The Heretic’s Comments: 9 out of 10 of my clients who are in the process of developing independent film projects run into the problem of how to finance their production. Back in the day, a film maker would be at the mercy of cut throat money men, gangstas and/or ownership grabbing major Film Companies/Distributors in order to get funding .
Fortunately, these days, a Film Maker can bypass the money men, gangstas and major Film Companies and go straight to the general public to ask for investments into their films (this is more commonly known as “crowd funding”). There are several platforms you can implement to create a crowd funding strategy to finance your film. Some of the more popular platforms are the following:
- Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/)
- Indiegogo (http://www.indiegogo.com/)
- Rockethub (http://www.rockethub.com/)
There are several more, but the three above are popular crowd funding platforms which each has been successfully used to fund no only films but also sorts of projects.
The key to making crowd funding work for an independent film project is to make sure that you have:
1) All of your intellectual property rights secured toward the story, script, screenplay and all performances/music. Very critical (you don’t won’t people investing in your film only for them to find out later that you are being sued left and right by individuals/companies who are claiming infringement and/or other breaches);
2) Give something of value to the individuals who invest in your film. Crowd Funding is not charity. You should look at it as a trade. The public is investing in your film project and you are going to offer the public something in value in exchange for their investment (don’t shortchange them);
3) Under Promise/Over Deliver. This is the most critical aspect. Don’t build unfair expectations (hype) as a way to motivate (trick) people into investing in your film. Sell them on the strength of the story, or the subject matter, or the acting…in other words the substance of the film. Once the public believes in the Film itself, then they will help you build the energy to push the film to a greater and greater audience.
I could share more, but I think you get the picture (no pun intended)
Closing Thoughts:
Film Makers do your research and your due diligence. The most frustrating thing for me to deal with as an attorney is a film maker who comes to me after he/she/they has shot the entire project and ask me “okay what do I do next”!!!
Do your due diligence before shooting not afterwards…that way you avoid the possibilities of having to jump into bed with people you should not be in bed with!!!
Something to think about!!!
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