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"I often take investors to the set, and they get to read the script and have a look around," says James Swarbrick, commercial director of Aegis Capital Partners. Aegis’s sister company, Prescience Film Finance, offers equity funds that finance independent film production.

The range of groups offering film funds remains limited, and often they target high net worth and institutional investors.

Production groups such as Baker Street, Limelight and BMS operate enterprise investment schemes (EISs) that provide funding to film projects. Ingenious Media offers investment in the film industry - as well as other areas of the media, such as television, computer games and music - through a variety of vehicles. The group's asset management arm was behind big budget Hollywood productions Alien vs Predator, Wimbledon and Shaun of the Dead.

EISs offer attractive tax breaks of up to 20 per cent of the total initial investment, which effectively means a basic-rate taxpayer who invests this way does so tax free. EISs permit investments of up to £30,000. The irony is that basic-rate taxpayers are hardly the target audience for film funds, which tend to set high minimum investment entry barriers - $10,000-$100,000 (£6,017-£60,170) is not unusual.

It’s not just equity vehicles that are available to prospective film investors, there are also a (relatively narrow) range of bond-type products – and we’re not talking James Bond.

Aramid Entertainment Fund is a hedge fund based in the Cayman Islands that provides short- and medium-term funding to producers and distributors of film, television and other media. It launched an issue of convertible bonds late last month on the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange. That means the securities are accessible via most Sipp and Ssas providers. The group says they yield a fixed 9 per cent and are issued by the Aramid Entertainment fund.

Chief executive officer and founder Tim Levy raised $300m with his first fund launch in 2006, which by the end of 2007 had returned "in excess of 20 per cent". He added that the convertible bonds were issued in response to increasing investor demand for cash-plus returns in a low-risk environment.

Mr Swarbrick describes the Aegis Film fund as more akin to a corporate bond fund, with the film acting as the asset in an asset-backed lending agreement.

As with any esoteric investment, due diligence is integral in film investing and there are pitfalls to be aware of, as explored overleaf. But as diversification with a twist of art-cool, film funds are certainly to be considered.