Film Finance For Beginners

Let’s assume that you have a great script, know many people in the film industry, and still can’t your project off the ground. What can you do about it? What’s stopping you from going to the next level?

If you are like most aspiring moviemakers, you have produced your promos/trailers, worked the film festival circuit, attended film finance conferences and talked to anyone who will listen to you -- and many people have shown a tremendous amount of interest. Yet, they do not want to put their own money into your film or do not want to open the door to people who might be willing to put money into your project.

When I started financing independent films, I relied on moviemakers to present me with terms and conditions, which I could not validate in the market. As a result, I did not know if the deal was good or not. In many cases, I did not get good deals. In fact, I lost a lot of money.

To date I have financed several independent films and one dinner theater. None of them has made a lot of money. Do I consider that a failure? Absolutely not. My dad always told me, “You’ll have more losers in life than winners.” However, to stay in business, your winners have to cover your losers. As a result, I am able to continue financing films, and still hope to hit the jackpot.

Independent moviemakers do not fail because they make bad movies; they fail because either they run out of money during the film production process or they fail to raise enough money to cover their costs to market their movie appropriately and effectively. In either case, the independent moviemaker fails to develop a long-term strategy that allows him to make movies as a life-long career.