Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for (including me)....
How the heck do movies get financed?! Why is it such a mystery? Why is it the one thing left I can't get done? We're talking about film financing here, folks. It's the final frontier in getting your movie made. No one makes a film without an investor.... or two, or three... This is the horrible fact about development. No money = no movie. That will never, ever change. Wonderful. Film is expensive, video is expensive (yes, even video), crew is expensive... cast, props, sets, camera equipment, sound equipment, locations, trucks, food, hotels... man, the list never ends! Every set needs this friggin' stuff! I promise you, even while creatively cutting some financial corners, you'll need serious, serious cash to make a movie. This is simply a fact, so if you still haven't accepted this as truth, I'll say it one more time: Films need financing!
Now I'm a writer and director who was never really very interested in the business of film. You creative types may be just like me. It doesn't matter, brethren; get interested. I haven't met anyone since starting development who'll let that attitude fly. I have to be interested, even if I don't want to be. Why? Because the film business is part of the business, and I can't do anything well unless I'm interested. At a certain point, you learn that even if you have people taking care of most of this, you're still going to have to be heavily involved. Every business decision affects your creative vision, whether you like it or not. Wouldn't it be nice for some millionaire friend to give you millions to make your movie so you can skip all of this? Well, since that ship has sailed, or actually never set sail at all, we have to find money the hard way (pretty much the only way is the hard way.) It's that simple, that depressing, and an improbable task. Most of you are probably aware of this already. That's good because it can take some people too long to figure this out. So how do we find financing?
Beats the heck out of me! Yeah RIGHT! If I knew the answer I'd be knee deep in production by now, probably being asked which shirt looks best on which actor. Listen, I'm not about to pretend I'm an expert on finding investors. Even the experts have trouble. But I can say I am an expert on knowing what it's like to deal with the ups and downs on trying to find money. Admittedly, I'm not the one driving this part of development for my film. That's what my two producers have been working on. I don't envy them... it's the hardest job of all! No one likes to ask for money or search for people with money. I've never met a soul who enjoyed asking people for money. Well, at least not anyone I'll hang out with for more than ten minutes. Oh crap, is that how they see us? That's why you can't go to just anyone. People who enjoy films or have always been enamored by them are the people to pursue. So where do I find these saintly, lovable people?
I don't know! You think I know? Are you crazy?! I'd be yelling cut after a good take if I knew. It's the best kept secret in Hollywood! These people are like Leprechauns or Gremlins... or even better, Santa Claus! They live in the walls of small apartments or under your stairs. They're mythical beings like unicorns and the one-eyed cyclops! I know what you're going to say, "You ever see a Cyclops with more than one eye?" I digress. Okay, okay... hold your horses. Financiers are real; they do exist. They live in regular homes like you and me, but probably much, much bigger ones. We probably live under their stairs if anything. The truth is, most people don't know big-wig film investors. They're hard to find because they're not only rare, most of us aren't part of their social circles. That's okay... from what I've observed there are film people who do actually know these people. Just get to know those people! Network at industry events, work on sets, go to film festivals, or ask people you already know. Find someone who knows someone who knows someone. It sounds simple, or maybe it doesn't... it's because it isn't simple. It's tough!
Then there's crowd funding, a new fad on the internet. As you probably know if you've been following this blog, we tried this by using Kickstarter. Our team spent several hours shooting a video of me, writing up tons of info on the project, and pushing ourselves into the social media world. Kickstarter didn't work. Don't feel bad, even though we hoped it would, I don't think we really expected it to actually do so. We benefited from this for sure: we raised awareness of the film, kind of went viral and public with it, and still found lots of support from places we didn't expect. Just because we didn't reach our goal, doesn't mean this path can't work. It has for other projects. The problem is our script calls for the need of a certain size budget, one that may be too high for crowd funding. Then again, I don't really know. Just do what we did: don't put all your eggs in one basket. Funding is about taking an egg and putting just one in several baskets. Okay, now I'm wondering if that even makes sense. Yeah, it does. It's a numbers game. Have as many options out there as possible. It only takes one egg to continue down your road to wrap.
So there you go. Unfortunately, I don't have the answer to financing. That's why I call it the final frontier. You'll hear success stories every now and then, but I'm starting to realize they are tough to emulate. Just about every road to wrap is different. I'll be happy to reveal mine once I've made it through. I really think this topic is usually kept a secret because no one wants to tell someone else about a potential investor one can use. And who can blame them, right? If you know a potential investor, I'm sure you worked your tail off to find them. You should have first dibs. So what do us first time directors and producers do? All I can say is it's tough, but keep plugging away. If you aren't trying to find money, then you're really up the creek. That's like showing your screenplay to no one once you've written it. Give yourself a fighting chance. It's been done before, it'll happen again. First timers do make their movies. How many producers or directors skipped making their first feature? Ah-ha!!! None! Not one! No one skips their first movie! Makes you look at your chances a little differently, right? And a lot of movies out there have been made, so that's a lot of first-timers. Keep at it... all frontiers get discovered eventually!
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