ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

12 years, 4 months ago - Tony Franks

Mark's original post was quite clear in asking if anyone knows of a resource that "brings all of the various funding options, schemes etc togther in one place". I too would like to know if other Shooters know if such a resource (in print or web) exists...

12 years, 5 months ago - Celine Rich

Hi Mark, we like your idea. Contact us to discuss the idea further and we can share our experience of setting up aggregate information sites with you. celine@mysteriousmovies.net.
Best wishes,
Celine

12 years, 5 months ago - Ben Blaine

Point is there isn't one route. There's not even only ten. The ways to fund your film are almost as multiple as films. So you only feel like you're wading through loads of useless information because so much that's out there is useless to you - but wonderfully apposite to someone else.

I think your idea of filmmakers sharing their business models is a great idea, but don't expect it to make your search for the right model to be any simpler.

You know all those arguments we have about script structure and the hero's journey vs truby vs field? You know how they roll on inconclusively? Well just add pound signs and percentages and you're opening the same can of worms.

12 years, 5 months ago - Mark Perry

Maybe I didn't make the original post quite explicit enough. I'm really discussing the fact that there are many places out there for filmmakers to get funding from but trying to get hold of the facts seems like a full time job in itself. It is important for filmmakers to stump up cash themselves and to be creative about how they fund projects but I just don't understand why the information for funding that is available is so difficult to come by. If someone is looking for funding, be it to top up what they already have, it seems everyone has to waste a lot of time wading through lots of information to get it.
I was considering trying to set up a website that contained all the funding bodies etc so that when it came to specifically applying for funding people could hit one place rather than spending so much time researching. But I think the market for such a site maybe too small as it would need too many subscribers to br viable.
It just feels a like a waste of time for so many people to be researching the same topic over and over again when they could be paying one body to be doing it for them.

12 years, 5 months ago - Shoaib Vali

Like Ben says, there ain't no one way around it, and as Stephanie further on said, if these things existed, they would change quickly, so to have a single source of info on funds sounds like a lot of maintenance, the model that I'm following is at its most basic level, make some cheap music videos or commercials, save up and invest that into your own stuff, that has many advantages over standing in massive ques of filmmakers trying to wet their beaks at some funding click, a) you get better as a filmmaker by working with smaller budgets, b) your technical grasp increases with every limitation you come across on those projects c) you have a roster of work to show that you did an alright to phenomenal work on those small budgets, giving you a bit more of an edge to your approach when the time comes to move on to bigger budgets....ofcourse all that depends on what your interests are and how patient you are with this filmmaking thing but definetly beats all the strings attached with your project being funded.....as beggars can't be choosers and all, we can't choose what we want to work with, best is to work with everything and anything and always keeping your ultimate goal firmly set in your head.

12 years, 5 months ago - Ben Blaine

Adrian is quite right. There are a few common business models those these change inline with the tax laws, but at the most basic level the only answer to the funding question is "ask people or organisations to give you money."

It really is that simple. And that complicated. However at least we no longer get to pretend that all our funding should magically appear from the Film Council so we can no longer sit around blaming them for our own failure to raise investment from other people...

12 years, 5 months ago - NICHOLAS PROSSER

As one who is seeking funding to produce independent short films, I think there is a need for a body that connects the writer / director with those who might be willing to fund. When I started in television 40 years ago, I have the impression that it was so much easier to make a project and there was so much more money slushing around producing such a wide variety of inconsequential nonsense, as well as programmes and films that were worthwhile. Has opportunity faded? From where can encouragement be found?

12 years, 5 months ago - Bill Hartin

I think Dylan's perspective has great merit because it side steps the "gate keeper" mentality perpetuated by the big studios, starting back in the 1930's.
My experience was when I asked friends to help fund my short film project, many ponied up, ranging from $100-$500, based primarily on the budget I presented to them. Now I'm getting ready to produce my first feature and those same friends have disappeared because my current budget is way beyond their pocket books. Fair enough, I say. After all, they're friends, not film financiers.
So I went to a friend who moonlights funding films and he turned me down, saying his stable of investors were only interested in (pick your genre). Okay, I said, how about pointing me in the right direction for my dark, erotic thriller?
He said: Uh, well, that is, well...I really can't do that because that information is proprietary.
I was so close to asking him if he was really a friend. In the end, I formed my own indie film production consortium, complete with Angel investors who know and understand the risks and potential ROI. It took longer and required me to expand my definition of "creative," but now I have a model to follow and a growing stable of my own investors.

