The Business of Entertainment - Syllabus - Kim Gregson & Mitchell Block - Television-Radio Department

Links for the Business of Entertainment class - Fall 2006

The sections of this seminar look at entertainment as a business - as a very big business with both traditional and non-traditional distribution outlets that generate an incredible amount of money for a small group of people. There are pitfalls in any business, and the entertainment business is no exception; the topics in this course are designed to give you access to information and tools to avoid many of those pitfalls and start off your media career on a sound business footing. Sections may consider topics such as how to finance media projects, basic media economics, how to stay out of legal troubles when creating media, copyright issues, distribution in a distributed and fragmented environment, how to establish yourself as a business, and how to sell ideas and projects.

Ithaca Section - Kim Gregson, 4-7348, email: kgregson@ithaca.edu
LA section - Mitchell Block

Raising the Money: Accounting & Economics
- Week 1: intros, go over where to get readings & news sources, where does the money come from - who funds projects, why are you here, what do you want to accomplish in the future
  - Readings:
    - Crash Principals still await payment from The New York Times 7/24 by Sharon Waxman
    - Caught on Film: A Growing Unease in Hollywood from The New York Times 8/19 by Laura Holson
    - Variety story about Cruise/Paramount split
  - Assignment: Find a recent (last two years) media project (tv show, movie, documentary) - and research all things economic related to that project: how was it funded, and by whom, budget, cost overruns, how it compares with other similar projects, etc. You might find rumors - include them but identify them as unsubstantiated. Write up a 3 to 5 page summary. Attach a bibliography. You can use newspaper articles, trade journals, the web page for the project or the studios/production companies involved, etc. You may have to go back more than 6 months or a year to find the beginning of a project - so keep digging.
    We'll use these examples and the information you find for upcoming discussions and projects. If you find terms you don't understand, make not of them, send them to Kim, and look them up to try to figure them out. Hopefully over the next few weeks we'll go over a lot of them.
    Good places to look: Variety (it's a daily and a weekly), LA Times, NY Times, Hollywood Reporter, Broadcasting & Cable, TV Week, blogs on our website, BoxOfficeMojo, Boards about commercial production, Film and Video, FilmMaker Magazine for indie productions, iComm production and postproduction magazine, Production Update, Markee magazine about regional production, the Hollywood Creative Directory, Multichannel News for the cable industry, NATPE for television trade association), NAB which is another tv industry association), SNTA for syndicated tv, etc.
- Week 2: news review, Business form & structure - what form of business works best for what kind of project, how to set up a company, Budgeting, MovieMagic software
  - Readings:
    - Litwak Ch 11 (reader)
    - Starting a Business - from the State of New York
    - Vogel p. 143-176, ch9 of Young Entrepreneur's Guide to Starting and Running a Business by Steve Mariotti (thru the library's ebrary database)
    - Sample Corporate By-Laws
    - The Hustle and Flow of Independent Film article about financing an independent film
    - Forms of Business Ownership from the SBA
  - In-Class go over budget templates
  - Assignment: for next week - download Movie Magic software demo - good for 15 uses (so could have everyone in a group download, but then just use one person's at a time to spread out the uses), after you read through the tutorial and quick tips, play with the CBS template by opening a new file and choosing CBs out of hte template folder.
- Week 3: news review, using non-profits to raise funds, more budgeting and movie magic software, city and state financing help
  - Readings & Resources
    - User Manual for Movie Magic (it's a big doc, don't print it all, read online and print just necessary bits)
    - New York Magazine article on NYC financing of a new studio
    - International Documentary Association - has grant info
    - Guidelines for Television Projects: Production Grants from the NEH
    - Money the CPB gave to firms/projects in California in 2005
    - Grant opportunities from the federal government
    - Money the CPB game to firms/projectsin New York in 2005
    - IRS doc about 501c3 organizations - tax-exempt status
  - In-Class look at Film in Florida and Mayor's office of film, theatre, and broadcasting from NYC and the state film page - both have financial incentives and tax breaks
  - Assignment:
- Week 4: news review, Raising money from limited partnerships, corporations, etc., doing for profit films, more budgeting
  - Readings:
    - Interesting article on movie budgeting
  - In-Class Exercise:
  - Assignment:budgeting project due
- Week 5: news review, the pitch, proposal - what are you going to make and who is going to pay for it?, finish budgeting
  - Readings:
  - In-Class Exercise:
  - Assignment:
Making the Show: Spending the money legally
- Week 1: intros, key case review, working with the studio and crew, labor law, state laws, unions & guilds, legal traps for new film makers
  - Readings:
  - Resource: List of film lawsuits
- Week 2: virtual class - things to do and comment on about copyright, creative commons - no class because of spring break
  - watch the two videos on this page about the beginnings of the creative commons movement - Get Creative and And Then Things Got Really Interesting and then check out the Creative Commons home page to read about the new licenses - write down your initial reactions to the idea and then write about whether or not you would ever want to use such materials in your works AND whether you would ever want to release your own creations with these licenses
