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amaicans don’t relate bland details; we give each piece of information a

narrative to make it worth the listener’s while. Storytelling holds a place of high esteem in Jamaican life. It is how our his-tories – both national and familial – are passed from one generation to the next; how we preserve important elements of our culture; how we entertain our-selves. Storytelling is based in the oral traditions of West African griots; they are not documented for posterity but live in the memories of the listeners, to be called forth and repeated as the oc-casion demands. Aside from traditional tales, stories abound in the lives of every-day Jamaicans, many of which are never told unless a news crew happens upon it or someone, usually from outside, sees something interesting and decides to write a book or make a movie.

Local filmmaker Chris Browne has so far written and directed two such slices of Jamaican life, Third World Cop in 1999 and Ghett’a Life, which is slated for re-lease later this month. In true Jamaican style, the latter film also has its own story: it has been 10 years in the making, going through a long game of ‘green light, red light’ before finally being ready to hit the-atres. Ghett’a Life has also managed to create history, being the first Jamaican film to be funded through equity financing.

“In film school, they tell you that the two hardest challenges of filmmaking [are] raising the finances and selling the film. I thought they were wrong as writing and making a good film is the challenge. But they are right,” he said.

The script for Ghett’a Life was writ-ten back in 2001, close on the heels of the success of Third World Cop, after a chance meeting with some Peace Corps workers led him to an impromptu box-ing match in the Sandy Park community. Ghett’a Life is an action drama set in a turbulent inner-city community in Kings-ton. Derrick (Kevoy Burton), a deter-mined teenager, fights for his dream of becoming a champion boxer despite the political division and conflict he has to overcome

After fine-tuning the script, Browne ap-proached World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Lennox Lewis, to sign on to the film, having written him in as the

main character’s mentor. “Lennox was very helpful and agreed. This opened the doors to meetings in London with sales agents. Sales agents are people who will sell the film worldwide for you once you have a completed film. [You] need them signed from the beginning if you are go-ing to raise any capital as you need to show your investors who [will be] sell-ing the film,” he said. A detailed business plan was drawn up and the budget was set at US$1million, a negligible sum in the movie world. However, the funds were not forthcoming, despite verbal commit-ments of up to US$600,000.

Two years later, producers Tom Astor and Rupert Harvey optioned the script and set out to raise US$3 million to do the film. “They wanted more rewrites of the script, and we got a deal with the UK Film Council, [which was] prepared to put up 50% of the budget if Astor and Harvey found the other 50%, so things were moving ahead slowly,” Browne re-called. But alas, that deal also fell through 18 months later and Browne was back to square one.

Jrescued ‘Ghett’a Life’ How Equity Financing

“In film school, they tell you that the two hardest chal-lenges of filmmaking [are] raising the finances and selling the film. I thought they were wrong as writing and making a good film is the challenge. But they are right.”

(From left) Lennox Lewis, Chris Mcfarlane and Donavan Perkins at Ghett’a Life cast and crew screening.

byTracey-Ann Wisdom

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Where there is a will, there is a way, and Browne demonstrated this when he submitted the Ghett’a Life script to the Hartley-Merrill International Screen Writing Competition, which won him the first prize at the 2006 Cannes Film Festi-val, the crème de la crème of the indus-try. “[Of] course, there was renewed in-terest and once again the wheels started turning, but nothing came of it. Out of frustration, I decided to become the re-luctant producer again and approached my lawyer, Mr. Peter Asher, to do equity finance,” he said. The men were forced to ‘go big’ with their plans due to legal re-strictions - no more than 20 investors are allowed in an equity finance company, but this only made it harder to find backers.

Once again stymied, Browne and Asher sought to raise US$20,000 to shoot a trailer of the film but only managed US$8000. Undeterred, he shot the trailer in a day, edited it in two weeks and ap-proached chairman of the Hart Group of Companies and family friend Tony Hart. “I asked him if he would be involved in bringing in some other businessmen to see the trailer at the Sovereign Cinema and look at the business plan,” he said. This turned out to be serendipitous as sit-ting in the audience that night was Dono-van Perkins, CEO of PanCaribbean Finan-cial Services.

“For us, the trailer demonstrated Chris’ talent [and] confirmed the local acting tal-ent that was available and the powerful story he wanted to tell. That’s what sold the investors. They sensed something special could happen and Chris did not disappoint,” Perkins said. What wasn’t possible in eight years became possible in six months as PanCaribbean raised the US$1.2 million needed to produce the movie and the rest, as they say, is history.

Another unique aspect of the Ghett’a Life story is product placement. The film received funds from several corporate entities through product placement. This is not uncommon in the film industry and many major US and international brands have been featured in movies and tele-vision shows over the years. Wray and Nephew, Wysinco and Guinness all enjoy placement in the film. Product placement reminds consumers of the value and sen-timents behind the item. The visibility of the brand also extends beyond the the-

atre when the film goes to DVD and tele-vision, essentially giving it “immortality”.

Now gearing up for its release, Ghett’a Life has once again charmed the judges at Cannes, winning this year’s Best Pitch Award at the Festival. The pressure is now on for the film to deliver the desired return on investment for its sharehold-ers, which could open the door for future projects and local aspiring film-makers.

