Top 4 Reasons to Crowdfund your Independent Film

Most filmmakers hate the idea of crowdfunding.  While nobody likes constantly having their hands out and asking their friends for money for a whole month straight, it’s something that most filmmakers are going to have to do early in their careers.  It’s very possible that most filmmakers will have to do it more than once.  But the reason you crowdfund isn’t just about the money.  There are lots of other reasons crowdfunding can be a boon for a filmmaker’s career.  Here are 4 of them.

1. It’s one of the Most Viable Ways to get First Money in.

The first money in is always the hardest.  In the past, the most common way to get the money was from friends and family.  More recently, this has been replaced with crowdfunding, although in practice it’s still primarily a friends and family round, it’s just a scaled-up version of it that handles taking in the payments for you. It’s also something you can do even if you don’t have a rich uncle. 

​But keep in mind, nothing worth having is free.  While this is one of the most viable ways to get first money in, it’s far from easy.

Related: Top 5 indiefilm Crowdfunding Techniques

2. It’s one of the Quickest Ways to get Money you don’t have to Pay Back.

But wait, Ben, haven’t you said in the past that a crowdfunding campaign’s preparation starts a whole year in advance?  Like in this blog linked right below this sentence?

Related: Indiefilm Crowdfunding timeline

Well incredulous voice in my head that sometimes comes out in the form of content on my website, I did indeed say that.  Not only did I say that, but I stand by it.  I stand by it due to the fact that the real, hardcore prep only starts about 3 months prior to the campaign, and the work before that is primarily engaging your community (which you should be doing anyway.) 

Generally, grant money isn’t very fast, tax incentives both tend to be rather slow and come with a lot of strings, and product placement tends to not pay out until the film is completed, and often isn’t even money that’s directly given to you.  Pretty much every other form of financing are things you have to pay back. 

Although it should be noted that you do have some pretty big responsibilities to your backers.  You need to fulfill the rewards you promised them, and you need to keep them up to date on your progress as you move through the various stages of development. ​

3. It’s a way to Engage with your Community at an Early Stage

One of the biggest things that set successful filmmakers apart from hobbyists in the current landscape is the ability to cultivate community around themselves and their work.  Crowdfunding can be a really powerful means to support this end.  Crowdfunding is a great way to identify and engage your early adopters and the core of your community.  It’s a great way to stay involved with them and make them feel like they’re an important part of your project.  In actuality, they are important parts of your project. 
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But engaging with your community is about far more than getting crowdfunding backers. Your core community of backers can become your most vocal advocates from the earliest stage.  If your work comes out well, they’re likely to share it with their friends and start your word-of-mouth marketing when it comes time to distribute your project.  They’re a lot more likely to do this than the average person since they’ll have been around since the beginning.  Their friends might even join your community the next time you crowdfund. ​

4. It’s Validation for your Project

One of the biggest things investors look for in a project is also one of the things that’s the hardest for filmmakers to provide.  Especially in the early stages of their career.  Having a successful crowdfunding campaign proves to investors that not only is there a market for this project, but that you know how to reach them.  This is a huge hurdle to overcome when approaching angel investors.

That being said, it’s important to keep in mind that the reverse is also true.  If a project fails its crowdfunding campaign, it’s incredibly difficult to convince an investor that there is an addressable target market.  Or, at least that you have the ability to address said target market.  So with that in mind, you should only try to raise what you know you can get via crowdfunding, and then plan to get the remaining sources via other financing methods. 

Thanks so much for reading!  If you liked this content, you grab my film business resource package. You’ll get an ever-growing list of templates, money-saving resources, and even an e-book or two.  You’ll also get monthly digests of blogs segmented by topic.

How to Write an Independent Film Business Plan - 4/7 Marketing Section

In this installment of my 7 part blog series on business planning, we’re going to take a look at the marketing section of the plan.  This section is likely to be the longest section, as it encompasses an overview of the industry, as well as both marketing and distribution planning.  Generally, this section will encompass 3-5 pages of the plan, all single-spaced.  This is among the most important sections of the plan, as it is a real breakdown of how the money will come back to the film

Industry

In this subsection, you’ll want to define some key metrics of the film industry.  You’ll want to include its size, how much revenue it brings in, and ideally an estimate of how many films are made in a year, as well s the size of the independent part of the film industry vs the overall film industry.  If you want help with some of those figures, you should look at the white paper I did with ProductionNext, IndieWire, Stage32, and Fandor a few years back.  To the best of my knowledge, it’s still among the most reliable data on the film industry.

The fact that the film industry is considered a mature industry that is not growing by significant margins is also something you’ll also want to mention.  You’ll also want to talk about the sectors of growth within the film industry, as well as where the money tends to come from for independent producers, and a whole lot of other data you’re going to have to find and reference.  As mentioned above, the State of the Film Industry book linked in the banner below has much of this information for you.
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Overall, this section should be about a page long.  The best sources for Metrics are the MPA THEME report and the State of The Film Industry Report. You can find links or downloads of both of those in my free resource pack.

Marketing

The marketing subsection of the plan goes into detail about both the target demographics and target market of your film, as well as how you plan on accessing them.  To quote an old friend and long-time silicon valley strategist Sheridan Tatsuno, Finding your target market is like placing the target, and marketing is like shooting an arrow.  For more detail on how to go about finding your target market, I encourage you to check out the blog below, as my word count restrictions will not let me go too deeply into it here

Related: How do I figure out who to sell my movie to?

Figuring out how you’re going to market the film can be a challenge for many filmmakers.  Generally, I’d advise putting something more detailed than “smart social media strategy.”  I tell most of my clients to focus on getting press, appearing on podcasts, and getting reviews.  Marketing stunts can be great, but timing them is difficult to pull off. 
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All of this being said, you’ll need more to your marketing strategy than simply going to festivals to build buzz. The marketing category at the top of this blog, as well as the audience, community, and marketing, tags at the bottom of the page, are a good place to start.

Distribution

This section talks about how you intend to get your film to the end user.  This section should be an actionable plan on how you intend to attract a distributor.  This section should not be “We’ll get into sundance and then have distributors chasing us!” I hate to break it to you, but you’re probably not going to get into Sundance.  Fewer than 1% of submissions do. 
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The biggest thing you need to answer is whether you plan on attaching a distributor/sales agent or whether you intend to self-distribute.  if you’re not sure, this blog might help you decide. There’s lots more to it, I’d recommend checking the distribution category or the international sales tag on this site to learn more of what you need to write this section.

Related: 6 questions to ask yourself BEFORE self distributing your indiefilm

Somewhere between a quarter and a third of all the blogs on this site are devoted to distribution, so there’s lots of stuff here for you to use when developing this plan.  If you want to develop more of a plan than distributing it yourself, it’s also something I’d be happy to talk to you about it.  Check out my services page for more.

If that’s a bit too much for you but you still want more information about the film business, check out my film business resource package. You’ll get a free e-book, monthly digests segmented by topic, and a packet of film market resources including templates and money-saving resources.

This is part of a 7 part series.  I’ll be updating the various sections as they drop.  So check back and if you see a ling below, it will take you to whatever section you most want to read. 
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Executive Summary
The Company
The Projects
Marketing (This post)
Risk Statement/SWOT Analysis
Financials Section (Text)
Pro-forma Financial Statements.

Check the tags for more content!

The 4 Stages of Indiefilm Finance (And Where to Find the Money)

Most of the time filmmakers seek to raise their investment round in one go.  A lot of people think that’s just how it’s done. As such, they ask would they try anything else. If you have a route into old film industry money you can go right ahead and raise money the old way. If you don’t, you might want to consider other options.

Just as filmmakers shouldn’t only look for equity when raising money, Filmmakers should consider the possibility of raising money in stages.  Here are the 4 best stages I’ve seen, and some ideas on where you can get the money for each stage.

1. Development

If you want to raise any significant amount of money, you’re going to need a good package.  But even the act of getting that package together requires some money.  So one solution to getting your film made is to raise a small development round prior to raising a much larger Production round. 

If you want to do this with any degree of success, you’re going to have to incentivize development round investors in some way.  There are many ways you can do it, but they fall well beyond my word count restrictions for these sorts of blogs.  If you’d like, you can use the link at the end of the blog to set up a strategy session so we can talk about your production, and what may or may not be appropriate. 
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Related: 7 Essential Elements of an IndieFilm Package

Most often, your development round will be largely friends and family, skin in the game, equity, or crowdfunding.  Grants also work, but they’re HIGHLY competitive at this stage. 

Books on Indiefilm Business Plans

2. Pre-Production/Production

It generally doesn’t make sense to raise solely for pre-production, so you should raise money for both pre-production and principal photography.  This raise is generally far larger than the others, as it will be paying for about 70-80% of the total fundraising.  It can sometimes be combined with your post-production raise, but in the event there’s a small shortfall you can do a later completion funding raise. 

It’s very important to think about where you get the money for the film.  You shouldn’t be looking solely at Equity for your Raise.  For this round, you should be looking at Tax incentives, equity, Minor Grant funding if applicable, Soft Money, and PreSale Debt if you can get it. 

Related: The 9 Ways to Finance an Independent Film

Post Production/Completion

Some say that post-production is where the film goes to die.  If you don’t plan on an ancillary raise, then too often those people are right.  Generally you’ll need to make sure you have around 20-25% of your total budget for post.  It’s better if you can raise this round concurrently with your round for Pre-Production and Principle Photography

The best places to find completion money are grants, equity, backed debt, and gap debt

4. Distribution Funding/P&A

It’s very surprising to me how difficult it is to raise for this round, as it’s very much the least risky round for an investor, since the film is already done.

