Meet Brian Newman, CEO of Sub-Genre Media
🎭 Pro Spotlight: Brian Newman is a guru for filmmakers, producers, distributors and branded content creators from around the world.
Reading a story about Red Bull financing a four-part series on extreme skiers for Amazon Prime prompted me to ask a global expert in corporate-funded documentary films to explain how this unique form of financing works. This is my interview with Brian Newman, a New York-based producer and consultant.
Jane Applegate (JA): Please explain how your company helps corporate brands connect with filmmakers to produce films.
Brian Newman (BN): Sub-Genre Media is a small company with five employees and several contractors when needed. We are hired by major brands who want to make films. We help them figure out what kinds of films they should be making, based on their goals and target audience, and then we connect them to the best filmmakers to turn those ideas into a great story. Important to note: We don’t ever help filmmakers pitch brands. We also help distribute the films produced by brands, handling everything from film festivals, to booking theatrical releases globally, implementing impact campaigns and acting as a sales agent to Netflix, Apple, and other major streamers.
JA: Please share some titles of recent films funded by companies you work with.
BN: Films funded by our clients include: Odd Hours, No Pay, Cool Hat from John Deere; Frybread Face & Me from REI; Own The Room from Shopify; Dads from Unliever/Dove; Damnation from Patagonia. Films funded by companies that are not our clients: 5B from Johnson & Johnson; Strange Way of Life (Almodovar) from YSL; Barbie, promoted by Mattel.
JA: When did these corporate financing deals start getting made? Which companies were early adopters of this strategy?
BN: The most famous early examples were soap operas, or perhaps Willy Wonka being funded by Quaker Oats. Another big example was BMW funding The Hire back in 2001. Many people credit our client, Patagonia, for re-igniting the space with DamNation in 2014. Many outdoor brands were early adopters in this space, including Yeti Coolers (Sub-Genre consulted on the launch of their division), The North Face and REI (another Sub-Genre client). P&G and Unilever have been very active in this space.
JA: How does the financing actually work? Do the filmmakers draft a budget for review by the sponsor? Does the filmmaker still need to raise a portion of the production money from investors or grants?
BN: Most of the time, the brand fully finances the film. The filmmakers must present a budget range very early in the conversation and usually presents a budget top-sheet before a contract is signed.
Unlike in Hollywood where you hear of things going over budget, that almost never happens with brands – the approved budget is final and the filmmaker is contracted to deliver that film on budget.
In some case, the filmmaker has raised money from other sources and the brand contributes a portion of the budget – ranging from a small to a larger percentage. Usually, the brand funding is a sponsorship or donation and is non-recoupable, but there are a few brands who invest as equity and are in the recoupment waterfall with the producers and any other investors.
JA: What is a typical budget for one of these film projects?
BN: Shorts might be done for as low as $25K, but our clients routinely spend $75-150K for shorts. Feature documentary films are as low as $500K but usually average $1.5-2M. Most brand funded narrative features are under $5M, but this is changing and going higher. On bigger budget, especially narrative films, it is more common to see a brand be a partial funder alongside other film financiers, as REI does with their films (they typically finance up to 20% of a sub-$5M film).
JA: How much control do the companies have over the scripts or content?
BN. This varies as well. With Sub-Genre clients, we ensure they give the filmmakers complete creative control and final cut. This is also true with most brand funded films, and it is best for the brand as they look better if the filmmaker can say – this is a real movie, a brand funded it, but we had complete control.
Brands will often want to see the script, and rough cuts, and even give notes, but those notes are usually optional not things a filmmaker “must do.” But there are brands who want more control, and a filmmaker should be clear about this issue and have the level of brand involvement and filmmaker’s level of final cut and creative control in writing in their contract.
JA: Are these collaborative films distributed through traditional channels? Do they ever get a theatrical release?
BN: Almost all of Sub-Genre’s client projects have premiered at major film festivals (every major festival including Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, CPH: Dox; Hot Docs; SXSW, Tribeca, etc.) The films have opened theatrically and sold to every major streamer, including Apple, Disney+/NatGeo; Netflix; Hulu; etc.
If a film is good it doesn’t matter if a brand was involved. The only exception are global public broadcasters (PBS, Channel 4; Arte, etc.) whose mandate is not to accept films with direct corporate funding. There are exceptions – we are distributing John Deere’s film on public broadcasting in the US, but this is very rare and it doesn’t often work for other films intended for PBS or other public broadcasting outlets
JA: Are there on-screen disclaimers about the corporate support?
BN: They often say BRAND Presents or Presented by BRAND in the front of the film. At minimum, the companies are almost always prominently listed in the end credits.
JA: How can a filmmaker connect with a corporate investor?
BN: This is very hard, and is just as hard or harder than connecting with a foundation program officer or an investor. I recommend reading the trades — Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, etc. and advertising magazines like Adweek, etc. — to look for articles about films funded by brands.
The stories usually name the person who approved the project at the brand, who you might find on LinkedIn and then easily find their email elsewhere. You can also find the names of the producers and production companies who made these films, and approach them about being a co-producer or executive producer. It is best to be introduced by someone who knows the brand, but I’ve seen cold calls work with nearly every client.
JA: Any suggestions for filmmakers about what topics work for this type of funding?
BN: Mainly documentary films. Brands are funding these based on their corporate values – look at their website and it usually has a “who we are” or “corporate social responsibility” page, which talks about what they care about and where they make donations.
Brands do care about big issues, but usually won’t finance very controversial subjects – gun violence or issues related to political elections, for example. Most brands want the films they finance to be seen by a big audience, which means streaming, which also means they know that streamers want big topics too: celebrity, true crime, rock docs, hot of the moment topics, and very commercial subjects, or films that might win awards. It is a tough environment right now for the most serious social issue films.
The Showbizing team strongly suggests you subscribe to Brian Newman’s enlighting weekly newsletter on the innovations and challenges within contemporary film production, distribution, branded filmmaking and streaming.
