Traditional Business Image via Wikipedia

If you are looking for movie money, you need to understand the difference between the indie film business VS traditional business.

Why? Because most prospective movie investors will come from other industries. And knowing how to talk in the language of traditional business will go a long way towards helping you communicate your proposition.

Where do we differ? The goal of the indie filmmaker and traditional businessman are the same – to produce, market, sell and distribute a product.

Problem is – when it comes to creating a movie, most filmmakers focus only on the production. And therein lies the problem.

Without any idea how to market, sell and distribute your movie – why the heck should anybody take you seriously?

This is my third and final eMail to you. I think it’s silly that you have a filmmaking website, but when it comes time to actually help people make movies, you just ignore them… So here it goes – again!

My name is Idiot Filmmaker from another planet. I think you should invest in my movie because it is totally awesome. My friends and I are going to do everything – so all we need from you is the money…

I am thinking our budget is going to be eighty-thousand dollars, but I am really not sure. But we think you should help us because you know all that stuff about film distribution. ( We don’t care much about that stuff, ha-ha.)

Assuming that you do invest in our movie project (you don’t want to miss out, right?) – We are prepared to give you all international rights. So again, just 80K will make you as a producer. Sound good?

You can send the check to my return address.

Sincerely,

Mr. Idiot Filmmaker

P.S. If you pass at this opportunity, it’s your loss. But if you find other film financier for our project, we will still give you an associate producer credit.

P.P.S. What is your personal phone number? I’d like to call you with more details.

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This note was modified and slightly embellished to protect this idiot. However, I get at least three emails like this per week. Please don’t send this kind of stuff to me. I’m busy with my own projects… Besides, this sort of thing will never get you anywhere in business, because you aren’t focused on the most important aspect of any deal: “What’s In It For Me?”

The following film producer suggestions provide basic action steps. But before we get started, a little disclosure:

In the following filmmaking article, I am going to mention products and services. You should know that I most likely get paid a small affiliate commission to promote these things. But this will not affect your purchase price. And hopefully this saves YOU time!

1. Break Down Your Screenplay
Break down your movie script into a schedule. Use the information from your schedule to create your initial production budget. You could hire someone to do this for you, or you could grab a copy of Peter Marshall’s Online Movie Script Breakdown course.

2. Create A Business Plan
Utilize the information from your movie budget to write your movie business plan. Your business plan will detail how your movie money will be spent – but more importantly, your business plan will also detail how you will  market and sell your movie.

Here is some movie business plan software: Movie Plan Pro

3. Create a Marketing Plan
Your business plan will also contain a your marketing plan. Creating a marketing plan is a relatively new step for filmmakers, but having an idea for how you will market and sell your movie is essential.  Please note: Getting your movie into and selling your movie at Sundance should not be part of your business or marketing plan, unless you can guarantee acceptance to Sundance.

Here is some marketing plan software.

4. Budget Your Marketing in a Plan
In order to succeed, you must not only create a marketing plan, but you must budget the cost of your marketing. Again, allocating funds to your marketing is a new step for us filmmakers. In the past, your marketing was handled by movie distributors.

5. Update Your Budget
In the past, your initial budget only included your production costs. Now that you have your marketing plan, you will have to pay for your marketing. You will need to decide if these monies will come from your production budget  – or will you go out and raise more money?

6. Crowdfunding To Cover Movie Project Legal

Once you are satisfied with your business plan, then you will need to find a lawyer – especially if you plan on approaching prospective investors. But doing this correctly can be expensive. So to raise the legal fees, consider testing your concept and marketing hook by creating a crowdfunding campaign. From this practice, you can possibly raise money to cover your legal costs.

7. Find Prospective Investors

Once you get the OK from your lawyer, you will need to reach out to rich people. If you’re from a small town, you probably already know who the rich people are. Pick up the phone and call them. Ask for a meeting to chat about your “business venture.”

