Executive Summary
How would you survive if every emotion you had, everything you loved and wanted in your life, was considered evil? That is the struggle Joanie Callahan faces in God’s Glass.
Who Are We?
Sameer Ketkar graduated from USC's film school in 2003, and has written one feature film, the thriller Backwaters. Benji Bakshi is an award-winning cinematographer and filmmaker. Benji was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the opening title sequence of CBS's Elementary, and has photographed over a dozen feature films including Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99. Sameer and Benji will hereafter be referred to as "the Company."
The Project
God’s Glass is a fictional biography chronicling the struggles a masochist faces growing up in a fundamentalist religious household. Protagonist Joanie Callahan is isolated and ostracized all her life until she meets her soul mate, a boxer named Michael. God’s Glass is a $5 million feature film. Its screenplay was a quarterfinalist in the 2018 Scriptapalooza competition.
The Market
The worldwide film industry grossed $36 billion in 2014, including $1.5 billion for independent films. Annual pay TV revenue tops $220 billion worldwide. This means consumers thirst for fresh, new content, and that a market exists for films as weird as Best Picture-winner Birdman, films as steeped in masochism as Fifty Shades of Grey, and everything in between.
Marketing Strategy
Our marketing strategy is to use traditional and viral ads to target two audience groups:
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Romance novel/S&M fans: Using S&M imagery that evokes Fifty Shades of Grey, a film whose box office success shows the public’s willingness to accept S&M stories, we will appeal to the audience’s subversive side, their experimental and diabolical side.
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Arthouse fans: Using imagery of past taboos such as interracial love and homosexual love that are now accepted, we will appeal to arthouse fans by focusing on today’s taboo — unconventional love — and show how unconventional love is beautiful.
Distribution Strategy
To maximize word of mouth, the Company will open God’s Glass in European film festivals — a market traditionally receptive towards edgy films — and expand to North American festivals as buzz builds. Accompanied by our viral ad campaign, hashtag #GodsGlass, we will release the film in European theaters first, followed by North America when we reach peak publicity. We will follow the theatrical run with a same-day digital distribution blitz across all platforms — on-demand, streaming, and pay TV. Blu-ray and DVD will be the final stage of the release.
Investment Opportunity
The Company seeks $5 million to produce God’s Glass. Using conservative revenue projections, the Company projects a total gross revenue of $30.75 million for theatrical, TV, digital, and disc releases over three years for God’s Glass. After subtracting $7.33 million in studio distribution fees, $6.08 million for the theatrical exhibitor, $3.06 million for disc distribution fees, $2.13 million for TV/streaming fees, $3 million for prints and advertisements, and $5 million for the production budget, we project a net profit of $4.16 million.