First integrated film studio in the state moving to Lafayette Posted: May 11, 2012 3:01 PM by KATC Updated: May 11, 2012 3:33 PM

http://www.katc.com/news/first-integrated-film-studio-in-the-state-moving-to-lafayette/ 4-Studios, a quality provider of film, music, game development, animation and post production facilities, rentals, financing and services, today announced the opening of a studio and offices in multiple locations in Lafayette. 4-Studios provides turnkey or individual entertainment production services including film management, accounting, budgeting, location scouting, transportation services, production offices, housing, casting, crew hiring, government & public relations, website building, hosting, and assistance with tax incentives. The Company will create the first integrated film financing, production, visual effects, and digital post-production studio in the state. In doing so, the company will not only finance and produce its own films, it will also operate an advanced digital media facility to provide CG VFX, post-production and sound recording services for third party clients as well as the company's in-house projects. 4-Studios will cater to various entertainment ventures including, but not limited to, feature films, television productions, high-end commercials, music videos, game development and animation companies. The State of the art facility will feature a motion capture camera system, 360 green screen, a private screening theater, multiple post production and VFX workstations, production offices, a recording studio and various sound stages. New Orleans, Shreveport and Baton Rouge's film industries have prospered due to Louisiana's entertainment tax credits. 4-Studios will utilize the State's Motion Picture Tax Credit, the Sound Recording Tax Credit and the Digital Media Rebate to attract projects to the region. Dax Allen, 4-Studios' CEO, has created a film fund, 4-Finance LLC, to compliment the State and regional incentive efforts. The film fund will provide hard money to assist producers and studio executives green light projects, and help train local professionals. 4-Studios has secured $20 million in matching funds (under 4-Finance). 4-Studios has also received a commitment from a Los Angeles production group to film a slate of projects in Lafayette, with a minimum budget of $4.5 million each. "The opening of 4-Studios's Lafayette office is an important step towards building infrastructure and a skilled workforce to support and maintain an economically viable entertainment industry in Acadiana," said Dax S. Allen, President/CEO. "The launch of our post production and motion capture services will be the first of many important steps forward for the company in 2012. With the tax credits that Louisiana offers, there is a phenomenal opportunity to grow the industry in Lafayette. 4-Studios will recruit quality projects and companies to the area which will benefit many of the local businesses and economy." About 4-Studios Founded in 2012 by Dax S. Allen, PMBA, 4-Studios provides state of the art facilities, locations, resources & services for film, post, sound recording, motion capture, game development and animation production, artists and projects. 4-Studios' mission is to recruit quality projects/jobs, develop a skilled entertainment production workforce, build key infrastructure for the film, music & digital media industries, stimulate economic growth & development in Acadiana and create opportunities for the local Lafayette, LA creative community. 4-Studios has acquired some of the industry's most talented visual artists whose recent credits include ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 & 2', ‘Fright Night', ‘Secretariat' and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'. Dax S. Allen, PMBA is the former Director of Film & Digital Media for the Lafayette Economic Development Authority and CEO of 4-Showbiz, a cutting edge web services application tool and resource specifically designed to assist, facilitate, create awareness, opportunities and improve communication between all fields related to the Entertainment Industry. http://4-show.biz Dax is the creator of an animated feature film trilogy, LOST LITTLE ONE. Dax sits on the Board and serves as the Finance Director for the Southern Screen Film Festival, a leader in the community for the Lafayette Entertainment Initiative and Director of Business Development for Louisiana's Digital Gaming Initiative. He continues to serve as a liaison between Los Angeles, CA, Austin, TX and Louisiana for the Film, Gaming and Animation Industries 4-Studios is currently located in and operating out of multiple areas and properties throughout Lafayette, Louisiana. The company has acquired 52 acres within Lafayette city limits and is in the design and initial phase of constructing a state of art entertainment production and performance venue. The studio complex comprising of multiple niche sound stages will support Feature Films, Television, Commercials, Music Recording, Special Events, Motion Capture, New Media, Game Development, Visual Effects, Lodging, Transportation, Amenities, Support Services, Production Offices and vendor facilities. For more information about 4-Studios, visit the website at www.4-Studios.biz.

