I'm looking for links, pdfs, samples, whatever, of film prospectuses that have been sent out to distributors and successfully earned financing/promises of purchase.
I'm trying to go the pre-sales route to finance a feature and could really do with seeing a few successful proposals to check that my own is up to scratch.
Kindly note that this is a low-mid budget film and I'm looking to do what producers should be doing as businessmen, i.e. cut out the middle-man (sales rep) for higher returns.
FYI: I'm not seeking proposals for investors (but could always see some successful ones). Pre-selling is a different financing strategy to hooking up with a rich man.
Thanks everybody in advance for your time and input.
If you want to get pre-sales you need the following things in your package:
-Genre: It needs to be a sellable genre movie, action, thriller, horror, to some extent sci-fi, family etc. Dramas etc. won't do unless you have some MAJOR A-list talent attached.
-names: You need names, many of them. The days are over when all you needed was one B-actor to make a movie, now you need at least two of them, the lower you go on the "B-list" the more names you need.
On the higher level the names you are starting to see in DTV movies: Bruce Willis, Robert De Niro, Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Mickey Rourke etc.
-Script: The script needs to be great, and it needs to have a hook, a great logline, a killer concept. Any old generic genre script won't cut it anymore, you need this to attract bigger talent and make your film stand out from the other countless genre DTV movies made every year.
A big time writer is not a necessity. Nobody really cares about writers, but if you can use their previous work in your marketing it's always a plus, for example "From the writer of 'insert big studio picture here'"
-Experienced director: This is a must, the director must have recent experience in directing movies of the same budget range and caliber.
If you are making a $3M action movie and your director's only credit includes directing a $10k horror movie it's probably not gonna work.
Again, if you have a former big time studio director who's either a name himself or who's previous work you can use in your marketing, it is a definite plus, but again not a necessity if the rest of your package is great.
-Experienced producer/production company: The producer(s) and/or production company must be an experienced one with a long track record of succesfully producing movies in the same budget range that your new movie is in.
I would say that those are your most important elements of your package. If you don't have all of those in place, you are going to have a hard time getting any meaningful pre-sales.
Also, if you don't have a long track record of producing movies in the same budget range and genre and if you haven't done business with the biggest buyers and distributors before, I'd say it's impossible to get pre-sales without a sales agent.
You need a good sales agent.
But remember, it doesn't necessarily have to be a company, a sales agent can be just one person.
What is the budget of your movie? Pre-sales are rarely done on on movies budgeted under $1.5M. Why? Because in order to get pre-sales, you need major talent, and to get major talent you need a budget that will not only accomodate the talent's salaries, but is enough to actually make a movie that has a certain level of production value.
The big names will not appear in movies that they think are beneath them.
Out of $1.5M about $600k-$700k should go to name talent, and the rest for production, this will be enough to attract some mid level B-list talent.
But if you are making a $600k budgeted movie out of which you are spending $500k on talent, they will not do it, because they expect their projects to be on a certain level.
The talent's agents and managers will advise them to stay away from a project like this, because they know with only $100k going towards production the movie will look like total crap.
Needless to say if you want pre-sales your movie needs to be bonded, insured and you have to include at least a 10% contingency in your budget.
You also need an experienced line producer or a UPM to make you a budget.
You can't cut corners here, for example every crew member will be paid a standard rate in the budget, even though you might be able to cut deals with several crew members, the bonding company will not allow it in your budget. If a standard rate for a grip is say $250 a day, that is what you put in the budget, even though you have a friend who you can hire as a grip for $50 a day, the bonding company will not allow you to put that in the budget.
It's not impossible to get pre-sales, but you need a package that has all of the needed elements.
