He is an expert in film tax credits and incentives.
— From Manu Kumaran’s IMDb bio page
A guy comes to you one day. He owns a company with zero dollars in the bank and stock trading at about a buck a share.
Just a year ago his company was in the business of developing golf resorts in the Nevada desert. But now it’s a film production company.
He wants you to spend a million bucks or so to develop a 1500-acre piece of land for his new movie studio. He also wants to be exempt from paying property taxes for 20 years.
He says it will be the largest film/TV/video game production studio in North America, complete with solar panels and beautiful waterfalls.
No kidding: Waterfalls.
He says he’ll bring 1200 jobs to your area, with an average salary of $39,000. There will be childcare on site for those employees, he says.
He’s still trying to get $90 million in financing to begin to do all that.
Many of us might have shown the guy the door, with varying degrees of politeness, about halfway through that spiel.
But not the Effingham County Industrial Authority. They not only agreed in principle to the deal proposed by filmmaker Manu Kumaran — who has had some success with low-budget Bollywood-style films and a couple of English-language arthouse flicks — they enthusiastically trumpeted it as a major economic development.
Did we mention that Kumaran’s company bears the name Medient — oddly similar to Meddin Studios, a production house in Savannah?
“It’s all too easy to let your emotions and optimism get involved when people start throwing around big numbers. It’s such a complex industry,” says Steve Smith, a partner in Meddin Studios, which recently inked a deal to move from Louisville Road into a larger space in the former Citi Trends building downtown.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the story unfold,” Smith says. “Let’s hope the vetting process is thorough.”
Tommy Holland has been a longtime member of the Savannah Film Commission; his term expires soon. He has decades of involvement in the local film scene, going back to pre-Forrest Gump days.
“Everyone wishes the best for this project, but frankly we’ve seen these kinds of ideas come and go before,” Holland says. “God bless ’em, it would be wonderful if it could work out. But ninety million dollars is an awful lot of money to raise in this environment — this country is now cutting funding for air traffic control.”
Holland also mentions the impracticality of a proposal built around the enticement of so many full-time jobs.
“Their proposal mentions that they want to return to the old-fashioned studio system. But there’s a reason the film industry moved away from that a long time ago,” he says, pointing out that the vast majority of films today are made by crews hired on a project basis, rather than by studios with full-time employees.
Local production designer and technical director Michael Gaster, a former member of the City of Savannah Cultural Affairs Commission, also weighs in.
“Think how many politicians have said things like, ‘this will create 1,200 jobs,’ and ‘this will be environmentally friendly,’ and ‘we’ll have health care and daycare for workers and their families,'” says Gaster.
“I can’t help but be skeptical of a Nevada real estate marketer-turned-film producer who talks like your everyday politician, eyeing Effingham County with a name similar to an established area film/video production house,” he concludes.
This article appears in Mar 27 – Apr 2, 2013.
It is Amazing how our local politicians think Bollywood and Cruise ships are going to save our local economy. Yikes!
I call my piece…
“A Journalistic Danger”
The guy who wrote the article “A Mediant Danger” has no clue at all what he is talking about in referring to Mediant Studios, let’s examine what he claims…
“Just a year ago his company was in the business of developing golf resorts in the Nevada desert. But now it’s a film production company.”
“his company” as in “Manu Kumaran”
No. Not even remotely true, in fact 0% truth. Explanation…
It costs upwards of $300,000 for a brand new publicly traded company. There is a less expensive option however and that is called a reverse merger. A publicly traded company without much value can merge with a non-publicly traded company through an agreement for all of the publicly traded companies’ outstanding shares.
(Example: Stock “ABCD” is a distressed a small co. only worth $50,000 ( 100,000 shares outstanding x .50 = $50,000) )
Another party can come in and say “we will take all of your shares for $75,000. You can gain 50% instantly and we will have control of the company.” ABCD’s management says sure because they would like to gain 50% plus they would like to move on to something else as it costs them lots of money each year to file with SEC, they don’t see their current business going anywhere, and so on(or a number of other situations). This agreement just saved the second party roughly $225,000 on expenses and the first party gained 50%($25k) on top of the CURRENT value, both parties are happy now. This is roughly how it works.
Anyone with some basic thinking skills can already see how this relates to Mediant. A basic google search, which this author did not even do, shows that Mediant used a reverse merger to go public through OTCQB: FRYP.
