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The article discusses the economic impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the U.S. independent film market. Topics explored include the disruption in film production in addition to the lack of insurance and film crew availability, the gaps in cash flow acknowledged by David Garrett of Mister Smith Entertainment, and the concerns over the lack of financial assistance due to sales estimate unpredictability.

Focuses on the motion picture made on Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North who was involved in the Iranamok scandal. Argument that his admission of numerous illegal acts became proof of his commitment to what he believed in; Signs of North's mastery of movie iconography; Features of the actor working in the movie; Information regarding personality of North.

Focuses on the long anticipated fight of the Actors' Equity Association with the motion picture producers that has begun in dead earnest. Account of film papers that run column upon column of Equity news-news of meetings, manifestos, deserters, recent adherents, rumors of every kind; Description of the cameramen, the studio electricians and carpenters, that have already powerful organizations of their own, all auxiliaries of the American Federation of Labor; Suggestion that attempts made at unionizing the film players are no sporadic gestures as equity has been agitating and laying its plans for fully ten years.

The insurance industry made an ill-judged foray into financing U.S. motion pictures in the late 1990s, which led to various failed deals and rejected claims. With terrorism, SARS, asbestos liability and global warming to preoccupy them, insurance and reinsurance executives may not feel they can spare much thought to worry about film finance. But a series of insurance-backed film financings, mostly of U.S. films in the late 1990s, has gone disastrously wrong. The failure of so many deals owes as much to mistakes in the way the insurance and financial communities understood and transferred the risks, as to the inherent unpredictability of the film business. INSET: Cast iron goes soft.

The article reports that with the tragic death of motion picture actor Tyrone Power, the Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. lost $1,219,172. This ninety-seven-year-old firm, which manages to endow statistical underwriting has had to weather many shocks. As a serious sideline of its Inland Marine Department, the company also writes an unusual policy known as cast insurance, which is bought by some of the major film studios to cover losses arising from death, illness or injury to specified stars while the picture is in production. The $1,219,172 is the largest insurance company payment ever made on such a policy.

This article presents information on completion bonds, which guarantee that a motion picture will complete in time. Completion bonds generate about $60 mil- lion a year in revenues for insuring about $1 billion worth of movie-making. Film Finances Inc. is no ordinary insurance company. It is a subsidiary of London, England-based Dominion International and writes policies that guarantee movies get finished. In theory, film bonds are not unlike construction completion bonds. But given the vagaries of the movie business, they are, not surprisingly, a lot more expensive.

The Drifter finds it impossible to comment on the foregoing document, except to say that the New Statesman guarantees it to be authentic and not to have been changed in any particular. It is accompanied by an itemized list of expenditures, which gives the cost of weekly rent at 10s., the weekly allowance of flour at 3 pounds, of butter at 3/2 pound, of prunes at 1 pound, and allows for one halfpenny candle as the week's quota of light. And then somehow, after reading the dole budget, the heart went out of him. He remembered the famous episode in "Little Women," just called freshly to mind by the motion picture, which showed the sausages and the muffins and the real coffee that the March girls had just been about to sit down to as a great and especial treat on Christmas morning and then had decided to carry to the family which had nothing at all.

According to the author, in motion picture director Alexander Korda's new picture deserves as much attention as the acting, in the title role, of Elizabeth Rergner, the young German actress who is now enjoying such a great success on the London, England stage. The film "Catherine the Great" is another of those attempts on the part of Korda to bring a certain novelty and freshness to the treatment of historical material on the screen. As in his film "Henry the Eighth," he has tried to remove much of the stuffiness and artificiality which have always made the costume type of screen drama so tedious to the mind and eye.

This article presents author's commentary response to his recent article published in this journal, entitled "Screen Actors: Class B." The author describes that this article has evoked an irate and lengthy protest from William S. Holman, the producers' representative on the Standing Committee of the Motion Picture Producers and Screen Actors' Guild. The author comments that Holman cites several minor inaccuracies in his article regarding issue of Central Casting. He clarifies that there are in tact one or two minor agencies for extra work in existence, and extras also obtain work occasionally through direct studio booking, but for any extra who hopes to work at all regularly registration at Central Casting is a virtual imperative.

The article examines the U.S. film insurance industry. It mentions that the death of Tyrone Power has caused the Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. more than 1 million dollars, half a million dollars after Audrey Hepburn fell from a horse in Mexico and Kay Kendall's fatal illness caused a106,000 payoff to the movie producers. It also notes that there are measures taken to mitigate the risks of bankruptcy such as the "48-hour clause franchise."

The article focuses on the task of searching for the appropriate film and video insurance. It discusses the risk categories relating to film and video equipment and its by-products. Examples of possible liabilities arising from the creation of a video are given. The author offers various insurance products that video producers can purchase to protect their interests.

The article discusses the role insurance companies have in making high-risk motion pictures, particularly highlighting Fireman's Fund Insurance and its executives Roger Nulton and Joe Finnegan. Premiums for insuring a film run high due to the many variables of making a film, including travel, explosives, and rehab-prone actors. Motion picture executives increasingly require an insurance policy before beginning filming.

A list of various movie houses in New York Cist is presented. Address information for each venue and the name of the motion pictures currently showing at eacg venue are included. Among the movies which are listed are included "Murder by Death," "A Little Romance," "An Almost Perfect Affair," and "The White Sheik."

