Welcome to BigScreenBiz.com

I recently had to send in a new guarantee letter to one of the studios. They wanted my latest financial statement attached. I refused to send them one as that seems a little too personal. They can run a credit check and find out if I pay my bills. That's all they need to know. How did the rest of you handle that?

Many studios are updating their records and sending out new paperwork,even to long-time customers.I suggest to my clients that they fill them out and send them in,but give as little info as possible.All the personal crap(real estate,cars,savings accounts,etc)they don't need to know,and I've never had a client rejected,as long as he signs the stuff,has it notarized if necessary,and of course passes the routine credit check.even if his credit report is shaky,there are several ways around it.

We did the same thing, we crossed off the personal finacial statement part, signed it and sent it right back.

As far as the credit application goes, I throw most of them away. I always pay my film bills under 30 days. Actually, most of the time I pay under 10 days, and have been doing that for over 30 years. If I don't have good credit by now, I never will.

If they really insist that I return them, I only fill out the general information and where they ask for credit references I put down their name, and note 30 plus years of ontime payments. So far that has always worked.

The guarantee letters I'll send back if they ask for them, but I have found that most of the time if I ignore them, they seem to forget about them. I have no problem with the guarantee letters since I always pay my bills anyway, and if something happened to business that I was unable to pay the bills from the theatres income I'd just have to close and pay off the outstanding bills from selling the real estate.

Roxy said:
"If they really insist that I return them, I only fill out the general information and where they ask for credit references I put down their name, and note 30 plus years of ontime payments."

I love it!!!!!!!!

[This message has been edited by BurneyFalls (edited August 13, 2002).]

Of course, just because you've filled the crap out and sent it back doesn't mean the studio knows what it has done with it. I got a call from Sony today asking for personal guarantee letters from Ian and I. I called back and left a message that we'd signed them and returned them. An hour later I got a call back saying that the person had "dug in the file a little further" and he found our personal guarantee letters. Why didn't he just look through the damn file in the first place. Geez.

As for the financial statement crap that a certain studio tried to pull, on the advice of my booker, I called a high ranking person at SPR and said that as a privately held company I didn't believe it was appropriate to provide that info. The person I spoke with waived that requirement for us.

So far we have been able to ignore them and nothing has happened to us. We feel that we signed every contract and guarantee when we went into business. Our credit speaks for itself as we have been paying faithfully everyone for 6 years. While I don't mind signing a guarantee letter for them if I haven't already, I refuse to give them the incredibly personal information they are now asking for. I nearly blew my top when they wanted to know where I work outside the theater, how much I make and how long I have worked there. NONE OF THEIR ********** BUSINESS!!! We all know that if we don't pay our bills we can't book movies. I think that the bankruptcies of the big chains are the real cause of this and that we small independents are made to suffer for their irresponsible decisions.

The studio in question is the only one who currently wants an advance from me. I questioned my rep on it a couple weeks ago and she said she would check into it. She called me back and said I hadn't returned the latest guarantee letter. I told her I hadn't sent it in because they wanted a financial statement and I felt that was personal information they had no right to know. I told her I would gladly send in the guarantee without the statement, which I have since done. I am now waiting to see if I have to continue to pay advances to them. I have always paid on the Monday following my showing. No late payments. No notices. No shortages. I just pack up most of my hard earned cash and hand it over to them with a smile, hoping my payment history will be my wild card when there is a choice of who will get the next blockbuster.

I smell Sony here - they are the most prolific on the new contracts/guarantee letters AND the only ones that seem to be requesting advances. When I have questioned my booker on this they tell me that big blockbuster films always require an advance just because they can get it. Since our situation is competitive - we better pay or else. Now I am wondering why they need a new guarantee every year?

Sony it is; at least this time.

I think this is personnal information and studios have no right to know your private company finances.

I think you've all done the right thing though.

---

"Would you like fries with that?"

When you get these things it can irritate. My advice/ stay cool and do a partial fill out and ignore the rest. Anytime they ask for a guarantee I make a stink as a general rule so they don't get to think it's easy. However: if I'm square and they have Star Wars or Mssr. Potter and want 5,000.00 that I'll have back in 6 days? If it makes them happier: sure. The ridiculous thing as all have written: they forget they asked for them, that they received them, that you didn't fill it all in doesn't matter (so why ask?, etc. etc. I always use a demanded guarantee as a Bitchy Point whenever we chat to remind them "why dids you ask for that?"

---

Got a message on my recorder from Sony yesterday saying I no longer had to pay advances!

In Pennsylvania, the Feature Motion Picture Fair Trade Practices Act prohibits a studio from requiring any upfront guarantees or advances whatsoever for the licensing of motion pictures.

In the sixteen years that this statute has been in effect in Pennsylvania I haven't heard of anyone having any problems getting service or product.

The next time you are asked for an advance or a guarantee I would contest the necssity therefor.