hope don't mind me asking you one more question, and that will be that...
Keep asking away. I'm happy to help.
There should be a budget before asking for money. You can't go to
a serious investor and say, “We need £200,000. But it might be
£180,000. We might need a bit more. Or we could do it for £50,000.”
You go to the investor with a complete budget. You show exactly
how the £200,000 will be spent – line by line item by item, down
to first aid kits and c-47's. And yes, the fee for the script and the
directors rate is included. The investor says, “I'm thinking of offering
closer to £150,000.” So you go back to the budget and see if you can
cut £50,000. Then you present a revised line item budget.
And this goes on until you reach an agreement. If you (the writer/director)
want to take less to make the movie happen, then you take less. If
the investor doesn't agree on what the writer/director is getting paid
they will give a number that think is fair. Then you take it or leave it.
In some cases (and I've been in this situation several times) a financier
will say, “I have £80,000. Put together a budget.” The writer/director
gets paid. In a typical line item budget the first line is the screenplay,
the second is the producing team and the third is the directing team.
In some cases the key players are on deferred pay. I don't want to take
up space here on what deferred pay REALLY is (ask and I'll go into it)
to keep the initial investment lower. In that case a percentage may be
the way to go.
It's difficult to know exactly what's going on in your situation but the
writer and director always get paid. You have an ExecProd who has
informed you that your screenplay will be getting investment with you
attached as director. That's good. So put together a complete budget
including the script fee and your directors salary. Then negotiate.