Category Archives: Funding

The crowdfunding platform with best campaign success rate in the world

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Emily Best and her team at Seed&Spark are smiling.

After six years in business, they can claim a crowd funding success rate of 79% in 2018 and an average raising of nearly $15,000 per project.

(By comparison, Kickstarter’s rate was 37% and Indiegogo’s rate was 12%.)

But wait, there’s more!

In addition to being a purpose-built crowd funding platform for film and TV, Seed&Spark is also a distributor and streamer (web, Roku and AppleTV):

“We focus on bringing you wild and wonderful movies and shows from diverse independent filmmakers as well as programming playlists (collections of movies and shows) that you can’t find anywhere else. From festival film favorites to award-winning documentaries to blocks of short films, watching on Seed&Spark means you have many, many, many lens from which to see the world.”

By the way, here’s their origin story:

“In 2011, film producer Emily Best was working with an all-female team to make ‘Like the Water,’ a film they hoped would be at least a drop in the bucket toward more holistic representation of women on the big screen. Unsurprisingly, they hit every imaginable road block in putting the project together, and with just 60 days left before they were scheduled to start shooting, she needed to find $20,000 to finishing financing production. Taking inspiration from the wedding registry model, she and her team created a simple website that listed the items they needed to finish the film – camera, car rentals, grip and electric, coffee – and included a PayPal to accept donations. Over the next month they raised $23,000 in cash – and more than $200,000 in loans and gifts of locations, goods, and services. ‘Like the Water’ would go on to play more than 20 festivals around the world, and the lessons Best learned while crowdfunding – and then trying to get distribution for her film – became the foundation of Seed&Spark.”

My take: Impressive! And Canada friendly too. Worth checking out for your next project.

Greenlight Essentials harnesses big data for indies

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Okay. You got the money. But you want your script to be the best possible — so that it connects with your audience. Wait, who are they again, and what do they want to watch? A crystal ball would come in handy right now.

That’s the promise from Jack Zhang and his company Greenlight Essentials.

Jack has combined his two loves, math and movies, to bring big data to indie filmmakers. He’s been collecting data for the last seven years and the insights are amazing. Jack can tell you how your plot stacks up, who your audience is and where they live.

With this information, you can improve your script and spend your marketing budget with confidence.

After ingesting your script and comparing over 40,000 plot elements with over 3,700 films and millions of box office records, Jack’s AI will plot the likely performance of your film. Change an element here and there, and see what happens.

Next, he’ll give you the demographics of the audience that responds best to your movie: their ages, occupations, incomes, purchase patterns and social media profiles.

Jack can also tell you where your audience lives in the US and Canada.

I recently asked Jack if creatives get upset when his algorithm undervalues their ideas.

“We are just funnelling audiences’ tastes to creatives.  It does upset people sometimes for sure, but it is just showing creatives that audiences want something else, and showing them the ways they can better shape their content to fit the audiences’ tastes.”

My take: this really is a crystal ball. If you ever felt that coverage is inherently skimpy and too much is left to gut decisions, this is worth checking out. Imagine only spending your ad dollars in the cities and on the social media platforms where your audience hangs out. Savings galore!

Telefilm green lights 45 first features and web series

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Telefilm Canada has just released the list of 45 projects it will fund to the tune of up to $125,000 each.

Film schools and media co-ops across Canada nominated approximately 100 projects for Telefilm’s consideration.

Big ups to these projects from CineVic and the National Screen Institute with Victoria connections:

  • All-in Madonna (Arnold Lim, Ana de Lara, Susie Winters)
  • Esluna: The World Beyond (Denver Jackson, Daniel Hogg)
  • Q (Benjamin Musgrave, Dawn Bird, Dustin Griffin)

Arnold Lim says,

“Telefilm has proven to be a world leader in their support for filmmakers and this is just one more reason I am so proud to be Canadian. Thank you to the Talent to Watch program; we haven’t shot yet but I already feel l am a better filmmaker today than when we started this program — and it never would have been possible without Telefilm’s support.”

(For background on the Talent to Watch program, Telefilm’s upgrade of its Micro-budget program, see Barry Hertz‘s article in the Globe and Mail.)

My take: I’ve mentioned before that this is the best way for Canadian filmmakers to get their first features funded. Kudos to Telefilm for having the vision to nurture new storytellers and work on balancing the gender ratio in film at the same time. And congratulations to all the Victoria teams getting the nod this year!

CRTC wants to level the field

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The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has issued a report called Harnessing Change: The Future of Programming Distribution in Canada.

The “digital-only, interactive” report makes fascinating reading, particularly the Market Insights pages and its charts.

The report concludes:

“To ensure a vibrant domestic market and be equitable to all players, it will be essential to develop better regulatory approaches that engage all audio and video services and for each to participate in the most appropriate ways in creating and promoting content by and for Canadians. Accordingly, if legislative change is to take place, it should clearly and explicitly make any video or audio services offered in Canada and/or drawing revenue from Canadians subject to the legislation and incorporate them into the broadcasting system.”

