COMM 188A – Film Finance
COMM 188A – Program in Film Finance
Summer Session A
Although this is not a math course, it will help students develop a solid foundation of how the world of Entertainment and finance work together to bring film projects to life. We will use fun and informative case studies to see how these concepts work in real-life. We will also identify and discuss factors contributing to why some projects fail and others becoming wildly successful. The goal of this course is to provide a comprehensive overview of how film projects obtain the needed funding to get made. We will discuss where and how to access sources of capital such as free money, loans and investor financing. Our mission is to help students understand and apply practical financial concepts to a project from script to screen to green!.
Instructor(s):
Harold Lewis
Email: hwlewis@g.ucla.edu
Harold is an Entertainment Entrepreneur, Inventor, Lecturer and Author of the book “Pitch To Me Online”, “The Big Reveal”, AND “The Program In Film Finance” and other publications.
Harold is the Founder of Pitch2Me.com, an Online Film Finance Portal that brings filmmakers and professional film financiers together. He has created industry-leading analytical tools called FILMPRO Analytics to help identify project risk, valuation, timing of cash flows, and project structure. In addition to consulting on major projects Harold has recently shared his acquired knowledge by creating the online Film Finance Course called The Certificate Program In film Finance.
Harold is considered one of the most experienced and highly regarded executives in the field of entertainment financing and banking. Prior to founding Pitch2Me Harold served as Vice President and Regional Director for the Entertainment Banking Group for Union Bank of California’s Beverly Hills Private Banking office.
Before working at Union, Harold held increasingly responsible senior management positions at Wells Fargo Bankculminating in being appointed Senior Vice President and District Manager with responsibility for the management of 40 branch locations in Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties.
Harold served as CFO and General Manager at the former Fully Loaded Records (a division of BET), overseeing the business affairs, accounting, human resources and contract management departments.
Academically, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and an undergraduate degree in Economics from Oxnard College. He is a graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is also a graduate of the Anderson Graduate School of Business, Executive Management Program.
Harold had the honor of being the 2015 Keynote Speaker at UCLA’s Communications Department graduation commencement and has been a Guest Lecture at UCLA and USC, CSUCI and many other film finance forums.
