Sarah DillonProduction and Development Co-ordinator
IFB Funding Programmes / Production /Procedures: Aims & Practice |
Note: procedures for the consideration of short films, Catalyst Project, and Documenting the Arts applications are specific to those programmes and not dealt with directly here.
Production Funding – General Aims
The intention here is to encourage a somewhat different relationship between BSÉ/IFB and its applicants. The previous requirement to submit a project, with a comprehensive set of elements already in place, to an adjudication process – after which the sum of money applied for is either awarded or not – will be replaced by an invitation to producers to propose projects to BSÉ/IFB at an earlier stage and seek an in-principle commitment of support.
Where this is forthcoming, it will start a process of discussion between the producer and BSÉ/IFB as to the assembly of the film’s creative package and overall financing, with BSÉ/IFB executives ready to provide assistance in the film’s preparation to the extent appropriate and useful. In the best cases, where the film becomes fully financed and can be put into production, this process will have led to negotiation and confirmation of the amount and terms of BSÉ/IFB’s investment.
Where an in-principle commitment of support is not forthcoming from BSÉ/IFB, the producer, having expended less time and resources on preparation of the project so far, is in a better position to decide how next to proceed with it: whether to take BSÉ/IFB’s response to it into account and attempt to re-shape it with the aim of re-submitting it; or to move on and seek to finance it from other sources; or to abandon it in favour of other projects on his/her current development slate.
In either event, the aim of the procedure will be to foster a mature, interactive relationship between producers and BSÉ/IFB executives, based on dialogue and mutual respect between professionals. No system can be devised for the funding of creative work whereby measurement against a set of objective criteria leads to an incontrovertible positive or negative decision. In such an inexact science, best practice is likely to result where applicants recognise the inevitable part played by subjectivity in all decisions, and decision-makers accept their obligation to explain and defend a position.
The new procedure does not preclude producers from applying to BSÉ/IFB at a later stage, as hitherto, with most other elements in place, if they prefer.
Production Funding - New procedures in practice
- Before making a formal submission for most types of production funding, producers are asked to make informal contact with one of BSÉ/IFB’s Production team: the Chief Executive (Simon Perry) or one of the Production Executives (Emma Scott, Alan Maher). This will allow the executive to gather basic information about the project and give advice with regard to the prospective application – its timing, any further work needed, legal or other obstacles, etc. An application will not be accepted (i.e. logged in and processed) without this prior discussion having taken place.
- Applications can be made at any time throughout the year. Application forms should be used: the form requests basic information on the project (title, previous history with BSÉ/IFB if any), contact details of the production company and principal creative personnel (producer, director, writer) and a declaration and signature. It also lists additional materials that should be submitted, relating to the content and scale of the project (e,g, screenplay, CVs, budget information, etc) These vary depending on the type of funding applied for and in every case are essential to the consideration process. This is all that is required at this stage. Where a project receives an in-principle commitment of support (“provisional approval”) further documents will be required in due course by BSÉ/IFB’s Legal & Business Affairs team.
- Each application will be logged in by the Applications Coordinator (Jill McGregor) and will be assigned to one of the three members of the Production team (see above) by agreement among them. Further discussion of the project may then take place between the producer and the executive handling it; in any event the screenplay will be read, and the elements of the project assessed, by members of the Project Group, as next described.
- Funding decisions are no longer taken by a Production Panel (which consisted of certain BSÉ/IFB executives, together with a BSÉ/IFB board member and an ‘external’, different on each occasion) but by a Project Group comprising all members of BSÉ/IFB Production and Development teams, members of the Legal & Business Affairs team and, on an ad hoc basis, consultants drawn from a small pool of non-BSÉ/IFB professionals retained for their specific skills. Each submission will have been given in-depth consideration by individual members of the Project Group. Meetings of the Project Group are held monthly, video-conferenced between Galway and Dublin if necessary, and more frequently when the volume of submissions is unusually high.
- Positive decisions by the Project Group will be expressed as provisional approvals which will then require formal endorsement by the Board of BSÉ/IFB and thereafter be communicated to applicants. Endorsement is generally sought from the Board by email following a meeting of the Project Group and, if forthcoming, communicated to applicants within one week.
- BSÉ/IFB will not normally quantify its financial commitment to a project when giving a provisional approval unless this is insisted upon by the producer, in which case an ‘up to’ figure may be specified. As a general rule, the exact amount of BSÉ/IFB’s investment will be determined in the course of subsequent negotiations between the producer, BSÉ/IFB and other financiers, the objective being for BSÉ/IFB to provide the minimum level of funding needed to enable production to proceed as planned (see section on Additionality elsewhere).
- Provisional approval of a project by BSÉ/IFB signifies sufficient commitment to enable a producer to represent to other prospective financiers that the project has the full support of the national agency subject to BSÉ/IFB’s statutory funding constraints and negotiation of the terms of its investment. Once provisional approval has been given, BSÉ/IFB is effectively ‘on board’ and negotiations by its Legal & Business Affairs team will start in earnest, in parallel with monitoring by BSÉ/IFB’s Production Executives of the project’s creative and practical progress towards production.
- BSÉ/IFB will give final approval to a project once the terms of its investment are agreed by all parties and the film is fully financed. Final approval, including the amount of funding to be provided by BSÉ/IFB, will also require ratification by the Board before contracts are signed.
- Following a negative decision by the Project Group, a project may be re-submitted to BSÉ/IFB only if significant, material changes have been made to the package, i.e. to the screenplay, to key creative elements such as casting, or to the production cost. All unsuccessful applications will be notified to the Board.
- A project will be considered for production funding by BSÉ/IFB only if:
- the application is made by a bona fide producer with a production company established in Ireland or another state of the European Union; and
- there is a director committed to making the film.
- The procedure described so far is used to assess applications on behalf of documentaries, animation and TV fiction as well as features, with certain small variations to take account of the nature of the material being considered. The application form for documentaries does not refer to a screenplay or cast, for example, but to a detailed outline of the content of the film. Animation projects will continue to benefit from additional consideration by non-BSÉ/IFB consultants with specialist knowledge of the field. Applications for completion funding continue to be considered – on a yes-or-no basis, with no provisional approval stage.
- It used to be the practice for all development funding applications on behalf of documentary and animation projects to be considered by the Production Panel (while all other development applications went through a Development Panel process). There have been two changes here. First, as a general rule BSÉ/IFB no longer provides development funding for documentaries as a stand-alone activity: in most cases, where a documentary proposal in outline is felt to be strong enough to deserve BSÉ/IFB support, an in-principle commitment to both development and production will be made. Subject to basic legal requirements being met, the aim will be for BSÉ/IFB to start ‘drip-feed’ funding of the project as research and other preparatory work get underway, until the necessary co-finance is in place and full production can start. Second, certain animation projects may benefit from being handled in the same way, where the most effective way to develop characters and visuals is to start a process of pilot production which, if successful, can lead directly into full-scale production. But where, on the other hand, development of an animation project also requires intensive screenplay work, BSÉ/IFB is likely to suggest it should be submitted under the development funding procedures described above.