Theres a strong chance your distributor will cover most of this, but in the event that they don’t, you’ll need to allocate money for it. Generally, I say that if you’re raising the funds for distribution yourself, you should plan on at least 10% of the total budget of the film being used for distribution.

Generally you’ll find money for this in the following places. Grants, equity, backed debt, and gap debt.

If you like this article but still have questions, you should consider joining my email list.  You’ll get a free e-book, monthly digests of articles just like this, segmented by topic, as well as some great discounts, special offers, and a whole section of my site with FREE Filmmaking resources ONLY open to people on my email list.  Check it out!

Why Genre is VITAL to Independent Film Marketing & Distribution

This is a topic that’s a little basic, but it’s a fundamental building block of understanding how to market your film. So I thought I would do a breakdown of why genre is so important to independent filmmakers in terms of marketing and distribution.  I do touch on in my book The Guerrilla Rep: American Film Market Distribution Success on No Budget, but even there I only cover it in a sense as it pertains to the market.  Let’s get started. 
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Before we begin, we should talk about what a genre actually is.  At its core, the genre of your film is primarily a simple tool for categorizing how your film compares to other films.  It’s a broad bucket of similar elements that lump films together in a way that makes it easier to sell them and easier to convey the general experience of a film succinctly.  Knowing this will inform everything else on this list. 
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Generally, there are both genres and sub-genres.  Sub-genres can generally pair with any genre, but some pairings work better than others.  Here’s a somewhat complete list of genres and sub genres.  Genres tend to focus on plot elements and overall feel whereas Sub Genres also have more to do with themes or settings.

Genres

• Action

• Horror

• Thriller

• Family

• Comedy

• Drama

• Documentary

Sub-Genres

• Adventure

• Sci-Fi

• Fantasy

• Crime

• Sports

• Faith Based

• LGBT

• Romance

• Biographical

• Music/Musicals

• Animated

So Why is Genre So Effing Important?

Genre provides a general set of guidelines for filmmakers to follow when crafting a story.

Since there are certain elements that are inherent in any particular genre, understanding the tropes of any particular genre can be very helpful in crafting your narrative and in shooting your film.  If you know you’re shooting an action film, then there had better be fight scenes, shootouts, and car chases.  If you’re making a thriller, there should be a lot of suspense.  If you’re shooting a horror, a good amount of your budget will go on buckets of blood.  Knowing the tropes in advance can really help frame your story and what you need to shoot your film. 

Genre categorizes it for potential customers

As mentioned above, genres are simply categorizations of similar elements of a film.  As such, certain viewers will develop an affinity for a certain genre. Some people will like some genres more than others.  Sometimes a viewer will be in the mood for one genre, but not in the mood for another.  Kind of like how sometimes you’re craving Mexican food, and other times you’re craving Chinese.

Genre helps to find an audience for the film

Think of this as the reverse of the point above.  If your film has a well-defined genre, it can be great for discovery by the audience that’s seeking it out.  Again, think about the food example.  If you’re a Mexican food restaurant in an area where the community is all huge fans of Mexican cuisine, you’re likely to do well.  However, if you’re a barbecue joint in a city known for its insanely high levels of Veganism, you might be in for a rough go of it. Of course, this kind of ignores the problem of oversaturation but there’s only so much I can tackle in 600-800 words.

Genre categorizes your film for Distributors and sales agents

Distributors and Sales agents understand the issues above.  In addition, they often build a brand around certain genres so that there’s a high degree of audience recognition from them.  Buyers and distributors often continually serve the same end viewer, and as such their brand is particularly important, and they often seek a similar sort of film time and time again.  Think about the difference between the programming on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, or the difference between Comedy Central and MTV.
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Sales agents generally develop deep relationships with the same buyers.  As such, they become acutely aware of that buyer’s brand, and the sort of content they normally buy.  As such, that’s the sort of content they look to acquire. 

What happens if I cross-Genres?

So this is somewhat beyond the scope of this blog, but it’s a point that should be made and I don’t think I could spend an entire blog on it.  So keep in mind that cross-genre is different than a genre and a sub-genre.  A Cross Genre would be a horror comedy or an action thriller.  Those are two examples that generally work, at least in the right circumstances.  Other genre-crossing like Action Drama or Family Horror probably don’t work so well. 

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind about going cross-genre. 

It doesn’t add to the audience it limits it

If you make a film that’s both horror and comedy, it doesn’t sell to people who like either Horror and Comedy, it generally only appeals to people who like BOTH horror AND Comedy.  So instead of expanding your horizons, it limits them.  However, people who like both of these genres are going to be far more likely to really enjoy your film, just because they don’t get as much horror/comedy content as they might like.  That said, getting to these people can be both difficult and expensive. 

If done poorly, it confuses the message.

As you can see from the later two examples above, if you cross genre poorly it can be very creatively limiting.  A horror family movie doesn’t sound like it would be possible to do very well.  I know that Indiana Jones and the Temple of doom had elements of this, as did Gremlins, but The Temple of Doom was primarily an Action Adventure movie, and Gremlins would be very difficult to package in this day and age. 

If you'd like to learn more about film marketing and distribution, you should join my mailing list.  You'll get access to a FREE set of film market resources, as well as several digests over a few months of articles just like this one, organized by topic, delivered directly to your inbox.  

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The 7 Essential Elements of A Strong Indie Film Package

Most filmmakers want to know more about how to raise money for their projects.  It’s a complicated question with lots of moving parts.  However, one crucial component to building a project that you can get financed is building a cohesive package that will help get the film financed.  So with that in mind, here are the 7 essential elements of a good film package.    ​

1.Director

As we all know, the director is the driving force behind the film.  As such, a good director that can carry the film through to completion is an essential element to a good film package.  Depending on the budget range, you may need a director with an established track record in feature films.  If you don’t have this, then you probably can’t get money from presales, although this may be less of a hard and fast rule than I once thought it was.
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Related:What's the Difference between an LOI and a Presale?

Even if you have a first-time director, you’ll need to find some way of proving to potential investors that they’ll be able to get the job done, and helm the film so that it comes in on time and on budget

2. Name Talent

I know that some filmmakers don’t think that recognizable name talent adds anything to a feature film.  While from a creative perspective, there may be some truth to that, packaging and finance is all about business.  From a marketing and distribution perspective, films with recognizable names will take you much further than films without them.  I’ve covered this in more detail in another blog, linked below.
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Related: Why your Film Needs Name Talent

Recognizable name talent generally won’t come for free.  You may need a pay-or-play agreement, which is where item 7 on this list comes in handy. ​
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3. An Executive Producer

If you’re raising money, you should consider engaging an experienced executive producer.  They’ll be able to help connect you to money, and some of them will help you develop your business plan so that you’re ready to take on the money when it comes time to.  A good executive producer will also be able to greatly assist in the packaging process, and help you generate a financial mix.
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Related: The 9 Ways to finance an Independent Film.

I do a lot of this sort of work for my clients.  If you’ve got an early-stage project you’d like to talk about getting some help with building your package and/or your business plan I’d be happy to help you to do so.  Just click the clarity link below to set up a free strategy session, or the image on the right to submit your project.

4. Sales Agent/Distributor

If you want to get your investors their money back, then you’re going to need to make sure that you have someone to help you distribute your independent film.  The best way to prove access to distribution is to get a Letter of Intent from a sales agent.  The blog below can help you do that. 
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Related: 5 Rules for Getting an LOI From a Sales Agent

5. Deck/Business Plan

If you’re going to seek investors unfamiliar with the film industry, you’re going to need a document illustrating how they get their money back   This can be done with either a 12-slide deck, or a 20-page business plan.  I’ve linked to some of my favorite books on business planning for films below. 

6. Pro-Forma Financial Statements

Pro forma financial statements are essentially documents like your cash flow statement, breakeven analysis, top sheet budget, Capitalization Table, and Revenue Distribution charts that help you include in the latter half of the financial section of a business plan.  

There’s a lot more information on these in the book Filmmakers and Financing by Louise Levinson.  I’m also considering writing a blog series about writing a business plan for independent film.  If you’d like to see that, comment it below. ​

7. Some Money already in place

Yes, I know I said that you need a package to raise money, but often in order to have a package you need to have some percentage of the budget already locked in.  Generally, 10% is enough to attach a known director and known talent.  If you’re looking for a larger Sales Agent then you’ll also need to have some level of cash in hand.

This is essentially a development round raise.  For more information on the development round raises, check out this blog!

Thanks for reading, for more content like this in a monthly digest, as well as a FREE Film Market Resources Package, check out the link below and join my mailing list.​

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What platforms should I release my movie on?

I’ve stepped into the world of direct US Distribution and even ran a US Distributor that released around 50 titles ahead of being acquired by a larger company. This is primarily due to things I’ve learned from several other US Releases I’ve overseen as a Producer’s Rep.  One of the most common questions I get is what platforms to release a film on.  So, instead of answering the same thing over and over, I’ve decided to put my thoughts into a blog.

When answering this question, the biggest questions you have to ask yourself are what platforms are likely to yield the highest return.  I know that’s obvious, but it’s not as easy to find that information as you would think.  A lot of TVOD (Transactional Video On Demand) Sales are in the toilet, and it’s surprisingly common for filmmakers not to make their money back.

So all of that being said, here are the platforms I’ve had the best luck with so far.  This is all through a very narrow lens, of films I’ve represented, but it’s information straight from the horse’s mouth.  

Vimeo on your Website

No matter what your distribution deal is, you’re going to want to hold back the right to sell the film yourself through Vimeo on your website.  You may have to work on the timing of this with your distributor due to piracy reasons, but it is something that you need to know. 