So who owned/managed the OLD company, FRYP? These people…
http://www.nichetechnologies.com/investments/
There is an entire blog, dedicated to the story of the old company and it’s PREVIOUS owners… an excerpt…
“Fairway Properties, Inc. (OTCQB:FRYP) was an online portal for golf real estate and digital marketing. The Murphy Brothers founded and funded Fairway Properties, Inc. by raising financing from 37 accredited investors in Wyoming, Colorado and Texas. The Murphy Brothers assumed leadership roles on the executive team and Board of Directors and took the company public in 2009 by filing a Form 10. During the collapse of the golf and real estate markets the company managed to sustain operations and have moderate growth. In 2012 the company executed a reverse merger and was acquired by Medient Studios, Inc (OTCQB:MDNT). Niche Technologies exited the majority of its stake in the company and the 37 investors to date have realized a 50%-500% return on their investment.”
OTCQB:FRYP, which was engaged in running an ONLINE PORTAL for golf and real estate and digital MARKETING, was managed/owned by “The Murphy Brothers” NOT Manu Kumaran. Note the words “ACQUIRED by Mediant Studios.” Manu Kumaran has never been associated with “developing golf resorts in the Nevada desert” or get this… EVEN THE ORIGINAL COMPANY, LOL. The Murphy brothers did however run the old company, as detailed by their picture filled blog. It looks like the author never spent ANY time figuring this out. It took me longer to write this commentary then to do grand total of 5 minutes of reading to find this out.
It gets better though…
“Did we mention that Kumaran’s company bears the name Medient — oddly similar to Meddin Studios, a production house in Savannah?”
It is laughable how this author believes that this is some sort of advantage to have, (no wonder he didn’t go into an explanation) as if most people living in the area stay up on there studio name knowledge and again it looks like he did not do even do the most basic research. Mediant was founded in 2002. I suppose the author also believes that somehow Kumaran, while he was in India, somehow knew he would one day take control of a publicly traded company in America and end up outside of Savannah 10 years in the future building a film studio, so why not find a studio in the area to closely name his own after after in order to reap some great advantage??? LOL. Really???
I think it’s funny how the author attempts to connect government waste (“He wants you to spend a million bucks or so..” / “But not the Effingham County Industrial Authority…”) and Mediant by finishing off the article with an interview with the ever important and I’m sure highly efficient tax payer funded organization called…. drumroll… “City of Savannah Cultural Affairs Commission”. After all it is well-documented throughout history that “cultural affairs” do not take place without the direction of a taxpayer funded government organization. I wonder if those same taxpayers, if put to a vote to keep either of the following, would vote for a) a local film studio which will employee hundreds of people and put their county on the map or b) the “City of Savannah Cultural Affairs Commission” which also has and will require over a million dollars or far far more, employees a handful of people, and is known only by a small number of people to exist.
The coup de grace of this powerful interview…
“I can’t help but be skeptical of a Nevada real estate marketer-turned-film producer who talks like your everyday politician, eyeing Effingham County with a name similar to an established area film/video production house,”
So in conclusion Mr. Gaster, who was funded by taxpayers and spews out false statements and accusations, would like you to be wary of Mr. Kumaran who he says is like a politician, which are known for spewing out false accusations and who are funded by taxpayers. That’s interesting.
If someone asked the guy who wrote this article what he does for a living he would probably respond by saying “Journalist.”
The lines below are from the dictionary definition of “Journalism”
“writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation”
This “article” is neither and is nothing but a non-factual, highly biased, collection of libel filled garbage topped off with false statements and accusations. Considering this is the current state of “American journalism” it is no surprise that he is… oh my… “EDITOR-IN-CHIEF” for ten years.
Hold on while I shed a tear for the readers, if any, of the “Connect Savannah.” It seems they have only been connected with total BS.
I am sure this is a huge surprise to all the readers since the article comes from an individual clever enough to come up with title “A Mediant Danger.”
THE END.
P.S.- The details in my piece about Mediant studios were found USING THE INTERNET, which is the same tool I will use to find the legal counsel for Mediant Studios, to inform them of the existence of this libel-filled garbage masquerading as “journalism”
“The details in my piece about Mediant studios were found USING THE INTERNET” 1. Medient or Mediant? 2. You know, if you find it using the internet, it has to be true – because they don’t put anything on the internet that isn’t true.