Fund that film

[filmscheduling]

I can't help but notice that most of the film finance threads are pleas for money. Filmmaking has got to be the "hungriest" art, apart from architecture. What is a better thing to do with 250k? Build a house or a movie? If nobody likes your movie you're out $250k. If nobody likes your house you can usually rent it or live in it yourself..

I've seen these routes to raise money for an indie feature:

1) Spend life savings / nest egg
2) Mortgage house
3) Kubrick and "American Movie" style: Convince relatives to cash out their life insurance plan or savings
4) Grants/public funds.. good for documentaries
5) Investors without a clue
6) Investors with a clue

One new method I've been thinking about:
7) Have your investors invest in real estate, not film. You buy the real estate with their capital and take a loan out to make the film.

Here is how it works..

->10 people give you $25k each to buy a house. These are "investors with a clue" that know that you are a good filmmaker but know that filmmaking is speculative. They want a way to get their money back if the film tanks. They are willing to wait up to 15 years to get their money back if the film tanks.

-> You buy the house and live in it.

-> You borrow $200k on a 15 year loan from the bank to make your film, backed by the real estate value of the house.

-> You go make the film.

One of two things happen:
-> The film breaks even or makes a profit: You pay off the loan and sell the house, then pay back the investors. You can pay them some combination of profits from the film and profits from sale of the house.

-> The film loses money or is a total loss: You rent the house out and pay off the loan. After 15 years you sell the house. The investors get their money back.

Okay perhaps this is somewhat equivalent to 2) but you're getting up-front capital to buy a house. This means you can potentially rent it out and your tenants are paying for your film.

Thoughts??

 

[bird]

Pity you're not Canadian, the film board of Canada has a global reputation for producting and funding ground breaking animation.

Dang, I'm Minnesotan, but everybody THINKS I'm Canadian. Probably won't work on the app, though.

I've heard that about the Film Board there...it would certainly be nice if the US valued artists like Canada seems to do.

I'd really like to see some of your work when you've got something to show. I'm a huge animation fan and even noodle around myself on Toon Boom Studio.

Will do, thanks. Any of your Toon Boom stuff on your site?

 

[Unknown Screenwriter]

Raven tales...

Sounds interesting. Pity you're not Canadian, the film board of Canada has a global reputation for producting and funding ground breaking animation.

I'd really like to see some of your work when you've got something to show. I'm a huge animation fan and even noodle around myself on Toon Boom Studio.

It still might be possible to get Canada to fund your animation. A friend of mine here in New Mexico was able to get his animated series (RAVEN TALES) funded in Canada. Most likely, it something to do with the suject matter being about Northwest Amercan tribes but it can be done...

filmy

 

[clive]

Will do, thanks. Any of your Toon Boom stuff on your site?

No, my animation is just noodling about for my own amusement and my website is the base of my business empire.

I've been playing around with using the Toon Boom studio stuff to animate my storyboards, but I think it's just another way of avoiding actually getting on with stuff.

What is interesting is that there are now firms that specialise in animating storyboards, they used it on "Secret Window" the Johnny Depp film. Makes sense to me.

 

[bird]

Filmy,

I checked out the requirements for those grants and it seems you do have to be Canadian. Maybe someone on your friend's production was Canadian or because of it's suject matter (Native Tribes) it may have qualified for a sort of 'Humanities' award. Thanks for the input!

Clive.

The animated 'storyboards' sounds like a clever idea. Along that line ....aren't there also firms who specialize in writing whole histories for your character..or would that be a specialized software I'm thinking of? Thanks again!

 

[spinner]

The film got distribution on the back of the global interest created in this story, the film itself would never have got distribution without this incredibly skilled hype. It's just not good enough.

Like a lot of people, I was incredibly let down by the film and I think the fact that the sequel died at the box office spoke volumes about the product.

What didn't you like about the film? I've always thought that one of the things that makes a
movie work is the viewers ability to suspend plausibility. Blair Witch creeped me out for days.
As for the sequel, it was on tv last night. It was god awful, but then it is widely known that
the people who created that movie had nothing to do with that sequel and good for them, it
was sooooooo bad. Eventually I stopped watching. I don't even know how the sequel ended.

I tend to think that film, like any other piece of art, should make you feel something. If all you
see is the shots and the editing and the effects, hasn't the film failed on some level? Shouldn't
the film put you in another place for a while? Isn't being moved one of the important things
about a film?

It would seem to me that Blair Witch was done just the way an indie film should be done, an
incredible amount of hype, alot of people talking, you love it or you hate it, that film had people
discussing it for forever. And I heard that the people who created it got hosed when it came
to licensing and rights, etc.

I am wondering what you think...(remember, I am new to this filmmaking stuff...)

--spinner

 

[shamrock]

Here's how you get your film financed plain and simple.

1. Write a marketable script. Have it reviewed by professionals and once you have it the best it can be move on to getting your film made.

2. Hire a Line Producer and have him/her create a "below the line" budget for your film. You will need this for investors. This will cost you anywhere between $1,500 - $5000.

3. Find a reputable entertainment attorney that "has connections". They should have investors and producers at their finger tips. Tell them you own a script and have a budget and you need representation. They will ask to read your script and may even charge you a small fee just to read your script. They do this to weed out wasting their time. You will want them to read your script and give you their feedback on it. If they like it or better yet love it and think they can get buyers for you.... Time to cough up another $5000 for an upfront fee.

It's in your ent attorneys best interest to introduce your project to investors because it means ALOT more money for them. Typical if a film is financed for 10M they pocket around 100k.

$5k is alot of upfront money for an ent attorney but if they are big players it's worth it. If you don't have that kind of money you can find a partner who has that kinda money to pay the fee. Tell the ent attorney you have a partner and they will write up a partner agreement for you at no cost and ready the day you come in to their office.

If you know someone inside Hollywood who knows film investors great, you can manage with a smaller ent attorney with a smaller upfront fee around $1000. Get your below the line budget ready, hire that cheaper ent attorney and send the investors to your attorney to close the deal.

This is how production companies make movies.

Good luck.

 

[filmscheduling]

...[re. marketing] most filmmakers make this an afterthought, and they are usually too exhausted by the end of postproduction to do a good job.

Re. marketing via a website before the film is done - my opinion is that the best thing is to build a community - such as the one at Star Wreck:
http://www.starwreck.com/

They have a fun community with message boards, etc. The web site engages the users instead of spitting information at them. I'd say engage the audience and build community.. give them a chance to participate somehow (their participation doesn't have to do anything with the actual production of the film). This begs the question, who is the audience for your film? A good thing to think about..

Just as an update to this thread (and the post about Star Wreck made about 4 months ago), it looks like the Star Wreck feature is ready to be released! They have built a large audience for their film over a period of about one year. I might buy it myself - because I've been checking up on them every month or so and I'm curious as to how it turned out! So when you get *me* to actually buy a DVD of one of these crazy indie films - at least one without festival buzz or critical acclaim or it being made by someone I know - that is some good marketing.