INVESTOR DEFENSE TACTICS

DEFENSIVE TACTICS

1. READ YOUR CONTRACT carefully including any addendum of standard terms and conditions. Don't assume that the "standard" terms are either standard or non-negotiable.

2. REDUCE OR PLACE CAPS on expense items such as overhead and interest charges.

3. DEFINE PROFITS in terms of 100% of all profits. Remove any ambiguity as to whether you are sharing in the producer's share of net profits or a percentage of the whole.

4. AUDIT RIGHTS should provide the participant with a reasonable length of time to challenge statements. A participant will not want to incur the expense of an audit until he is reasonably certain the picture can be profitable. Since revenue from many markets dribbles in over a long time, the participant should not be forced to either audit early or waive his rights. Also, the agreement should provide for reimbursement of audit costs if the participant successfully recovers as a result of studio accounting errors.

5. ARBITRATION is always preferable to litigation especially when your opponent is better able to finance a protracted court struggle. Make sure the arbitration clause provides for binding arbitration and reimbursement of attorney fees and costs.

6. ELIMINATE OR REDUCE STUDIO DISTRIBUTION FEES especially when the studio is using a subsidiary company as a sub-distributor. For example, studios may distribute through a wholly-owned home video distributor. The home video distributor pays a 20% royalty on sales to the parent company. This revenue may then go into studio gross revenues and may be reduced further by the parent studio's distribution fee.

7. ADVERTISING EXPENSES should be carefully defined and should only include salaries for staffers assigned exclusively to the project for the time they actually worked on it. An overall cap on advertising expenses is also important to prevent the distributor from "buying the gross." It can be profitable for a studio to spend money to promote a picture yet be disadvantageous to profit participants. That is because the studio recoups its advertising expenses, and perhaps some overhead on it, before profits are available.

8. REDUCE INTEREST costs by the amount of interest earned by the studio on advances from exhibitors. It is not fair for the studio to earn interest on advances while charging the producer interest on the full outstanding negative cost.

9. SUB-DISTRIBUTION fees should be included in the studio's distribution fee. Distribution fees for outright sales to smaller territories should not exceed 15%. The contract needs to be carefully worded so that these sales are charged at the lower outright sale distribution fee even if the buyer is technically required to account to the studio for income.

10. TAXES should be deducted from gross revenues before the studio takes its distribution

4-ALL ENtertainment Business Consulting For The Artist

4-FILMS FUND

If you have screenplays you would like to submit for the 4-FILMS FUND, please e-mail them to to dallen@4-show.biz . We only accept original material submitted by the owner of the copyright of the screenplay. Please do not submit treatments, ideas or incomplete screenplays. They will automatically be thrown out.



4-Films is a multi-faceted group of local independent professionals who have aligned to use their skills to empower, educate, and uplift the Louisiana and specifically the New Orleans community in which we live and serve through the medium of feature film.



4-FILMS is a $7 Million film fund to produce 4-FILMS created and supported by Louisiana filmmakers in the efforts of “Rebuilding New Orleans One Production at a Time”. As producers of quality local film productions, we recognize that there is a void in the United States and abroad for “INDEPENDENT” Movies that reach a diversified age group and cross various boundaries.


Thank You.

Dax S. Allen, PMBA
4-FILMS, Inc.

TYPES OF BUSINESS ENTITIES

There are four basic types of business organizations: the sole proprietorship, the partnership, the corporation, and the limited liability company (the "LLC"). There are variations of these forms. The following is a brief overview to help you choose what type of business suits you best:

Sole Proprietorships

A sole proprietorship is an unincorporated business owned and managed entirely by one person (the "proprietor"), except to the extent that the proprietor may delegate management responsibilities to an employee. It is the simplest form of business. There are no formal requirements for starting a sole proprietorship. As the sole owner of the business, you alone are personally liable for the debts and obligations of the business. The sole proprietorship form of business is most often a default choice used for small, low-risk businesses that have only a few employees and no need for more than one owner.
Disadvantages for a sole proprietorship include unlimited liability & you may have difficulty raising capital.

