Procedure for promoting computerized content productions at the Jerusalem studios

1. Introduction
In accordance with Government Resolution No. 3238 of 29.5. 2011 and Government Resolution 1483 of 2.6.2016, the Jerusalem Development Authority, together with the Ministry of Jerusalem And Heritage, seeks to encourage the implementation of international and local productions in the fields of computerized content in the studios in Jerusalem.
The purpose of this procedure is to encourage productions in computerized content studios in Jerusalem by assisting international and Israeli productions that will perform a significant part of the production process in Israel in the studios operating in Jerusalem, as detailed below.
“Jerusalem” – The municipal area of Jerusalem according to the declaration of the Minister of the Interior when examining the applications.
“The Authority” – Jerusalem Development Authority [JDA]
“The Project” – The film and television project in the Authority.
“Grants Committee” – A committee consisting of the Authority Director or anyone acting on its behalf, CFO, or the Authority Comptroller, the Authority’s legal advisor and the Project manager.
“Broadcast platform” – Commercial broadcast and / or screening for the general public in the cinema, on television, cable, satellite, Internet, cellular and digital screens.
“Computerized Content” – Content for which all the following conditions are met cumulatively:

1. The content is generated by computer work to create visual content in motion (Computer Generated Imagery, hereinafter “CGI”), in one or more of the following fields: Animation, VR – Virtual Reality, AR – Augmented Reality, SFX – special computerized effects, when integration of live action is possible (figures embodied by humans).
2. The content deals with the following genres: feature, documentary, entertaining or educational content.
3. The content is intended for public screening on broadcast platforms (as defined above).
“Studio” – A professional studio where commercial activity is conducted, located in Jerusalem, specializing in producing Computerized Content.
“Approved Production” – A project produced in the Studio.
“A Producer” – Producer or Production Company, which have produced and commercially distributed at least two productions in a Studio, which have been screened to the public.
“Premiere screening” – The first public screening of the final copy of the Project to more than 100 invited guests and journalists, with the participation of the filmmakers and key Production figures to be held in Jerusalem.

2. Validity
2.1 The provisions of this procedure will be valid for Approved Productions that will meet the conditions of entitlement specified below from the date of its publication (hereinafter: “the Determining Date”), and in accordance with the timetables specified in Section 10 below (“the Deadline for Submission”),
2.2 Participation in a grant for Approved Productions under this procedure is subject to the receipt of the required budgets in accordance with government resolutions.
2.3 The Authority is entitled at any time to change the procedures and / or conditions for the implementation of this procedure, at its sole and absolute discretion and in accordance with the procedures that bind it, provided that this does not harm the applications already approved under this procedure.

3. Conditions of entitlement to a grant
An Approved Production meeting the following conditions, cumulatively, will be entitled to a grant:
3.1 Production expenses in the Computerized Content field in Jerusalem will not be less than 70% of the total production expenses in the field of computerized content in Israel.
3.2 The total Production budget for the production in Jerusalem will not be less than NIS 800,000 (hereinafter: “Production Budget in Jerusalem”)
3.3 The total government budgets that are provided to the Production, from any source, do not exceed 90% of the production budget (whether in Jerusalem or elsewhere).
3.4 Of the total Production Budget in Jerusalem, the Producer holds at least 80% of this budget and has proof of it.
3.5 At least 90% of the Production Budget in Jerusalem is used for direct professional production expenses, as detailed in Appendix B. It should be clarified that at the most, only 10% of the Production Budget in Jerusalem is spent on budget items not included in Appendix B.
The Grants Committee has discretion regarding the classification of each such expense, and its decision on this matter will be final.
3.6 The Producer holds an authorized bookkeeping certificate.
3.7 The Producer acts in accordance with any law and the activity for which a grant is requested, or part thereof, is not illegal, offensive or immoral, at the discretion of the Grant Committee.

4. The amount of the grant
An Approved Production, which meets all the conditions of entitlement under this procedure, will be entitled to a grant equal to 30% of the Production Budget in Jerusalem, up to an amount of NIS 5,000,000 (hereinafter: “The Maximum Grant Amount”).

