Film Courage: Why do you say movies are like real estate?
Ramon 'Swift' Sloan, director, producer and writer: Because movies are property,
movies are intellectual property. Let's take a simple idea right let's take a house and cost you
a hundred thousand dollars right might not be able to get a hundred thousand dollars not a house here
but let's take a house that costs a hundred thousand and you take a movie that costs a
hundred thousand right so both of these properties one is a physical property both are physical but
one is a a property that is actually on land and this property lives now in the world that
we live in in a digital world right so you take both of these properties and the idea
of both of them is what the house is evil to either you're going to flip this property
and you're going to just sell it you buy four hundred thousand put a fifty thousand into it sell
it for three hundred thousand same thing with the movie either you're going to you make the movie
100 Grand sell it for 300 Grand or you take both of these properties and you keep them over time
and you just let them pay you residuals so in the real estate world we call it
a portfolio a housing portfolio sure I'm sure there's other terms and then
the the film War we call it a catalog or a film slate right so both of them perform
they might not perform the same and what I found is that my real estate I'm Excuse me my my film
um films perform better than a lot of real estate that I've been involved with so that's just an
analogy that I came up with right and I mean it's it's or a formula whatever you want to call it
it's it's something that I've come up with to be able to equate to look at the two businesses and
compare and I think that overall the overall goal is with which to for you to figure out am I just
selling these properties am I building them to sell them or am I building them to get residuals
whether buyer and seller markets for films how ups and downs in the real estate market
whether commercial or residential are there are there Peaks and valleys for selling films
I don't think that the Peaks and valleys for selling films are
probably bad as of real estate because entertainment everybody wants to be
entertained I mean you you're going to always be able to sell a movie if that's what you
if that's what you're looking to do with that movie if this company doesn't want it
another company might want it if they don't want it somebody else might want it if that's not the
case you can always go make money off of it and self-distribute and do it yourself right
so I think that that in that part of the business is is it it differs because I mean you're talking
you're talking there's two different Industries two different regulate regulatory situations and
whatnot does money really matter I mean isn't telling the story The most important thing
when it comes to a film yes well I mean that that right there is is
a question for each individual because it depends on try telling that to Sony
try telling Sony or Paramount that money really doesn't matter right so from a business standpoint
I think that you have to find a balance in both of them right you want to tell
a good story right and okay as a producer I'm extremely passionate about creating these movies
but also while I'm creating these films I have to be mindful of the performance of what they could
potentially do and what they could potentially not do right so as a producer that's one of the
hats that you that you wear on set that a lot of people wouldn't understand particularly the actors
and sometimes other crew members because as a EP executive producer that means that if this film
does not perform well you're the only one taking the hit right so everybody else still gets paid
everybody else get paid so the only person that's going to take that loss is you now of course
creatively an artist wants to an actor actress they want to be a part of a product that is
successful of course that that's they they especially if it's someone who has a lot of
skin in the game they got a nice portfolio films out they want to be associated with things that
are perceived to be good so ultimately yes I'm sure they want the product to succeed
but if it doesn't if it flops then they just going to go make another movie as a producer
if you didn't if you didn't map your situation out the right way
who knows you might not be making one for a while right so I think that I think that
that you have to find that meeting that that that that that spot that that that that Central spot
to figure out how to find that balance how do I tell a great quality film
um without going over budget of whatever that budget is that you set
and without compromising by not going over the budget or not having such high above
budget how do you not compromise the quality of of that film and what is mailbox money
mailbox money is money that you have coming in that you've set up to
to just flow is that's residuals that's that's that's that's you having a catalog of movies
and these films making you making you money every day and you'll see in your sleep because if you
think about it any film that you have out there like it's somebody right there watching somebody's
around here somewhere right now watching all my movies right so those films and that goes for any
filmmaker those films are generating money even when you're not working on them anymore so you
put this film out you look up five six seven ten years later and it's still generate money
that's mailbox money Ramon who taught you about business
well I learned about business early on from my dad he's asked me when I was a I was a kid he used to
ask me what do you want to be when you grow up and I'd be like what I want to be a businessman
I didn't know what that was but I knew he was a businessman because he used to have briefcases
and all of this stuff and it wasn't even so much as that it was just the way he carried himself you
I always understood that my dad was a very calculated person who was business savvy
just by the way he conducted himself and I mean as a kid you're going to aspire to those around you
so early on that was my initial I guess introduction to what business was and then
later on and later on I have many teachers I have many teachers along the way
in a lot of areas of business I'm self-taught
a lot of just me bumping my head against the wall and throwing things against the
wall and seeing if it sticks doing a lot of reading a lot of research trying things
just just putting myself out there so I would say ultimately the teacher of it is it would
be me just just getting out there and figuring it out has your dad gone to screenings of your
films actually actually my dad invests in me and him partner up on a bunch of my projects
and so his company is MilMax Films and I'm Swift Motion Pictures yeah so he's
been supportive since the beginning and I'm glad that we're able to now do some business together.