TRUE INDIE: Spotlight on Film in Georgia with Jon Gosier, CEO of Southbox Entertainment and FilmHedge

These days, Georgia is known for much more than peaches and pecan pie. The Peach State has become the number one global hub for television and film production, outpacing California, New York, the UK, Canada, and other major markets, contributing $4 billion dollars each year to the state’s economy. New and innovative studios are consistently popping up, major talent agencies are opening branches in Atlanta, and even some high-profile celebrities have relocated to the state.

When thinking of production in Georgia, however, most people think of Marvel movies and major TV shows, like The Walking Dead. But what about the indie scene?

You’ve built up an impressive resume of credits both as a film financier and as an independent filmmaker. How did you get your start? What prompted you to base your operations out of Atlanta?

I grew up in Atlanta, and attended Savannah College of Art and Design (in Savannah), so it’s home. After a brief stint in the entertainment industry in my 20’s,
I moved away, living in different locations around the world.

I moved back to Atlanta in 2018 after selling a tech startup I founded in Philadelphia for a large payout. At the time, I was considering moving to Los Angeles instead of Atlanta because I knew I wanted to go into film finance. I thought about the fact that Los Angeles and Hollywood have been the center of American Film and TV for, like, 100 years. Everything there is established and already at (or past) its peak.

When I looked at Atlanta, I saw a city that had ZERO influence in the industry when I was in college only to rise to dominate the industry 15 years later, overtaking New York and L.A. (combined) in a number of annual Film & TV productions.

The two things Atlanta has that L.A. doesn’t have are momentum and growth. So, I chose to move back to Atlanta.

Over the past decade, Georgia has become a powerhouse in the film industry, making it the #1 destination for film and television production in the world. Can you elaborate on why Georgia has become “Hollywood South,” and what benefits filmmakers receive here that make Georgia such an attractive filming location?

It’s interesting. Most people would say the 30% state tax incentives are what brought film and TV producers to Atlanta. I agree that’s a big part of it, but that’s not the whole story.

Georgia is a right-to-work state, which makes working with below-the-line talent cheaper and less cumbersome than in California. The cost of living in Georgia is a fraction of what it is in Los Angeles: rents are lower, homes are cheaper, wages are lower, and taxes are lower. There’s also just generally less regulation on Film and TV productions.

When you add all that up, the cost of making a movie in Georgia is, like, a fifth of the cost the same production would be in L.A. On top of that, we’ve got one of the world’s busiest international airports, a thriving financial sector, other media like the music industry, and a burgeoning tech scene – all of which benefit Film and TV productions.

You have a unique perspective on independent film, coming from not only the creative side as a writer, director, and producer, but also the business side as an executive producer/financier. What would you say are the biggest challenges facing independent filmmaking today, from both the creative side and the financing side?

The biggest challenge is knowledge. People just don’t know enough about how the contemporary film finance industry works. I think the best thing an independent filmmaker can do to help themselves is get educated on how sales agents and distributors work.

Those are the first audience of your film. You need to understand that audience as much as you need to understand the wider audience of streamers and theatergoers who you hope will eventually see your film.

Historically, the film financing process seems to have been to get a deal from a studio, take a loan from a bank, or find wealthy investors to fund your film (or a combination of all three). How does your company, FilmHedge, do things differently?

First, we change things for investors.

These are people who want to invest in TV and Film, but who may not have access to deals, and certainly not the A-list productions that don’t get shared with the public. We get some of those deals because we also don’t share them or list them publicly. Our investors just get access through us.

Our platform allows these individual accredited investors to sit alongside institutional investors (banks, hedge funds, and private equity), to earn money from short-term, high-yield loans to Hollywood. In other words, we open up media lending to millions of new financiers, giving them access to our historic 15-27% returns, and 0.01% default rates.

There are 13 million accredited investors in the United States who control $73 trillion dollars amongst them. By allowing these individuals to access independently financed Film/TV deals that were previously unavailable, we’re on a mission to not just change the way money flows through Hollywood, but drastically to grow the amount of capital available!

Investors interested in lending with us can join the waitlist at http://mediahedge.com

Second, we make things easier for borrowers (TV and Film Producers).

The strategy of looking for as many random rich people as possible to fund your film is inefficient and inconsistent, and studio deals are largely possible only if you have a pre-existing relationship.

FilmHedge offers an alternative, private credit platform accessible to any Producer in the industry, whether established or upcoming. Our financing is an alternative to, or can be combined with, bank, production company, and studio financing.

Our decisions are made based on corporate paper—like State tax credits, Pre-sale agreements, and Distribution agreements, which all act like collateral for us as a lender. Each of these can be secured before Film or TV series goes into production allowing us to finance them.

What’s empowering about this model is that any producer can go out and get these deals. If they choose to go this route, we’re a finance solution.

How did NANDOR FODOR AND THE TALKING MONGOOSE (starring Simon Pegg, Minnie Driver, Christopher Lloyd, and Neil Gaiman) come across your desk?

The producers applied on the website – http://filmhedge.com. Any filmmaker can submit there. Or via Email. Or Instagram. Or Text Message. Or carrier pigeon.

These days the Production team behind 'Nandor Fodor' often messages me on WhatsApp to run upcoming productions by us. We also happened to know their entertainment attorney. (Another way a lot of projects come to us is through their attorneys.) So, however you can get in touch, our door is open.

Don’t actually send us carrier pigeons, though!

Please tell us about your latest film that you’re writing, directing, and producing: COLLATERAL DATA. What inspired you to write the story, and where are you in the production process?

COLLATERAL DATA is currently in pre-production in Atlanta, GA, by Southbox Entertainment. We were supposed to shoot in June, but we rescheduled the shooting dates in solidarity with the strikes.

The film is a thrilling true story of an elite group of Kenyan hackers who use cell phone technology and homegrown software to save lives during the most horrific catastrophes of the past decade.

I adapted the screenplay from my memoir, CODE SWITCH, which is partly about my time living and working across Africa with the people whose lives the film dramatizes.

I’m really grateful for the support we’ve received from the folks at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) who offered their world-class XR volume and sound stage to the production.

What lessons have you learned in your filmmaking journey, and what advice would you give aspiring independent filmmakers and/or financiers just starting out in the industry?

When I started my company, FilmHedge, people told me it wasn’t possible to change the way finance works in Hollywood at all. Yet, no one could ever explain why it couldn’t be done.

When I explained what I wanted to do, they never tried to poke holes in the logic of what I was proposing. They just said it wouldn’t work. They just accepted and internalized that nothing could be done differently.

Three years later, FilmHedge is the fastest-growing lender to Hollywood, and we’re the only fintech company in the space. We finance Film and TV with up to $20 million per production.

The point is, whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish, the answers for how to reach your goal are yours and yours alone to discover. This applies to building a fintech company like FilmHedge, producing films, and anything else you might be working on.

If a person hasn’t taken the time to understand a problem, their opinions won’t matter when it comes to the viability of a solution. People are often blinded by their own limitations, their own failures, or their lack of imagination.

What ‘that can’t be done’ really means is ‘I don’t understand what’s possible’.