How to Find Film Funding. Point 1.. Figure out what’s important.
Ask yourself the honest question, do I really need that camera, lens kit or lighting rig? If you’re an indie filmmaker thinking big, great, but don’t allow the technical snobbery of a Director of Photography force you into thinking that you can’t afford to make films…you can. Film funding is easier than you may think!
Between our 4 festivals we watch nearly 300 films a week. Some are exceptional, some are poor. If you were to hire a 5D with all the trimmings, the money you’d save on having a RED or an ARRI set up could be used to pay your actors and editor. We rarely care about how a film “looks”, art direction is inexpensive, and the acting and editing is pretty much 90% why films fail to be screened by ourselves, and many other festivals.
Questions and answer sessions with our attending filmmakers. the questions always come back to funding!
Questions and answer sessions with our attending filmmakers. the questions always come back to funding!
Many decent professional editors can grade and cut your work to the realms of excellence – the only really prerequisite is full HD a decent lens and loads and loads of footage to work with.
In regards to acting, trust me, a psychological switch goes off in an actors mind when they are being paid, the difference is huge… As a storyteller you must ask yourself, what’s important?! Our answer: the people.
How to Find Film Funding Point 2…Work out the costs.
Before you get film funding, work out the costs. Do a budget. See our post on indie film budgets and how to budget an indie film project.
How to Find Film Funding Point 3…Make sure you use the fact that you are paying to its best advantage.
Paying the people who work on your film will help you get funding. Employ your entire crew first, get them all on board and ask them what they need, offer them a runner (who will work for free), assign each professional working on your film, a runner of their own.
Film Funding scenario… Think about it.. You approach an actor and ask them to be a co-star in your production, you offer them £350 ($700) all in, with this you require them to be ready to shoot within 24hrs notice, they will get their own assistant on set (a runner), will be fed and looked after… They agree, any professional out of work actor would rip your arm off for a gig like this. You tell them that your film’s crowd finding initiative will be starting in 5 days time (it’s all about timing, maintain the enthusiasm) on KickStarter or IndieGoGo, you need £10’000 ($16500), could they help spread the word? The answer is yes, yes they would. You fucking bet they’ll spread the word, you’re probably giving them their first ever fully professional gig! — you do this with all of your crew, especially the ones you plan to pay.. I would probably add it in as a question, at the audition process too…
“We are aiming to get this film made through crowd funding. If you were on onboard, how could you help spread the word?”
…why the hell not, right?
How to Find Film Funding Point 4…Target organisations associated to your story.
Are you making work that will matter to a particular set of people? If you are find them. Is your film about a woman’s battle with a fatal illness or mans struggle through life with mental health? Find the charities, locate the people involved, share with them your ideas and see if they may help.
If your film focuses on a non social issue but is considered niche, locate the nearest clubs that cater to fans of the genre – reach out.
The key here is to reach out to those that will have an active interest and present a potential audience to your work, they are in many many ways a great way to set up a strong pledging community. Great sources are obviously a google search with sites like LinkedIn excellent for finding individuals associated to organisations, and twitter for finding large groups of interested people. See our post on using Social media to help promote your work for free… To get a better understanding on how to use Twitter to the best of it’s abilities.
How to Find Film Funding. Once everything is in place…
Start your crowd funding. Try to get as many of the people involved to be involved in getting the pledges in. The more you stimulate the more you’ll receive. Having everyone involved there from the very beginning will give you a solid team dynamic and the best chance of making the film that deserves to be made…
Once it’s done, be sure to submit it.
Best of luck…