Chapter 2 - Financing Plan

Over the next two weeks, Ronan spent most of his energy studying the status quo in the United States, especially in the context of the Internet and Hollywood.

Similar to his memory, in Hollywood, after James Cameron made Terminator 2 and True Lies with Arnold Schwarzenegger - the future governor of California - he spent several years building a phenomenal ship called Titanic.

However, this phenomenal ship has just set sail. The current all-time global box office champion is still Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park.

In the technology industry, Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple about a year ago, while in the field of Internet, Cisco and Yahoo!’s stock prices have continued to rise steadily. As far as Ronan recalled, the dot-com bubble would not burst until the new millennium begins.

The current time is the greatest era of Hollywood and the era preceding the rise of the Internet giants. To conquer this era, he must make lots of money.

However, Ronan is not just penniless, but also saddled with huge debts. During the past two weeks, he had rushed from one place to another to obtain a loan or other form of financing. However, the United States, as a capitalist nation, had a complete system for determining one's ability to repay, or lack of it. As a result, let alone formal banks and financial institution, even private money lenders chased him away.

Since Sand Sea Entertainment was a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), he submitted an application to the Guid at Mary’s suggestion to seek relief under the Guild's Motion Picture and Television Industry Plan.

This plan is mainly used to motivate and aid the guild members and is available as a membership benefit.

However, since PGA was not a trade union but a trade organization, the Guild's power was concentrated in the hands of the large and medium-sized studios. As a result, the application was seemingly and Ronan received no response.

Since he couldn't find any external assistance, he could only help himself.

Ronan set his sights on Hollywood, to be precise, on films. Thus, he traveled to several major industry organizations across Hollywood.

Each evening, he also studied the previous success and failures of Sand Sea Entertainment and learned from them.

---

'It's hard to do anything without money.' Sitting in the office, Ronan fiddled with his pen and thought, 'What should I do next? Where and how can I obtain money as soon as possible? Only money can save me from this predicament.'

He finally stopped fiddling with his pen and wrote the word "film" in his notebook.

Thanks to his work in his previous life, he remembered the names and plots of many films that would be popular in Hollywood in the future.

Thanks to his handsome appearance, he, himself, could act in a film, but Ronan immediately dismissed such a thought. Not to mention the fact that newcomers and new scripts are tough to sell, even if someone bought it, he wasn't confident in his acting skills.

As for writing a script and directing it himself, that is even more unlikely to happen.

He, himself, had never been a director, nor had "Ronan Anderson" pursued a major in directing at USC. He had neither the skills to direct films nor the money to produce films.

Mr. Anderson and "Ronan Anderson" had both focused on film production as investors and producers. Like most studios in Hollywood, they used to hire directors and crews for filming.

It usually took a long time for a film to recover the funds spent on it. Normally, it wasn't until two or three years since a film's release that the producer finally recovered the investment and began making profit.

Even if he somehow made a film, by the time he began to make some money, the dot-com bubble would have already burst and he would lose a golden opportunity to become rich.

'It's obviously not a good idea to pin my hopes on making money from films. How else can I make money?' Throwing away the pen, Ronan thought about it carefully.

A lot of funding for films in Hollywood comes from financing. Often, before a film's production even begins, its overseas distribution copyright is pre-sold, and the funds obtained are used for the film's production.

However, this kind of transaction requires that the film's cast includes famous celebrities, at least a medium-to-large distribution company and, sometimes, even a professional third-party insurance company to guarantee that the film will be produced.

With Ronan and Sand Sea Entertainment's lack of fame, the possibility of pre-sale of the overseas distribution copyright was close to zero.

Moreover, starting a film project to gain financing from North America or Europe and embezzling it for other purposes would be too legally risky.

Suddenly, an idea appeared in his mind. It is currently the 1990s and the Internet is not yet fully developed and global like two decades later. As a result, information dissemination is still controlled by the media and governments. For most people without any connections to the film industry and living overseas, Hollywood is still a very mysterious place.

For example, during the '90s, few people in China knew about Hollywood.

"I can establish a film project and then raise funds overseas!" Ronan exclaimed.

Ronan couldn't help but think of a fraud case he had heard about in his previous life. A company in Shandong - under the guise of a Hollywood film company - illegally raised funds through a fraud that amounted to more than $30 million.

In fact, some scammers have even managed to successfully commit scams in Hollywood.

