Two Studio Finance Veterans Launch Baseline Media for Independent Producers
Two executives with years of studio experience have launched a new firm to help independent film and television companies with their money and paperwork. Wifreddy Chiang and Anant Tamirisa announced Baseline Media on the eve of the American Film Market, the annual deal-making market where buyers and sellers meet before films are finished, according to Variety.
Baseline Media is an advisory and executive services firm. It offers finance, operations and business affairs expertise to independent producers, production companies and financiers. Business affairs covers the contracts and legal terms that govern a production, from who owns what to how money is paid out. The firm's own description also lists fractional chief operating, financial and legal officers, meaning senior executives who work for several clients on a part-time basis.
Chiang previously handled finance and operations for the production companies in Candle Media's portfolio, including Hello Sunshine. He also helped build the financial infrastructure at AGC Studios. Tamirisa was formerly executive vice president of business and legal affairs at AGC Studios. Between them, they say they have structured and closed nearly $2 billion in film and television transactions.
The launch clients show the kinds of companies the firm plans to serve. Brookstreet Pictures, which financed and produced The Brutalist, is one. Ketchup Entertainment, an independent distributor and financier, is another. It backed the theatrical release of Coyote vs. Acme. Felix Culpa, the production company run by Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, is the third.
Independent projects often depend on outside money and careful paperwork, and they rarely have a studio's in-house departments to call on. A firm that can supply a finance chief, an operations lead and a lawyer for business affairs, on a shared basis, fills that gap on paper. Whether it works in practice will depend on the projects it takes on.
According to the firm's website, Chiang is based in Los Angeles and Tamirisa is based in New York City. The company did not announce a fundraising total or a list of further clients in the launch coverage.