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While PanCaribbean has no immediate plans to provide equity financing for fu-ture films, Perkins noted that “persons looking for funding need to establish a track record with enough successes so that investors have some degree of con-fidence in their ability to deliver. They can take advantage by ensuring that they present not just ideas, but a documented plan and some of their financial resources also. They need to have some ‘skin in the game’ - something of financial value at risk.”

Browne believes this is the future of the industry locally. “For Jamaican and inde-pendent’s abroad, this, I believe is the only way forward; not necessarily through a bank, but a private equity amongst busi-ness men,” he said.

An emphasis on equity financing would definitely a boon for Jamaica’s film indus-try, which is severely hampered by the challenge of raising funds. The govern-ment has often spoken about film’s great potential, but seems to be focused more on promoting Jamaica as a shooting loca-tion rather than developing the local in-dustry. Some form of equity financing is widely practiced in film capitals across the world, from family and friends buying into the film to corporations funding movies for a cut of the profit. Canada has a his-tory of equity investments dating back to 1967 when the Canadian Film Devel-opment Corporation (the precursor to Telefilm Canada) was first established to support feature films. Presently, the Can-ada Media Fund (CMF) independently administers private funds; provincial film and television agencies also provide fund-ing in the form of equity investments in exchange for a stake in the production.

The United Kingdom also has a strong equity financing model, based on gov-ernment and private support. Films de-veloped by the now-defunct UK Film Council include the Oscar-winning The Constant Gardener, The Last King of Scotland and The King’s Speech, the fi-nal film financed by the entity. The Coun-cil’s responsibilities have now fallen to the British Film Institute and Film London.

It is still an uphill battle for local film-mak-ers as this kind of framework does not yet exist in Jamaica. However, Ghett’a Life has cleared a new path for them to follow. Joel Burke, editor of the film and

an aspiring himself agrees with this out-look. He suggested that corporate Jamai-ca will be relieved and pleased when the film is released, making it easier for other films to be made, hopefully without the producer having to “sell his or her house to do so.”

Kim Marie Spence, Film Commissioner accepts and shows off the “ Best Pitch” Award on behalf of Ghett’a Life at Cannes Film Festival.

“For Jamaican and indepen-dent’s abroad, this, I believe is the only way forward; not nec-essarily through a bank, but a private equity amongst busi-ness men.”

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ugust 2, 2011 marks the dead-line for the United States government to raise the debt

ceiling – the legal limit on the amount of money it can borrow. According to President Obama, if the debt ceiling is not raised, allowing the government to borrow more, the US will default on its debt, which would spell doom for the already struggling economy. On the other hand, Republican Congressional leaders say there is no possibility of default, so the talk of “fiscal Armagge-don” is purely sensational.

Several economists agree with the lat-ter argument that the country will not default on its debt – in fact, a federal default is unconstitutional. While this may be so, neither default nor more borrowing will benefit the country’s credit ratings. According to Binyamin Applebaum of the New York Times, “If we keep raising the debt limit and keep borrowing more and more mon-ey, eventually, markets will lose confi-dence in the ability of the federal gov-ernment to repay those debts and the cost of borrowing starts to increase. [Alternately], if we refuse to raise the debt limit, investors may lose confi-dence much more quickly, and borrow-ing costs start to increase. But neither extreme works really well for us in the long run.”

The government reached the end of its US$14 trillion line of credit on May 16. From that point until the deadline, or until Congress agrees to raise the ceil-ing, the government must pay its bills in other ways. These avenues include accessing the Federal Reserve or bor-rowing from other sources within the

economy, such as local government funds. If the government is not able to borrow more money after August 2, spending will have to be reduced to match the amount of revenue the gov-ernment has. That would require an approximately 44 per cent cut in fed-eral spending, which would hit Social Security benefits, Medicare providers and federal employees, among others.

The ill-effects are already being felt. In April, Standard and Poor’s downgraded the outlook on America’s long-term credit rating from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ and said the country was at risk of hav-ing its triple-A rating lowered within two years if Washington can’t agree on reducing the national deficit. Last week, Moody’s placed the nation’s credit rating under review for a downgrade and today, China also admonished its largest borrower to get its debt un-der control to prevent a further slide in its credibility. “Nothing is as sure in financial markets [as the fact] that the United States government will repay its debts. And so the government gets the cheapest rates available… If lenders start to doubt that the government can repay its debts or will repay its debts, those rates will start to rise,” Apple-baum said.

Traditionally, the US has always main-tained a sparkling debt payment record, earning its triple-A S&P rating. Now, the sight of the world’s most powerful economy on its knees is not a comfort-ing prospect for other countries, many of which are still reeling from the after-effects of the recession. The reasoning is that if the might USA defaults, the global economy could plunge back into the black hole of 2008-2009. Consider-ing that the implosion of the US market is what created the recession in the first place, these fears are not unfounded.

This is not the first time the US govern-ment has been in this position, having had similar debates during the Rea-gan, Bush and Clinton administrations. However, according to Applebaum, “What sets this apart a little bit is that the size of the debt keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.” It is now up to the leaders in Washington to put parti-san interests aside come to a mutually satisfactory decision that will prevent the country – and possibly the world – from sliding back into financial Bedlam.

