1. Developing a small Business Polychromatic Productions Becs Edge

2. Polychromatic Productions I plan to create a production company, named Polychromatic Productions, this name, I believe speaks volumes for my company as Polychromatic means more than one colour (multicolored) which is what I want to portray. I am a diverse production company and am open to any new project and will shoot it in an original way, in which will be from an unbiased point of view especially when shooting documentaries. Even though I do a lot of outside projects, which I enjoy, I also direct my own scripts when I have time, this is my true passion as I follow the production from start to finish, and this gives me a huge sense of achievement.

3. Skills The skills I will need to fulfill my role in my production company are mainly to keep an open mind, the significance of this is that I will be open to more projects and broaden my portfolio and well as reinforce my business principles and image. This is important in relation to my business development as it will make my company expand alongside becoming more prominent and overall it will enable me to do more of my own projects. I need to be very self-motivated person as I am my own boss, and also need to sell myself, I need to therefore create styles and individualism. One of the most predominant characteristics of being a freelance filmmaker is to maintain your professionalism, just because you are working as your own boss does not mean that it should slip, business’s will want to work with people who maintain their image and I believe I do this whilst sustaining my independence. I have marketed my business well by just pushing it toward my target audience: graduates of film courses, by doing this it means I have fresh new faces for each project who have a new way of thinking, this is problematic as they do not have a lot of experience but I hope to provide that for them. My branding speaks volumes for what I’m trying to promote, first of all I want my projects to have a workshop feel, everyone should be rotating roles in order to gain more knowledge overall, my brand means multi-coloured and a variety and that is what I’m aiming for.

4. Resources The location is on Melrose Ave in LA, this is as it is this is the capital for making films and it will be a lot easier for me to gain my resources here, especially easier in any city. In my facility I will have 7D camera, which is perfect for filming and comes with a variety of lenses for all shots. I own multiple GoPro Hero3 cameras which are really useful in documentaries, especially with a bit of moving in, like sport or wildlife for instance. Not only do I own digital cameras but I also own a film camera, as I still believe in the creative process of this. I also have the required sound recording devices which are of a high standard, as well as this I additionally have all the main components, add on’s and extras to fulfil my job role expertly. I also have editing suits, sound booths, offices and a set lot. Even though most of the people I hire will be graduates I also have a set crew of four individuals which work with the camera and also sound. I also have a producer, because I write a lot of the scripts that my company goes on to produce, I find it majorly important to gain different opinions, especially as it is hard not to have a narrow overview on your own work. In my business I also have an accountant and myself as the production manager; By having a set of staff that continue to work there provides me with professional support.

5. Legal Status This company would be within a Partnership, as we allow Colleges and other film productions to invest into our business by keeping us up and running and therefore allowing the graduates to have a proper step from University to films, this in turn allows us to partner with Universities as they need this program too. In terms of a partnership, we are basically a sole trader with grants and other business’s helping us out as we will one day be self sufficient parallel to our growing films.

6. Legal Aspects Health and Safety- The health and safety within the business is of a high standard, the University students, however well trained, will have a mandatory lesson on how to use the equipment as the jobs will change around and they will need to learn about every aspect, there will also always be a fixed member of staff around to oversee. Insurance- The business is insured, and will have a specific kind of insurance for the students as they will come and go and will still need to be insured, alongside this all of our equipment and fixed staff are insured. Sources of Advice- We have an Accountant who takes care of all financial aspects and a Solicitor on call if necessary, however they aren’t needed very often.

7. Tax Business Tax is inevitable, however we will pay as we earn (Paye) which will make it run a lot more smoothly, it will suit our business well because we will have employees staying for a short period of time and then moving on, and we may not have the same amount of students each time, this therefore evades us paying extra when we don’t need to; this will also include VAT and National Insurance, which will all be taken care of by the resident Accountant and Solicitor.

8. Sources of Finance We intend to get grants of the universities and production companies as we are the go between and therefore know how valuable our business will be from both perspectives, therefore we need to develop a start up scheme, that will include location and equipment costs, however as we will be making films, we will gain an income from them and in the future we will aim to become self sufficient.

9. Financial Systems Our cash flow will constantly fluctuate, we will have some constant fixed costs, which will include the location, maintenance of equipment and fixed staff, however the variable costs will be bigger, including paying the students and the income of the movies we make, alongside the props needed to make them. The variable costs make it slightly difficult to predict overhead costs and such however this will be left to the Accountant, and we will keep records, including what films have the most gross income.

10. Credit Control The importance of credit control is key to a working business and we have taken all the necessary precautions to ensure our credit and cash flow is controlled, especially throughout the year as we may need to save money on an off season to allow for cuts. We realise as a business that being dependant on other sources of credit needs a certain amount of trust that has to be up-kept and we will do so, especially to sustain and conserve our reputation, as we know how difficult things can be with a bad credit history.

11. Business plan For the final part of this assignment, you must produce a fully detailed business plan explaining your idea and proposal for a small business start up within the creative media sector. You also need to prepare a PowerPoint presentation detailing your business proposal! Include images, video clips or links which you think support your idea and reasons why you’ve chosen it.