Business & Legal – Motion Picture Financing Seminar

WHAT EVERY FILMMAKER NEEDS TO KNOW: THE BUSINESS AND LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE FILMMAKING PROCESS, FROM RIGHTS, FINANCING AND PRODUCTION TO DISTRIBUTION.

Learn from top industry players who work in the trenches every day. This seminar will give attendees in-depth insight into navigating the business and legal aspects of filmmaking, from acquisition of rights to structuring deals for financing, fromdeal structure for actors, to distribution. Each panelist will share their experience to help the indie filmmaker steer through this all-important aspect of the process. Afterwards, the panel will open to questions from the audience.

Moderator: Laura Caulfield, President, Entertainment Solutions
Panalists:
Joy Gohring, Director, Producer, Comedian, Financer
Elizabeth Bell, Producer, Attorney, Financer

Saturday- November 2, 2019
10 am
Ojai Art Center Gallery

Laura Caulfield
President, Entertainment Solutions and producer

After a distinguished career of 20+ years in which she worked both in front and behind the camera with positions at New Line Cinema, O’Melveny & Myers and Paramount Pictures, Laura launched Entertainment Solutions where she serves major independent producers, financers, and production companies in the business and legal aspects of the motion picture industry.

Her clients include: Annapurna, STX Entertainment, Imperative Entertainment, and United Artists. She handles everything from corporate formation, equity finance transactions, development, and production, including structuring deals, drafting rights, actor, director, producer agreements, and manages all production legal matters, including worldwide delivery to distributors as well as marketing and co-promotion agreements. Some of the projects she has provided entertainment solutions for include: All the Money in the World (Director Ridley Scott), The Wolf of Wall Street (Director Martin Scorsese), Phantom Thread (Director, Paul Thomas Anderson) Bad Moms and Bad Moms 2 (STX Entertainment, Lucas & Moore).

Laura began her career as an independent producer where she developed projects, raised equity financing and handled all physical production matters, including delivery to distributors

Joy Gohring
Actress, Comedian, Writer, Director and Producer

Joy Gohring is a stand-up comedian, touring the comedy circuit internationally with appearances at festivals, including SXSW, Just for Laughs, and Edinburgh Fringe. Her comedic sensibility has been made into commercials, stage plays, television shows and web series.

Joy writes and directs commercials for such advertising powerhouses as Yum! Brands, 72andSunny and Shareability and was Head of Production for Givit Studios, a social media ad agency, from Jan 2017-Jan 2019. She is currently attached to direct the comedy feature, Mary Lynn Has a Baby, starring Mary Lynn Rajskub from 24, and the comedy thriller Ankle Biter written by Andy Jones (Always Sunny…).

Joy is an alumnus of AFI’s prestigious “Directing Workshop for Women.” Her short 18, starring Portia Doubleday (Mr. Robot) premiered at the Austin Film Festival where she received acclaim as an “Audience Award Finalist” and was featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 Filmmakers to Watch.” In 2016, Joy helped finance and produce the feature Play Nice for Hulu. She has directed 13 episodes of James Franco’s Undergrads: South about aspiring student filmmakers (SXSW 2012), 6 Episodes of Date-a-Human about illegal (space) alien immigration and dozens of FunnyorDie.com projects.

Joy coaches actors and teaches directing at Aquila-Morong Studios in Los Angeles. She had an extensive career as an actress, including playing the lead character of “Jane” on the TV series, Good Girls Don’t… for the Oxygen Network. Currently, Joy is developing a slate of television and film projects to produce. Her extensive relationships with high net worth individuals and the Texas Film Community has led her to raise equity financing for independent projects and broker co-financing deals.

Elizabeth Bell
Attorney, producer, financer

Elizabeth Bell is the founder of Elbe Law where she develops projects and handles packaging of finance, production and distribution transactions for numerous motion pictures, television and new media programs. She is currently developing a Native American film fund and crew fellowship program for film and television projects.

Elizabeth has financed and produced numerous films, including most recently Shock and Awe and LBJ (Director, Rob Reiner) and Wind River (Director, Taylor Sheridan). She also provides Native American consultation and legal services for the Yellowstone television series.

She previously served as General Counsel at the Yari Film Group where she managed the company’s business and legal affairs, handled development, financing, production and delivery of a variety of films, including domestic and international sales and output deals with major studios.

Prior to that she served as the Senior Advisor and Counselor to the Secretary of Indian Affairs in Washington D.C. where she represented Indian Tribes on a wide range of issues impacting indigenous rights, including economic development and policy.

Elizabeth earned her Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University and her Bachelor of Science from University of Vermont where she graduated cum laude. She is a member of the State Bar of California and Beverly Hills Bar Association and does pro-bono legal work for the California Innocence Project.