Hi ,
One of the best ways to learn about film financing, and how others overcame their funding issues, is to learn from those who have succeeded. Not only do these lessons show us the pathways to success, they help us see funding affects every film. We
have also seen, time and again (and again, and again) that when you are meeting with investors and can reference stories like these off the top of your head, when applicable, investors are blown away at how well you know your industry, and how prepared you are to make your film.
Example Investor Question, "You say in your Biz Plan you are targeting talent like J.K. Simmons to star, but how will you do that with your $3M
budget?"
Prepared Filmmaker Answer, "You know, when Wes Anderson was making The Royal Tenenbaums, he struggled to get all the A list talent that ultimately starred in the film, like Gene Hackman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Danny Glover, Ben Stiller and many more. So he offered scale pay (basically minimum wage for SAG actors) but also made it very clear the role was written for Gene Hackman and worked with his agent to convince him to take it. He did that
with several of the characters, highlighting, for example, how the Irish-Jewish heritage was perfect for Ben Stiller and Gwyneth Paltrow."
How Wes Anderson Made The Royal Tenenbaums
What were Gene Hackman's hesitations in taking the role?
“Yeah: no money. He’s been doing movies for a long time, and he didn’t want to work sixty days on a movie. I don’t
know the last time he had done a movie where he had to be there for the whole movie and the money was not good. There was no money. There were too many movie stars, and there was no way to pay. You can’t pay a million dollars to each actor if you’ve got nine movie stars or whatever it is — that’s half the budget of the movie. I mean, nobody’s going to fund it anymore, so that means it’s scale.”
(Source: vulture.com)
Film Financing Lessons - What Can You
Learn?
When Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, Lee Daniels, Matthew McConaughey, Charlize Theron and a dozen others are ALL saying they struggled with financing their films, we realize financing it is an integral part of filmmaking. Funding is as much a part of making a film as a camera or script is.
We see too many filmmakers think the hurdle is having access to
investors. Do you really think the people mentioned above didn't have access to financiers? Of course they did - but the equation is much more complicated than just getting yourself in front of the right people. It's about having the right investment and about making the right compromises to create your MVP (minimum viable product).
Some filmmakers also think that if they can just fund their first film, then the challenge goes away. That's like thinking
you only need a camera or script for your first film and then you won't need them again. Of course you need them for every film. The goal is to get better at using them going forward - not eliminate them.