This gives you the ability to sell your film no matter what happens with your distribution deal and guarantees you can make yourself some level of return, even if it’s tiny. It’s extremely high touch and has no meaningful metric of discovery.

Cable TVOD

Cable TVOD platforms are essentially the grandchild of the Pay Per View us older millennials and Gen Xers grew up with.  These are the rentals you can get directly from your Cable box.  These tend to convert at pretty decent numbers since people who actually still have cable packages have the money to rent movies through their system and often do.

From what I’ve seen, InDemand from Comcast pays out the best, followed by DirectTV’s rental system. 

Where you get placed in these systems can greatly impact how much you make from them, so if you can get yourself a 7-10 city theatrical run you’re going to be in a much better place. 

In terms of how long you can expect your film to be tied up there, normally these licenses last at least 6 months, often up to 2 years, or whenever the provider feels like taking them down.​ This is also something you probably need a distributor to do for you, as most aggregators release too much content to be able to place on these platforms reliably.

iTunes / AppleTV (no +)

Next up is iTunes.  If you’re releasing your film, you need to get it on iTunes.  This is partially due to it remaining one of the best selling TVOD platforms, but also because it’s the most technically stringent for you to get on.  If you can make it on iTunes, you can make it anywhere. 

Often that’s the real reason that aggregators put iTunes as the first required platform on the list, and then give you discounts to other outlets.   

So long as you’ve got a good marketing plan, you’ll generally at least make your aggregation investment back from iTunes.  I know that’s not saying a lot, but it’s a start, and there are many platforms where that’s not true.

Note from the future: Since iTunes Rebranded to AppleTV, it’s not putting up anywhere near the numbers it used to. It’s been entirely surpassed by Amazon.

Google Play

While Google Play may seem like it’s the equal opposite of iTunes, in practice it doesn’t pan out this way.  Part of the reason could be the greater market penetration of Apple TVs, or it could be that people who buy apple products tend to have the expendable income to buy movies, or it could be something else entirely.  While I can’t say why with any certainty, I can say that you should give google play a miss. That said, Google Play gets you on the next platform, so why not. Also, as mentioned above Apple just doesn’t perform as well as it used to since the rebrand.

​YouTube TVOD (YouTube Movies)

If your film is targeted more towards millenials, you may want to consider making it available on YouTube.  The numbers out of YouTube TVOD can be surprisingly good, often rivaling iTunes if the film is targeted towards Millenials.  This probably has something to do with the fact that you don’t have to leave the platform you’ve hosted the trailer on.  This one tends to perform second best on films I’ve released.

Fandango Now

If your film had any level of a theatrical release, you should consider fandango now.  The numbers tend to be pretty good.

If you haven’t had a theatrical release, discoverability on the platform can be lacking, but since they merged with Vudu it’s probably worth the fee if you end up on both.

Gaming Systems

Honestly, I haven’t had much luck with the direct TVOD sales through Xbox One and PS4.  I personally wouldn’t bother with them.  If your content is oriented towards 15-24-year-old males, or has some tie-in to video game culture then it might be worth trying, but in general it’s hard to even make back your aggregation fees. 

Note from the future: This isn’t as easy as it once was. Your best bets are YouTube and the next one on this list.

Amazon

DEFINATELY put your film on Amazon.  In my time running Mutiny, it accounted for a majority of sales despite the fact we released films to around 6-8 platforms.

I’d recommend doing it in two stages, first, as a TVOD/MOD (Manufacture on Demand) DVD release in line with your other TVOD releases, and second as an SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand) release through Amazon Prime. 

Note from the future: too bad you can’t do this anymore. Use an aggregator to get on Tubi, Vudu, and Pluto instead.

Once you get it set up on Amazon Prime, you’d be surprised how quickly Prime will overshadow the rest of your VOD sales.  Generally, waiting 3 months for prime as a window is about right, just to make sure you get the most you can out of your other TVOD outlets. 

You won’t have to take them down for prime, but you will see the sales figures drop steadily once the film is free to watch on a service pretty much everyone has. 

That said, it will be much easier to get people to watch the film once it’s free on Amazon Prime.  Once it’s set to go live, make sure you get AT LEAST 5 friends to watch it ALL THE WAY THROUGH and rate it.   If they do, it serves as a recommendation to Amazon’s Algorithm and it recommends the film to up to 100 more people you don’t know.

Whether or not you work with a distributor, getting your film out there is a lot of work. It’s also not something that film schools tend to teach as well as they should. That’s why I developed this free Film Marketing Resource package. It’s got a monthly content digest full of useful articles just like this one, as well as templates to help you contact distributors, raise money from investors, and market your film at festivals. Get it for free by clicking below.

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Filmmakers! - 5 Steps to Successful Grantwriting

A few months ago I worked with the absolutely lovely Joanne Butcher of Filmmaker Success to put on an educational event about grant writing here in San Francisco.  Joanne has raised millions in grant funding for several non-profits over the course of her life.  While I can’t distill everything from her talk into a single blog, I can give the people who weren’t able to make it some of the key takeaways.  So without further ado, here are the 5 rules for applying for grants.

1. Research

This might just be a Guerrilla Rep Media Rule of life at this point.  If you understand the field you’re playing on, you’re going to be much better at whatever game you’re going to play there.  The only way you understand that field is by researching it. But I digress. 

When applying for grants, the first step is to research and find grants to apply to.  (Duh) Focus on grants that match the subject matter of your film. It’s best to only apply for grants you’re perfect for, even if they are not directly related to filmmaking.  

The fact is that no one can apply to the thousands of grants they are eligible for is why limiting to the perfect matches is going to greatly increase your success.  It’s almost always a bad idea to bend something to fit a grant application. The key here is to remove the mindset of scarcity, and instead focus on finding the right fit.

As an example, if we were looking for funding for a reboot of The Little Mermaid, Joanne would recommend looking into marine science foundations, climate change foundations, and local artist grants, local filmmaking grants, or since it’s based on a Hans Christian Andersen book, even Denmark’s Cultural heritage foundations might be worth applying to.  

This article is a good place to start for your research.

FILMDAILY.TV'S GRANT LIST

2.   Set a goal for applications

Set an achievable goal for grants you want to apply for.  A safe bet is one per month. This would put applying for grants as a heavy part-time job for you though.

It can be hard to find relevant grants to apply to get up to 1 per week, so you should consider applying to grants that are thematically related to your content, as opposed to strictly applying for film grants.  What I mean by this is if your film is about homelessness, then maybe apply for grants from organizations helping the homeless, stating how you can help increase the awareness and impact of their foundation through the power of motion pictures.  ​

3.   Answer the Questions

Now that you’ve researched to find relevant grants, and you’ve set your goals, it’s time to start grant writing!  I know that sounds super intimidating, but really it’s just answering a very long series of questions. 

Although when you’re answering your questions, you should remember that it’s more than just providing information.  Your goal here is to sell the grantor on why your project is the one that will get the most bang for their funders buck.  

Every funder’s primary responsibility is to fund the projects that provide the most value to the foundation.  Generally, this means the projects that get the most eyeballs on them, and offer the most benefits to the communities that particular funder serves.  Your job is to convince that funder that your project is the one that will do that. 

4.   Hit Send

I know this sounds rather obvious, but once you’ve written your grant you need to press send.  However, a lot of filmmakers get stuck at this step, and spend so much time perfecting their application that they either miss the deadline, or could have applied to a whole different grant in the time they spent making one of them about 2% better.  Hit send, and start applying for the next one. 
​

5.  Apply Again Next Year

Finally, the first time that you apply for a grant, don’t be put off if you don’t get it..  Most funders get far more applications than they have money to fund, and competition is fierce..  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply, it just means that you need to keep applying, and, over time, improve both your proposals, your projects and your relationships with the funders.  “After all, says Joanne, “you can’t apply a second time until you’ve applied for a first.”

IF you’re a filmmaker, you’re always likely to have some project that will require funding.  Thus, relationships with funders will be very important to your long term career. By applying for film grants, you start to develop a relationship with the grantor, even if your grant applications are unsuccessful.

Also, if you’re declined, you can actually call up the funder, and ask why.  Most times, grantors will share some insight as to why your application was declined.  Doing this can put you in a much better position to get the grant next year. Just don’t be rude when you do; the point is to build a positive relationship

Thanks so much for reading!  I’d heavily encourage you to check out Joanne Butcher’s website below.  Also, check out the free indiefilm resource pack for EXCLUSIVE templates and tools to help you finance your film, as well as a monthly blog digest to help answer any questions that you may end up needing to fill out your grant proposal.

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9 Things I Learned from my First Theatrical Release

We recently came to the close of the theatrical release of Rockhaven Film’s Goodland.  It played in a total of 7 cities.  This was the first time I’ve been a key part of making a theatrical release work, so I wanted to share some of what I learned along the way.  So here it is 9 things I learned from my first theatrical release.

1. Booking theaters is both expensive and time-consuming

I tried booking a theater here in San Francisco, but in the end, I was unsuccessful.  The only theater that really got back to us would only show the film on a rental, not a revenue share.  We didn’t pay any of the other theaters, and we weren’t going to start in San Francisco. 

If we had paid them, it would have been a bit over 2,000 for 9 showings in a week.  It is possible to get some films in there on revenue share alone, but if you do you often must give up the first 2-3,000 in sales directly to the theater, and generally, that’s about all you’ll make from a screen unless you can really pound the pavement and get press coverage. 