5. The manner of examining the applications
Applications submitted in accordance with this procedure, shall be examined by the Authority as follows:
5.1 In the first phase, the compliance of the applications with the eligibility conditions will be examined, including the Production Budget, professional expenses as defined in Appendix B, and the sources of financing, as stated in section 7.3.7 below.
5.2 In the second phase, applications complying with the first stage will be examined by the Project manager and by professional consultants (hereinafter: “the Professional Team”). At the end of the examination process, the Professional Team will formulate recommendations regarding Approved Productions that match the grant, according to the following criteria and weights:
5.2.1 The quality of the proposal – 35%
5.2.1.1 The quality of the configuration (visuals) – 10%
5.2.1.2 The quality of the content – 10%
5.2.1.3 The technological use of the studio to implement the Project – 15%
5.2.2 Quality and experience of the offeror – 30%
The experience will be determined according to seniority in the field, scope, complexity and variety of projects, and inter alia according to the following parameters:
5.2.2.1 The experience of the Production Company submitting the application, including the organizational structure, the quantity of similar productions that have been made in the past and the quality of the productions – 5%
5.2.2.2 The Producer’s experience – 5%
5.2.2.3 The Director’s experience – 5%
5.2.2.4 The experience of the animator/chief designer – 5%
5.2.2.5 The scriptwriter’s experience – 2.5%
5.2.2.6 The chief CGI person’s experience (such as the programmer/SFX editor – 2.5%
5.2.2.7 The experience of the Studio where the production will be carried out – 5%
5.2.3 The production readiness and the manner of utilizing n of the budget – 30%
5.2.3.1 The readiness of the script, the technology and the ability to integrate them into a production in a short period of time, based on the work plans submitted to the Authority – 10%
5.2.3.2 The stage of completing raising the secured budget for the production, including preparations in terms of personnel, the scope of personnel allocated to implementing the Project and the type of professionals assigned and the organizational framework that constitutes the management and implementation mechanism of the Project on behalf of the offeror – 10%
5.2.3.3 Adjustment of the budget to types and duration of works – 10%
5.2.4 General evaluation – 5%
General impression of the application, according to the discretion of the Approving Committee, and taking into consideration, inter alia, the contribution of the production to the consolidation of the industry in the city, innovation in the Production, the use of content and technology, and assessment of the international distribution ability.
The Professional Team will be entitled to invite the offerors to appear before it, to present the Production and/or receive additional details.
5.3 In the third phase, the level of assistance will be determined for each application based on the quality score given to it by the Professional Team as stated in section 5.2 above, and taking into consideration the number of applications entitled to assistance and the scope of the budget allocated for assistance under this procedure.
It should be clarified that the Committee has discretion not to approve an application for a grant, or to approve an application partially, even if it complies with all the procedure conditions and is recommended according to the quality rating as stated in section 5.2. above, this, to the extent that the Committee is of the opinion that the request is inconsistent with the purpose of the procedure or does not fulfill the purpose of distributing the aid according to the procedure or according to the government resolution under which this procedure was published. The Committee shall specify in writing the reasons for its decision.

6. Conditions for receiving the grant
6.1 Upon approval of the application by the Committee, the Producer will be required to carry out the Production in the full format that was approved with all its components, including compliance with the Production Budget items in Jerusalem and the production execution planning in Jerusalem.
6.2 Any change in the application components, including changes in the Production Budget and/or the composition of the partners, may result in cancellation of the entitlement to the grant and/or reduction of the amount of the grant, all at the discretion of the committee.
6.3 As a condition for receipt of the grant, producers, whose applications have been approved, will be required to sign an agreement with the Authority. The agreement will include, inter alia, milestones for the payment of the grant based on the production data and according to the budget availability, timetables and commitments of the Producer, all in accordance with a formula to be determined exclusively by the Authority.
6.4 The Authority reserves the right to review the production script, the quality of the production work, the employment of staff according to the scope and professionalism defined, the Production Budget, and any other aspect of the Production, as well as to require changes in these sections to the satisfaction of the Authority and to condition the engagement with the Producer on making these changes, or to condition the payment transfer on the fulfillment of the requirements of the Authority.