That sounds an awful lot like a Netflix tax to me.

Some telling quotes:

“Virtually all genres of content benefit from direct and indirect financial support. Absent this support, domestic production of virtually all genres of programming would not be sustainable at current levels.”

“The most direct concern is that, driven by the shift to online consumption, continued declines in traditional TV advertising and subscription revenues — the broadcaster revenues on which the bulk of current financing is based — will reduce the money available for production by Canadians. If creators and producers do not find alternative types of financing, less content will be made by Canadians and Canadians will see less of themselves, their culture and their values reflected.”

“A vibrant domestic market is not possible unless it engages all players in the system and ensures that each participates in the most appropriate and equitable ways. The current regulatory approach to audio and video content establishes benefits for traditional players, as well as related obligations. Neither these benefits nor these obligations are applied to the many online international services also operating in Canada and playing increasingly important roles in the broadcasting system.”

My take: the CRTC posits that this new system would be revenue-neutral and not cost Canadians more. The only way that’s going to happen is if cable TV and wireless providers lower their rates to balance the inevitable rise in Netflix rates. When pigs fly.

CanadaScreens.ca gets CAVCO nod

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Once upon a time if you were making films in Canada, you needed to get a theatrical release or a television deal to qualify for production tax credits, as administered by the Canadian Audio Visual Certification Office, or CAVCO.

No more.

Online distribution now qualifies and the newest approved service is CanadaScreens, owned and operated by the First Weekend Club.

Posting your film on CanadaScreens.ca will now trigger tax credits, providing eligible productions with fully refundable tax credits on their qualified labour spend.

First Weekend Club’s executive director, Anita Adams, says:

“This is exciting news for the organization as it puts us in a position to be of much greater service to the Canadian film community, providing them not only with a platform for their Canadian content, but a platform that will enable them to recoup costs through the tax credit program.”

In an email to me she goes on:

“We work directly with whoever holds the digital rights to the content — so we work both with filmmakers and distributors equally. More filmmakers are now choosing to go down the self-distribution route and are reaching out to us directly. In some cases, we may help release these films theatrically by offering promotional services, and then launch their films on our VOD platform. This is a model we quite like actually.”

Please read the CAVCO regulations carefully; I’m not clear if they require a Canadian distributor deal, or if self-distribution qualifies. See Section 30 above.

Here’s the full list of acceptable online services.

My take: this is great news for filmmakers in Canada. Keep up the great work, First Weekend Club!

del Toro and Besson make deals

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Two interesting developments in the realm of auteur filmmaking to report today.

Firstly, Adam Epstein writes on Quartzy that Guillermo del Toro is “getting his own film label at Fox Searchlight, the studio where he directed this year’s best picture winner, The Shape of Water.”

As quoted by The Hollywood Reporter, del Toro says:

“For the longest time, I’ve hoped to find an environment in which I can distribute, nurture and produce new voices in smart, inventive genre films and channel my own. In Fox Searchlight, I’ve found a real home for live action production — a partnership based on hard work, understanding of each other and, above all, faith.”

Secondly, Charles Barfield writes on The Playlist that Luc Besson‘s company is in talks to be bought:

“According to French media outlet Capital.fr , EuropaCorp is in advanced talks to be purchased by none other than Netflix. There’s no terms to the agreement, and honestly, the report is very heavily leaning on unnamed sources, but the structure of the deal is clear. EuropaCorp, founded in 2000 by filmmaker Luc Besson and Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, would be purchased by Netflix, with Besson to stay on to oversee the creative side of the company. The goal is to have the deal worked out by the summer.”

My take: once upon a time, this might be considered selling out. Now it’s monetizing your celebrity in exchange for a promise to keep moving in the same direction. It shows just how much money mini-majors and Netflix have to invest in building up their artistic credibility and aligning with like-minded creatives. That’s the short play — the long play is betting on which streaming service will rule them all.

Money for Movies

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While the independent film community in Canada waits with bated breath for Telefilm to release the latest guidelines for their excellent Talent to Watch program, the NFB reminds us there are other sources of money to help you make your movie.

Eleven, to be exact:

  1. The Bell Fund
  2. Canada Council for the Arts
  3. The Canada Media Fund
  4. The Canada Media Fund English POV Program
  5. The Hot Docs CrossCurrents Doc Fund
  6. The Hot Docs Ted Rogers Fund
  7. The Quebecor Fund
  8. The Rogers Documentary Fund
  9. The Rogers Cable Network Fund
  10. The Telus Fund
  11. Crowd-funding sites such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo

Conspicuously missing from the list is BravoFACT, which the CRTC allowed Bell Media to kill last year.

