JH: That's great. I'm glad you cleared that up, as a I know a lof of folks might have been concerned about that.
Now, this would also relate to a question on how Media Moghul finances itself. As I perused the site, it looks like you charge a 5.15% listing fee for each point sold. Is that correct? Now, suppose person who lists an IP is unable to sell enough IP points and must return the money people invested, do they still owe the initial 5.15% fee per point initially sold to your service? Additionally, are there any other fees that our readers need to know about?
BG: Well, it wouldn’t really be fair for us to keep our fee if the person had to give the money back, would it? So we don’t do it. If a person lists and is unable to sell enough IP, and they then return all the money, Media Moghul also refunds its fees. So the person listing the item has not lost anything. The only exception to this is that if they hired a lawyer, the lawyer is unlikely to refund their fees! (In case you were wondering.) But the lawyers fees should be fairly low, and the lawyers work can then be very useful for other purposes. (And yes, Media Moghul charges a 5.15% listing fee on points sold.)
JH: That definitely removes nearly all of the financial risk to both filmmakers and purchasers, which makes your service very attractive to most low budget filmmakers. In fact, it almost seems like you've taken the Darren Aronofsky fund-raising approach for "π" to the masses, only without the cost of all those stamps or the large network of family memberrs required. (For readers unaware, Darren Aronofsky raised the money for his film, π, by sending out a mailing to family and friends promising producer credits and a portion of the filmmaking profits for π if they were willing to put in a hundred dollars. He ended up having $60,000 to start his film from their donations and he paid all of them back with profit when the film was purchased.)
Now, What are some things you’d like to see Media Moghul get involved in down the road? Something like this could easily let distributors see consumer demand on a project and working directly with MM might facilitate things for all involved. Any thoughts on working directly with distribution companies down the road?
A: We’ve established a good network of distributors, for filmmaker who have raised funding and made a film! We’re always looking to expand that, although it isn’t actually that difficult to find a distributor, once you have some money behind you! And yes, one of the big benefits of Media Moghul is that distributors and others can assess the public demand for the project BEFORE it is funded and made, which should give them a lot more confidence in the project. (The feedback from the public is also useful for the filmmaker listing on the site, because often it is difficult for the filmmaker to know exactly how good or bad their latest project is….
Thanks so much for allowing us to interview you, Bill! I’m sure we’d love to chat with you again down the road and see how things are going!
Thank you Jeremy for your interest in what we are doing - its been a real pleasure speaking with you.
Again, for any readers who would like to check out Bill's service, check it out at http://www.mediamoghul.com!