During the 2000s, a scammer named Raffaello Follieri pretended to be a producer in Hollywood. Not only did he swindle tens of millions of dollars in investment from various investors, he even dated Anne Hathaway for four years and became friends with many celebrities.

'It seems possible.' after recalling such scams, Ronan became more confident.

Still, he decided not to go China on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. He still has a conscience and wouldn't wish to commit scams in his hometown.

Similarly, Ronan believed that committing scams in Hollywood was quite risky and not conducive to the long-term development of his career.

Having decided on a path, Ronan began to think deeper about the details.

Sand Sea Entertainment was created over a decade ago and has produced many films that were distributed through video tapes. It is normal for a company like Sand Sea Entertainment, which is a member of the PGA, to start a new film project.

'I will start a brand new film project and go overseas to cheat... no, to raise money!' thought Ronan while grinning.

To successfully raise funds from overseas investors, a full-proof plan was required.

First, Ronan must find a suitable target; the target must have enough funds to invest, not know much about Hollywood or the entertainment industry, and not have much influence in the United States. So, even in the event of something untoward happening, they wouldn't be able to cause him any harm.

Second, the film project must be announced with great fanfare to let the outsiders believe that it is a real project. However, the real investment of the film would certainly be a lot lower than the publicly announced budget.

However, even for this, he would require some funds. In the end, it's still a matter of money.

Ronan once again pulled his hair in frustration and decided to temporarily forget about it to clear his mind when he suddenly had a thought.

What would he do in case of failure?

Even though the plan to scam gullible overseas investors had a high likelihood of success, it was not 100% certain to succeed. However, he planned to live in North America for a long time so he would need a backup plan.

Ronan looked at the important news he had written in his notebook over the past few days when his eyes fell on the term "blog."

"Ronan Anderson" had been a talented writer. If all else fails, Ronan can write novels on a blog and submit it to the publishing house. Maybe, he could make some money through the royalties.

During his previous life, he had read a lot of the original novels behind blockbuster Hollywood films, and still remembered most of their general plot. Although it was impossible to say that his backup plan would be success, but it was worth a try.

If not else, he could just write Fifty Shades of Anderson! [TL Note: I guess this is supposed to be Fifty Shades of Grey?]

After making up his mind, Ronan began working towards making his plans a success.

The film project would need to have a decent script and an investment of not more than $15 million, otherwise Sand Sea Entertainment would find it hard to find any willing investors.

'Action films are all the rage right now. Should I try an action film?' thought Ronan.

However, Ronan quickly gave up this thought since action films were very time-consuming and laborious.

'It's best to go with a B-movie since that is consistent with Sand Sea Entertainment's previous success strategy and would also increase investor confidence.' considered Ronan. He continued, 'Horror B-movies are a good choice. But, which horror movie should I choose?'

One important point was that the horror film that he chose must now denigrate the ethnicity of the investor that he targeted.

Naturally, he would first have to determine which ethnicity's investor he would target.

He would certainly not choose China since it was his homeland; nor would it be appropriate to target investors in Europe or Australia since their film industries were quite developed so they catch on to his scam easily.

Ronan suddenly recalled a piece of news he had previously read and swept through his notebook before stopping on a certain page: Abu Dhabi Investment Authority from the UAE, a giant in the Middle East, to set up an office in Los Angeles.

Abu Dhabi was loaded with cash, and certainly did not know much about Hollywood since the Arabs had never been very welcome in North America.

The most important point was that if he recalled correctly, after accumulating astronomical wealth from exporting oil, the Arabs in Abu Dhabi had become eager to expand their influence across the world since the mid to late 1990s. Also, the relationship between the Jews and the Arabs had always been the worst. 

'Maybe I can make use of that?' thought Ronan.

The Jews have a huge influence in Hollywood which the image of Arabs in Hollywood films has always been terrible. It was hard to say that there was no connection between the two things.

Ronan wrote all this down to confirm it later.

Then, he thought of something and began frowning. Abu Dhabi was located far away in the Middle East. If he traveled there to cheat... gain financing, the travel expenses alone would be a huge expense.

'Then, I guess I will need to make some money first,' Ronan decided.

"Mary!" Ronan pressed the intercom and said, "Contact someone from Blockbuster to talk about the sale of the video tape copyright of The Agent."

The video tape copyright of The Agent could at least sell for some money.