Category Archives: Funding

Women are bankable

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A recent study refutes the common belief in Hollywood that women are not bankable.

By cross-referencing box office numbers with the Bechdel Test, Walt Hickey at FiveThirtyEight has proven that films with two women that talk to each other about something other than men make more money than those that don’t.

“The total median gross return on investment for a film that passed the Bechdel test was $2.68 for each dollar spent. The total median gross return on investment for films that failed was only $2.45 for each dollar spent. And while this might be a side effect of films with lower budgets tending to have higher returns on investment than films with higher budgets, it’s still a strong indicator that films with women in somewhat prominent roles are performing well.”

Although the article is long, it makes very interesting reading.

My take: Why consistently ignore half your audience?

How to parlay $100K into $3 Million

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Just before the 2014 Academy Awards, producer Cassian Elwes blogged about raising the money for ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ at TheWrap.

It makes fascinating reading. An excerpt:

“A year later in New Orleans, while we were doing “The Butler,” a young agent from CAA named Laura Lewis called me and was upset:

“You can’t believe what just happened. All that Canadian money for the ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ fell through. Matthew has already lost 35 pounds (of the eventual 47) and he has to do ‘True Detective’ right afterwards in January. He can’t put the weight back on and lose it again; it would be too dangerous his doctors say. You’ve been in this position before – what do you do?” she asked.

“When’s the film supposed to start shooting?”  I said.

“Seven weeks from now, in mid-October.”

A few minutes later I got a call from Robbie who said very simply: “Save the movie please. You always wanted to do it now is your chance. Please just do it.”

“How much time do we have?”

“Today’s Tuesday and realistically we have to be in prep on Monday so I guess three days and the weekend.”

“Three days?”

“Yes.”

I hung up the phone. There was simply no time to do the presales and a bank loan – the usual indie arrangements.  No, this was going to have to be something special and if I didn’t do it now I knew the movie would go back into hibernation and I would probably never get another shot at it.

I stared at the ceiling in my office for twenty minutes. I kept thinking: Who really, really owes me in the business?”

Read his full post.

My take: what a Hollywood ending!

One reason to choose Indiegogo: Outpost

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Indiegogo has recently broadened the crowd-funding landscape by promising to allow producers to host their campaigns on their own websites.

It’s called Indiegogo Outpost.

You’ll be able to mirror your campaign in two places: on Indiegogo and on your own website.

Here’s a high-profile example: Matthew Arnold and Freddie Wong’s Video Game High School Season 3 on Indiegogo and at Rocket Jump.

My take: if you have a well-trafficked website, it makes sense to appeal directly to your audience, rather than to first send them over to Indiegogo. One more way to increase the power of your brand.

The new 10 commandments of low budget filmmaking

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Elliot Grove and the Raindance Film Festival have issued ten new commandments of low (no) budget filmmaking.

They are:

  1. Thou shalt have a fantastic screenplay.
  2. Thou shalt understand keywords and SEO tools.
  3. Thou shalt secure some development finance.
  4. Thou shalt spend proper time in pre-production.
  5. Thou shalt understand the shoot and exploit it to maximum advantage.
  6. Thou shalt not fix it in Post-Production.
  7. Thou shalt clear all music in your film.
  8. Thou shalt prepare professional publicity and marketing materials.
  9. Thou shalt use film festivals to launch your film.
  10. Thou shalt create a distribution strategy.

See the annotated version.

My take: I can get behind all of these except number nine. Seems to me that’s really part of number 10. Not having much, if any success, at film festivals, I’m not convinced. I guess what I really need is a paid-for-performance film festival agent. Any suggestions?

Is crowdfunding for everyone?

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Does crowdfunding belong in your producing arsenal?

For sure.

Can you raise your whole budget?

Probably not. But maybe.

The Canada Media Fund has an excellent mini-site dedicated to crowdfunding in a Canadian context. From statistics and figures to best practices and an extensive directory, they’ve done the research for you.

My take: you owe it to yourself to spend some time here before you jump into your first crowdfunding venture.

Bite on Mondo looking for next web animation hit

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Blue Ant Media, owners of Bite TV, and Mondo Media have teamed with YouTube to announce Bite on Mondo – an animated comedy shorts pitch for content targeted at teens and young adults.