2. Book local theaters, New York, and Los Angeles first. 

This contradicts some of what I just said, but when you’re getting started, the first theaters you need to book are New York, Los Angeles, and perhaps the screen most local to the filmmakers.   New York and LA get you more press coverage and give legitimacy to your theatrical run.  The local screen is generally the easiest to book.

​3. You don’t always need a full week’s run.

We only did 3 screenings in Buffalo, NY, but we still got a decent amount of press and a good amount of social media attention.  Doing 1-3 screenings in a market makes it feel more like an event, and is a great way to build word of mouth about your film.  Even if you can’t book a full week, consider booking a few one-night-only engagements to boost your presence in markets across the country. 

4. ​Often, 1-2 shows a day is easier to sell.

We had 3-5 screenings a day in Kansas City, and it was difficult to drive traffic to any one particular screening.  That includes the screenings we had with Q&As after them.  If you focus on one individual showing a day, it’s easier to focus your marketing efforts, and get those butts in seats for an indie movie.

5. Fewer theaters are independently owned than you think

In attempting to book theaters in San Francisco, I found that only a few local theaters were independently owned.  More theaters than you think are owned by mega chains like AMC, Cinemark, United Artists, and Landmark.  If you’re dealing with these mega-chains, you’re likely going to have to deal with their buyers.  Generally, those buyers will only want to deal with distributors. 
​

6. Once a theater is booked you can still get bumped unless you paid the rental fee.  

We booked a screen in New York for the same day we opened in LA.  Unfortunately, we were bumped because Avengers, Infinity War outperformed expectations.  If possible, don’t try to book your indie in May, June, July, August, November, or December.  That’s when Hollywood will be very likely to bump you.

7. Keep Making Noise to fill seats

Once you get your theaters booked, you’re still going to have to drive local people to theaters.  The most cost-effective ways to do this are via local press coverage and social media.  The two work very well together.  Keep your audience engaged by sharing news on your facebook page, twitter, and Instagram whenever there’s news to be had. ​
​

Related: 5 Dos and Don'ts for Marketing your Movie on Social Media

8. Press coverage is key: Local Press can be very cliquey.  

Local Press coverage is among the best ways to drive traffic to your movie.  However, it can be difficult to get. 

It should surprise precisely no-one reading this list that some film scenes are very cliquey, and some of those people from the film scenes end up in positions of power at general press outlets.  They may not cover your movie just because you’re not one of the cool kids.  It sucks, but it is what it is.  It would be difficult to change their mind, so just move on to other outlets if that’s what you’re running up against. 

9. In the end, if you've made ANY money you've done well. 

Finally, there’s not really a lot of money in theatrical runs themselves.  There is a lot of additional money to be had in having had a theatrical release.  If you end up getting beyond your distributor’s recoupable expenses, you’ve done VERY well.  The additional money you’ve gotten from these outlets is likely to have a marked impact on your TVOD sales and your SVOD sales price.  I might be making some announcements about how that worked for Goodland on our Facebook page, soon.

I hope this was helpful to building your indie film career. If you’re embarking on your own journey through distribution, you should make sure to grab my FREE indie film resource package. It’s got lots of templates to help you talk to distributors, tools to help you raise funding and even exclusive money-saving resources.

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6 Reasons Filmmakers Are Entrepreneurs

Filmmakers often don’t like to think of themselves as business people.  Often, they’d rather be creative, and focus solely on the art of cinema.  Unfortunately, this is not the way to create a career crafting moving images.  In order to make a career, you must understand how to make money.  The easiest way to do that is to think like an entrepreneur.  here are 6 reasons why.

1. Filmmakers and Entrepreneurs both Must Turn an Idea into a Product.

At its core, the goal of both being a filmmaker and an entrepreneur is the same.  To take an idea, and turn it into a market-ready product.  For an entrepreneur, this product can be anything from software to food products, and everything in between.  For a filmmaker, the product is content.  Generally speaking, that content is a completed film, web series, or Television series.

This alone should be enough to see how filmmakers are entrepreneurs, but it’s not the only way the two job titles are similar

2. Filmmakers and Entrepreneurs are both creative innovators birthing something that has never been seen before.  

Every successful company does something no one else ever has.  Every successful film brings something that’s never been seen before to the market.  Some innovations are minor, others major.  Both sets of innovations are born by iterating on another idea that didn’t quite make their product in a way that the entrepreneur or filmmaker thinks is the best way. 

Innovation is at the core of both filmmaking and entrepreneurship.  Both involve intelligent and creative people who want to change the world.  Some through technology, some through storytelling.

3. Filmmakers and Entrepreneurs both must figure out who will buy their product.  

If either a filmmaker or an entrepreneur is to be successful, then they need to figure out who will buy their product when it’s ready to ship.  If they don’t know what their target market is, then it’s impossible to make enough money to keep the company going or help investors recoup so you can make another film. ​

Market research is key to this.  If you want to find out more, check out last week’s blog by clicking here. 

4. Filmmakers and Entrepreneurs both often need to raise money to create their products.

While everything else on this list is true nearly 100% of the time, this one is only true 80-90% of the time.  While some entrepreneurs and filmmakers can finance their companies out of pocket, most filmmakers need to consider how they’ll pay for the things necessary to create their chosen product. 

Both filmmakers and entrepreneurs must develop a deep understanding of fundraising if they’re going to be able to make their career in their chosen field a long-term sustainable one. 

5. Filmmakers and Entrepreneurs must both assemble a team to turn their idea into a product.  

No one can make a film or build a company all by themselves.  Both must build and manage a team of creatives and business people to create their product and take it out to the world.  Without the ability to build and lead a team to success, the film or the company will not succeed. ​

6. Filmmakers and Entrepreneurs must both figure out how to take their products to market.  

After coming up with an idea, figuring out who will buy their product, financing their vision, and assembling a team in order to create a product, filmmakers still need to get that product and figure out how to take it to market. For both, this is generally referred to as the distribution stage of the process.

For filmmakers, it’s relatively well-defined despite the information about it not being widely enough available. For entrepreneurs, their distribution plan will vary greatly by industry. But in either case, if the end user/viewer can’t access the product, they won’t buy it.

Thank you so much for reading.  If you’d like to become a better indie film entrepreneur, you should check out my FREE Indiefilm Resource package. it’s got a free e-book called The Entrepreneurial Producer, several templates to help you organize your operation including a pitch deck template, and monthly blog digests to help you expand your knowledge base.

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How Do I Figure Out Who will Buy my Movie?

There’s a difference between market research and marketing.  Market research is all about placing the target, and marketing is firing the arrow at it.  You can’t fire the arrow if you don’t place the target first.  To follow the metaphor, you can’t market your movie unless you first figure out who you’re going to market the film to.  This blog is about giving you the basics of figuring out who will want to buy your movie.  ​

There is no single, simple process to figure out who will watch your film.  Really, it’s a series of questions and educated guesses.  There are tools you can use to figure out who your film is likely to resonate with.

One of the most simple ways to get started is to figure out movies that are similar to yours, and look at the ratings by age on IMDb Pro.  This will give you an idea, and a point to start from.

Figuring out the ethnicity of people who will watch your film is also tricky.  Generally, the best way to figure this out is to go by the ethnicities of your main characters.  If your entire cast is white as a daisy’s petals, then it’s likely that your audience will appeal primarily to white people.  If it’s a diverse group, then it’s more likely that the appeal of your film will be diverse.

This method is admittedly far from foolproof, and you will definitely break out of this core demographic in terms of ethnicity, but your goal here is to figure out who you’re targeting, and plan where to start marketing your film.

There’s a lot more to figuring out who to market your film to than basic demography.  There’s also interest groups, and niche audiences.  The biggest ways to figure out what niches your film appeals to.  More than likely, it appeals to one.

If the film focuses heavily on LGBT issues, then marketing the film to the LGBT Community is a good idea.  The same can be said for faith based films.  In fact, the two niche markets behave very similarly when making purchase decisions, despite their polar opposite placement on the political spectrum.

There are lots of other niches that you can consider targeting.  Some would include bicyclists, vegans, bowling enthusiasts, single parents, families with family members with disabilities, recently divorced men, women, or other, gym rats, goths, punks, nerds, geeks, karaoke lovers, and basically any subculture you can think of.

You simply need to figure out which of these subcultures features prominently in your film, then try to make a decision on who you can market your film to

One important thing to keep in mind in deciding what sub-cultures to market to is that authenticity is key.  If your depiction of a particular subculture is inaccurate, then it’s unlikely that they’ll like your movie and tell their friends about it.

This process is really more art than science, especially given that there’s not a lot of data out there about how well any particular film did with what demographic.   But giving this thought early on will help you more than you’d expect not only in marketing your film, but even in making it.

Thanks so much for reading.  If you want help figuring out your target market, you may want to check out my resource packet for a free e-book, templates, monthly blog digests, and more.  Also, check out the content tags below the button for related content.

5 Reasons Traditional Film Distribution Still Matters to Indie Filmmakers

When you look at most of the other bloggers and podcasters talking about indie film distribution, a lot of them are very convinced that aggregators like Distribbr are the only solution that a Filmmaker needs.  As a Producer’s Rep, I disagree.  A good sales agent, distributor, or producer’s rep may each take a piece of the pie, but if they do their job well they’ll also make the pie significantly bigger, increasing the payout for all involved.

Here are 5 reasons why a traditional distributor or sales agent is still a necessary partner.

1. Distribution and Marketing are their own Skillsets

Unless you happen to have a background in marketing or a huge social media following, it’s not likely you’ll even make back the money you put into the aggregation fees.  It’s a surprising amount of work to get the amount of money you need to pay back fees upwards of a thousand dollars to put the film on iTunes. 

