grangecam
10-09-2017, 06:00 PM
My business partner (also my wife) and I are having a difficult time negotiating with our other business partners, who are also two people who own a company together. Together, our two companies co-produced a feature length documentary film, which is finally finished and is making a tour of the US, Canada and more distant places. By poor planning, we did not have a written agreement up front about how we would divvy up whatever income we can get from screenings and distribution of the film.
The entire budget of the film was funded by grants and donations; neither of our companies infused any cash into the production, although I did provide a lot of computer equipment for editing, and about 15% of our home has been production office space for about 5 years.
In addition, no one among the 2 companies was paid for nearly 2 years, as the grant money got low, and ongoing expenses (other peoples' salaries plus video post production and technical services) ate up all the grant money we could find. However, the film's director- one of the partners from the other company- took a full time job for about 6 months, leaving my wife alone in the edit room and managing production for that period. Obviously the director was also involved, but she had a full time teaching job, so she did not contribute full time to the film during that time. She was getting paid during that time, my wife was not.
Now that the film is finished and going on tour (with one person from each company), our partners from the other company (the film's director) insist that they deserve a hefty premium payment based on the gross revenue! They have not fully justified the reasoning behind this 10 percent of gross premium, but vaguely it is about "leading the distribution effort" and "managing distribution". Of course, my wife is also managing distribution, to the tune of 60-70 hours per week, and only one partner from the other company, the film's director, is fully engaged in the project. The director's company is a handling all the money, but they are keeping track of time and getting paid based on hours worked, so their company is not providing free bookkeeping and accounting services. Everything is paid for by the project. Modest salaries are being paid again, but limited to what money is coming in, so there is no guarantee that the salaries will continue. Over half of the monthly income in September was paid to other vendors and personnel, so the 10% fee (of GROSS revenue) that our partners are demanding is really a huge percentage of what is left.
Is this fair? They insist that they are getting a bad deal! I feel that we are getting a worse deal. How do you negotiate with a narcissist who is sure she is working harder than everyone else, when we know that everyone is putting in as much of their time as possible. She is of course the film's director, but this was a co-production and making a documentary film is a major collaborative effort; she was not solely responsible for making the film. Any comments would be appreciated; how would a non-film related business view such a situation?
The entire budget of the film was funded by grants and donations; neither of our companies infused any cash into the production, although I did provide a lot of computer equipment for editing, and about 15% of our home has been production office space for about 5 years.
In addition, no one among the 2 companies was paid for nearly 2 years, as the grant money got low, and ongoing expenses (other peoples' salaries plus video post production and technical services) ate up all the grant money we could find. However, the film's director- one of the partners from the other company- took a full time job for about 6 months, leaving my wife alone in the edit room and managing production for that period. Obviously the director was also involved, but she had a full time teaching job, so she did not contribute full time to the film during that time. She was getting paid during that time, my wife was not.
Now that the film is finished and going on tour (with one person from each company), our partners from the other company (the film's director) insist that they deserve a hefty premium payment based on the gross revenue! They have not fully justified the reasoning behind this 10 percent of gross premium, but vaguely it is about "leading the distribution effort" and "managing distribution". Of course, my wife is also managing distribution, to the tune of 60-70 hours per week, and only one partner from the other company, the film's director, is fully engaged in the project. The director's company is a handling all the money, but they are keeping track of time and getting paid based on hours worked, so their company is not providing free bookkeeping and accounting services. Everything is paid for by the project. Modest salaries are being paid again, but limited to what money is coming in, so there is no guarantee that the salaries will continue. Over half of the monthly income in September was paid to other vendors and personnel, so the 10% fee (of GROSS revenue) that our partners are demanding is really a huge percentage of what is left.
Is this fair? They insist that they are getting a bad deal! I feel that we are getting a worse deal. How do you negotiate with a narcissist who is sure she is working harder than everyone else, when we know that everyone is putting in as much of their time as possible. She is of course the film's director, but this was a co-production and making a documentary film is a major collaborative effort; she was not solely responsible for making the film. Any comments would be appreciated; how would a non-film related business view such a situation?