CREATES GLOBAL UNCERTAINTYus deBt crisis

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hile most Jamaicans were busy laughing at the inad-

vertent hit “Nobody Canna Cross It”, ‘refixed’ from a news clip of Clifton Brown’s plea for a bridge in his Mavis Bank community, others were busy making a buck off Brown’s popular phrases from the video. The same thing happened when Usain Bolt struck light-ning in Beijing in 2008. Quicker than he could cross the finish line, t-shirts and other items were being made with his name and now signature ‘to di world’ pose and being sold to eager track fans. The problem with both situations is that neither man authorized the use of his words, name or likeness, so those mak-ing and selling the items were in breach of intellectual property rights laws.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), “Simi-lar to rights given to proprietors of traditional forms of tangible property [such as land], creators and innovators are owners of their creative works and have exclusive control over the exploi-tation of their works for the period of time prescribed by law.”

Therefore, it is vital for business own-ers, whether are new or seasoned, to recognize the value of their rights and act accordingly to protect their intellec-tual property, whether these are ideas or plans, products, names, slogans or designs. There are different categories of intellectual property protection, so educate yourself on the ones relevant to your venture.

CopyrightUnder Jamaica’s Copyright Act (1993), copyright applies to original artistic works including: literary, dramatic, mu-sical, sound recordings, films, broad-casts, paintings, drawings, engravings, photographs, sculptures, buildings and models of buildings and typographical arrangements of published editions. Copyright owners can grant licenses allowing another person use their in-tellectual property in ‘restricted acts’, which include reproducing the work, is-suing copies of the work to the public

and adapting the work. Unfortunately, copyright does not cover names or titles by themselves, short phrases, slo-gans, facts, ideas or concepts. Howev-er, other types of intellectual property rights may apply. Copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author and 50 years after his death.

Registration is not required to obtain copyright protection; it is automatic once the original work is written or recorded. The simplest way to indi-cate that your creative work has been copyrighted is to add the word “copy-right” or the symbol © and the date of creation along with your name. You can further secure proof by sending a copy of the work to yourself via reg-istered mail and keeping the envelope sealed. However, if you want to be ab-solutely sure your work is covered, you can register it with the National Library of Jamaica or the Intellectual Property Service Centre.

Going back to the first example at the start of this story, both Kevin-Sean ‘DJ Powa’ Hamilton and Clifton Brown have sought to register their original creations with the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office ( JIPO). Brown has sought copyright for his phrases (clas-sified as lyrics), including the popular “the bus can swim” and, of course, “nobody canna cross it”, ensuring that he will benefit from any future use of the phrases he coined.

See part 2 next week where we look at Trademarks.

intelleCtual property ProtEcting your

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It is vital for business owners, whether are new or seasoned, to recognize the value of their rights and act accordingly to protect their intellectual prop-erty, whether these are ideas or plans, products, names, slogans or designs.

mall enterprise development is the engine that drives the

economy, creating employment op-portunities and providing niche services that many people need to make their lives easier or ‘big’ businesses rely on for their own survival. While govern-ment and private sector efforts have been focused on developing and sus-taining individual small businesses, not much is being done to create incuba-tors.

Business incubators are designed to help new businesses develop and suc-cessfully launch, providing a physical location in which new businesses can commence, along with support services such as shared facilities and business ad-vice. In some instances, the projects are overseen by colleges or universities and are based in facilities located on cam-pus, such as the Technology Innovation Centre (TIC) at the University of Tech-nology (UTECH) and the HEART Col-lege of Beauty Services (HCBS).

There are several sectors of Jamaica’s economy that would benefit greatly from these kinds of facilities. Here are three incubators that Jamaica needs:

agriCulture/ManufaCturing Both of these sectors have fallen on dif-ficult times but are slowly regaining eco-nomic traction. With the push to ‘grow what we eat and eat what we grow’, incubators dedicated to developing new, innovative business ventures with-in these sectors would definitely help

to get more young people interested and active. One area of focus could be agro-processing. A lot of provisions go to waste because the facilities and infra-structure to create value-added prod-ucts are limited.

environMental/green initiativesGoing green is not just a catchphrase. It is a movement, touching just about all areas of our daily lives. An incuba-

tor focusing on developing renewable energy sources, waste management treatments, or making ecologically-safe products could create an entire indus-try and also encourage more people to become environmentally-conscious.

filM DevelopMentMany internationally successful mov-ies have been filmed wholly or partially in Jamaica, but our local films have not been able to penetrate overseas mar-kets. It’s certainly not for want of tal-ent, but experience in the behind-the-camera areas. A film incubator which facilities the development of produc-tion and technical expertise as well as marketing, costume design and script writing skills will improve the quality and visibility of our films and help them be more globally competitive.

three business inCubatorsJamaica could usE

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Business incubators are designed to help new businesses develop and successfully launch, provid-ing a physical location in which new businesses can commence, along with support services such as shared facilities and business advice.

byTracey-Ann Wisdom

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