Keep in mind that boldness is rewarded and if you don’t ask you don’t get. And in the event you need more information on how to build relationships with rich people so they can finance your movie, check you the indie producer’s guide to getting movie money.

Now get out there and find some independent film investors!

If you can not create a marketing, sales and distribution plan for your movie (that you control), your project becomes very risky.

Fortunately there are two developments that have helped in this arena.

Firstly, through companies like distribber (Disclosure: They pay me to promote) you now have the ability to get your movie into the marketplace. This allows you to create a business plan and marketing strategy with a fully accessible sales channel. (This is huge!)

Secondly, sites like Kickstarter and Indie GoGo allow you to crowdfund. With crowdfunding, you can test your concept long before you get into the marketplace. This will help you determine if your movie has a market – long before you dive into your project both feet first.

When you have a sales channel and a proven concept, having conversations with prospective investors will be much easier.

If you would like more information on movie marketing, check out these filmmaking tools.

With sites like Indie GoGo and Kickstarter, filmmakers can finally raise money without asking permission. And while the vast majority of filmmakers limit their crowdfunding campaigns to a few thousand dollars – some filmmakers get super ambitious.

Earlier this month Koo from NoFilmSchool decided to implement his own $115,000 crowdfunding campaign. And he stopped by Filmmaking Stuff to share his experience.

Jason Brubaker
It might help readers if you share a little about your background.

Koo
My name is Koo and I’m an independent filmmaker and writer. I run the website NoFilmSchool, which is a site for filmmakers and independent creatives. And I co-created the “urban Western” web series The West Side, which won the Webby Award for Best Drama Series.

Jason Brubaker
What are you working on now?

Koo
I’m now planning on making my first feature film, and I’m currently running a crowdfunding campaign to hopefully turn the dream into a reality.

Jason Brubaker
What made you start NoFilmSchool?

Koo
I actually started NoFilmSchool in 2005 as a personal blog, but in 2009 I told myself I should either quit wasting time with a blog and shut it down, or fully commit myself to re-launching the site as something larger. I pursued the latter with the idea that I could hopefully build an audience online by sharing as much helpful content as possible; if I was successful, it would allow me to run the site as a steady side job (while working on a screenplay), instead of jumping from project to project as a freelancer (and always putting off the screenplay, which is what I found myself doing as a freelance shooter/editor/writer/director).

Jason Brubaker
So you went for it?

Koo
Yeah. It took a year of living out of a suitcase and a lengthy detour into learning how to run a website, but eventually traffic to NoFilmSchool grew to the point where I was able to do just that – run the website, write my screenplay, and not have to seek out freelance work.

Jason Brubaker
It is great when you focus on helping other people. Good things come.

Koo
On a more basic level, NoFilmSchool is simply the website I wish I’d had to help me out in my career from the beginning. Whatever I’ve picked up along the way, I try to share it there.

Jason Brubaker
After your success with the website and also producing online content, what made you decide to make a traditional feature?

Koo
After our success with The West Side, we spent a couple of years trying to get our next idea made, and it just wasn’t happening. The economy was terrible at the time – this was 2008, when the first big crash was taking place. And our project, titled 3rd Rail, was inherently risky for film studios.

Jason Brubaker
What made it was risky for the studios?

Koo
It’s an online, interactive experience as opposed to a standard feature, and therefore established film business models don’t apply. Online content represents a great opportunity in the DIY space, but it brings with it a lot of challenges once you start seeking significant amounts of other people’s money.

Jason Brubaker
Yeah. Any time you involve money people, your responsibility increases. And you have to be ready for it.

Koo
When I co-directed The West Side I didn’t feel like I was ready to make my own feature. But once I started researching and writing Man-child, the voice of doubt that usually causes me to throw a script in the trash can was surprisingly M.I.A. The more I worked on it the more I became excited to make the project. After several months of researching and writing, I knew definitively this had to be my first feature.

Jason Brubaker
I love it when projects put you in the flow. Your current feature is focused on Basketball? How come?

