ABSTRACT
The film industry uses the term ‘green lighting’ for the moment a financier or set of financiers decide to move ahead, commit investment and place a film project into production. In a perfect world, that moment normally happens at a formal meeting, whose attendants in turn consider a set of criteria prior to taking a formal decision. Such a process would seem to be a rational approach to managing risk-investment decisions often in the many millions. The reality is rather different, and the actual process varies considerably from studios to mini-majors, and through to the myriad of sources of finance that make up the typical independent film’s structure. This chapter explores some of the typical mistakes so often made in the independent system through the case of the author’s former company, Renaissance Films.