Recommends several motion pictures released in the U.S. Appreciation of the screenplay about the courtship and parenthood, depicted in the film "The Best Intentions"; Storyline of the film "Howards End"; "Story of a female professional baseball league during the World War II, depicted in the film "Monster in a Box."

The article focuses on completion bonding and states that it was once on of the safest ways in Hollywood to make a little profit. As recently as five years ago, completion bonding was a profitable business dominated by two companies Completion Bond Co., acquired in 1990 by Transamerica, and Los Angeles based Film Finances. Independent producers had to buy the bonds before they could land bank financing for their films. And they paid the underwriters a pretty penny for the guarantee typically 6% of budget, although half the premium would be rebated if no claim resulted. The concessions weren't just financial.

The article features Richard M. Soames and his contributions to the film industry. Richard M. Soames is considered the most powerful men in Hollywood. He is an insurance man and former producer of British stage shows. He is also the managing director of Film Finances Ltd, which is the leading provider of completion bond guarantees. The guarantees provide aid to film producers who do not have enough money to complete a film.

The article suggests that film production companies that have landed umbrella insurance policies before the COVID-19 pandemic would not likely get the chance to renew as their contracts expire in 2021. It considers the possibility that most policies would have pandemic exclusions, creating challenges for the industry. Also mentioned are the difficulty getting adequate insurance, availability of policies that cover pandemics, and implications for independent filmmakers.

This article presents information regarding the motion picture "The Hanging Tree" "These Thousand Hills." "The Hanging Tree" has one noteworthy feature, it marks the American film debut of Maria Schell, the currently popular purveyor of Elizabeth Bergner-Luise Rainer winsomeness. Why Miss Schell chose this vehicle is baffling. Its one small effective touch is its first sight of her, after she has been lost in the wild for four days, her face baked and disfigured by the sun. But this is an achievement for the make-up man, not the actress.

The article discusses 10 essentials that will help producers make a successful independent movie. Essentials include a distribution deliverable list, a website and insurance. The author believes in the importance of pre-production work in making independent movies successful despite limited budget and resources.

The article focuses on ways in which contracts related to motion picture insurance are breached. The starkest instance where a weakness in the wording of insurance contracts left the policy open to challenge by the reinsurers was Hollywood Funding Numbers 1 -3. These bonds were the first three in a series of six securitisations placed by Credit Suisse First Boston for English company Flashpoint, which made low budget films in the late 1990s. Here HIH, the Australian insurer which went into liquidation, was on the other side. The broker, Jardine Lloyd Thompson, had engaged HIH as the fronting insurer.

This article reports that guidance on disclosures concerning the recoverability of unamortized costs of motion picture films by companies in the motion picture business has been prepared by the task force on entertainment companies of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) accounting standards executive committee. Early in 1984, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) expressed some concerns about disclosures of motion picture inventories in the financial statements of companies in the motion picture industry. In response to those concerns, the AICPA established the task force to develop guidance for such disclosures. The task force believes that disclosures dealing with matters of concern to the SEC should be limited to a few items, most of which are usually presented in the financial statements of companies involved in the film entertainment industry, and that the disclosures will not involve significant additional cost to reporting companies. The task force further believes that some of the liquidity concerns raised by the SEC staff should be discussed in management's discussion and analysis.

The article focuses on the impact of the actors' behavior in the approval of loans applied by film producers to make a film. The author points out several cases of loan applications that were hindered by the personal background of the actors who are included in the cast. He mentions Winona Ryder, Brad Renfro, Lindsay Lohan, and Owen Wilson as among the actors and actresses who are considered tough to insure.

The article presents the authors' narrative of his resignation as a film correspondent. The major studios are spending too much money! The economics of the business are strangling all creativity! The economics of the industry are no longer based on any sense of reality. The fact that a small number of giant multinational corporations control every revenue stream imaginable only exhorts them to continue to increase the price of entry for any potential competing entity. They will only grow larger, and it's unlikely that the government will step in to curb one of the few industries that is actually helping the balance of trade.

This article focuses on the premiere of the motion picture "The Clearing" at Eccles theater. Several hundred people with less clout had waited some three hours to see the film's first screening with its male stars, Robert Redford and Willem Dafoe, in tow. Audiences ate up the campy, rollicking good fun. More amazing than the spoofy fight scenes is the fact that the motion picture industry gave the film a PG-13 rating despite the overt lesbian content. The pair and their co-stars Devon Aoki, Mcagan Goodc and Jill Ritche attracted heaps of public attention as they lounged on one of the convertible car displays on main street the afternoon before their premiere.

Lining the pages of North America's glossy entertainment magazines are such riveting articles as "The Celebrity Bump Alert," "Oprah's Secret Plan to Purchase Belgium" and "Britney's Fling of the Day." From T-shirts and toys to gadgets and knick-knacks, the motion picture industry has long understood the importance of alternative revenue streams to their overall business. Gaming is just one more critical piece to their rather large puzzle. And they have certainly leveraged that potential each way they could. They've made video games based on popular movies like "The Lord of the Rings" and they've even done the opposite by making films based on hit games like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider.

Reviews the motion picture "No Vacancy," starring Christina Ricci and Timothy Olyphant.

Presents charts depicting the box office and theatrical performance of motion pictures in New York City and Los Angeles, California for the weekend of September 10-12, 2004.

Reviews the motion picture "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," starring Elijah Wood and Sean Astin.