How to Raise Development Funds for Your Feature Film

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.

​Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic bullet on any level of film funding.  The best I can do is offer you tools and tactics to use to increase your chances of success.  You will probably need more than one of these tools to get the job done.
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Don't want to read? Check out the video on this topic below

​Crowdfunding

Let’s get this one out of the way fast.  Crowdfunding CAN be great for filmmakers not only as a way to raise partial funding, but also to engage yourself with your audience and provide market validation for both investors and distributors/sales agents.  That said, it’s not without its drawbacks.  Using crowdfunding as an early stage race tool can cause your donors to question whether or not you’ll be able to get the whole film done.  If you can’t, it can lead to problems.  (Extra special shoutout to my patrons here, since we’re talking about crowdfunding.)
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Donald Evans​​

Ashley P

Clever Username ​

Friends and Family
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I know, I know.  This is the oldest advice in the book.  BUT, there’s a reason it’s still around.  Your friends and family are (hopefully) among the people who are most likely to back and support you in this endeavor.  If they’re like mine were when I was starting out, while they may be willing to help and actively want you to succeed, they’ll still need some proof it’s possible.  However, the proof they’re like to need will probably be something easier to get than an investor would need. These 
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Equity

But Ben, didn’t you just say that you need more in place to get an investor?  Yes and no.  In order to raise a large round, you’ll need a lot in place, but if you’re only focusing on a smaller round you can get by with less.  It is important to properly structure this investment though.  You’ll either need to offer a more substantial stake in the company for the bigger risk taken for investing earlier, or you’ll need to do some other investment vehicle like Convertible debt.
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Grants

Grants are great in that they don’t require you to pay back the money so long as you only use it for its intended purpose.  They’re not so great in that they generally take a long time to be approved for the money, and you’re generally facing significant competition particularly for development stage grants. 
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Soft Costs and Deferrals

This essentially means calling in every favor you have to make sure that you have the best chance possible to succeed in developing a package for your film.  This isn’t going to carry you the whole way though.  Most people who do this for a living don’t work purely on a deferral or commission basis.  I’m including myself in this, although I do defer a large portion of my fees and take on as much as I can on commission. 

That said, while the higher level connectors, Producers, Executive Producers, and the like are generally unwilling to work on a purely deferral or commission basis, the friends you need to make a great crowdfunding video, concept trailer, or something similar might not be.  Getting their buy in might help you make it to the next level.
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Skin in the Game

Finally, we come down to the ever-present fallback of funding the development round yourself.  This is generally the fasted way to complete the round, but it has the obvious drawback of needing deep enough pockets to just shell out and pay the money you need to get it done. 

I know all of this is really hard to grasp, and quite frankly it’s a lot.  While I do consult on this sort of stuff, I’m not cheap. (with good reason.) I try to make a lot of information available through my site, but there are times that you just kind of need someone to  answer your questions and re-orient you.  As such, I’ve decided to start a special mentorship group. 

This special training group gets you access to additional content, an exclusive discussion group, and most importantly weekly group video calls where I’ll answer your questions personally, and occasionally bring on people who would also be of benefit to the groups needs.  Click the button below to go to a form and express interest in this group.  Spots are limited.
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Find out more about the mentorship group

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