Financing

There are different ways to finance your movie. The truth is the fewer the investors, the safer you are.

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What about documentary and non-fiction financing?

Email people for donations and financing
NEH (National Endowments of Humanities, a government grant)
- Development can go up to $80,000 – but must be in the area of humanities (religion, literature, etc), targeted toward US Citizens
- Production grants, can go up to $1 mill, but most likely $100,000. Ken Burns gets about $1 million. You have to submit a proposal, but you will wait 6 months. You have to have a lot of detail in your proposal for this type. — The NEH has people who can give advice on what to include and what not to include.
NEA (National Endowments of the Arts, a government grant) — Same setup, but for the other stuff.
ITVS primarily does documentaries in non-mainstream areas. They don’t want mainstream or Hollywood.
Each state has its own humanities or arts council. Cities have grants. If the project has to do with NYC, you can get a city grant. There are different types of proposals that you can go for.
Check out your local historical society, which are run by the wealthiest people in the town.
Religious/Ethnic groups have film/media departments also.
Local stations also have funding available.
Check film magazines.
Film Festivals and indy film markets have a eye out for this type of stuff.
You can shoot a trailer, and put it on DVD, and send it around.

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What about feature film financing?

If you have a feature project, its nearly impossible with the studios. 1 in 20 major features makes a profit.
As a result of this indy films have become successful because of the fact that they have been doing their productions well without the large expenditures.
Hollywood Reporter is a good magazine to get to have list of production companies.

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Where can you go to get investors?

These guys are bored, and love the excitement of investing in such a project. What you can do is draw up a limited partnership

Credit card route is a disaster…don’t do it!
When you ask for investors, they will ask if you have ‘first money’. Make sure you have some first money so you can say “yes!” It works for you instead of against you.
Some indy producers make a short and they use that as a means of generating interest. Spielberg did a student film of two trucks battling it out on the highway. Studios loved it

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