My take: thank you, NFB, for helping us not fixate on Telefilm. Nevertheless, the Talent to Watch program remains the holder of the best odds on $125K — something like 1 in 6 by my math: Telefilm has announced they’ll fund 50 projects this year and each of approximately 30 recommending partners can forward two feature and one web project for consideration — that’s 50 / (33 * 3) = 50 / 99 = 50% odds at Telefilm. I suspect that each partner will not receive more than nine projects — that’s 3 / 9 = 33% odds at your local media centre. Combining the two, we get 0.5 x 0.33 = 0.165 = 16.5% which is approximately one in six. Roll the die! Your chances of funding your first feature will never be better.

The Attention Economy and the blockchain

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Five years ago, I was thinking about a semitransparent way for creators to get paid for their work on the Internet.

Now, someone’s come along and made my dream a reality. And thrown in the blockchain and a cryptocurrency to boot.

Synero, based in Israel, is…

“…developing tools which allow content creators to easily monetize original works without having to turn their channels into advertisment real estate, while granting their followers the opportunity to be rewarded for getting the word out. Simply put, the attention you generate online is worth money. The better the content you create, the more followers you have, the more attention flows around you. Synereo’s applications and monetary models enable you to tap into this resource and reap the fair share of what you create online. Not a content creator? In a world overloaded with information, good taste is as valuable as creative talent. Help curate quality content, and earn your share by promoting creators you appreciate.”

That’s interesting enough. That they intend to use the blockchain and a cryptocurrency to accomplish their goal makes this super-interesting. They have a phased roadmap to accomplish it all.

To be honest, there’s a whiff of a ponzi scheme about the way compensation is distributed.

But wait, there’s more! You won’t get paid in cash, but in a new cryptocurrency called AMP. Super legit, right?

Here are a three more charts on the AMP altcoin.

If you want to do this today:

  1. Get the Chrome Extension
  2. Sign up as a WildSpark Creator

Before you pooh pooh this, see what CMF Trends has to say about them.

My take: I think the frictionless compensation the blockchain could deliver to creators (and potentially influencers) would go far in acknowledging their contributions to the sharing economy. Will it be WildSpark? Not sure. Will the old economy kick and scream about any and all disruption? For sure!

Become a Film Patron today!

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My buddy Bryan Skinner needs your help.

He’s making his first feature mockumentary in February 2018 and to do so he’s raising money now.

“Open for Submissions” is about the shenanigans at a film festival, so it’s only natural that Bryan would hold a “Best of the Worst” competition to get the “bad” films he needs. Of course, I’m up for that challenge.

See the trailer for my entry, “The Dolphins”:

Here’s Bryan’s pitch video for “Open for Submissions”:

And here’s Bryan’s project video for “Open for Submissions”:

My take: I have supreme confidence in Bryan and his team being able to complete this project. If you are a filmmaker or you know creative people making art, you should back their vision and become a film patron. It’s easy and you will feel great!

BellMedia kills BravoFACT and MuchFACT

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Ever since the CRTC ruled on May 15, 2017, that continued funding of BravoFACT and MuchFACT was no longer required, the indie film community in Canada has been wondering when BellMedia would pull the plug.

They acted in the middle of the night, on September 26 late last month, erasing their webpages, and thereby washing their hands of both production programs.

As quoted by Haydn Watters of the CBC, Randy Lennox, president of Bell Media and former head of Universal Music Canada, shrugged:

“The traditional viewing of a music video is… certainly not what it was. We don’t owe anyone an explanation for this…. I think after making hundreds, thousands of music videos and paying for them… I think we’re pretty good guys.”

OnScreen Manitoba reminds us:

“Since its foundation in 1995, BravoFACT has contributed $30 million to short films and emerging creators and the MuchFACT has contributed approximately $100 million since 1984. Earlier this fall, Bell Media’s Harold Greenberg Fund also closed its production equity investment program.”

Here is the current BravoFACT.com and what it used to look like two days after the CRTC’s decision.

Here is the current MuchFACT.ca and what it used to look like two days after the CRTC’s decision.

My take: I’m saddened by this news. I’ve been a recipient of a BravoFACT grant, so I know how important that funding can be to a short film. What maddens me about this news is the change management aspect. The Department of Canadian Heritage is in the midst of redesigning Canadian media in the digital landscape and has said the Broadcast Act will be overhauled this Fall. The CRTC is under its mandate. The disconnect comes when they claim: “More than ever before, our creators are ambassadors for our country. They are our inspiration at home, and reflect who we are to the rest of the world. Our new approach must continue to support a domestic space and market for Canadian content. Only by remaining strong in our approach at home will we succeed internationally. Only by playing to our strengths, by telling our stories, will we stand out in the global marketplace.” Proper change management would be to bring new programs on first before axing old ones. We just jumped off one raft and are hoping another one appears before we fall — I hope you all know how to swim!