Distributors also help market the film.  It’s all they do, so they’re generally pretty good at it.  (At least, if you get the right ones) In addition to cutting the costs of aggregation and paying them out of a recoupable expense, Sales agencies and distributors will also often put money into a publicist, social media ads, and other marketing expenditures that will help your film make more money for all involved. ​

2. It's generally No/Less Money Up Front

If you use an aggregator or even a company like FilmHub or IndieRights, all marketing expenditures are on you. This includes posters, trailers, publicity, social media ads, and more. If it were me, I’d much rather give up a piece of the action to have someone else cover some of these costs up-front. ​

3. Not Every Avenue is Truly Open Without a Local Distributor

No matter what people tell you, not every avenue is completely open to self-distribution.  Theatrical is rare for most indie films, but unless you want to give up 90+% of the take, or pay a few thousand dollars per screen per week. pay a large amount of money to a platform or directly to theaters, you’re not getting into theaters.  If you work with the right distributor, they MIGHT be able to book you some screens. 

I’ve helped in organizing several theatrical releases of up to 50 screens per film. The way we did it avoided paying up front. Filmmakers generally don’t have the specialized knowledge or relationships to make that happen.

Further, other outlets most often won’t get you into Cable VOD, or SVOD other than Amazon rentals, even though they may claim they have the ability to. ​

4. Local Distributors Control Specialized Knowledge

Do you have any idea how to localize a film for South Korea?  What about Germany, Italy, or Mongolia?  I’m a Producer’s rep, and while I might have an idea of who would buy any given film on a territory-by-territory basis, I couldn’t tell you how best to market a film in every country across the globe.   That said, I do know people who do, and I know lots of people who can get it to the territories I can’t and I also know what they tend to pay for that content.  Successfully selling a film internationally involves a lot of highly specialized skills most filmmakers simply do not possess.  They’re the sort of skills that take decades to perfect.  So if you want your film to be truly exportable, then you should consider working with some partners to help you capture the foreign market.
​

5. Marketing is Much More Effective with Multiple Partners.

Multiple voices pushing your film will do a lot more than yours alone.  Working with Producer’s Reps, International Sales Agents, and distributors will amplify your voice and help it rise above the white noise to really take your project to the next level.   Without multiple experienced partners helping spread the word about your film, it can cost significantly more to raise awareness of your film.

I get this is a lot. If you want to learn more about it, you should check out my FREE Indiefilm Resource Package. It includes an E-book, lots of form letters, tracking templates, and other templates to help you get in touch with traditional distributors, and a monthly blog digest that will help you better understand the industry and improve your knowledge base in a sustainable way.

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Why You Still Need Name Talent in Your IndieFilm

​In the age of easily accessible self-distribution, cheap gear, and the ability to make and distribute a feature film for less than 10,000 dollars it’s understandable to wonder why you would want to spend 10,000-100,000 dollars a day on recognizable name talent.  Many proclaim that hiring recognizable name talent is simply a waste of time and money.

Speaking as someone who makes most of their living from film distribution, these people are wrong.  Here are 5 reasons why.

Recognizable Name Talent Significantly increases the Profile of the Film

In an age where anyone can make a film, the challenge becomes less one of making a film, and more one of rising above the white noise created by others also making films.  Recognizable name talent can be a great help you set yourself apart.  The notoriety brought by recognizable name talent helps raise public awareness of your project and greatly increases interest from high profiles sales agents and distributors.  Also, if they have a large social media presence and agree to help promote your film, it will have a tangible impact on the profile of your film.

Recognizable Name Talent Significantly increases the chance of meaningful press coverage.

With the higher profile that names talent brings to your project.  Press coverage will compound the impact on the awareness of your film that name talent brings.   If your film gets enough coverage, then a lot of the marketing will be done for you, and you’ll be able to attract the pieces of the puzzle that you’d otherwise need to chase.   These puzzle pieces can be anything from additional tickets sold, to in-kind product placement, and potentially even completion funding once your film is in the can.  

Several of my pre-completion press articles have been due in large part to having recognizable names attached to the project.

Recognizable Name Talent Increases the likelihood of getting into festivals

I know this isn’t going to be a popular thing to say, but film festivals don’t solely look at the quality of a film in deciding which ones should be programmed.  They also consider the fit with the festival’s brand, the current political climate, as well as the profile of the film and what showcasing the film, would bring to the festival. 

​Given that the profile of the film is greatly raised by recognizable name talent, it’s something that festival programmers will consider when deciding whether or not to program your film

​Name Talent Increase Your Distribution Options

From my personal experience in distribution and sales, it is easier to sell a mediocre film with names than a great film without them. This is true regardless of genre, although certain genres absolutely necessitate recognizable names if you want any international distribution.

Recognizable Name Talent is a great way to make both sales agents and distributors stand up and take notice.  Getting a star in your film has a direct and tangible impact on your chances of getting a profitable distribution deal. 

Without recognizable name talent, it’s almost impossible to get a minimum guarantee.  Further, many of your international sales will be revenue share only.  With Name Talent, it’s far more likely that you’ll get a minimum guarantee from the sales agent, and the deals with international buyers will be license fees or MGs instead of revenue share deals.

Name Talent Increases Self-Distribution Sales

Finally, even if you plan on self-distributing your film, recognizable name talent will help you move units.  Raising the profile of your film by having a star in your film will help you place higher in Amazon and iTunes search results, which will have a tangible impact on your bottom line. 

Thanks so much for reading.  If you enjoy my blog and want more, you should sign up for my FREE independent film business resources package.  It’s got an e-book with a lot of articles like this one you can’t find elsewhere, as well as templates to help you grow your film career. One of the articles in the e-book includes a script for calling actors’ agents. Click the button below for more information.

6 Tips to manage your Indiefilm Facebook Page

Your social media presence for your company is extremely important.  Likely, the most important piece of it is your presence on Facebook.  Facebook has the largest user base, and if you know how to use it you can tap into a huge part of your target market.  Here are 5 rules that will help you grow your Facebook presence. ​

Focus on a Page for Your Company, not your projects.

When you set up your Facebook page, it’s better to focus on a page for your production company instead of your film.  This way, when you move on to the next film, you’ll already have the audience you’ve created for your film.  You may have to create a page for individual projects, but you should focus on keeping the audience for your company page engaged.

Also, its getting more and more difficult to run a business through a standard profile. You can try it to increase organic reach, but you may end up hurting yourself more than helping yourself.

Always respond to Messages to your page

If you want to keep your reach up, you need to respond to questions and comments that come to your page via messenger. It can also lead to some really notable business opportunities and sales for you. At least, it has for me.

Don’t try to manage too much at once.

Just having a huge Facebook page won’t do you much good.  You have to use it as a way to engage the audience for your projects.   To do this, you have to regularly post content relevant to your target demographic. Finding or creating high-quality, engaging content is a very time-consuming process.  If you want to try to manage too many pages at once, you’re likely to burn out and not be able to continue regularly posting relevant content.

If you let too long pass between posts, your fan base will start to decay.  Further, when next you post, your posts won’t reach as far because Facebook’s algorithm won’t let them.  It’s much better to focus on managing one or two pages at the same time and helping those pages to grow within the platform.

Share useful content to relevant groups

One good way to grow your brand recognition online is to post valuable content to your page, then share it with groups filled with your target demographic.  I do this all the time.  In fact, there’s a good chance that’s how you found this article.  This content shouldn’t just be sales links for your film, it should be free content that provides some value to the group.  You can post the occasional sales link, but you shouldn’t do so more than once per week. 
​

Related:5 Dos and Don'ts for Selling your Film on Social Media

It’s important that you avoid being too spammy while doing this.  I have a list of 5 groups to share to each of my pages on a daily basis, to help ensure I don’t post to the same group too many times.   It takes some time to set up, but it’s the best way to avoid running afoul of group admins.  That’s not something you want to do. Trust me.  (Sorry if you’re one of the admins I’ve run afoul of, just trooping through this.

Always post videos natively

By this, I mean always upload your videos directly to Facebook, and don’t post a Vimeo or YouTube link.  If Facebook sees that the video is coming from Vimeo or YouTube, it will only get about 20% of the reach.  If, on the other hand, you upload it directly to your page, it will actually get a lot of prioritized placement in the feeds of people who like your content and their friends. 

Don’t put your movie on Facebook, put your trailers there and point to Amazon.

Finally, Facebook video is a great place to post a trailer, but not a great place to post your entire film.  First of all, you won’t be paid for posting your video to Facebook like you would be if you posted to Amazon Video Direct or YouTube.  Second, most people just don’t watch full-length films on Facebook.  They’ll watch videos that are only a few minutes long. 

As such, posting your trailer can be a great way to get extra attention on it, and then you can link off to a place where people can buy it or watch it for free.   Doing this can not only increase the number of people who watch your film, but might even increase your total audience. 

Thanks so much for reading.  If you like this content, you should consider liking my page on Facebook!  Here’s a link.

www.facebook.com/theguerrillarep.

Also, join my mailing list for more indie-film business content, plus a free e-book, template, and more!

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The 5 Rules to Running a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

Since my exit from Mutiny Pictures Most of my work, these days is as an executive producer, consultant, distribution representative, and marketer. However, there was a time when I was a filmmaker and a regular (as opposed to executive) producer.  During that time, I raised a total of 33,000 on Kickstarter for two projects.   This blog gives you some of what I learned from those two campaigns.

​While those two projects never went as far as they could have due to a parting of ways between myself and my former business partner, there’s still a lot of information I learned in running these campaigns in the early days of Kickstarter.  Here are 5 of them.

