Money is Everywhere, in order to find it, you have to draw your own map

The number one issue every indie filmmaker runs into, is finding the money to make their film (this encompasses everything from production, marketing, to distributing).

It’s probably the thing I talk about most in this newsletter, I have covered topics from local investors, local sponsors, crowdfunding, audience & community, plus even various revenue streams. You need money to make your film, and you need to make money so you can keep making films.

When I stumbled upon a filmmaker named Thomas who raised a MILLION dollars for his first feature film, I was eager to learn how. I knew that chances were he didn’t do anything special, meaning he didn’t do anything that had never been done before. Usually it’s from one of two ways, knowing the right people or working your ass off to get it done.

Not only was I please to find out he worked his ass off, but he shared the entire process in a YouTube video. When I watched the video(you’ll find the YouTube video at the bottom of this article), I clapped and knew I had to write this article. Because every single thing he did, I have talked about at some point in this newsletter.

It’s all possible, you just have to do the work. So lets dive in.

Short film

Remember this article when I talked about a short film as a proof of concept? Good, because I can’t dive into all of it here otherwise this article is going to be far too long.

I am a huge supporter for short films for two main reasons. I think shorts are great exercise for directors especially. One of the biggest struggles I see with a first time feature director is explaining their vision. The misunderstanding of a directors vision can often lead to budget over runs(the most common is needing more, time is very expensive). 

Every director can see the film, they can explain it perfectly to themselves. The moment they have to explain what they see to the DP, Art Department, Color, VFX, et cetera, there can be a whole lot of misunderstanding. 

Short films allow directors to verbally express a visual idea. On top of that, it also gives them the ability to see how an imaginative visual idea translates into a real world physical concept. Sometimes what you see in your head does not work that well in real life. 

Shorts can be done very inexpensively and over the course of just a few days with a week or so worth of post. It's like training for a marathon. You go out and run shorter distances and at different speeds to prepare yourself for the feature length race. 

So that first part is just about the practice of making short films because it also gives you a nice collective showcase of work (something you can edit together later for a demo or for a crowdfunding campaign).

The other value of a short is that you can use it as a proof of concept for your feature film. Create a short either from a scene of your feature or make a mini version of the core themes of your feature. This will have huge value when trying to convince people to give you money for your feature film.

Recognizable talent

I have talked about this before, YES you can get recognizable talent in your short and feature film, like Tomas paid the actor $200 a day for a few days for his short and then casted him in the feature.

Actors want to act in projects that directors are passionate about, because they know those directors may make more films and bigger films in the future. As we see often, directors like to work with the same actors. A tenacious “unknown” director really stands out to an actor trying to sink their teeth into interesting projects. It’s not only about the money.

Now, I’m not saying A List actor here, but you can find an actor that has been in a well known, even huge film but maybe played a small role. That actor builds “clout” for your film. Some level of clout is what helps you stand out amongst other filmmakers and fundraising. Clout shows a level of seriousness too.

Of course, you don’t NEED to cast some kind of recognizable actor. If you want too, it very much is possible.

The legality of it all (plus TEMPLATES)

I was very happy when Thomas addressed the business side of getting his project made. The right material in place. Legal entity, accounting, a lawyer. All of those things are necessary for a feature and when raising money.

People see things like lawyer, accountant, LLC and think its going to cost $10,000. But it may only cost $1,000 or less than $2K. It can be very reasonable on the front end, but as you raise your money for your budget, guess what, you budget will have those fees budgeted in. If after all is said and done it costs $10,000, thats okay, but its not all coming out of your own pocket.

One of the reasons I put together this template package for so damn cheap is that I want new filmmakers to have access to stuff that is very expensive so they can learn and understand. For example, Tomas needed a PPM for the crowd equity fundraising, that’s why there is even a PPM in the package, so you can at least have a base template that you take to your lawyer, hopefully save some money. BUT ALWAYS USE A LAWYER FOR AGREEMENTS. DON’T HAVE PEOPLE, INCLUDING YOURSELF, SIGNING TEMPLATES AS A LEGAL DOCUMENT.

The best deck and pitch video

A pitch deck is great to give you that layout of the pitch story you want to tell. Also, the pitch deck can go right on your crowdfunding page for people to look at. After they watch the video, they have more to scroll through.

A video for a campaign is very powerful too. Even if you do not plan on using crowdfunding, I still suggest putting together a pitch video as if you are using crowdfunding. That video can go up on a simple landing page for your film. Now you have a link to share with potential investors. Someplace they can go and learn about your film on their own time.

Don’t worry so much about the financing in these videos, focus on the STORY and the Emotion! That’s why we love movies, they make us feel something and that first feeling comes from a trailer! That trailer instills an emotion in us (even if it’s FEAR because its a horror movie!) and with that we then say, “here take my money! I want to watch this film”. A pitch video is just a trailer for your investors (or funders or supporters).

You really have no more than 2 minutes to keep people’s attention. Most people do not want to watch a 5 minute or more pitch video - because they don’t want to feel like they are being PITCHED too. We also don’t like over explanation. If someone wants to learn more about the project, all of that will be on your website or on the rest of the page for your campaign.
When you finally talk about money, its about how that money will help you tell this emotional story. You don’t need to dive into the cameras you are going to use, or the locations you are going to use, or how much crew costs or any of the logistics.

As in Tomas’ WeFunder campaign, his pitch video is less than 3 minutes and it does not spend more than 20 seconds talking about money/funding. In those 20 seconds, its, “what you get from giving” Everyone always wants to know “What’s in it for me?” Even when you watch a movie trailer and then go and buy a ticket to see that movie, you are asking yourself “what’s in it for me? to be entertained for 2 hours” you aren’t buying the ticket to say, “I will see this movie just to support the filmmakers”.

No one is going to invest in your two hour movie if you cant get them invested for 2 minutes. 

Outreach

No on will know your campaign exists unless you tell them it exists. One of the biggest complaints I see people make about not wanting to use crowdfunding, is that only family and friends support it. Well whose fault is that! 

You need to do outreach. Like Tomas did with sending 10,000 emails. Looking at other investors of other projects on Wefunder, look at people who have supported Kickstarter campaigns, their names are usually listed, find them on social, reach out and contact. You may have 500 connections on Linkedin. Those people connected with you for a reason. Even if it feels weird, send every single one of them a message.

It’s grit, grinding, and tenacity. If you want to get your film made and want to raise money, you have to work hard at it.

Maybe you say you are going to submit your project to producer’s or production companies. That’s fine and it’s also a way to get your film made. But be prepared to send 500 emails to hopefully here just a couple of them say they are interested.

It’s still going to take tenacity.

Take 10 minutes and watch this video. Then replicate every single thing he did.

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