Filmmaking is a business--someone has to pay the bills. For much of the
industry's history, that role was shouldered by the studios. The rise of
independent filmmakers then led to the rise of independent financiers.
But what happens if bad weather closes down a production or a director's
vision pays no heed to the limitations of time and money?
Enter Film Finances. The company was founded in London in 1950 to insure
against the risk that a film would exceed its original budget or not be
completed on time. Its pioneering development of the "completion
guarantee"--the financial instrument that provides the essential
security for investors to support independent filmmaking--ultimately led
to the creation of many thousands of films, including some of the most
celebrated ever made: Moulin Rouge (1953), Dr. No (1962), The
Outsiders (1982), Pulp Fiction (1994), Slumdog Millionaire (2008),
La La Land (2016), and more.
Film Finances's role in filmmaking was little known outside the industry
until 2012, when it opened its historical archive to scholars. Drawing
on these previously private documents as well as interviews with its
executives, Making Hollywood Happen tells the company's story through
seven decades of postwar cinema history and chronicles the growth of the
international independent film industry. Focusing on a business that has
operated at the meeting point between money and art for more than
seventy years, this lavishly illustrated book goes to the heart of how
the movie business works.