​#1. Prepare

You CANNOT be successful in crowdfunding without preparation, and that preparation starts early.  Generally, your soft preparation for a crowdfunding campaign will start at least 6 months before you launch your campaign.  This soft preparation will consist more of being an active member of your community.  About 3 months out you’ll need to get ready to shoot your video, and about 2 months later you’ll need to get ready for pre-launch. 

I’ll be releasing a preparation timeline in a few weeks, so check back soon!

#2. Grow Your Network

About 80% of your donations will come from people you already know and interact with regularly.  This is why you need to become active in communities that will be interested in your film.  This can be alumni organizations, groups of people enthusiastic about the kind of film you’re making, and any other group of people that are tangentially connected to the film you’re planning on making.
​

#3. ​It’s a Full Time Job, Plan Accordingly

No matter how much preparation you do, when the campaign starts it will be at least one person’s full-time job.  You’ll need to personally thank everyone who donates, and you’ll need to spend a lot of time emailing basically everyone you know individually.  If you’re smart, you’ll do it twice.  Bulk emails aren’t going to do you anywhere near as much good as individual emails, and individual emails take a lot of time. 
​

#4. Try to Get as Much Press as Possible

The best way to add legitimacy to your campaign is to get mentioned in the press.  In order to get that press you’ll need to reach out to any editors and reporters you can that might cover you.  Note that I say editors and reporters THAT MIGHT COVER YOU.  If you know a reporter at Variety, you probably don’t want to email them about your campaign since they’re not going to cover it.  If you grew up in a small town with a local paper, you definitely do.  You’d be surprised what they’ll cover. 

This is something you can work with your prospective crew about as well.  Maybe you’re not from a small town, but your DP or production designer might be.  This can be a very mutually beneficial arrangement, it puts your crew in the spotlight and raises the profile of the film. 

It would be wise to send out a press release via one of the many press release sites.  This will help you generate at least a few articles on affiliates for NBC, FOX, and others that you can use to grow the profile and perceived legitimacy of your campaign.  It also has some SEO benefits, but I’m not sure that would help too much on crowdfunding. ​

#5. DON’T SPAM

Don’t post your campaign incessantly on all of your social media,  Make sure you continue to provide value outside of asking for money while you’re in your campaign.

If you use Messenger to send your campaign to someone, open up a conversation first.  Don’t just copy-paste a form email with no conversation back from them.   

Say hello to someone first.  Ask how they’re doing.  Then send them info about your campaign when they ask what you’re up to. Taking the time to show you care about what’s going on in their life will greatly increase both your conversion rate and the amount each member of your network contributes.

Thanks for reading!  If you like this, you should go ahead and grab my FREE Film Market Resource Pack. It’s got a free e-book of articles like this one to help you grow your filmmaking career, free templates to streamline investor and distributor conversations, and even a monthly content digest that helps you continue to grow your knowledge base on a schedule that’’s manageable to almost anyone. Get it for FREE Below.

5 DO's and DON'Ts for Selling Your Film on Social Media

I sell a lot of stuff on social media.  In fact, that’s probably how you’re reading this blog right now.  Since I’m very active, I also get a lot of people trying to sell stuff to me on social media.  This blog is an amalgamation of some of what I’ve found works on social media, and some of the stuff I’ve found does more to harm your brand than build it.

Before you ask, yes I’ve been on both sides of pieces of this article at various times.

DO: Provide Value

Far and away the most important rule of building a brand on social media is to ALWAYS provide Value.  Even when you’re trying to sell something, you should be providing value.  It will take several impressions with a potential customer for them to engage with your content or buy your service, and in that time you’ll need to provide that potential customer quite a lot of value. 

DON'T: Post Nothing But Sales Links

Even if your service provides value to members of a group or your carefully cultivated following.  If all you do is post things like “BUY MAH MOOOVIE!” then you’re failing to provide value, and you’re not going to move too many copies. To be honest, it’s also important to avoid posting too many links to groups in general. I’ve definitely been on the wrong end of that in the past with my 100+ blogs.

DO: Focus on Building Relationships

Building a relationship with your potential customers is the only way to turn them from potential customers to single-time customers, to regular, recurring business.  Essentially, these relationships rely on trust.  In order to build that trust, try posting relevant articles from your blog, behind-the-scenes footage, a piece of press you got mentioned in, or whatever else that gives you a touchpoint with your fanbase without asking them to spend money. 

DON'T: Treat All Your "Friends" Solely as Potential Customers.

If you’re like most people, you have everyone from high school classmates to people you know from the bar to great aunt Gertrude on your Facebook.  Be cognisant of the fact that most of those people may or may not want to actually buy your movie.  Don’t forget to post the standard facebook posts alongside talking about your project.​

DO: Start a Conversation

If you want to share something you’re working on or the movie you just made with someone via a messaging system, start by saying hello.  If you open up a conversation and show genuine interest in what they’re working on, it will be far more likely that they’ll be genuinely interested in what you want to sell them. ​

DON'T: Send a Form Message with a Link to All Your "Friends"

When I say Start with Hello, I don’t mean a message like this.

“Hello! How are you? I hope you’re well. It’s been a while since we talked, but I just wanted to let you know about this movie I just finished called I’ma Spam You! If you could check it out via this link below, I’d be super greatful”

https://imgflip.com/i/23nduh

Doing that is more likely to lose you connections than convince people to buy your content.

DO: Know Who You're Talking To

Are you reaching out to someone you went to High School with?  Maybe you haven’t spoken in years.  If that’s the case, you’ll definitely want to try to catch up before you ask them for money.  If you have powerful people on your social media, you should be careful how you approach them.  I’ve had people try to sell me their unproduced scripts on Amazon, then go off on a fiery tirade when I didn’t want to buy it.  They are now blocked, although a mutual friend said they were still looking for some of the services I offer.  Don’t do that to yourself.

DON'T: Try to Sell Your Movie to Someone Who Has No Reason to be Interested.

Someone you know who is incredibly christian, probably isn’t going to buy your body horror feature film.  Similarly, the goths on your friend list probably aren’t going to buy your faith based film.  Know who you’re trying to sell your movie to, and take note.

DO: Post Relevant Content to Relevant Groups

Maybe you’re putting some content into a filmmaking group.  If you are, you should make sure that whatever content you’re posting provides value.  The long and short of it is: Don’t post irrelevant content and expect people to engage with it in a positive manner.

DON'T: Be an Asshole

This point originally read Don’t be Spammy, but in a way the two are synonymous. They also both very eloquently summarize this entire article. If you’re not sure whether or not you’re being an asshole, then ask yourself the following question. “Am I being an asshole?” if the answer is anything other than “No” you probably are being at least a bit of one.

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4 Reasons Niche Marketing is VITAL to your indiefilm’s Succes

Most people don’t plan to fail, they simply fail to plan.  Similarly, most filmmakers don’t think about anything other than getting the film made until the film is completed.  This is a prime example of failure to plan resulting in a failed project.  In reality, you should be thinking about your target market as early as when you write your script.  If this is your first film, you should be targeting a well defined niche.  Here are 4 reasons why.

Would you Rather Watch than Read?  Here's a video on the same general topic from my YouTube Channel.

Niche Marketing Gives you an audience for your film

I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your film is unlikely to appeal to everyone everywhere.  You’re much better off figuring out what parts of your story will resonate with various groups, and focusing your early marketing efforts on them.  It will put your film in front of the people who it will resonate most strongly with, and it will help you rise about the white noise that every content creator must face, especially when starting out. 

It’s also important to keep in mind that just because your film starts in a niche doesn’t mean that the niche is where it will always live.  If you properly utilize niche marketing, it can actually help you break out of the niche and into the more generalized marketplace. 

Niche Marketing Cuts down on your marketing cost

If you do think that you can target everyone, because your film is just that universally appealing then your marketing expenditures are going to be astronomical.  Also, you’ll be competing directly with movies like Star Wars, The Avengers, and whatever the next Pixar movie is.  Unless you’re a studio head, then you can’t afford to win that competition. 

Utilizing proper niche marketing efforts will dramatically cut down on your marketing expenditure since you’ll know exactly who you want to get your project in front of.  Thanks to social media platforms, you’ll be able to target those people directly using smart advertising buys and strong community engagement from an early stage.

Further, if you do break out of your niche, you’ll already have more noise being made about your project so the costs to market it will be much smaller.

Niche Marketing Can help you fund your film

If you start to get involved in niche communities well before you make your film, then you’ll have a community that you can mobilize to help you raise a portion of your funding through donation-based crowdfunding.  To be clear, if you simply post your campaign over and over to the various communities you want to support your campaign.  You’ll have to ingratiate yourself into them well before starting a campaign.

​The Reason that these people may well be willing to support your campaign is that many niche communities are underserved, and want to have their story shared. 

 They want to see more media made about their interests and themselves as a community.  They want their story told.  Many of them, are willing and eager to make it happen.  This brings us to our final point.

Niche Marketing Gives you advocates for your film

No Films can market themselves completely on their own. They need to get a core group of people to help spread the word. Niche marketing can be a huge help for getting the people who are most likely to be your strongest advocates onboard early. As mentioned above, they’re the people who care the most about your subject matter. They’re the people who will seek out your content and show it to your friends because they identify with it so much.

No one can create advocates, you must find them. The most likely place to find them is within the various underserved niches that have plenty of stories that need to be told. 

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The Two Main types of Financial Projections for an IndieFilm

As a key part of writing a business plan for independent film, a filmmaker must figure out how much the film is likely to make back.  This involves developing or obtaining revenue projections. 

