I met Thomas Trenker when he did his film financing presentation at the San Francisco Indie Club July 16th meeting. Thomas showed compeling data in Excel graphs of film budgets to profit ratios garnered from films made from the present to the eary 1980. What I found eye opening was the conclusion from the graphs that the highest return is from low budget PG films. If I recall correctly, PG film budgeted at 10 million or less. Thomas Trenker and his associates hed up the Institute for Internationl Film Financing. Three days later Thomas and his group did a presentation to a standing room audience at the Film Arts Foundation.
Last Friday, Sept 9th, the San Jose Mercury reported on Thomas film angel work in the article Valley backers playing angel to indie films. Article excerpt:
Art and commerce will converge tonight at the Silicon Valley Capital Club in San Jose for the first FilmAngels Meeting and Dinner. Five projects at various stages of development, including a Stephen King horror film being developed by Steve Wozniak, will be pitched to a roomful of accredited investors. Entry fee: a “suggested donation” of $150.
Besides the Wozniak project (“Gotham Café”), filmmakers from San Jose and points north will pitch: “Skin City,” a documentary on the new Las Vegas; “Two Moon,” a drama about a teenager battling a hometown casino; “Quality of Life,” a completed drama about graffiti artists; and “Becoming Buddha,” a fantasy-biopic by Marin’s Ron Fricke (“Koyaanisqatsi”).