Creative Financing For Newbie Filmmakers

The thought of finding financing for a film project can be quite a stressful and daunting task for any would be filmmaker. This experience is especially frightening for new filmmakers. Thoughts like “where can I find someone to invest in my film”, “can I really sell the idea before the finish product?” and “what if I run out of money?’ are just some of the thoughts that comes to mind.  As a CEO and overall project manager of your film project, your pre-production planning and budget is critical to the success of your film project. In fact you may want to consider taking an “out of the box” approach to obtain financing for your project. These “out of the box” methods include network marketing and investing in real estate.

The word network marketing has a love/hate reaction to those who hear it. Often misunderstood to those who fail to actually research the subject will be quick to label the industry as a “scam” or “pyramid scheme.”  After attending a seminar for one particular company, I quickly learned that for a newbie filmmaker, this is a hidden jewel to finding investors to finance their film project.  I met Mr. Sam Orum a gentleman who founded his own network company after having success in another network work marketing company as a medical student. (http://cutlergultry.1voiceinc.com) Needless to say that Mr. Orum’s stay in medical was short lived. Before leaving medical school Mr. Orum was already making more than most doctors would make in their lifetime. After a brief conversation with Mr. Orum I learned that he also had a silent role in the marketing and production in many theatrical plays and movies.  The conversation was like a light bulb exploding in my head! Any newbie filmmaker could find a network marketing company, become a representative and earn money to finance their own film. Another alternative is to network with the top earners of the company and form a partnership.  I suggest this method because once you start earning a residual cash flow from your network marketing business you can keep your film project going because you can have some money to back your project if investors decide to pull out. Please keep in mind that this technique is for small film projects.

Newbie filmmakers who are trying to get films produce must consider the time and budget of the project. The timeline for shooting the project and how much it’s going to cost to shoot the film per location can become expensive. The financial spreadsheet alone will cause the faint of heart to rethink becoming a filmmaker. While researching ways to find money to produce I stumbled upon yet another seminar or should I say webinar. A young and successful real estate investor named Chris Bruce hosted this webinar. On this webinar Chris taught everyday people how to make 10,000-20,000.00 with 30-90 days of getting started in investing in real estate. Now let me clarify Chris was not a bunch of hype and fluff! (http://www.c-bruce.com) Chris is the real deal, what most so-called gurus charge for the information Chris teaches would be in the thousands! On the webinar I quickly realized that a newbie filmmaker could actually facilitate a few real estate deals to earn money and finance their own projects. Another method is to network with other real estate investors to form a partnership. In a recent article Curtis “50-Cent” Jackson just launched his own Film Company called Cheetah Vision with a group of investors. One the investors is none other than real estate investor Gary Sawka. 50 Cent’s film company was able to secure $200 Million in funding and a distribution deal with Lionsgate films (http://www.mtv.co.uk/artists/50-cent/news/242006-50-cent-gets-200-million-film-fund).

I know what you’re thinking; you are not 50 Cent! But let’s look on a smaller scale, within your circle of influence and right under your nose in your city, you can do some research and find a few real estate investors who want to diversify their income. So think outside of the box!

Remember that you are the CEO and overall project manager of your film company. There are no rules in obtaining funding for your projects! Before you go into preproduction and planning for your project, you should have some financing if not all of it secured. If you don’t then I advise you to consider implementing some of the above techniques. It just might save your project from going bust! 

The Project Management Aspect Of Film

In the world of film making the art of team management is a skill that is necessary in order to be successful. At the movie theaters the general public sees a polished and finished product. Let’s delve deeper behind the scenes and take a look at what it takes to assemble a production team to produce a film.  To produce a film means not only financing the film but also finding a scriptwriter with a good screenplay, a director to bring the script to life, a director of photography to create the shots that creates a compelling story through the camera lens, a sound engineer to oversee the sound, a casting director to cast actors for the script and an editor to “fully lock“ in the finish product.  

When a production is placed into the project management process, the breakdown of making a movie will fall into the same project management workflow.  The project breakdown will have an initiation phase, a planning phase, a budgeting phase, execution phase, and the closing phase.  The process in the film industry is similar but the terminology is different. The initial phase in called the development stage, the planning stage and budgeting stage is called the pre-production stage, the execution stage is called the production stage, and the closing stage is called the post production stage.  “Keep in mind that a film is a form of project that needs to meet stated deadlines and should not exceed expected costs, while not compromising any of its content. But as each film is not the exact same, the steps in production are performed differently every time a film is made. The basic processes of any project are initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. So, they can be used to manage the production of a film (http://knol.google.com).” 

Now that a foundation is laid to the processes of project management as it related to the production of films.  We will now look at the process of forming an actual production team. In the development stage the producer (the person who finances the film) looks for a script that would be worthy of becoming a film. The producer will then seek out a director that will be able to bring the script to fruition.  The director and the producer will then coordinate the hiring of all the technical production staff (ex. Grips, gaffer, sound, etc.).  The producer will then hire casting agents that will hire actors for the film. The way a producer picks his production team can vary from a professional standpoint or by a relationship formed with an old classmate in college. The producer forms a team with supervisors over each department of the film making process. These supervisors, depending of area of expertise will report to the director and the producer.

Project management is a discipline that is applicable to every aspect of business. Anyone looking to be successful in film industry would be wise to learn to become efficient in project management. Making a film is comprised on many departments that are all being coordinated at various times to complete a deliverable, in this case a blockbuster movie.