There are generally two ways to do this, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.  The first way is to do a comparative analysis.  This means taking similar films from the last 5 years and plugging them into a comparative model to generate revenue estimates.  The second way is to get a letter of intent from a sales agent and get them to estimate what they could sell this for in various territories across the globe. 

This blog will compare and contrast these two methods (Both of which I do regularly for clients) in an effort to help you better understand which way you want to go when writing the business plan for your independent film.

Would you Rather Watch/Listen to this than read it? Here’s a corresponding video on my YouTube Channel!

Comparative Analysis - Overview

A comparative analysis is when you comb IMDb Pro and The-Numbers.com to come up with a set number of comparable films to yours.  These are films that have a similar genre, similar budgets, similar assets, are based on similar intellectual property, and are generally within the last 5 years.  If you can match story elements that are a plus, but there are only so many films with the necessary data to compare. 

When I do it, I compare 20 films, average their ROIs from theatrical, pull numbers from home video wherever I can (Usually the-numbers.com), and then run them through a model I’ve developed to come up with revenue estimates.   Honestly, I don’t do a lot of this work.  Most of the time I refer it to my friends at Nash Info Services since they run The-Numbers.com and the brand behind these estimates means a lot to potential investors. 

I will do it when a client asks though, generally as a part of a larger business plan/packaging service plan.  

Sales Agency Estimates - Overview

Sales Agency Estimates are when you get a letter of intent from a sales agent, and as part of that deal the sales agent prepares estimates on what they think they can sell the film for on a territory-by-territory basis.  Generally, they work from what buyers they know they have in these territories, whether or not they buy content like this, and what they normally pay for content like yours. 

These estimates are heavily dependent on the state of your package, who’s directing your film, and who’s slated to star in it.  If you don’t have much of a package and a first-time director, then you’re not going to get very promising numbers.  ​

Comparative Analysis - Benefits

Generally, anyone can get these estimates.  Some people figure out the formula and do it themselves, others pay someone like me or Bruce Nash to do it for them.  There’s either a not insubstantial fee involved or a lot of time involved in getting them. They’ll generally satisfy an investor, especially if Bruce does it. 

Sales Agency Estimates - Benefit

The biggest benefit to a sales agency approach is that if they’re doing estimates for you, they’re probably going to distribute your film.  Also, these estimates have the potential to be more accurate, because they’re based on non-public numbers on what buyers are paying in current market conditions.  Finally, if a sales agent has given you an LOI, these estimates are generally free.

Comparative Analysis - Drawbacks

The first drawback is likely that they’re either very time intensive or somewhat costly to produce.  Also, because VOD Sales data is kept under lock and key, it’s very difficult to estimate total revenue from VOD using this method.  Given how important VOD is, that’s a somewhat substantial drawback.

Further, these estimates are greatly helped by the name value of who made them.  Likely, if the filmmaker makes them themselves, then they’re not as viable as if someone like Bruce or Me does them.  This is not only because we both have a track record in them, (Bruce much Moreso) but also because we’re mostly impartial third parties. 

These revenue estimates can be very flawed if a filmmaker makes them because many filmmakers have a tendency to only pick winners, not the films that lost money.  In business, we call this painting too blue a sky, as it makes everything look sunny with no chance of rain.  In film, there’s always a substantial chance of rain. ​

Sales Agency Estimates - Drawbacks

The biggest drawback to these estimates is that not everyone can get these estimates.  You have to have a relationship with the sales agency for them to consider giving them to you.  Generally, you’ll need to have convinced them to give you an LOI first.  That’s not always the case though. 

If you have a producer’s rep, they can sometimes get you through the relationship barrier, but they’ll often charge for doing so when we’re talking about a film that’s still in development. 

Also, Sales agencies can sometimes inflate their numbers to keep filmmakers happy and convince them to sign.  This does not look good to investors if that money never comes in

Conclusion

Overall, which method you use to estimate revenue depends entirely on what situation you find yourself in.  If you have the ability to get the sales agency estimates, they can be VERY strong, if you don’t, the comparative estimates are reliable enough to do what you need them to do.  That being said, I wouldn’t advise taking a comparative analysis to a sales agency. 

Thanks for Reading! Creating revenue estimates is only part of raising money for your film. There’s a lot more you’ll need to know if you want to succeed. That’s a large part of why I created my indie film resource package, to help filmmakers get the knowledge and resources they need to grow their careers. It’s totally free and has things like a deck template, free e-book, and even specialized blog digests sent out on a monthly basis to help you understand how to answer the questions your investors will almost certainly have. Check it out at the button below.

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IndieFilm Distribution Payment Waterfalls 101 (How Distributors Pay Filmmakers)

I’ve been quoted as saying that investors get the short end of the stick in film investment.  They end up putting up all or most of the money and then are often left with their hands out.  They’re the last to get paid on the production, and the system is structured in such a way that it’s almost impossible to create a sustainable investor class.

I wrote an entire 7-part blog series on WHY film investment is in the tubes, so I don’t need to do that again.  This blog will focus on exactly what I mean about investors being the last to be paid when filmmakers don’t get any profit share until after the investors have recouped.  The answer to this question lies in the standard distribution waterfall

​But before I list it out for you, I should make a point of saying that this is only true if you pay yourself either a stipend or a salary to produce the film.  If anyone is working 100% deferred, then it’s relatively likely that they’ll get paid after the investor.  However if you paid yourself to make the film in any way, then you have been paid before the investor, often using their money. 

So what is a waterfall?  A waterfall is how money from foreign sales and domestic distribution deals flows to the filmmaker.  The top of the waterfall is the money source, and the bottom of the waterfall is the filmmaker.  They normally look something like this, if the buyer is paying an MG or a License fee to the sales agent.

1. Buyer License fee/MG

2. Distributors fees/wire transfer fees.

3. Sales Agents Commission (20-35%)

4. Sales Agent’s Recoupable Expenses (up to cap)

5. Producer’s Representative Fees (If applicable, 5-15%)

6. Production Company fees

   1. Debt

   2. Equity Investor Investor (Until recoupment+10-20%, then 50% of future profits)

   3. Crew Deferments

   4. Producer share

If the buyer is offering a revenue share deal (Rev Share) then the waterfall will look more like this. 

1. Individual Sales (Total)

2. Buyer’s Commission (20-30%)

3. Distributors fees/wire transfer fees.

4. Sales Agents Commission (20-35%)

5. Sales Agent’s Recoupable Expenses (up to cap)

6. Producer’s Representative Fees (If applicable, 5-15%)

7. Production Company fees

   1. Debt

   2. Investor (Until recoupment+10-20%, then 50% of future profits)

   3. Crew Deferments

   4. Producer share

Generally, a Production Company won’t see ANY money until the sales agent has recouped their expenses.  Once they have, that item is essentially removed from the waterfall. 

The four subcategories underneath the production company are generally what happens after the production company receives money from the sales agency.  Admittedly, the investor is at the top of that waterfall (if we exclude the payments made in production) but they’re at the bottom of another. 

Each piece of the Waterfall takes a slice of the film.  For this example, we’ll assume the sales agent has already recouped their expenses.  We’ll assume another 10,000 dollar sale has come in for easy math.  So in the first waterfall, the sales agency takes 20% or 2,000 USD, then the remaining 80% (8000) goes down the line. 

Then let’s say that your Producer’s rep has done their job and gotten a good deal for you.  They charge the average price which is 10%.  So the Producer’s Rep takes 10% of the 8,000 dollars, or 800, and passes the remaining 7,200 on to the filmmaker.  The filmmaker then passes uses that money to back to their investor, settles up with crew deferments, and then pays themselves whatever is left. ​

If that same 10,000 USD was the result of a revenue share distribution agreement, it would look like this.  First, the distributor takes 20%, then passes not he remaining 8,000 USD to the sales agent.  Next the Sales agent takes 20% of the 8000 (1600) and passes the remaining 6,400 to the producer’s rep.  The Producer’s rep takes 10% (640) and passes the remaining 5760 to the production company.

In both these examples I’ve ignored wire fees, but they can range from 1-3%. 

One thing that you might notice is that the Sales Agency Commission is above their recoupable expenses.  This does mean that they’re taking out their commission before they start to pay themselves back their recoupable marketing expenses.  This is common, and while I don’t agree with it it’s a very difficult thing to negotiate.  That being said, it doesn’t make as big of a difference to the bottom line as you might think.  I’ve done the math, and it often amounts to around 4,000 to 5,000 extra for the sales agent.  I know that’s far from nothing, but it’s the comparably small amount means there are better places to focus the negotiation.

There are a few tactics that you can use to get a better deal and change the waterfall around a bit, but those are tactics that I’m going to leave out of my blog, due to them requiring a deft hand to execute properly. 

On that note, you might notice the extra line item for your producer’s rep, if you’re using one.  You might also think why would you pay an extra 10% to a producer’s rep?  The real answer is that a bad producer’s rep won’t really help you that much.  But a good producer’s rep can not only ensure you get the best deal possible but also that it’s with the best company possible for your film.

A good producer’s rep will help streamline the sales agency selection process and occasionally handle domestic distribution themselves.  They’ll also know exactly which parts of a distribution contract can be negotiated, and which ones can’t.  They’ll generally have long-term relationships with many sales agencies, so the negotiations are likely to go smoothly.  In short, a good Producer’s Rep might take a piece of the pie, but they’ll make the pie much bigger while they do. (See our services for more)

So there’s a primer, but there’s obviously a lot more to know. If you want to dive right in and find out what you need to know to grow your independent film company or career, a great place to start is my indiefilm business resource package. In addition to monthly mailings with the content you need to know to grow your career, It’s got an E-book, templates for decks, distributor content tracking, and exclusive updates on Guerrilla Rep Media Releases and content. It’s totally free, check it out below.