DBA
A DBA, which stands for Doing Business As, is just another form of a sole proprietorship, wherein you legally register a legal business name for your venture. The governmental body you need to register the name with (and this may be necessary even for sole proprietorships that use the owner's name) varies from state to state.

Partnerships

In simplistic terms, a partnership is a sole proprietorship, except that the partnership is owned and managed by more than one owner. The increase to two owners can complicate planning considerably. There are several kinds of partnerships:

General Partnership
A general partnership has two or more owners, all of whom are "general" partners, and all of whom are personally liable for the debts and expenses of the partnership, including the acts of their partners. Usually, the partners share equally in the profits and losses of the business, but they can agree to a different "split" by stating their sharing arrangement in a written partnership agreement.
The general partnership form of business is used by a few small businesses and service groups whose owners want to avoid the tax consequences that result from corporate ownership, and are willing to accept personal liability.
The advantages for a partnership include its easy formation, profits flowing directly to the owners, benefit of more than one person working the business, and a better chance of raising capital from more than one person.
The disadvantages of a partnership include the liability of all of the partners in case of judgment against the business. Also, the partners are liable for the other partners' actions. Profits of the business have to be shared with other people, disagreements could occur between partners, and the partnership may dissolve on death or withdrawal of one of the partners.

Limited Partnerships
A variation on the general partnership theme is the limited partnership (LP) (which is not the same as a limited liability company, or the limited liability partnership). An LP is a form of business entity that is designed to cure one of the primary disadvantages of the general partnership: the "unlimited liability" problem.
A limited partnership has one "general" and one or more "limited" partners. The general partner is responsible for the management of the partnership and receives a share of partnership profits and losses. The limited partners share in the profits and losses, but are not permitted to have any management responsibilities. In return, their liability is limited to their respective capital contributions to the partnership. The general partner has unlimited liability.

Limited Liability Partnerships
A relatively new form of business organization is the registered limited liability partnership -- the LLP (not to be confused with either the limited partnership or the limited liability company). Partners in an LLP have less liability than partners in a general partnership. LLP partners are not liable for the negligence of their partners, but are still personally liable for their own negligence.

Corporations

A corporation is a separate legal entity owned by one or more shareholders. The shareholders have "limited liability". The shareholders elect directors who have overall responsibility for the management of the corporation.
• "C" Corporations. Regular "C" corporations are formed to gain "limited liability" for the shareholders, and in some cases, to gain an advantage in deducting fringe benefits for the employees.
• "S" Corporations. "S" corporations are most often used by service oriented businesses, which want the "limited liability" feature of the corporation, but do not want the tax consequences of a "C" corporation. These owners want to pay dividends to themselves, because significant amounts of corporate income are not needed for capital needs such as inventory and equipment. The special "S" election allows the owners to pay the dividends without paying the "double tax" problem that occurs when dividends are paid out of a regular "C" corporation.

Limited Liability Companies

1. A limited liability company -- the LLC -- is a form of business entity which combines the "limited liability" feature of a corporation with the often desired tax consequences of a partnership.
The LLC form of business entity is used primarily by small businesses that want:
2. limited liability
3. the tax benefits of a partnership, and
4. freedom from specialized tax rules that govern "S" corporations.


In Conclusion, Ask yourself the following questions before deciding what type of business entity you want to create are:
• Will you pay yourself on a regular basis, or on a draw (i.e. as you need it, and as the business has money to pay you)? In other words, will you become a regular employee of the business?
• Will you have other employees?
• Do you currently have health insurance through your normal employer, or a spouse?
• Do you plan on having other people own stock in your venture?
• What tax bracket are you in personally?
• Does the state you reside in not have a personal income tax?
• Are you planning on being a consultant or contractor?
• Will you have just one client or many?
• Do you plan on moving to a different state any time soon?
• Will you be spending significant resources developing products?

Once you've answered these questions, consult experts - in particular a lawyer specializing in setting up companies, and your accountant. This post was written just to give you an idea or an overview of the various types of business entities.