50 Years of Production: Entertainment Partners’ Hollywood Legacy

In the 1970s, prairie homesteads dominated primetime, and film and television productions ran on paper. But as creative aspirations and budgets grew, projects started crossing borders, payroll became increasingly complex, and compliance rules multiplied.

Starting in 1976, Entertainment Partners (EP) built bespoke systems explicitly to help the industry keep pace. By delivering scalable solutions designed to keep film and television payroll, accounting, operations, incentives, and residuals running smoothly from prep to wrap, EP drove the transition from tedious manual tracking to cloud-based global production management.

Now, EP is celebrating its 50th anniversary as the industry's most trusted production partner — a milestone that reflects a half-century of innovation built around a simple goal: supporting the people and projects that bring stories to life. 

Big budgets and a golden opportunity

The 1970s were a time marked by New Hollywood rebellion. Blockbusters were on the rise, producers were taking bold creative risks, and gritty, character-centric films like Rocky and Taxi Driver were redefining cinema. On television, broadcasts drew record-breaking audiences, proving that the small screen could command national attention.

As storytelling accelerated in ambition and scale, so did the complexity of managing the finances.

Picture a production accountant in 1975: buried under stacks of physical ledgers, manually recalculating numbers after a mid-production rate-shift, and trying to reconcile costs against a budget that’s already weeks out of date. Maintaining a single source of financial truth was all but impossible, and by the time cost overruns surfaced, it was too late to course-correct.

Beyond standard budget wrangling, accountants also had to calculate payroll line by line; decipher handwritten timecards; research and apply union rules to each role; and manually cut checks for each cast and crew member.

Then, in 1976, Bob Draney, a NASA guidance systems engineer, partnered with Jack Peterson, a musician deeply embedded in Hollywood’s creative community. Together, they formed Draney Information Services Corporation (DISC) — the company that would become Entertainment Partners.

Understanding the precision required to get production finance management right and the cost when it failed, the duo built something the industry had never seen: a production-specific automated payroll and accounting system for film and television.

The innovative solution brought structure and consistency to production accounting at a time when no effective out-of-the-box software existed. Little House on the Prairie was quick to embrace it, eager to trade manual reconciliation for automated workflows with built-in union logic and regulatory compliance frameworks.

For the first time in history, film and television payroll could be processed quickly and accurately. And with that, production finance officially entered the digital age.

'Little House on the Prairie' was among the first productions to adopt EP's automated payroll system, marking the beginning of a new era in production finance technology.

Decades of innovation, a legacy of firsts

By the 1990s, production had never been more ambitious, and EP-backed films were making waves. Jurassic Park brought dinosaurs roaring back to life, Schindler's List dominated awards season, and Clerks proved independent film could hold its own against major studios.

On television, the era of the water-cooler drama had arrived, and with it, the logistical complexity of producing serialized content at scale.

Behind the scenes, production finance was evolving just as quickly. EP’s first breakthrough set the tone for the next three decades, as the company continued to set new standards, redefine production finance, and introduce new tools and services to support every stage of production.

EP was first to solve some of the industry’s most complex challenges:

Residuals management

As distribution expanded, films found new life in syndication, cable, international markets, and home entertainment. Each appearance triggered new residual payments owed to talent and crew.

EP introduced the industry’s first dedicated residuals payment system, transforming manual reconciliation into a structured, automated process. First launched in 1988, EP's residuals system continues to help teams interpret agreements, automate reporting, and process accurate digital payments today.

Background casting

Managing background talent at scale was highly manual, requiring production teams to coordinate casting, track hours, and process payroll across large, constantly changing crews.

When the legendary Hollywood institution Central Casting joined the EP family in 1991, it streamlined casting and payroll for background talent across major productions.

Later, UK-based We Got POP—who introduced the industry’s first digital payroll voucher system—would also join under EP’s banner, bringing the technology used to pay background talent on major motion pictures since 2015 to the U.S. and Canada.

Comprehensive production incentives management

As production became more global, tax incentives turned from simple savings into core financing strategies. Jurisdictions across the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, and emerging markets began competing aggressively for projects, and productions followed—crossing borders to chase rebates. But that opportunity came with a cost.

Expanding incentives programs created new burdens for accountants, who now had to manage a fragmented, high-stakes process shaped by complex compliance regulations and rigorous tracking requirements.

Entertainment Partners addressed that complexity by launching the industry’s first comprehensive global tax incentives database. For the first time, producers could compare programs side by side and understand how location decisions would impact financing. From there, EP expanded into hands-on administration, combining advisory expertise with digital tools to help accounting teams confidently manage applications, reporting, and filings across jurisdictions.

Healthcare coverage for cast and crew members

Production work has always been project-based, making consistent healthcare coverage difficult to maintain.

Recognizing that supporting production also means supporting the people behind it, EP introduced EP Cares in 2014—the first private healthcare insurance exchange built specifically for production workers, designed around the realities of life on set.

Each “first” solved a critical industry challenge. Together, they built the foundation that would carry the industry through its biggest disruption to date.

Before EP's automated payroll and accounting systems, production accountants calculated payroll line by line, manually tracking gross pay, deductions, and union rules for every cast and crew member.

Taking production finance to the cloud: EP responds to Covid-19 challenges

In 2020, just as production was operating at peak scale, a global pandemic shut down sets worldwide. Overnight, teams were forced to navigate suspended schedules and regulatory uncertainty.

With lockdowns in place, work moved to home offices, and it became clear that production finance could no longer be tied to a single location. EP launched the Production Finance Studio, unifying payroll, accounting, incentives, and reporting within a single cloud-based platform.

Teams could operate from anywhere, while decision makers gained real-time visibility into the impact of production decisions from location changes to schedule shifts to crew onboarding.

At the same time, audiences around the world confined to their homes consumed more shows and movies than ever, driving demand for new content. When safety protocols stabilized, sets cautiously reopened, and EP supported productions as they ramped back up.

What followed wasn’t a return to normal, it was an accelerated shift to a more global, distributed production system.

A powerful platform built for productions at every size

From independent films managing lean crews and tight budgets to large-scale studios tracking dozens of simultaneous projects, EP’s systems are built to support productions of every size and scale.

The Production Finance Studio brings payroll, accounting and reporting into a single system, giving studios, producers, UPMs, and finance leaders a shared source of truth.

EP’s industry-leading production management solutions—including Movie Magic Budgeting and Scheduling, and Emmy Award-winning SyncOnSet—empower teams on set day in and day out, connecting planning, production, and financial workflows seamlessly in one digital ecosystem.

No matter the project scope, EP operates as a partner, pairing purpose-built technology with localized expertise in every major production market, offering solutions built for how the entertainment industry actually operates.

With 50 years of innovation behind it, Entertainment Partners looks ahead to the next chapter of production evolution.

The infrastructure behind 50 years of production

What started with the launch of a single U.S.-focused payroll system adopted by Little House on the Prairie has grown into a dynamic digital platform supporting tens of thousands of productions like The Pitt, in more than 180 countries.

Across five decades of change, one thing has remained a constant: productions need accuracy, accountability, and systems they can trust.

Behind every pay stub is a crew member’s livelihood. Behind every residual agreement is a contractual promise. Behind every incentive application is a financing decision that determines whether a story moves forward. For 50 years, EP has made sure productions get it right—every time, at every scale.

The business of making entertainment has never been more complex, or more global. New markets, new formats, new financing structures, and new compliance landscapes will keep rewriting the rules. EP has spent five decades building solutions for every wave change, and our next chapter is already in production.