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5 Ways to Market Your Movie Besides Social movie

There’s a lot of advice on the internet, as well as on this blog about marketing your film using social media.  That’s with good reason, Social media is among the most cost-effective ways to market your project if you do it properly.  Further, it helps you maintain a long-term relationship with potential customers.  That being said, it’s not the only way to market your film.  It might not even be the most efficient way when it’s the only thing you do.  What follows are 5 ways to market your film other than social media.

For this blog, all 5 of these tactics can and should be used in conjunction with each other, and can greatly augment your social media marketing.

Before we begin, every once in a while I’ll take a question I get on Twitter and turn it into a blog.  This question came @AmandaVerhagen a while back, but I’ve not had time to adequately address it until now.  If you have a question about film distribution, marketing, financing, or sales, feel free to @Mention @TheGuerrillaRep and I might just write a blog to answer your question.  

Events

Hosting an event to spread the word about your project can be a great way to build excitement and generate interest in your project.  This can be something as simple as a happy hour at a local bar where you buy a few drinks for strong supporters, or as complex as renting an event space, supplying the booze, and having some people say a few words.  Ideally with entertainment.

What you do really comes down to how much time you have to organize and what your budget it.  The importance of the milestone you’re celebrating also plays a factor, although any milestone worthy of an event is also likely worthy of some time to organize it

Festivals

Shocking, I know.  However what does bear mentioning is that festivals are only as useful as you make them.  Getting into festivals can be a great way to expand your network and grow the reputation of the film, however the effect that will have will be limited unless you learn how to work the festival. 

Essentially, getting into a festival provides you a space where you can utilize every other item on this list to grow your notoriety, your film’s reputation, and your professional network. 

​Flyers/Givaways

​Having something tangible you can give away to people at events in festivals will help people remember you.  They’ll remember you even more if you attach something to the card that has some immediate value beyond the information you’re handing out.  This can be as simple as a tiny piece of chocolate attached to a card, a bottle of hand sanitizer, or even a small bottle of alcohol( if the demographic is right.)

Adding a giveaway will help you stand out in the minds of whoever you give your giveaway to .It’s easy to get lost in a pouch of postcards and flyers, but something as simple and cheap as a piece of chocolate can make all of the difference in how you’re remembered by the event goer. 

​Stunts

Pulling some sort of marketing stunt can be a great way to stand out and attract a bit of press.  Whatever you do, you’ve got to make sure you do it safely though. 

One of the most famous stunts at Cannes was when someone lit themselves on fire (in a fire suit) and then after they were put out, it was revealed to be an attractive your woman in a bikini who starred in the film she was promoting.  Rumor has it the woman later lost that bikini while being interviewed, but that’s another matter.  Also, that happened in the late 80’s/early 90’s, so the culture was different.

Your stunt doesn’t have to be as outlandish as that, but should be as memorable.  If you have a  war movie, you might want to consider throwing toy paratroopers from a rooftop you can gain access to.  If you’re promoting at Sundance, a woman in a bikini making a quick walk through the cold with premier tickets would certainly grab some eyeballs and some attention.  Especially if you can work in a joke about accidentally packing for Cannes. That said, make sure you have a trenchcoat and hot drinks on hand to help her out when she inevitably gets cold.

In any case, the goal of the stunt is to get eyeballs in a safe and legal way.  It’s to help you and your movie be memorable and to ideally attract a bit of the final item on our list. 

​Publicity

​Publicity is almost always the most cost-effective way to spread the word about your project.  However, it’s not always the easiest thing to get.  Generally, you’ll need a relationship with an outlet, something truly eye-catching, or a good publicist to get any substantial amount of coverage.  Sometimes you’ll need all three. 

There are a couple of ways you can disseminate a press release.  PRNewswire.com is relatively affordable, but it’s unclear how much individual press coverage you’ll get out of it.  It does still help with your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to at least a degree though.  

Generally, if you can afford a publicist, it’s the best way to go by far.  My favorite publicist is October Coast, they’re very cost-effective for the value they provide. While it’s possible to get big marquee press coverage from October Coast it’s unlikely. This means you probably won’t get you the big outlets like Deadline, Variety, or THR, but you will get dozens of relevant niche blogs. In general, you’ll need a higher-cost publicist, or if you’re lucky your distributor, sales agent, or producer’s rep will handle this for you.

EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: There may be a few more things I’ve learned from Running Mutiny that I’ll share in a new blog around the efficacy of paid ads and sponsorships. Comment if that’s of interest.

Thanks for reading! If you want more help financing or distributing your movie, the best place to start is my film business resource pack. It’s got templates, an e-book, and a whole lot more to help you grow your indiefilm company and career. Oh, it’s completely free, get it below.

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7 Realistic ways to Find First Money In on your Feature Film.

When fundraising for anything, the first money is always the hardest.  Investors don’t want to be the first in due to the investment seeming untested.  So in order for them to feel more secure, you might need to raise some of the money in other places.  Here are the 7 most realistic places for filmmakers to go to get first money in. ​

First money in isn’t meant to be the entirety of your budget.  It’s only meant to be about 10%.  Having raised 10% of your budget helps investors see that you’re serious, and aren’t going to require them to do all of the funding work themselves.  With that in mind, almost every item on this list is not meant to fund your entire movie, but more serve as a jumping-off point to help you raise the funds you need to make an awesome film. 

Highly Related: The 9 ways to Finance your Independent Film

1. Donation based Crowdfunding

I know most filmmakers really don’t want to hear about crowdfunding, but it’s still one of the best ways to serve as a proof of concept for a film.  It’s also a great way to get first money in.  Specifically for this example, I’m talking about donation based crowdfunding.  I’m far from an expert in equity crowdfunding, and while there’s potential in the idea, it’s unclear how it should be executed. 
​
That being said, donation based crowdfunding can be an excellent way to get the project rolling, and get further into development.

2. Tax Incentives

Depending on where you’re planning on shooting, Tax incentives can be a great way to get a portion of your funding in place.  If you’re in the US, then shooting in Kentucky can get you as much as 35% of your budget.  Granted, that will go down to about 30% once you take out a loan against it so that it becomes real money instead of a letter of credit.  That loan will be fairly low interest, since Kentucky’s incentive is structured as cash.

There are a lot of things I could go into about tax incentives, but it’s more than I can cover in this blog.  I might make a future blog or video about it Comment and ask.

3. Grants

There aren’t a lot of development stage grants out there, and as such the few there are tend to be in very high demand.  However, if you can get some portion of you money via a grant from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation or some other development stage granter, then it cuts the risk for your investors and gives you first money in. 

Keep in mind, most organizations that give grants turn you down automatically when you first apply. It can be wise to apply multiple years in a row while you try to get this film, or other films off the ground. 

4. Equipment Loans

An equipment loan is a relatively low interest loan that uses any equipment you own as collateral for the money that’s being lent.  I understand that this is a scary prospect for many filmmakers (With good reason) but it can be a way to get money into the project at an early stage, and serve as your first money in.
​
It’s also important to note that debts are paid off before equity is paid back, so your loan would be repaid and your equipment secured before any future investor got their money back.  Of course, this isn’t always the case, but it generally is. 
​

5. Personal or Business Credit

There are a few people who will loan money for films based on your personal credit.  Sometimes it will be a business loan, sometimes it will be an insanely high limit credit card, but in the end it can be the money you need for development.  It’s not ideal, but it can be a way to get your movie to the next level. 

If you’ve been making corporate videos through your entity for a number of years your business may have enough credibility to take out a moderaate interest loan from a bank against your future corporate video earnings.

In general, this will be a percentage of your previous earnings according to you last few tax returns and whatever debt burden the business has from general operations. This is best used to offset time away from corporate work as an expansion into a new product line, I.E. your feature film.

This would most likely be considered an unsecured loan, which means it’s higher interest than the equipment loan or anything of the sort like that.

If you do go down this road, you should not forget that it often takes 12 to 18 months from delivery to a distributor to start earning royalties, and that’s not accounting for the minimum of 9-12 months to make the film and deliver it to a distributor. The interest over the course of a term like that might be hard to bear.

I should stress I’m not a lawyer or financial advisor. You should check with yours before acting on anything on this list, especially anything that’s debt base.

6. Wealthy Friends and Family

If you’re lucky enough to have accredited investors in your friends and family, then this can be a good way to get your first money in.  Investors normally invest in people as much if not more than projects, so approaching someone you already know is generally an easier ask than someone you don’t.  Since this blog is about getting first money in, having an investment from a wealthy friend or relative can be the quickest and easiest way to get over that hurdle.
​
Of course, in order to raise money from wealthy friends and family, you must HAVE wealthy friends and family.  If your friends and family ARE NOT Accredited investors, then it’s best to include them in a donation-based crowdfunding round.  While the SEC (Securities and Exchanges Commission) has loosened requirements for high-risk and small business investments since the JOBS Act, they’re still very strict when it comes to high risk investments, and it would be better for you to not run afoul of them. ​

7. Equity Investment

Finally, if you don’t have wealthy friends and family, you can chase equity investment.  Normally this means that you would approach the person who owns the car dealerships in your neck of the woods, or other local business leaders.  If you can get a meeting to talk to them about investing in a movie, there’s a chance that the excitement of it might help you raise a portion of your funding. 

Mind you, this is not an easy sale.  It’s going to take a skilled salesperson to pull it off, and a lot of research into why someone like this person who owns the car dealerships would want to invest in your project. 

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