7. The way of submitting a grant application to the Authority
7.1 An application for a grant in accordance with this procedure shall be submitted in five copies, as follows:
7.1.1 Four printed copies
7.1.2 An additional copy on a disc on key
(Hereinafter together: “The Submission File”
7.2 The Submission File will be submitted to the Project manually, at the place and on the date specified in the “Call for Proposals” publication until the deadline for submission. The signing of the Project on the submission form will constitute a confirmation of receipt of the application on time.
7.3 The applicant must attach to each copy in the Submission File the following appendices, in accordance with their order of appearance, as follows:
7.3.1 An application form and an undertaking in the form attached as Appendix A to this procedure
7.3.2 A full script of the Project; in the case of a television series or a network series, a full script of one chapter will be attached as an example, treatments of at least 50% of the series and ARC of the rest of the series;
7.3.3 The Project summary in the scope of up to three pages;
7.3.4 Description of all the main characters in the content of the proposal on one page only;
7.3.5 Professional CVs of the main team of creators including the applicant, the Producer, the screenwriter, the lead animator and the director. The Producer’s resume shall include detailing of his experience in accordance with the requirements of “Producer” in this procedure.
7.3.6 If the story on which the script is based is not original: a declaration by the owner of the intellectual property rights must be submitted, confirming the applicant’s use of the original work. If the original document is not in Hebrew or English, the applicant must translate the document as detailed in section 7.4 below.
7.3.7 The budget:
7.3.7.1 Top Sheet – Concentration of the Production Budget while creating a column for “Expenditures in Israel” (which are not expenses in Jerusalem) and the “Expenditures in Jerusalem” column detailing the planning of the production expenditure in Jerusalem.
7.3.7.2 Full and detailed budget, which includes a separate reference to the production expenses in Jerusalem and in Israel.
7.3.7.3 A table detailing the sources of financing and their amounts from Israel and overseas, from any source of financing the production may have, including government sources.
7.3.7.4 At this stage, the Authority will examine whether the total government funding sources (including the grant under this procedure) are expected to exceed 90% of the total production budget, as stated in Section 3.3 above.
7.3.8 Work agreements and/or detailed work orders with Studios in Jerusalem, which include a timetable, details of work and budget.
7.3.9 Production schedule
7.3.10 Additional documents will be required according to the production progress (e.g., a list of key personnel in the production team, etc.).
7.4 Documents may be submitted in Hebrew or English only. If an original document is not in Hebrew or English, the applicant is required to submit a translation of the document into Hebrew.

8. Method of payment of the grant
8.1 The grant will be paid to the Producer, whose application has been approved and an engagement agreement has been signed with him, under the terms of the engagement agreement, and subject to proof of actual expenses in accordance with the Approved Budget, to the satisfaction of the Authority and subject to compliance with the provisions of this procedure, in each of the stages, and in accordance with the conditions set in this procedure and in accordance of the following milestones:
8.1.1 70% of the amount of the grant as defined in the agreement will be paid in accordance with the actual Production progress in Jerusalem against a report of expenses that will be submitted to the Authority and approved by it.
8.1.2 20% of the grant amount as defined in the agreement will be paid upon completion of the Production in Jerusalem.
8.1.3 The remaining 10% of the grant will be paid after the premiere in Jerusalem.
8.2 A condition for giving the grant is a declaration by the Producer that he is aware of the restriction of receiving government budgets exceeding 90% of the production budget (whether in Jerusalem or elsewhere).
8.3 It should be clarified that in all stages, the Authority will examine the Production expenses vis-a-vis the budgetary sources, including all government sources that were provided for the Production, in order to comply with the provisions of Section 3.3 above. The Producer undertakes to submit to the Authority a report of execution and accounting reports, including budgets and sources, as a condition for the transfer of any payment.
Furthermore, the Producer undertakes not to be supported by government budgets in excess of 90% of the Production Budget as stated above, and to inform the Authority immediately of any additional government budget granted or approved for the production after submission of the application pursuant to this procedure, and this immediately upon their being granted or approved.

9. General
9.1 Applications submitted earlier but have not met all the conditions of the procedure may be submitted again, subject to the amendment of all that is necessary in order to comply with the same conditions. An examination of the right of such production to receive the grant will be on the basis of the budgetary balance at the time of submission of the amended application.
9.2 It is the responsibility of the Producer, whose application was approved, to provide the Authority with all the required approvals as stated, as a condition for receiving any part of the grant. Insofar as the required approvals are not provided, the Authority shall cancel the grant and/or delay the grant until they are provided.
9.3 For the sake of good order it is hereby clarified that operating the program is contingent upon receipt of the appropriate government budgets, and that in any case of non-receipt of budgets and/or termination and/or delay of their transfer, the Authority may stop or suspend the plan and/or cancel approvals and change their content and the scope of the assistance according to them, as applicable.
9.4 It is hereby clarified that only a notice of entitlement signed by the Authority will be binding, and that until the receipt of a signed notice of entitlement, the Authority shall be under no obligation, including towards companies meeting the conditions of entitlement.
This document is for the purpose of clarification and guidance only, and should not be considered a binding document in any form.

10. Timetables for proposal submission
Date of publication of the Procedure – Thursday, March 29, 2018
The first appointed time for submission of the proposals will take place from Sunday, April 29, 2018, to Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 14:30
The Authority will publish in the future submission dates for additional rounds in which applications may be submitted.
The procedure will be in effect until December 31, 2019.
 

* The information in this document does not bind the Fund and is intended for informative purposes, only, subject to the final agreement between the Fund and the application submitter.