12 years, 5 months ago - Franz von Habsburg FBKS MSc

Thanks Cynthia. That's interesting as my www.MargeryBooth.com has a female lead. Cheers,Franz von Toskana, Imperial Film Productions Ltd

12 years, 5 months ago - Barrington Robinson

Whether it is a short or a feature film, no film maker has the right to demand or expect money from any agency, to echo Brother Blaine you need to beg and borrow but also self fund if necessary. Why should anyone else give you money if you are not willing to spend yours? Ultimately if you cannot fund that project, change the project, wait until you can obtain the money or shoot something else. Let's be creative in the way we fund our films, not just wait for handouts from government agencies or be told what we can and cannot make. Let's make films and have fun.

12 years, 5 months ago - Cynthia Granville

i know what you're saying, mark, and i think you're right. in other fields there are comprehensive sources for contact information to find foundations and others who give grants, fellowships, etc. it doesn't mean people are being lazy or unaware that information changes over time. anyone who's applied for a grant or fellowship knows it's lots of work, and you have to be good at presenting what makes your work unique as well as using "grant-speak" to appeal to funders. and a lot of these same principals apply to approaching commercial investors, and certainly to campaigns like kickstarter/indiegogo. WIFT (Women in Film and Television, which has male as well as female members and chapters all over the place which usually appear as prefixes, such as NYWIFT for New York) sends out a weekly newsletter which includes funding sources and deadlines. there are other organizations which do this as well. a lot of general info can be found here http://www.womenarts.org/fund/index.htm

12 years, 5 months ago - Stephanie Walton

The reason a list doesn't exist online, and there's not many books is because information changes year on year so things become out of date very quickly. Like Chris and Adrian both said events are the best way of getting the information as it happens. Submissions deadlines for funding opportunities always make their way into the UK Filmmakers bulletin, but in most cases your better off approaching people independently.

12 years, 5 months ago - Adrian Bracken

Hi Mark - I came into films & TV very late after a 30 year career in business (engineering), where funding routes are quite clear, but the film business finance makes even MI6 an open book! There are loans and grants from various sources within government and Europe, (not forgetting the National Lottery administered by BFI) and at Cannes last year there was a book of these available grants & territory tax reliefs. Depends at what level you want to make films, but in virtually all cases - to start - you have to raise the money yourself from friends (preferably rich ones) because overall the return on investment for small independent film producers - most of the time - is Zero. A couple of courses might help, though you can spend lots of days & lots of cash hearing of other people's success. Chris Jones (living Spirit/Guerilla Film makers) does some small affordable courses. I did Chris' "7 step Producers Course" with Stephen Followes at Ealing last October (2 days £100-ish) and found it money well spent. It beat the 3 day Producer's Workshop at Cannes - hands down! Once you've got the initial funding , then Sales Agents, Broadcasters, Regional funds, Private Equity & Independent Financial Advisors putting in high net worth clients' cash in as part of a tax saving scheme like EIS or SEIS- are also good sources. If your budget is under £150,000 the SEIS scheme (needs to be set up by an accountant & costs around £2500) is the best. Complicated to understand, but well worth getting your head around. The Producer's main job is finance, and that's where my years in business have come in very useful, I do understand it and budgeting,insurance, paperwork (!) & all the boring bits.
To sum up you've got to learn to beg and borrow, nicely - because most of the time the money you raise will only be going one way!

12 years, 4 months ago - Justin Morales

If you go to www.flicku.me You can start an Indiegogo campaign through that site and get partnership benefits. They will help promote the campaign as well

12 years, 5 months ago - Dylan Raycroft

It seems that there there is a two stage problem here. The first has already achieved consensus: funding will always be short for small independent work because there is very little potential for a reasonable return on investment. Which means that the real problem is not building a one stop shopping for getting funding for films, but rather, creating a marketplace for selling films. One of the major problems of being a scrappy independent is that everything we do is done ad hoc. If we could create more navigable systems which could serve to create standards among independent filmmakers and could help to establish a level of reasonable expectation around our films' futures, then we could begin to build a more streamlined approach to funding, since we would be able to attract more diverse sources of funding than before.
As it is, Kickstarter and indiegogo have done far more to make funding accessible to the low budget filmmaker than all the workshops and film resource sites in the world.