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Low Budget Film Producing & Financing
by Scott Kaplan
There are many, many, and many people around the world
who have written scripts, and who want to produce or have
someone produce for them, direct, or both and all of the
above. I recently read a statistic in the August 1996
Hollywood Reporter (p.33) that there were almost 3,000
submissions at Sundance in 1996, of which they chose 110
features, and 50 shorts. Of those finished films, maybe %10
will get a distribution deal. So, with that said, we can all
agree that facts like those don't mean sh!#*. We make
movies for the love of the craft, and the passion to tell stories
in the visual medium of film. The path from script to
screening for low budgets is not a paved path with traffic
lights and detailed maps on where to turn. For the freelance
independent producer, there are no rules or laws.
Money for features can be found practically anywhere.
Family, friends, trust funds, and we have all heard the story
of Robert Rodriguez selling his blood or something like that.
The truth of the matter is that there are better places to raise
$500,000 than scraping and saving and begging mom and
dad. Where you ask? Wallstreet! Most of Hollywood's
money can be traced to that small area of real estate in
lower Manhattan called Wallstreet. There, one finds people
with more money than they know what to do with. These are
people, men and woman, who win and lose millions on a
daily basis. (mainly win) They own all the cars, homes,
yachts and toys they want. They have traveled all over the
planet and do not hesitate to spend large sums of money at
a moments notice. The goal of the independent producer is
to seek and find these people and offer them something they
do not have...a movie.
Certainly, this is not an easy task. No matter how much
money one has, if they have enough to fork over 500k they
are not stupid. The path to closing any deal in film making is
contingent on packaging. From your script, and treatment, to
your finance package and budget, to your film stock and
trailer, success in this biz has a lot to do with perception.
How one is introduced to you and your product will
determine how the deal will come down and how well the
deal remains in your favor.
I am proposing and firmly believe that with proper
packaging, the chance of raising funds for a movie is greatly
increased. A proper, professional, and accurate budget with
a detailed schedule, and a clear and succinct vision will
distance one project from all the others. Oh yeah...we haven't
even mentioned the most important aspect yet. What is
written between the pages.
Having a budget prepared by a qualified Line
Producer/Production Manager is the first step to raising
money. An indie film budget consists of everything any
Hollywood budget would have except it takes into account
that one will have to beg, swindle, and god forbid bend the
truth in order to lock a talented crew, locations, cast, extras,
film stock, camera, grip, electric, property, set dec, set
construction, picture vehicles, production sound,
transportation, catering (very important!), make up, hair, sfx,
editor and equipment, music composition, dialogue editors,
and on and on. With all of the elements listed and budgeted
one can accurately and confidently seek financing. Budgets
are malleable ever changing things, and as they grow in
detail the idea of actually producing becomes a reality. The
director is able to see his cast and locations in a valuable
and new light. The writer can perhaps tailor certain speaking
roles when he considers that the man on the corner asking
your lead for change costs $466.00 plus tax! And the
producer has a tool in which to work with and adapt as the
creative process continues.
A well written budget will include every contingency that can
be anticipated and those that of course can't. That means
that the writer of the budget must take from his or her
experience and pad certain areas in order to compensate
for those acts of god like when your director has a stroke of
genius on set and shoots five times the allotted amount of
film. When you are on set, as you know, film ceases to be a
'cost' and becomes the artistic medium. It is why we are
here in the first place. If you don't capture it on film it doesn't
exist. The last thing you want to run out of money for is film.
So, after the budget is completed. The next step to
improving your finance package is to do a complete
breakdown of the script which in turn allows you to fine tune
the budget as far as scheduling, props, and cast working
days go. The breakdown, gives the filmmaker a massive
amount of information about how the movie will be pieced
together and is the very beginning of pre-production. With
this in hand, and it takes two to carry, investors are able to
see how a movie is made and shows that you are prepared
and ready to begin.
Imagine two filmmakers walking into an investor's office
asking for $500k. Both have scripts of equal quality, but one
has in addition to the script, the budget, the strip boards,
cast lists, prop lists, day out of days schedules, breakdown
sheets, etc. The other guy only has the script and a pitch.
Who do you think will get the money? Therefore, with proper
preparation these materials greatly increase your chance of
getting the funds merely through presentation and
preparation.
(The article
is extracted from CFS) |