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Slingshot Aims to Produce Next Generation of Brit Indie Films

 

slingshotAn all-digital independent film production and distribution company, Slingshot,  has been formed to offer British film-makers an environment in which to make innovative and critically acclaimed pictures that might not otherwise make it to the big screen.

 

The new company, Slingshot, has been founded by Arvind Ethan David, Rachel Connors and Thomas Hoegh. Based in the Ealing Studios, the company will finance, produce, distribute and market a diverse slate of 10 low-budget feature films over the next three years, exploiting digital technology to revolutionise all aspects of film development and production.

Slingshot has secured financing from venture capitalists Arts Alliance Productions and the Creative Capital Fund, both of whom are specialist investors in the media sector.

" We want to be held accountable for finding and serving the audience for our films "

Slingshot's financial structure is a unique profit share production finance model stemming from its belief in aligning interests between talent, audiences and investors. For reduced initial fees, creative and technical professionals receive a percentage of producer's gross participation. This alignment of incentives reduces risk for all parties as well as ensuring that all receive financial reward from successful films.

Slingshot plans to majority finance its films, keeping budgets low and at a level that the market can support. Furthermore, slingshot is leveraging all that digital technology is doing to radicalise the film industry. In production shooting will be exclusively HD and post-production will be in an all digital environment.

Distribution will be within the digital screen network and will also push the envelope on Video on Demand (VOD.)  Marketing will embrace the internet as the most effective way to bring audience and talent into a relationship with each other. Investors should benefit from a more rational initial investment in production followed by a more systematic exploitation of the company's films as assets.

The new model has already attracted a diverse and impressive range of talent including Aschlin Ditta, co-creator of 'The Catherine Tate Show', director Vito Rocco (Suburban Shootout) and producer Matthew Justice (Blade, The Russian Dolls).

Slingshot's first feature is set to shoot late summer 2006 with a second shoot slated for autumn 2006.

Slingshot's co-founder and managing director Arvind Ethan David said:.

"We will explicitly use the freedoms afforded by the digital revolution up and down the value chain to make better films and deliver them more efficiently. We want to be creatively and commercially responsible for the films we make. We want to be held accountable for finding and serving the audience for our films. By producing and self distributing our films we are making that our challenge."