In film, the F-word is Finance and it can cause even the most hardened producers to cry themselves to sleep at night. Kevin Menton's new company, Hibernia Films, wants to change all that - Roll on a good night's sleep. Gary Quinn reports.
In 1976 Kevin Menton was training in the banking sector. Back then, a year spent working for the Morgan Guaranty Bank in New York gave him horizons which limited his centre stage spotlight to the floor of the stock exchange. So was it strategy which brought him to work on Oscar nominated films or financial wizardry?
"A bit of both," he explains laughing. "I got involved in film by chance when I was asked to oversee the Section 35 (now Section 481) financing for the film Circle of Friends. At this point in time I was looking around for what I could do next with my career and it took off from there." Since then he has worked on the Section 481 funding for over 25 features and firmly established his reputation for getting the job done.
He was a founding member of Irish Screen, a financing and production company which saw him take a lead role in the financing of most of the Irish industries major production credits including Aristocrats, Vicious Circle, Trojan Edie, Mrs Brown and Human Traffic. Working on Mrs Brown was a highlight of Kevin Menton's career. "A lot of people don't realise that it was initially made for television. Irish Screen invested money as a sales advance against television sales and it was only as people began to see the rushes and what was being produced that it became a theatrical release." His work on this film and on Human Traffic has given Menton terrific experience and contacts in the international field. "The good thing about being involved in Mrs Brown and Human Traffic was that we got to learn about the international sales and distribution side of the business. If you just produce and give your product to a sales company there can be difficulties. With Human Traffic, Irish Screen was the sales company and did a lot of sales worldwide so there's a strong knowledge base built up."
"…Its not purely
a financial transaction…"
Building this knowledge and contact base within Hibernia Films is Menton's primary goal. He believes that his greatest strength is that he operates at the heart of the film industry whereas others performing a similar role are accountants or bankers who work in a range of different industries. "I have found that this is why a lot of people have enjoyed working with me in the past, because I can understand the problems a producer faces. Its not purely a financial transaction," he explained. Hibernia Films also differs from his role with Irish Screen in that he doesn't intend to produce. Hibernia intends to stick with the finance. The credit may be executive producer but the role is strictly financial, a producers partner being the accepted subtitle of his role. "What Hibernia is looking for is to work with good producers and getting their projects the green light, making them happen."
"…In many ways its
more difficult for Irish producers…"
He believes that the industry has been focused too strongly on the creative production side of the business. "The Irish industry is yet to produce an indigenous film which is a major international success other than the studio films, unlike Scotland which has had a number of successes. We have to attract international financiers and unless the film travels internationally it's not going to be successful," he said.
He believes that the path to funding for independent producers is a much harder one in Ireland than in the UK. "In many ways it's more difficult for Irish producers in terms of putting together their budgets. In the UK, if you get the BBC or ITV to back a project they put up a big chunk of the money. Whereas here the budgets you can put together between say, RTE, the Film Board and Section 481 is at best perhaps 25%-30%.
Hibernia will have two distinct but related roles. Menton has extensive experience putting together Section 481 funding. Hibernia can perform this sole function for a project or preferably take on this role and also see the project all the way through the minefield of film finance as well. "There's a realisation that the Irish industry won't produce internationally successful films unless they are films that cater for the international market. At the end of the day producers have to be much more conscious about who is going to watch this rather than 'this is a film I'd really like to make'," Menton explains.
"…It's a major achievement in itself…"
Hibernia Films are currently working on a number of major projects, most notably Aoife for Pearse Brosnan's Irish Dreamtime company. A co-production with the Potato Company it has a $5 million budget and is set to go into production later this year. It will be directed by Eugene Brady, best known for his work on the Nephew. Redeemable Features, a New York based company is working with Kevin Menton on their next project Songdogs, based on the critically acclaimed novel by Colm McCann. It will be shooting early next year.
Right now Kevin Menton is looking forward to his last Irish Screen project to hit the big screens, When the Sky Falls, the story of the life of crime writer Veronica Guerin which is due out on June 16th. Distributed through Fox in the UK and Ireland it's is one of the larger independent Irish films. Mrs. Brown and Human Traffic were other people's projects but Kevin Menton and Irish Screen developed this feature over two years and put together all the financing themselves. "For an Irish company to put together a budget of $8 million was an achievement in itself," Kevin Menton explains smiling. "It's a film to be proud of."
Kevin Menton can be contacted at : Hibernia Films, Newcourt House, Strandville Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin 3.
Tel: 833 22 81 Fax: 853 36 97
