New York State SEC troubles

[Mad Dog Mike]

Has anyone here gone through the procedure of filing papers with the NY Securities Exchange Commission? A company I'm working with wants to approach investors legitimately for feature projects. To do so requires a 30 page document that most lawyers tell us will cost 10 grand to prepare.

We'd rather not spend that kind of money. We're not micro-budget, but we're not major either. Looking to raise around 50-60 thousand, so shelling out that much for legal fees doesn't seem right.

If you're from another state, you probably have different rules to deal with, but I'm interested in any feedback. We're considering talking with someone at the IFP for advice, too.

[filmscheduling]

Sounds ridiculous. Is it the same if you wanted to raise $50k for a coffee shop? There has to be a better way.
One thing you could do is have them buy points in the film, instead of LLC shares outright. The points get paid out after the film earns 125% of its production budget back. The point structure would be defined in a deal memo that both parties sign.

Also, since films are incredibly speculative, you could simply ask them to use the money to guarantee a loan that you take out. You are on the hook for the loan if the film doesn't make any money, but it's comparable to paying off a graduate degree or something like that.

Taking the "coffee shop" analogy further, if you started a coffee shop you would have informal discussions first with close friends and family - and out of those discussions hopefully a few partners would emerge. They would be your LLC members when you create the LLC - not "investors" that you are approaching cold.

Big Disclaimer - I am not a lawyer & don't really know anything about specific securities laws in New York State. I do know that I can't pay my parking tickets by phone and that the state of New York (well at least the city) does its best to make everything a complete pain in the *##