  - check out some of the featured efforts on the Creative Commons home page - they have audio, video, images, text projects. If you're into audio remixing - definitely check out the ccMixter in the tab at the top of the page
  - Here are a couple of articles - pro and con - about creative commons. Read thru them for a little background and perspective
  - Write short paper - 1 page summary of the readings on what is copyright (with sources), 1 page summary of the readings on what is creative commons (with sources), one page summary of when and if you might use either
- Week 3: key case review, copyright protection and limitations, fair use & intellectual property, project updates, case study
  - Readings:
    - Movies with the same name - from Slate magazine Man says American Idol his idea
    - List of intellectual property cases
    - JibJab lawsuit - music, parody
    - Checklist for Fair Use
    - Entertainment Law Reporter. (2006, June). Producer Jean Doumanian is entitled to edit six Woody Allen movies for network television. 28(1). (from Lexis-Nexis thru library database)
- Week 4: key case review, rights of privacy, publicity, slander, libel, releases, permits to film. guest speaker planned
  - Readings:
    - Litwak Ch3 (reader)
    - San Diego Film Commission
    - Day After Plagiarism
    - Ramones feature unreleasable
- Week 5: key case review, ratings/censorship/FCC
  - We're going to discuss ratings and their relationship to censorship. I want you to be able to do a lot of hte talking. So i want you to find out about the history of ratings for different media. Before class work together in groups (Ithaca and LA students) to prepare a short paper on ratings systems for your chosen media. Be sure to include:
    - History of that ratings system
    - Who is responsible for assigning the ratings
    - How the business benefits from the ratings
    - Any controversies around that ratings system
    - Any discussion of how the ratings for your medium are related to censorship
  - Plan how you're going to present the info you found to the whole group. We're easily bored so think of something other than just talking at us.
  - Readings
    - Introduction and CH 11 from Litwak Contracts book
    - Errors & Omissions Insurance basics from insurance company
    - Lawsuit involving World Series of Poker
    - First Look deal for This American Life
Selling the Production & Getting the Money Back: Marketing stuff
- Week 1: intros, example review, how marketing connects to economics and legal topics (review for NY students and overview for LA students), marketing a project - typical marketing/advertising strategies for media projects - markets, festivals, presales, distribution companies, home video, educational video, award shows, MTV & VH1, marketing videogames (because I control the syllabus
  )
  - Readings:
    - Lieberman Ch1
    - Designer Suits - (article from Gamasutra - you should have a copy)
    - The Basic Marketing Play for Indie Games (from Gamasutra - you should have a copy)
  - In-Class: take a look at a couple of firms marketing movies (here is a news story about the Deep Focus agency) and videogame ads
- Week 2: International distribution - over thanksgiving
  - Reading: It's still a white world out there, Critical Studies in Media Communication; Dec2002, Vol. 19 Issue 4, p377, 21p, from the Communication and Mass Media Complete database thru the IC library page - email the prof of your section a summary of this article - does it raise any redflags for you? Any questions from it you think we should talk about?
  - Assignment: Find homepages for 3 companies that distribute television/movies internationally (from US overseas or from other countries into the US) that have info about how they market the products (might have to look at more than 3 to find the marketing info) and write a one/two page summary of what these companies can do for you and bring to class next week.
    Pick a movie or tv show from the US and find info on how it was distributed and marketed overseas. If there's no info on your favorite show - pick another show - sketch out the details so you can add your info to the class discussion when we get back.
- Week 3: effects of the Internet, changes to marketing and distribution, marketing television programs
  - Readings:
  - Marketers are into YouTube
  - In-Class Exercise: Look at broadband websites - what kind of viewing experiences do consumer get, what other marketing involved?
  - Assignment:Assignment: Pick one of the new programs from the new fall season and write up how it was advertised (research, need references, examples, look for dollar figures, partners, then evaluate its success - is the show still on, what kinds of ratings is it getting, etc.) - 3-4 pages
- Week 4: the distribution deal, licensing & product placement, marketing movies - hopefully guest speaker
  - In class: Look at Movie trailer websites, look at Movie Marketing Blog (on our website's blog roll)
  - Readings:
    - Activision statement
    - Ch8 of Madison & Vine (available thru the ebrary database on the library website
    - Sony Pictures Sings PRomotional Deal with Heineken for Casino Royale
    - Borat vs Snakes on a Plane
- Week 5: case study guest speaker
  - Readings:
  - In-Class Exercise:
  - Assignment:

Students with Special Needs In compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, reasonable accommodation will be provided to students with documented disabilities on a case by case basis. Students must register with the Office of Academic Support Services and provide appropriate documentation to the college before any academic adjustment will be provided.

This page last updated 20 November 2006 by Kim Gregson

Return to Prof's homepage

Blogs about Business of Entertainment

Media Law Blogs

Entertainment Industry stuff