Funding a short

[cinehead]

I'm wondering how to go about getting some funding to produce a short. Looking for investors isn't really an option as shorts have almost no chance of earing any money, so I guess what I'm looking for are dontations. What have others done that has worked?

[3ldfilms]

Other than saving your own money and begging from family and friends, there aren't a lot of ways to get money for a short.

Sometimes you can convince a company to sponsor a film or buy product placement, but for a short that is rare, and likely won't be a lot of money anyway (although it can be a good way to do exchange of services if you want something from them other than cash)

I met a filmmaker at the RI Film Festival a couple of weeks ago and she had raised $70,000 US from investors for a short. I said to her "Are they nuts? They'll never see dime" and she told how she structured it which I thought was prety smart.

The deal was each investor was not investing in the film, but in her, the director. They would receive a percentage of all money she earns over the next few years (I didn't ask what the percentage was nor the number of years). So if you can pitch yourself as a number one draft pick that will make a ton of cash if ONLY you could get this one short made...then you might get a few people to go for it.

Oh yeah, she also ut a CAP on the amount they could get, other wise if she made a fortune she could be paying them millions on a $70,000 investment.

I thought it was a pretty smart approach.

[sirius]

The person who raised the 70,000 dollars sounds pretty smart. Everything I've made so far has been out of pocket but I think I'm going to hit up family and friends next who won't be so concerned with making their money back.

[sonnyboo]

Aside from out of pocket, you have a few options, but they are all longshots.

GRANTS. You can apply to arts councils and other entities that offer grants to artists, or specifically to filmmakers. This is a toughy because you usually have to fund it yourself, then they reimburse 50% of what you spent AFTER it's complete, or at different stages of completion, but yo never have to pay it back.

INVESTORS. Tricky. Know your federal laws about investors. And it's a hard sell, because you have very small chances of making any money with your short, so who wants to lose money?

CREATIVE. You can sell blood, plasma, or sperm and raise money & use that in your press release. Everyone on here knows that a great press story was Robert Rodriegez submitting to experimental drugs to fund El Mariachi.

Or you can shoot within your means (borrow a camera, not pay the actors or crew, and just feed everyone).

[Last Resort Man]

For $70,000 I could make a couple of features. But, hey can't knock the fundraising talent and good luck to her.

[Will Hunting]

From what I have read every filmmaker has to make their first short out of pocket. Then on the basis of that short you go to make a feature.

[cooke]

depends, the thing is getting people to see your short. then things can start moving, but few people will go from making one short straight to fully funded feature film making. that begs questions about who is involved in funding, how to get them interested and hoe to promote your short. many feature directors will have a history of shorts, promos and commercials to their names (commercials a lot in the uk and the US: hence a lot of slick, glib and superficial films that make you want to buy shite lifestyles after a screening), but short film makers should endevour to get their flicks into festivals: there are so many! and then see how they play to an audience as well as take in plenty of other films, meet other film makers and start getting those important funding contacts. i guess in the uk we are lucky that we have some funding opportunities (though very limited) from the UK film council, etc. and fewer and fewer can really afford film school.

[Bryan]

You can make a feature film for nothing. As long as you've got the equipment already, you aren't shooting on film, you aren't paying or feeding your actors, and you've got a good simple story with no elaborate bells or wistles.

Yeah, but that can be hard. Personally, I've made 10+ short films. They've cost any where from $0 to $400, paid out of my own pocket of course. And I can't bring myself to make a feature yet. Not ready.

[FilmDallas]

The deal was each investor was not investing in the film, but in her, the director. They would receive a percentage of all money she earns over the next few years (I didn't ask what the percentage was nor the number of years).

That's kind of similar to a deal I was structuring for a filmmaker friend of mine recently.

He wanted to raise funds for a couple of films, so he wouldn't have to go through the whole fundraising deal again after the first one was done. Plus, it could lower the investor risk in that it gave investors two chances to see a return on their money rather than just one. There are also some economies of scale issues that make it slightly more attractive, etc.

One of the things we talked about, though, was what if the first one really takes off and someone offers him a studio deal or something? We didn't want him to be obligated to direct the second feature independently if it meant giving up a better deal at the studio level or whatever. So we wrote into the agreement that the investors would get a percentage of his earnings on any studio produced movie should that option be better than making the second film independently.

We thought that was a fair way to protect both the filmmaker and the investors.

[jbird669]

The first two shorts I made were simply with the resources I had available. If you have a friend who goes to college with a film program, see if you can borrow the equipment. As long as a student in the program is with you, and you take a short instruction lesson for the equipment, you shouldn't have a problem borrowing it.
For my latest short, I am not paying anyone, just feeding them, and for that, one of the cast members' parents, who love to cook, volunteered, and I went to local restaurants, told them what I was doing, and offered them marketing incentives in exchange for a donation of food for one shooting day. I have four of my six days covered, the other two I will take a hit. What I did was offered to have one of the actors wear a T-shirt or hat in the film, have their family members appear as extras, and use their name throughout the website and premiere parties and promotions. I even offered one local restaurant to be the restaurant described in the script. I got denied from 1, never heard from another, and the other two are helping me out. Be creative and make sure you see how it can benefit them, especially in the community. Do that and you should get help.

[Plot Thinner]

Well, I may have stumbled into this thread a little late, but I just wanted to interject an inspiring anecdote in regards to the girl who had investors invest in her as an up and coming filmmaker, as oppose to investing in her art...I believe, "selling your soul" is the term used these days? Hah, no, it's not that bad actually. But yes, financial security for artists is like morality for politicians, it's rarely fitting for the character we play now and even more importantly, the character we become. Most artists will notice that their work prospers when they themselves suffer; this tends to be no truer than with aspiring low-budget filmmakers. One particular incident that I recount from researching George Lucas about a year ago for an introductory to Motion Picture Arts Course led to a similar story of investment into an artist, as oppose to investing in the artist’s art. Now, from what I recall, when George Lucas was paying his dues early on, after graduating from USC, he went around from producer to producer trying to sell a story. I'm pretty sure it was for American Graffiti, because THX went through Coppola and Zoetrope. Anyhow, Lucas luckily found himself in the company of a young producer who was willing to take risks and basically told Lucas that he was going to help him with producing his picture by investing in him, not the picture directly. A circumstance that obviously led to a major hit, and of course everyone got paid. As a matter of fact, Lucas made so much money off of Graffiti that he was able to fund the first Star Wars entirely out of his own pocket! Talk about having creative freedom! There's so much more I could go into, but just remember, it worked for Lucas back then, before all of the multi-million dollar budgeted films started to flood Hollywood...it most definitely could work now to an even greater degree. It all just depends on you and who you are, and how much you’ve suffered, and the risks you’re willing to take to become the director of tomorrow.

[supercinemaent]

Funding a short film shouldn't be too difficult, provided you have access to a camera and some video tape.

Mark Pirro made a feature length movie for less than $500, ("Color Blinded"), http://pirromount.com.customers.tigertech.net/cblinded.html

Or you could do what I did to fund a feature and get about 17 credit cards, max them all out, work 80 hours a week in your day job trying to pay them off, and then file bankruptcy while the movie is only 90% completed.

It's the tried and true method, provided you don't mind ruining your credit.

[VidVicious]

Well it never hurts to just ask. I remember there was one film that needed completion funds, and one of the three producers got the idea to ask everyone they knew to borrow $100.00
If all else fails, those of you in college can always go try to make friends with people in Dental School. Of course, actually try to be their friend before asking for the dough.