As to pay the investors first? One of my pet baby ideas is to treat the artists who work on the project as first tier investors. Let’s not ask them to defer, but to invest. Their time and talent is as valuable to me as an investor’s money — in fact it’s actually equivalent because if the investor gives me cash, I’m only going to use it to buy time and work from fellow artists.

I want to pay artists first.

“pay the investors first”.

We all have horror stories to tell regarding creative accounting. It’s time for that to stop. If we can demonstrate an accurate business model to investors then that is going to go a long way toward creating a great work environment. Investors want their money back (and rightfully so) and should be first in line followed by the producers, etc…If a solid track record of good business accounting can be established as opposed to the creative accounting of the entertainment industry, we’ll be able to flourish. Already online portals are ramping up ad venues in their video - pre-roll ads, embedded ads, post rolls, and others. People are looking for and refining the income opportunities.

But what good is it if the financials aren’t there to back up the vision?