Just like many filmmakers, there are plenty of ideas that
run through my mind, plenty of stories that I would love to tell, plenty of
characters I can see so vividly in playing out dramas in my head, however then
comes the producer side of my brain: financing. You can have an incredibly
script, however, finding funding is still quite the daunting task for any
filmmaker. First, one must figure out what are the different options out there
for funding my film, and how do these options work? Recently, NoFilmSchool
published an article by Buffalo8’s Matthew Helderman breaking down the
different kinds of film financing. In short, the independent filmmaker’s
options are:
1.
Equity: These are cash investments that
require the investor own a stake in the film and must be paid back before a
profit can be seen by the filmmaker.
2.
Pre-Sales: With pre-sale fudning, a contract
must be made with distributors before the film is produced; these deals are
based on how marketable the film is viewed to be, and how high the sales potentials
are. In this, a distributor will generate a value that will allow you to take
out a bank loan, using the pre-sale as collateral.
