Spotlight: John Hadity, EVP, Incentives Group

Financing is the backbone to bringing a script to life. It is one of the most important and challenging steps to getting a project off the ground, and every producer knows that it’s going to require a variety of funding avenues to make it happen.

From incentives to loans, productions must weigh the cost of how much control over the project they are willing to give away in exchange for the cash to fund it, not to mention, the extra paperwork required for the audits after the project is wrapped.

That’s where John Hadity, Executive Vice President of the Incentives Group at Entertainment Partners, steps in to help. An industry veteran with decades of experience in production financing, John and his expert team are here to guide productions through the process of financing their project and see them succeed from start to finish,

I run the financing business... We lend money against expected tax incentives that a production is anticipating earning, and we lend against minimum guarantees from qualified distributors.”

Hadity’s expertise, honed over a 30-year career in film finance, includes the milestone position as the former Executive Vice President of Motion Picture & Television Production Finance for Miramax Films. In that role, he oversaw a portfolio of production budgets valued in excess of $4 Billion.

After 12 years at Miramax, John pursued executive producing and financing independently with his own consulting company. He credits this period in his career as a pivotal moment, “When I had my own company, the focus shifted to the independents. While I was still working as a consultant to studios and networks in varying degrees... most of my day was consumed by helping independent productions. I was troubleshooting and problem solving to help producers be better producers and share with them what I’ve already experienced [at Miramax].”

John eventually joined EP in 2012, and now oversees all business financing, including tax credit administration, tax credit placement, planning, and lending against incentives.

He works closely with every production that joins forces with EP, and together with his administration team, monitors the budget throughout production to ensure that a project can earn their credit after shooting.

The more of our [EP] fingerprints that we have around your production, the more protected you are from exigencies that could arise and jeopardize your production."

Every production that works with EP is guaranteed to wrap with clarity and confidence. While there are many factors that could affect a project receiving the proper tax credit, as John explains, “The more of our [EP] fingerprints that we have around your production, the more protected you are from exigencies that could arise and jeopardize your production… [Such as] running out of money, going over budget, or not being able to achieve the benchmarks you need to achieve for purposes of qualifying for the incentives.”

John’s wide-ranging expertise caters to studio and independent projects alike, thanks to his background serving on the international tax and production committee representing Miramax at the MPAA, and as a former Board member of the National Producers Guild of America, and Chair of the Producers Guild of America East. During this time, Hadity weighed in on discussions that shaped domestic tax incentive policies, ensuring that independent producers were also being considered when it came to securing funding opportunities.

His contribution to these discussions has equipped him with the expertise to go to bat for his clients at Entertainment Partners. When a production runs into an issue with a state authority who doesn’t provide clarity around a specific policy issue, it could jeopardize the production from receiving credit on their tax incentive. That’s when John will directly debate with the state authority to provide more robust clarity around the issue, even to the extent of securing rulings for new policies that not only affect his client’s success, but also pave the way for the industry at large and future EP clients.

Should a production choose to work with EP, John is adamant about being honest on what’s expected for a winning working relationship and a project’s success:

If you’re using us [EP] for our tax credit administration, from day one, when we are setting up the production, and we’re working with the production accountants and the production management, we’re going to explain to them the rules and guidelines they need to follow, and give them a heads up, so as they are incurring expenses, they don't run afoul on incentive rules.”

EP also works as a boutique bank, and John oversees distributing loans when a producer needs additional funding after raising the other part of the budget.

John will work with his clients to provide the best loan for the particular jurisdiction their production is filming in.

He accomplishes this by reviewing applications through a series of multi-faceted lenses, asking thoughtful and detailed questions, analyzing the numbers, and examining the crew associated with the project. Together, with his tax credit administration team, every budget is reviewed line by line to ensure an accurate estimate of credits. As John knows from first-hand experience, “some productions may inflate their budgets in the hopes that they can achieve a greater tax incentive than what is realistic.” And to John and his team, accuracy is non-negotiable because when a project wraps and the audits begin, his clients’ production team will have the peace of mind knowing all their files are readily available to finish out the project strong, without the headaches of missing or inaccurate paperwork that could cause them to lose out on their incentive and compromise the final cost of the project.

Financing a project will always bring a layer of legal and administration challenges, but with the right support system in place, like John Hadity and his EP team, your production is guaranteed to wrap with success.

To find out how to connect with John Hadity, apply for a loan, or get additional production financing 101 advice, head on over to our Project Financing page to receive the best and most current expertise for your next production.