Koo
I’ve played basketball all my life, so it’s a personal project to me. But just because I play basketball doesn’t mean I know a lot about the youth basketball world. I’m talking about middle schoolers, as opposed to the college and pro athletes you typically see in sports movies. The more I researched it, the more I felt it was a story I had to tell. And while it’s definitely a basketball movie, my hope is that the film will also speak to those who don’t have a particular interest in basketball or even sports, because it’s a fascinating and unique world.

Jason Brubaker
Can you speak to that a little more?

Koo
These kids are nationally ranked by the time they’re 12, and they start hearing whispers of fame and fortune very early – but usually they don’t have a whole lot in their lives at that age. This dichotomy – what they could have in a few years as opposed to what they actually have, right now – could be larger in youth basketball than anywhere else in American society.

Jason Brubaker
I noticed you are utilizing crowdfunding to finance your movie. Can you explain crowdfunding?

Koo
Instead of the traditional route of independent film finance, where a few individuals put up the bulk of a film’s investment, crowdfunding is when you ask for small amounts of money from a large number of people. If enough people believe in your film enough to pledge $10 (in the case of Man-child, this gets backers a download of the full film when it’s done), your film is enabled by a community as opposed to an individual.

Jason Brubaker
How is your experience with the campaign thus far?

Koo
Crowdfunding can be a harrowing experience, because in many cases (including that of Man-child), the campaign is all-or-nothing: if you don’t make your goal, you get $0. At the same time, it can be incredibly empowering, to see support pour in from all corners of the world. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced and we’re only 1/3 of the way through the campaign.

Jason Brubaker
Why did you go with Kickstarter over IndieGoGo?

Koo
I think IndieGoGo’s got a great thing going, they originally launched with a focus on film projects, and unlike Kickstarter they accept international projects. They also allow for tax-deductible contributions for projects with fiscal sponsorship. However, I went with Kickstarter because I’ve always really liked the design of their site (I was a designer at MTV for three years, so I’m probably more sensitive to this than most), and they’re a more popular site. Plus, I’ve been a serial funder of other Kickstarter projects for the past two years, so I already felt like a member of the community.

Jason Brubaker
You raised a few thousand in the first few days. What do you attribute this to?

Koo
Crowdfunding $115,000 sounds doable only because it’s been done before But when you break it down I actually have to raise a few thousand dollars not just in the first days, but every day of the campaign. The campaign is running for 38 days and that means I have to average $3k/day to make the goal. I never know where the next dollar is going to come from and so I’m constantly scrambling to come up with new ways of reaching new people.

Jason Brubaker
What are some crowdfunding tips you can share with other filmmakers?

Koo
In terms of having a big launch, my tips would be to build up your audience online long before you even think about launching a crowdfunding campaign. I’m not talking weeks or months, I’m talking years. You’ve got to have credibility and it helps a ton if you have a mailing list. In my case I’ve been giving away a free 114-page eBook on DSLR Cinematography – you know about free eBooks as much as anyone, Jason – and I have been doing this for a year.

Jason Brubaker
Yes. I think we both focus on building genuine relationships with our audience. Which, I believe all modern moviemakers must now do.

Koo
It’s by no means a quid pro quo – you don’t have to donate to my crowdfunding campaign if you read my eBook or website – but I hope that people who come back to the site often and read my newsletters would be more likely to back my project than they would be a stranger’s.

Jason Brubaker
I really like your website and the value you provide to the filmmaking community. Has this positively impacted your campaign? I mean, did you get a great response with your initial email blast?

Koo
In light of how many subscribers and website visitors NoFilmSchool gets, I have 600 backers so far. It is not a huge number. But what I have been amazed at is how generous the backers are. There are more $120 backers than there are $5 backers, and this has been an unbelievably pleasant surprise! For someone you’ve never met in person to believe in you enough to pledge $120 (or more) to help you make your movie is an eye-opening, life-changing experience. Even if my campaign doesn’t make its goal, I will have learned a lot from the campaign thanks to all of the backers and messages I’ve received.

