Another Movie Guide

Finance Your Film – Mistakes Not to Make

There are many common and avoidable mistakes filmmakers make when seeking funding. Here’s a few of the top ones and how to avoid them.

A big one is not putting yourself in the investor’s position. Think about what the investor’s looking for. If you had $1M to invest, what would your selection criteria be?

The investor’s seeking a concise and clear summary of what makes your film a good financial deal for them, first and foremost. Plus any other perks, (such as the glamor of the film connection, invitations to premieres and so on). What kind of financial return are you offering? What evidence is there they’d get this (use revenues from other similar films)? How have you minimized the risk for them? How have you tied down all the possible variables?

What is the minimum investment you require, how many units of investment are you seeking, who are the existing backers and how much have they invested?

Yes – this might not be the stuff that rocks your boat, but too many filmmakers shoot themselves in the foot by talking too much about things only of interest to filmmakers, by spending all their real energy on making films, learning about films, getting film experience, then not taking the same care with presenting themselves and their deal to their investors.

Think of your investor as another audience that you need to reach. How do you tell a story to THIS market in their language, how do you tell a story that excites them?

You wouldn’t just chuck a load of random images and sounds onto a screen in no particular order, and leave the audience to work out what the hell it all means, where the story is.

So why would you do the equivalent of this to the company you’re asking funds from? (People do do this, believe me, saying effectively by their proposal – “Here’s a lot of information Mr Investor, you sort out yourself what’s relevant to you – I’m too busy making films to bother presenting it properly myself”.)

For establishing shot, read executive summary!

The investor’s also seeking evidence that you’ve a good track record and will produce the goods. Also signs – in the way you write the document, the way you deal with them and your general attitude – that you’re reliable and experienced, a safe pair of hands, will be a pleasure to do business with, will make things easy for them, also that you understand their world and respect it.

Other mistakes to avoid:-

1. Sounding desperate or being rude (you’d be surprised!)

2. Not defining the audience for your film

3. Not showing budgets and gross revenues for similar films

4. Giving them a link to a trailer, or other information, which isn’t a direct link (for example, after clicking through your link, they still have to look about a bit to find another link or even two, before finding the one to the trailer)

5. Same applies with other information, like previous film credits of your DP. Realistically, they’ll give up if they have to click more than once

6. Not realizing the importance of the first 30 seconds of your pitch/proposal and using this well

7. Not getting spelling, grammar and English checked and accurate

8. Holding onto “limiting beliefs” which don’t serve you.

Here are some all-too-common “limiting beliefs”: (A limiting belief, is something which, if you really believe this deep down, is going to limit what you can achieve or attract.)

1. “I’m not good enough”

2. “I don’t like wealthy people”

3. “Wealthy people are bad/greedy/selfish”

4. “Wealthy people wouldn’t want to help someone like me”

5. “I’m not the kind of person people give money to”

6. “I’m never just going to bump into a potential investor”

7. “You can always tell who’s wealthy by the way they act or look”

8. “It is impossible to find money”

9. “It is difficult to get to talk to wealthy people or investors”.

10. “Investment guys are boring ‘suits’

11. “Doing business with investors is boring”

12. “There’s not enough money to go round”

13. “Wealthy people aren’t interested in helping people out”

If you find yourself believing any of these, start seeking the evidence for the opposite belief. Be serious about this over a period of one to two months and keep a record of the evidence to refer back to. The evidence is there if you look. Your beliefs affect how you behave and the impression you give, also what you notice and don’t notice, so they’re important to watch.

I know for a fact that for a lot of wealthy people, it’s vital for them to “give back, they just want to make sure it’s going to be effective and make the difference they want it to. A lot of wealthy people believe in “tithing”, and many even believe that tithing actually increases their wealth further as a byproduct of giving back (what goes around comes around). Not that you’re after “charity” but it illustrates a principle about expectations.

Another example – I personally contacted a particular multimillionaire and business angel who didn’t know me, and he immediately agreed to help me – and was true to his word, putting me in contact with a friend of his. He was really easy to track down and speak to (they aren’t all, but he was).

So get out there, network and be open to all possibilities.

Copyright Sara Champion

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