertake certain business initiatives, such as deferring, abandoning, expanding, staging, or contracting a capital investment project. For example, real options valuation could examine the opportunity to invest in the expansion of a firm's factory and the alternative option to sell the factory.Nijssen, E. (2014) Routelegde, 2014. Real options are generally distinguished from conventional financial options in that they are not typically traded as securities, and do not usually involve decisions on an underlying asset that is traded as a financial security. A further distinction is that option holders here, i.e. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Option (law)
An option contract, or simply option, is defined as "a promise which meets the requirements for the formation of a contract and limits the promisor's power to revoke an offer". Option contracts are common in professional sports. An option contract is a type of contract that protects an offeree from an offeror's ability to revoke their offer to engage in a contract. Under the common law, consideration for the option contract is required as it is still a form of contract, cf. Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 87(1). Typically, an offeree can provide consideration for the option contract by paying money for the contract or by providing value in some other form such as by rendering other performance or forbearance. Courts will generally try to find consideration if there are any grounds for doing so. See consideration for more information. The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) has eliminated a need for consideration for firm offers between merchants in some limited circumstances. Intr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Box Office Futures
In finance, box office futures is a type of futures contract in which investors speculate on upcoming movies based on their predicted performance. United States In the United States the idea of a futures trading in relation to the success of Hollywood films dates back at least to 1996, when Max Keiser and Michael R. Burns launched Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) as a web-based, multiplayer game in which players use simulated money to buy and sell "shares" of actors, directors, upcoming films, and film-related options. After some attention during the dot-com bubble, HSX was bought in 2001 by the financial company Cantor Fitzgerald who planned to turn it into a real-money trading exchange, but the devastation of Cantor Fitzgerald during the 9/11 attacks put the project on hold. In 2007, Arizona-based entrepreneur Robert Swagger formed Media Derivatives Inc. (MDEX) with the goal of creating an electronic futures exchange for contracts based on box office results. The idea behind MDEX ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spec Script
A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or studio. Spec scripts which have gone on to win Academy Awards include ''Thelma & Louise'' (sold by Callie Khouri to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for US$500,000 in 1990), ''Good Will Hunting'' (sold by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to Miramax for US$675,000 in 1994) and '' American Beauty'' (sold by Alan Ball to DreamWorks Pictures for US$250,000 in 1998), which all won Best Original Screenplay. A spec script reads differently from a shooting script or a production script in that there is more focus on the story itself while focus on camera movements and other directing aspects should be rarely, if ever, used. Camera directions and technical directions are often added in the later drafts. The sole purpose of a spec script, also known as the ''selli ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Playwrights
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder (as in a wheelwright or cartwright). The words combine to indicate a person who has "wrought" words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form—a play. (The homophone with "write" is coincidental.) The first recorded use of the term "playwright" is from 1605, 73 years before the first written record of the term "dramatist". It appears to have been first used in a pejorative sense by Ben Jonson to suggest a mere tradesman fashioning works for the theatre. Jonson uses the word in his Epigram 49, which is thought to refer to John Marston: :''Epigram XLIX — On Playwright'' :PLAYWRIGHT me reads, and still my verses damns, :He says I want the tongue of epigrams ; :I have no salt, no bawdry he doth mea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lawrence Bender
Lawrence Bender (born October 17, 1957) is an American film producer. Throughout his career, Bender-produced films have received 36 Academy Award nominations, resulting in eight wins. Bender rose to fame by producing ''Reservoir Dogs'' in 1992 and has since produced several of Quentin Tarantino's films including ''Pulp Fiction'', '' Kill Bill: Volume 1 & 2'' and ''Inglourious Basterds''. Bender has also produced three documentary films, most notably ''An Inconvenient Truth'' (2006) which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. He has received three Best Picture nominations for producing ''Pulp Fiction'', ''Good Will Hunting'' and ''Inglourious Basterds''. Early life Bender was born to a Jewish family in The Bronx, New York, and grew up in New Jersey, where his father was a college history professor and his mother was a kindergarten teacher. He described his hometown of Cherry Hill as "all-white and anti-Semitic". In high school, he decided to pursue a career as a civ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Reservoir Dogs
''Reservoir Dogs'' is a 1992 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino in his feature-length debut. It stars Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen, Tarantino, and Edward Bunker as diamond thieves whose heist of a jewelry store goes terribly wrong. Kirk Baltz, Randy Brooks (actor), Randy Brooks, and Steven Wright also play supporting roles. It incorporates many motifs that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, profanity, and nonlinear storytelling. The film is regarded as a classic of independent film and a cult film and was named "Greatest Independent Film of all Time" by ''Empire (film magazine), Empire''. Although controversial at first for its depictions of violence and heavy use of profanity, ''Reservoir Dogs'' was generally well received, with the cast being praised by many critics. Despite not being heavily promoted during its theatrical run, the film became a modest su ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-linear storylines, Cameo appearance, cameos, ensemble casts, and references to popular culture. Other List of filmmakers' signatures, directorial tropes associated with Tarantino include the use of songs from the 1960s and 70s, fictional brand parodies, and the prominent Framing (visual arts), framing of women's bare feet. Tarantino began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of the crime film ''Reservoir Dogs'' in 1992. His second film, ''Pulp Fiction'' (1994), a dark comedy crime thriller, was a major success with critics and audiences winning numerous awards, including the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 1996, he appeared in ''From Dusk till Dawn'', also writing the screenplay. Tarantino' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |