Speaker 1: Film Courage Why do you say movies are like real estate?

Speaker 2: Edgardo Because movies are property. Movies are intellectual property. And let's take a simple idea. Let's take a house, it costs you $100,000, right? Might not be able to get a $100,000 house here, but let's take a house that costs $100,000 and you take a movie that costs $100,000, right? So both of these properties, one is a physical property. Both are physical, but one is 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 either to, either you're going to flip this property, and you're going to just sell it. You buy it for $100,000, put $50,000 into it, sell it for $300,000, same thing with the movie. Either you're going to make the movie, $100,000, sell it for $300,000, 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. I'm sure there's other terms. And in the film world, 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, excuse me, my 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, or a formula, whatever you want to call it, 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 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?

Speaker 1: Film Courage Are there buyer and seller markets for films? You know, how ups and downs in the real estate market, whether commercial or residential, are there peaks and valleys for selling films?

Speaker 2: I don't think that the peaks and valleys for selling films are probably as bad as real estate because entertainment, you know, everybody wants to be entertained. I mean, you're going to always be able to sell a movie 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 part of the business, it differs because there are two different industries, two different regulatory situations and whatnot.

Speaker 1: Film Courage Does money really matter? I mean, isn't telling the story the most important thing when it comes to a film?

Speaker 2: Yes. Well, I mean, that right there is a question for each individual because it depends on, you know, 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. 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 wear on set that a lot of people wouldn't understand, particularly the actors and sometimes other crew members, because as an 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 gets paid. So the only person that's going to take that loss is you. Now of course, creatively, an artist wants to, an actor, an actress, they want to be a part of a product that is successful. Of course. You know, especially if it's someone who has a lot of skin in the game, they got a nice portfolio of 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 map your situation out the right way, who knows? You might not be making one for a while, right? So I think that you have to find that spot, that central spot to figure out how to find that balance. How do I tell a great quality film 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 of a budget, how do you not compromise the quality of that film?

Speaker 1: Film Courage What is mailbox money?

Speaker 2: Mailbox money is money that you have coming in that you've set up to just flow. That's residuals. That's you having a catalog of movies and these films making you money every day in your sleep. If you think about it, any film that you have out there, it's somebody right there watching. Somebody is around here somewhere right now watching all my movies. 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 5, 6, 7, 10 years later and it's still generating money. That's mailbox money.

Speaker 1: Film Courage Ramone, who taught you about business?

Speaker 2: Ramone Well I learned about business early on from my dad. He used to ask me when I was a kid, he used to ask me, what do you want to be when you grow up? And I'd be like, you know 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 his dad, it was just the way he carried himself. I always understood that my dad was a very calculated person who was business savvy just by the way he conducted himself. And 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, 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 putting myself out there. So I would say ultimately the teacher of it is it would be me, just getting out there and figuring it out.

Speaker 1: Film Courage Has your dad gone to screenings of your films?

Speaker 2: Actually, my dad invests in me and him partnering up on a bunch of my projects. So his company is Milmax Films and I'm Swift Motion Pictures. So he's been supportive since the beginning and I'm glad that we're able to now do some business together.