Interview with the Horror Equity Fund

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The Horror Equity Fund™ (HEF) brings together investors and content creators so that participants can share in some of the amazing profits often realized in the world of Horror entertainment. There’s a lot going on at the HEF with plenty more to come. We got the opportunity to talk with representatives from the HEF to give creators of horror a look at how it can help them, and more…

-PH: Lots of people from different areas of media are involved with the Horror Equity Fund. How did the fund come to be and why did you decide to create the fund for the horror community?

-HEF: Marlon Schulman has had a long and storied career notable in finding new technology that can bring entertainment product to underserved groups. And “technology “ can mean “hardware”, “software” or even “language” in the form of legal rules and regulations. He anticipated changes in the laws that now allow solicitation and participation by both accredited and non-accredited investors in the exciting world of entertainment.
“Horror” and its related variations, is the highest ROI (return on investment) entertainment market segment. 

-PH: For those who aren’t familiar with the fund, what’s the best way to sum up what you do?

-HEF: Horror Equity Fund (HEF) is an entertainment company that identifies potentially profitable projects in the Horror/Thriller and related genres, facilitates funding, and help accelerates those projects to market. Not presently a “fund” in the “pot of money” sense – but HEF possesses and makes available resources, vetting, acceleration to market and assists in the funding of such projects through both traditional and equity crowd funding methods. HEF, and its companion company, Federation Of Horror, services the Community (its fans, its Content Creators, and most importantly, investors in entertainment.) 

-PH: There’s a lot of investment terminology on your site. For people who want submit projects, but aren’t as familiar with the financial side of things, how do you help bridge that gap?

-HEF: We believe in honesty, integrity, and transparency. We’re happy to explain what everything means in clear and simple terms. Submissions will be done through both direct and crowd-sourcing techniques. Right now, we are very selective in what we read and how it gets into the HEF ecosystem.

-PH: Not all scripts for filmmakers will be accept, so what are some of the things you’re looking for that will get their scripts accepted?

-HEF: High quality, entertaining script with well-drawn characters, and a compelling story. For us, the script is paramount, then the package/attachments.
BTW: We don’t accept “gorn” (torture porn) or misogyny.

-PH: Filmmakers are probably a big target audience for you, but what other areas of horror are open to the fund?

-HEF: While content creators (not just films) are of great importance to us, our primary focus is actually the mitigation and diversification of risk to investors. After all, nothing gets made without investors being satisfied. That being said, we’re interested in any and all forms of horror related material – games, graphic novels, live events, TV, mobile games/apps. 

-PH: For those other areas of horror, for example an author, is their process to get funded similar to filmmakers?

-HEF: Similar, but not identical. We take alternative entertainment on a case-by-case basis.

-PH: Lots of creators of horror are using Kickstarter and Indiegogo to get funds for their projects. What’s the biggest difference between those sites and yours?

-HEF: With “reward/donation based” crowd funding you’re not investing your money in a product or company, you’re simply giving your money in exchange for a prize – a mug, a t-shirt, and should the film make millions – you get a mug, a t-shirt, and that’s it. Under our model, if the project you invest in shows a profit, you, as an investor share in that financial gain. And we do everything we can to help realize that potential profit and mitigate risk. Investment in HEF itself brings with it a diversified portfolio of ownership interests in all of the projects brought through our ecosystem. This cross-collateralization best mitigates overall risk to an investor.

 

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-PH: Can horror fans invest in the fund, or the projects as they are developed? What kind of investors is the fund looking for?

-HEF: We want to democratize the independent world of entertainment. For the first time in history the non-accredited investor has the same chance to invest along side the wealthy privileged. We have two clear paths for investors: 1) Investment in individual projects: This would appeal to fans of the genre as well as investors looking for the highest ROI in genre films 2) Investment in our company: While we are firmly focused on mitigating the risk in individual projects, it’s the company investment that we feel is the safer long-term investment… Investing directly into HEF is cross-collateralized, multi-platform, and template-able. In addition, such an investment would tap the added revenue stream of the “Federation of Horror” – our up-coming fan aggregation site in conjunction with surprise partners and participants. This site will have both free and subscription memberships with additional ad revenue, another hedge against risk to the investor.

-PH: Once projects are accepted, funded, and developed, does the fund also help with the marketing of the project?

-HEF: At our core is a great marketing machine. We MUST have robust marketing in order to reach the crowd, and while we will are not the marketing company for each completed picture per se, it behooves us to see every film we are involved with to succeed. We do and will put our marketing power behind every project that gets out there, and proudly!

-PH: Is there a project that has been completely funded through your fund that people can look at as example of how the process works?

-HEF: Yes, and no. We don’t yet have all of our services fully operational, but that’s coming soon. In the meantime, please look at STAR LEAF, available on iTunes, and the soon-to-be-released ZBURBS.

-PH: It looks like there’s still aspects of the fund that are in the works. Can you let people know what’s coming next?

-HEF: We will be launching an amazing aggregation site for fans of horror across the globe, and our Equity Crowd Investment Platform. Look for more announcements and partnerships with amazing companies, individuals, and influencers. Down the road, we’ll be moving into other fan bases – Action, Family, Faith-Based and MORE.

We would like to thank the Horror Equity Fund for taking the time to answer our questions. Hopefully this gave you some insight on the fund and how it can help the creators of horror out there. If you’re interested in learning more about the Horror Equity Fund, please visit:

www.horrorequityfund.com
Twitter – @HorrorEquity
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/HorrorEquityFund
Instagram is @HorrorEquityFund
Linked in page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/horror-equity-fund-inc-

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