“Combining Mondo’s sizable audience on YouTube as well as Blue Ant Media’s television and digital reach in Canada, the program is designed to discover breakout animated content using a unique pipeline to source, finance, test, and grow properties that will resonate both on and off YouTube.”

Bite on Mondo has created a rich pitch site with 11 Scribd slides spelling out exactly what they’re looking for.

The deadline is January 15, 2014.

My take: if you have a concept for some edgy, adult-oriented animation, you should check this out!

Maureen Bradley blogs about micro-budget feature production

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CineVic recently invited Maureen Bradley to speak about her micro-budget feature project, Two 4 One.

She’s cobbling the $250,000 budget together from a number of sources: the Telefilm Micro-Budget Program, the BC Arts Council, the Jim Murphy Filmmkakers Bursary, an IndieGoGo campaign and private sources, for a February 2014 shoot.

She’s blogging about the experience at microbudget.org where she gives a more detailed answer to one of my questions on Saturday.

Regarding this year’s Telefilm Micro-Budget Feature competiton, Maureen’s advice was: have a great story and really think through an innovative digital platform strategy.

My take: Thank you, Maureen, for sharing your knowledge and experience and — your insights! It occurs to me that Telefilm is in the business of making million-dollar movies, so they’re really taking a flyer with eight to ten projects for one million, and hoping that one breaks out. In the old model, a film’s profile was amassed through festival exposure, critical reviews and box office, to be augmented by media coverage as it worked its way through the standard windows. Today, a project’s profile starts with the first online exposure, carries on through the pre-production, crowd-funding, production and post-production stages and hopefully snowballs when more people can actually pay for it. The old model was mediated by distributors, whereas with the new model, the producer does it all. I foresee more creative cooperatives coming together: teams of producers, each specialized in different parts of the new paradigm — concept, marketing, social media, production, exploitation.

CineVic is new Telefilm Micro-Budget Production Partner

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The big news around Victoria, BC, is that CineVic is now a recommending partner for Telefilm Canada’s 2013 Micro-Budget Production Program.

The co-op joins 27 others across Canada that will write one letter of recommendation for a local micro-budget first feature that will then compete for a share of $1,000,000.

“This program targets emerging Canadian talent, supporting them in the production and promotion of their first feature-length film, with an emphasis on the use of digital platforms for marketing, distribution and audience engagement. Telefilm will support between eight to ten projects through the main component, and up to three projects in the Aboriginal component.  Support will be through a non-repayable financial contribution of up to $120,000 per project.”

Projects may be narrative, documentary or animation, with budgets of up to $250K.

Producers must not have previously produced and/or directed a feature film.

Producers of recommended projects must apply to Telefilm between January 6 and February 3, 2014. The films must be finished within a year.

Recommending partners will determine their own selection criteria and deadlines.

New this year: Telefilm is not requiring a script, only asking for a synopsis. (But of course, you better have a script or how else can you thoroughly break it down to make an accurate budget?)

My take: this is your golden opportunity! You’ve got a project and a team ready to go, so contact your local film school or co-op today!

Bell Media creates bravoFACTUAL

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Bell Media has created bravoFACTUAL, becoming a major source of funding for short documentaries in Canada.

The semi-annual competition promises up to $50,000 for 15-minute “micro-docs,” which must be completed within six months.

“Budgets must reflect  the story’s complexity, specific production elements, any special production techniques, required archival footage and/or, music rights, E&O insurance and any other requirements which result from the creative materials.”

New filmmakers, take note:

“…preference will be given to emerging filmmakers with limited experience who are trying to enhance their skills and credentials”

The first deadline is Thursday, October 31, 2013.

My take: kudos to bravoFACT for stepping up to the plate and funding short docs in Canada. When the Harper Government spiked the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund, they created a funding void. Now this program promises to replace the CIFVF.

The Canada Media Fund wants to chat with you

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The Canada Media Fund recently came to Victoria and met with a dozen people in a hotel meeting room.

The CMF picked our brains on how they’re doing and how their future direction might change.

The discussion was wide-ranging but got most traction on ‘Triggering Events’.

It was great to chat with Valerie Creighton before the presentation.

See a PDF of the deck.

See the remaining schedule.

My take: Definitely worth going to and speaking your piece. We’re talking about how to disseminate a quarter of a billion dollars of cable TV subscription money and tax dollars annually. Show up early for great access.