Jason Brubaker
What advice do you have for other modern moviemakers with a goal of making a movie?

Koo
Don’t put yourself in a position where a gatekeeper can tell you no. Grab a DSLR and do it yourself on the cheap. Even if you make something bad or otherwise fail at your pursuit, you’ll have learned something. You don’t learn nearly as much by knocking on doors and hearing “no.”

Jason Brubaker
I totally agree with this philosophy. Asking permission is a waste of time. Never do it!

Koo
When taking a DIY approach, I would say that you should just try to make the best possible short you can. Someone will click on a link, find your video, and if it’s not good, within 20 seconds they’ll click away. If you’re making a “calling card” type of project, there is no value to being prolific – no one says, “wow, this guy made 30 videos.”

All that matters is whether the one they stumble upon is good. And remember, these aren’t just friends, family, and anonymous people bored at work watching. If you get any sort of buzz, producers, agents, and other filmmakers will be watching it too. Put your absolute best foot forward and the rest will follow!

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If you would like to help Koo make his movie, follow this link: Koo’s Crowdfunding Kickstarter Campaign.

Short term, you will obviously want to finish your movie.

Long term, because the market is saturated, you will need to think of yourself as a mini-studio, continually focused on building your brand and sourcing your own audience. To achieve this, you will need to create multiple titles over time, resulting in a very genre specific movie library.

While creating a mini-studio may seem beyond the scope and scale of what you think is possible, setting your sights high is much more proactive than ignoring the fact that backyard indies are now competing for the same virtual shelf space as mainstream Hollywood movies. This is a time of change. This is the indie movie distribution equivalent of the automobile replacing the horse-drawn-wagon.

You need to man up.

There will come a day when all entertainment will be on-demand and cheap to consume. The question is, will you ignore this movement and continue to play your distribution lottery ticket in hopes of winning the dream deal?

Or will you start sourcing your audience today?

So here is a quick 7 part checklist you can utilize before you even think about movie finance.

1. Strong Hook: What is your movie about and why should I care?
2. Great Scrip: You need a great script that you believe in.
3. Production Budget: How will you spend your movie money?
4. Marketing Plan: Distribution is dead. How will YOU reach your audience?
5. Marketing Budget: Yeah. That’s right. You are now responsible for this too.

Do you want more information? Click here to download an awesome filmmaking book for free.

Happy Filmmaking!

LA Producer Jason Brubaker

Every business has a sales cycle. This is no different for the independent filmmaking business. Having a long term perspective and patience is essential. The trouble is, waiting around for your movie project ideas to morph into reality is a royal pain in the butt.

In ways akin to any entrepreneur grinding to get a start up off the ground, as a filmmaker you have to continually refine and adapt your concept and find the resources to help you succeed. And even when all the pieces align, despite your best efforts, sometimes movie ventures fall apart.

But sometimes they could have been saved…

Allow me to further my comparison between your independent movie project and a start-up company. Let’s say Start Up Company X creates a concept that is such a “good idea” that it will be a no-brainier. To be clear, even though the product is awesome, it has never been bought, sold, tested or proven in the marketplace. Heck, the idea is so revolutionary (and cool and awesome) that there aren’t any competitors. Sounds like the stars of success have aligned, right?

Well, not so fast.

A few months into implementation, most entrepreneurs quickly realize that because there is limited to no competition, the sale is actually more challenging. Why? Prospective buyers do not understand the concept enough to pay for it. And because the prospect has never heard of you or your company, nor do they know of anybody else who has bought your product – they don’t trust you enough to part with their money.

What does all of this have to do with your own filmmaking business?

Like any start-up entrepreneur, you are approaching prospects (prospective investors) who are new to filmmaking. From their buying perspective, you, your movie and your movie business is a new concept that they have never bought before. As a consequence, many of your first meetings will be spent educating and building trust. And this could mean a very long sales cycle. If you pull-the-plug on prospecting prematurely, you will lose momentum. Your project will fall apart.

