IndieVest's treatment of Investors

While our President has a hard time living up to his promises of transparency in government, I am excited to see at least one company put its promises into action. According to this article, each investor of IndieVest's first feature "Saint John of Las Vegas" received a 280 page "bible" of every expense incurred during the production of the film. As someone who has been charged with wrestling royalty statements and quarterly statements out of my fair share of companies (film and otherwise), I appreciate the show of respect IndieVest has for it's investors. It shows a true long term commitment to a positive partnership and not just a take the money and run attitude often common in the fundraising world.

As someone who is also in the process of raising equity funds for films, this is exactly the level of detail and transparency that I am committing to. This includes how we are running our new distribution label CHANNEL MIDNIGHT which will releasing it's first film in April. It is sad that so many people in the film business hate so many other people in the film business because of what is perceived as shady practices at every level but specifically at the distribution level. Hopefully the wave of the future is one of less waste; less steak dinners attributed to a film's P&L and more companies like IndieVest showing respect to investors and filmmakers alike.