The Guerrilla Rep - Blog

A Filmmakers Glossary of Investment Terminology

4/1/2020

Last week I laid out a glossary of general use film financing terms, but the blog ended up a bit too long and dense to be a single post. So, I broke it into two. Last week was the basics, this week is more of the next level, and focuses entirely on investment terms. Some of these may seem tangential and unnecessary, however if your goal is to close an investor, you’ll need to thoroughly speak their language. If there’s something you don’t see here, check out last week’s blog here.

A Filmmaker's Glossary of Film Funding Terminology

3/11/2020

A colleague of mine asked me if I had a glossary on film financing terms in the same way I wrote one for film distribution (which you can check out here.) Since I didn’t have one, I thought I’d write one. After I wrote it, it was too long for a single post, so now it’s two. This one is on general terms, next week we’ll talk about film investment terms.

How to Raise Development Funds for Your Feature Film

3/4/2020

Pretty much every filmmaker wants to find money to make their movie. Unfortunately, many don’t quite realize that in order to raise the kind of money you need to make anything above a micro budget movie, you’ll generally need a lot already in place. It’s something of a catch-22. Investors need name talent to market the film, and distribution to make it available. Distributors need name talent and a tested team to give any meaningful commitments, and name taken need to know they’ll be paid. There are ways around all of this, but generally they require money up front. This blog is about how you raise it.

What Screenplays are Producers and Studios Actually Buying?

2/26/2020

If you’re a screenwriter, you have two options. Produce it yourself, or option your work to a producer. In order to option your work, you need to understand who is going to buy your movie. Unfortunately, there’s more bad and incomplete information than there is good information out there. Recently, a client of mine forwarded an email he got back from a contact in Hollywood who worked as a script doctor. This email epitomized that bad information, so I thought I’d redact any contact information and publish it for others to learn from as well. (I did check with my client first, and he was good with it.)

Here’s what the script doctor said Hollywood wanted. Their responses in title, mine in the paragraphs following.

18 Steps to GROW Your Filmmaking from Shorts to Features

2/19/2020

Every filmmaker wants to see their work on the big screen. However, given the state of the indie film theatrical market, very few filmmakers can pull it off outside of the festival circuit. Especially for their first films. It requires a lot of skill, and an idea that appeals to a wide audience, ideally an audience you already have an in with. So how do you scale your films to that point? Well, this blog can get you started.

How (And Why) to Treat Your Production Company Like a Small Business

2/12/2020

Last week we talked about the 4 major types of Media Entrepreneurship, so this week I thought I’d expand on the most common production company that my readers seem to run. That’s the small production company that they hope to scale into something bigger. Here’s why your production company is a small business, and how to treat it like one so you can see it grow.

The 4 Types of Media Entrepreneurship

2/5/2020

Traditionally, when we think of entrepreneurs we think of Steve Jobs starting Apple in a Garage, or Jeff Bezos Traveling across country to raise funds while writing his business plan in the back seat of the car while his wife drove. However, there’s more to entrepreneurship than that. Entrepreneurs find new and novel solutions to problems by building organizations despite a huge amount of risk and uncertainty.

Since this month is Entrepreneurship month on both this blog and the blog I run over at ProductionNext, I thought I’d start out the month with a little of an expansion of Film Entrepreneurship in general. In this post, I’ll adapt a rather notable post by Steve Blank from a decade ago to the current landscape media entrepreneurs face, as well as where you’ll most likely find those entrepreneurs.

How Filmmakers Can THRIVE in the Future of Film Distribution

1/29/2020

To cap off my first ever distribution month, I thought I’d talk a little bit about where Independent Film Distribution is heading. Markets are going to be a big center of commerce for the film industry for a few years, but they’re going to continue to wane for the truly independent filmmakers, which means one of the biggest areas for entry for filmmakers is likely to go away. With the fall of Distribber, and how Amazon looks like it’s going to scale back its filmmaker direct distribution programs there’s only one real path left for filmmakers. That path is to build an audience that’s highly engaged with your content, and distribute not only your film to them, but other products related to your Intellectual property (IP.)

Can Indie Filmmakers SURVIVE the Streaming Wars?

1/22/2020

It’s no longer a controversial statement that streaming has changed the whole game for independent film distribution. It hasn’t been one for quite a while. However, it is becoming apparent that not only has streaming changed the game, it might as well have become the game, at least here in the US. That’s not really a good thing for indies. Here’s why.

Filmmaker's Glossary of Distribution Jargon

1/15/2020

If you’re going to read and understand your distribution agreement, then there’s some terminology you have to grasp first. So with that in mind, here’s a breakdown of some key terminology you ABSOLUTELY need to know if you’re going to get traditional distribution for your film.