I am sad to say this, but many filmmakers will quit at the first challenge. Maybe it’s a telephone call not being returned. Maybe it’s something else. And if you have never cold-called before, many of you may give up before you even start.

I have good news for serious filmmakers!

In case you happen to be one of those filmmakers who would rather swim naked in the north pole than face the rejection of a cold call, there is a new way to test the water before you dive in head first (have no idea why I am using a swimming analogy here.)

But here it is… Ready? One word: Crowdfunding!

With sites like www.IndieGoGo.com, you can now explore the wonderful world of crowdfunding. Crowdfunding allows you to pitch your movie ideas to crowds of people online, who are enthusiastic about sponsoring movie projects. And before you jump over to IndieGoGo and sign up, here is my tip. Many filmmakers try to raise their entire budget via crowdfunding and fail. I do not recommend this.

Instead, consider limiting your crowdfunding campaign to a few thousand dollars. Why? Because if your movie has a real budget, you are going to need real money outside of the crowds. And in this context, the more important reason to utilize crowdfunding is to test your movie concept and source your initial audience.

“We just tested the concept and essentially pre-sold over one-hundred units!”

This is a much stronger pitch for prospective investors because you have now demonstrated an interest in the marketplace. And because you have already garnered a few thousand dollars, you now have a much greater incentive to finish what you start – You wouldn’t want to let your sponsors down, right?

If you decide to utilize indieGoGo you are in luck because they own a company called distribber. To be transparent, I do get paid to promote distribber – but this was a personal choice. And here is why. Distribber allows you to access all of the popular video on demand and internet marketplaces, like iTunes and Hulu without discrimination.

Put together, this means you can prove your movie concept and source your initial audience through crowdfunding and you can now include clear-cut steps for distribution (that you can control) in your business plan.

While there are no guarantees in business, especially the independent movie business – having the ability to test your concept, source an audience and set up shop in the many popular video on demand and internet marketplaces might just help you move prospective movie investors to buy now, instead of later.

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Jason Brubaker (IMDB) is a Hollywood based Independent Motion Picture Producer and an expert in internet movie distribution. He is focused on helping YOU make, market and sell movies more easily by growing your fan base, building buzz and creating community around your title. If you liked this article, ask Jason Brubaker to speak at your next filmmaking event.

There is plenty of filmmaking software to help you break down,schedule and budget your movie. The industry standard software is produced by Entertainment Partners, and it’s called Movie Magic. With Movie Magic, you are able to breakdown your screenplay, and schedule your move. Then later, you are able to take the elements from your schedule and turn them into a budget.

The only downside to Movie Magic is the cost. To get both the scheduling and budgeting programs, you will have to shell out over to six-hundred dollars. This is obviously cost prohibitive to many filmmakers.

But no worries. Back in 2003, I was one of the original beta testers for a scheduling and budgeting program from Jungle Software called Gorilla. If you’re creating a low budget indie feature, this software will usually do the trick.

In addition to computer based software programs, there are quite a few web based scheduling and budgeting solutions available. But from experience, I realize that most producers are hesitant to utilize anything based in the cloud, citing that it’s very difficult to get your movie schedule in the places without internet.

And even with the buzz surrounding crowdfunding, whenever I put on a filmmaking workshop, I am always surprised by the amount of filmmakers who never heard of the concept.

If you’re a filmmaker seeking money, I’d like to provide you with several filmmaker friendly crowdfunding resources.

1. www.IndieGoGo.com
2. www.KickStarter.com
3. www.CrowdFundingMovies.com (my sponsor.)

While many of these sites have been catering to filmmakers since inception, I recently partnered with MicroGiving which touts the fact that they do not have a lot of filmmakers jamming up the space – but they do have many sponsors looking for projects. To find out more about this, visit the website www.CrowdfundingMovies.com