JONATHAN OLSBERG – A WORLD CLASS FILM CONSULTANT

Actually Jonathan Olsberg is not working very much with independent producers. He is mainly working for big organizations and film funds.
But despite that Jonathan is still a thrill to listen to if you’re an independent producer trying to know more about creating a successful film business.

We have had the pleasure of having Jonathan as a consultant when I did The Copenhagen Film Mentor program a couple of years back.
Jonathan and his colleagues at SPI has done a lot of research demystified the success factors of building a sustainable film business.
The conclusion we snapped up can be put down to a few bullet points:

• A successful film company has the ability to make successful content and share in revenues (read: produce good films and be a owner of the films)
• A successful film business diversify revenue streams across different activities with different risk parameters (read: have different income streams; for instance feature film production AND commercial production. Or maybe also be a distributor).
• Think outside your comfort zone; be a strong entrepreneurial leader (Read; don’t be afraid of thinking and acting outside the box).
• Have an international network –especially with bigger corporate media players (Read, the more successful you are, the more these players will want to know you)
• Get a consistent and reliable relationship to the public support bodies (Read; no way around it; soft money is almost free money: you’re crazy not to pick them up!)
• Have a lot of luck..!

The short interview here with Jonathan is meant as a quick introduction to him and his company SPI.
I strongly recommend that if you’re an independent producer or an independent production company, you have to go ahead and see if you can get to a course that Jonathan is a part of.
You’ll get very inspired by all knowledge you get and in the end you can use it as guidelines in turning your film production company into a sustainable and fruitful one…

Jonathan in short…
Jonathan Olsberg started out as a UK producer, sales agent and distributor. In 1992 he founded SPI – a consultant company that advises public and private film and media companies all over the world. They’re focussed on pushing their clients forward with the right growth strategies.
Read more about Jonathan and SPI on www.o-spi.com