The Movie - Update

After glancing through my most recent posts it occurred to me to write something about the progress we're making with he film. Some of our twitter followers have also inquired into our progress, so here's an update.

SCRIPT
After overcoming our selection dilemma with a script writer we've received the first 40 pages back - which I have to say were outstanding. I got them by email late one night, around midnight as I was just powering down my PC for the night. Curiosity got the better of me and so I decided to print them off ready to read through over breakfast! I glanced at the first page and before I knew it, 80 pages later (it was that good I had to read it again!) I was excited and also reassured - knowing we made the right choice with this writer.

2-MIN PROMO
We've developed a 2-min promotional video incorporating footage I shot myself and other material to give investors both a feel for what the film's about and also the story. It's awesome! The reaction to this has ranged from excitement to disbelief and without fail all have been extremely positive. We've shown it to investors, producers, and a range of other key contacts in the film and finance space. It's proved to be a winning ingredient to get people's attention right away to the fact that we are serious and second of all own a great story.

MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Our organic on-line marketing campaign has started. We have in the region of 2500 followers on twitter, most of which we hope have an interest in this genre film. We plan to ramp this effort up in the next few months so that we can hit our goal of 30,000 followers by Christmas. Ambitious I know but I think it's achievable. If we can achieve this while still in development, we are confident when the time comes to negotiating distribution deals we'll have over 200,000 eyeballs on the film - each one we hope will be interested enough to go see the film (and take a friend)! Not a bad box office target don't you think?

FUNDING
Our search for film funding is ticking along nicely given the development stage of our film. We are actively speaking to and meeting investors on a weekly basis, all of which are now eagerly anticipating the script. We floated the idea of raising some 'seed' or development finance to shape up our proposal but in the end opted against doing so at this stage. We feel we are able to cash flow the development phase ourselves.

So all in all we are making progress and advancing toward our December milestone at a steady pace.

Getting Started - Finding Funds to Get Your Film Off the Ground

There are many avenues open to producers who are trying to raise finance for their films, securing funding is on the other hand another matter. When raising finance for your film you will generally be looking for it in two tranches; Development Finance and Production Finance.

Development Finance

Getting that all important helping hand during the early stages of a project can sometimes be the most difficult source of funding you will ever have to raise. Having raised finance for other projects in the past - that has been my experience at least! In other industries this stage of finance is often called 'Start-up' or 'Seed' capital.

The film equivalent is called 'development funding' and is used to develop your idea into a fully polished proposition that an investor can evaluate. You will then aim to raise Production Finance on the strength of your proposition. As you might imagine on a feature film, the Development Finance makes up only a fraction of the total funding raised. Investors that would typically put up the Development Finance include the Producer themselves, friends, family and people from your close network. They might invest because they believe in you, believe in your idea or have some desire to be involved in an exciting and unusual project. They will and should expect a decent return on their investment because quite often they take the biggest risks. Investors bank rolling the Development Phase will expect to recoup their initial investment along with a 50% uplift on their stake. In other words if someone invests £1,000 they will expect to get this back and another £500 for taking the risk. Investors will recoup their Development funding from the Production Funding and might also be given option to roll their stake over and/or contribute further to the Production pot.

As a Producer you should also be clear to your investors when they can anticipate receiving their return because if your plan is to start looking for Production Finance in 15 years when the idea is fully developed that might not seem like such a good rate of return! It also helps you to focus your mind on an end goal.

So what do you do spend your development money on?

Here are some of the cost items that will come under your Development Budget;

•Script option fees

•Writer's fees

•Producer's fees (the most important one!)

•Travel & Entertainment

•Location scouting

•Budget & scheduling

•Script reading with cast

•Script editing

•Duplication & postage

•Website

•Legal (yes they get involved early!)

•Casting Director

•Director final script

•Office overheads

..the list goes on but you get the idea, there is a lot to think about. You will have noticed at the top of this list I referred to the Development Budget and the reason for this is simple. When planning any project it is crucial to be aware of any and every potential cost that one might incur and budget for this in your financial plans and cash flows. It doesn't necessarily mean that you will end up spending or indeed be compelled to spend every penny of it, so for example it might be desirable to receive a Producer's Fee whilst developing your idea. The reality however is you would normally forego this fee or at least an investor is likely to expect you to do that. Unless of course you can provide sufficient reasoning and justification for it's inclusion, otherwise be prepared to compromise.

So what's the lesson?

Lesson No. 3# Get as far down the track as possible before you ask anyone for any money - doing this will demonstrate to any investor your initiative, commitment and work ethic.