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There are so many competing priorities when raising funds to make your movie and raising private financing, but, one of the THE most important is the proof of concept. One of the most compelling points you can make to an investor is that you KNOW your
movie has a fan base that will pay to see the movie.Â
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For example, super hero movies. The reason studios invest millions into these movies is they know there is a built in fan base. They can guess the size of the audience by the success of the existing media. Super heroes are everywhere - reading comics, playing video games, TV and movies. All of them feed off each other and the studios know the audience is invested in the stories and will spend their time and $$
on any and all of the media forms.Â
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Know why books are often made into movies? You guessed it - built in fan base and they already know how many copies were sold.Â
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So, what can you do as an indie filmmaker to demonstrate you've got a solid audience? First, here's what not to do. You don't make up numbers in your business plan saying something like, "1M people saw comedy films last year, so we think 1M people will see
ours."Â
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Second, you don't approach anyone for money until you've got an audience. We always say this - and I know you already know this is ridiculous - but you don't go from "I have a script" or "I am thinking about writing a script" to "Will you give me money?" - there's 1000 steps in between and you have to do the heavy lifting. One of the weights to lift is building a fan base.Â
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We love to use the movie that was raising funds,
Capture the Flag, as a best practice example for indie filmmakers. Capture the Flag has over 47k reactions and 5k comments on their promo on Facebook. They knew the military theme lends itself to a Memorial Day, Fourth of July or Veteran's Day release, along with a niche audience of 22 million US Veterans + 100 million immediate family members.Â
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The proof is there. If all you've got is your FB page or your IG images and your mother and her friends, it's time
to do some serious work around getting a fan base and audience. You should also never confuse your donors (kickstarter, crowdfunding) and investors with your audience. They may have some overlap, sure, but for the most part, you need to treat them as two separate and distinct groups of people. Don't run out and put all your initial time, energy and research into your funding. Put it into building your audience, which will then pay itself off. Get them bought into your ideas long before you ask
for money.Â
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