Has The Package Changed?

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

I have been reading threads by producers on LinkedIn who are frustrated that they cannot find investors. They are being advised by other producers that besides a script, name talent, a shooting schedule and budget, and a business plan that they need to put together a 5 minute preview that is an extended trail of their project. Some advise that the 5 minute preview should also outline a financial plan for the movie and tax breaks on how potential investors will get their money back. With more tax breaks for investors now being offered in the USA, some producers suggest the tax breaks should be mentioned in the trailers.

On the other hand, some argue that getting funding is hard because investors believe they will lose out on a return because of Internet piracy.

Does anyone have any insight into these matters with the extended trailer and investors becoming more shy to invest?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Getting funding for a movie has always been hard. Everybody out there, big and small producers all have projects they are looking financing for.

There really are no "rules", but generally, if you have the right package in the right budget range you can get funding.

The package usually not only consists of marketable name talent, but also of an experienced producers or a production company and an experienced director. This is if you are looking for pre-sales. Names are most important, but the whole package needs to be good.

Investing in films is incredibly risky, and I'm sure some investors are afraid of piracy affecting the sales of the movie. But if you have a strong cast, you can have a sales agent give you sales projections for your project, that way your potential investors can see how much your movie could potentially sell for in the international marketplace with the proposed cast.
A buyer then buys the finished movie, pays you a Minimum guarantee, that is all you are ever going to see, and now it's their job to worry about selling, marketing and avoiding piracy in their region.

Shooting promotional teasers, short films or mock-trailers in order to drum up interest for a feature film is pretty common nowadays. But they are more often done by inexperienced filmmakers, first time directors etc. to prove the investors or crowdfunding donators that they can actually handle producing a movie.

If you have a strong enough of a package, this won't be necessary. If you have Martin Scorsese attached to direct, no investor is going to demand him go shoot a five minute teaser to prove that he can direct a movie.

If you don't have a strong package, and you don't have a strong track record and you are hoping to produce a short film to get funding for a full length movie, the short film better be damn impressive, and you better have some incredible luck, or good contacts.

Every so often you hear about how some guy made a short film for $50 and then made a deal with a major studio to produce a feature film based on it, but for every such story there are probaly 100-1000 shorts out there that are at least of similar quality that nobody's ever seen.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
A filmmaker friend of mine with several shorts to his credit found that one big problem with financing was that he had never helmed a feature before. Shorts are usually self-financed, cast and crewed with friends, and have brief shooting schedules. His "artistic" capability to make a good feature film wasnt the issue as much as his ability to lead a professional crew with non-friend actors and stick to the budget.

Eventually he got hired as DP for another film, and that led to him stepping in as director on a different film by the same producer. With that under his belt, getting his own project financed became a little easier. He got hooked up with a wealthy investor who was also a hardcore science fiction nut who had the rights to a novel that he dreamed of producing a film of, and they teamed up for a two-movie deal: he would write/direct the sci-fi project in return for his own project being financed as well.

It worked out pretty good in the end, since he now had three very different movies to his credit that showed he had versitility in directing.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Morris said:
Another method is getting a co-production deal with an established producer. One of the reasons you see so many names of companies in the titles of major films.
Click to expand...

Especially films made in Europe. They all usually have multiple production companies credited, along with state-run filmmaking entities. There is a lot of government funds and assistance for films over there.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top