How Do You Actually Fund A Movie?
https://seedandspark.com/fund/beforeweweremonsters#story
Hudson Phillips, Writer & Producer of This World Alone, Guacamole Yesterdays, and Gargantuan.
“This is how we make movies. We don’t wait for permission. We plan, we work our asses off, and we take the leap.
Look, I get it. I don’t come from money. I have no industry connections. I have probably spent more of my life worried about how I was going to pay rent than not. Yet, somehow (see below), I’ve been lucky enough to produce three feature films with a fourth on the way.
The question I probably get more than any other is:
“YEAH, BUT HOW DO YOU PAY FOR IT?”
So, I thought I’d walk you through the funding of all four of our movies, and share the takeaways that actually moved the needle.
Everyone wants to make a movie. You can write a script, have a great pitch deck, and a dream in your mind.
1. But it’s not real until you set a shoot date.
For This World Alone, our first feature, we had a limited window when we could film. Jordan (our director)’s wife was a teacher, and he was a stay-at-home dad, so he had to be done shooting by the time school started back. So we set a date. I had the initial idea for the script in April, wrote a first draft in a week, raised funds over the next 2 months, and started shooting in July. Less than 3 months from idea to production. A timetable that seems INSANE to me now. But we didn’t know any better, and honestly, the movie came out better because of our naivete (delusion is your greatest asset).
When you set a date, it lets you know it’s real, but it also lets your potential supporters and investors know it’s real. It’s saying, “whether we raise our full budget or whether we raise $0, we are making this movie, gosh darn it!” People respect the commitment. Everyone has a project they want to make “one day,” “if so and so falls into place,” or “if we get the money.” You have a date.
With Before We Were Monsters, we said “we are shooting on August 15,” before a single dollar was raised.
2. Add weight to the train.
I always use the metaphor of an indie film as a moving train. The more weight you add to it, the harder it is to stop. You want to build so much momentum that it grows into something that even you couldn’t stop, even if you wanted to.
How do you add weight? Set a date. Create your LLC. Write up contracts. Tighten your chain of title. Create a budget. Build out a schedule. Add cast. Add crew. Secure locations. Rewrite your script. Act like this is a go picture, and it will become one.
An investor or supporter wants to know you are ready to go. We had worked for 3 years to secure funding for Guacamole Yesterdays. When it finally came in, we were shooting two months later. Because we were ready. We had all the pieces in place. We had a moving train.
3. Talk about it.
You never know where support will come from. Everyone you meet is a potential supporter. How will they know you need support if you don’t talk about it?
Not once have we ever attracted a “traditional” film investor. I met one of our This World Alone investors at a friend’s backyard party a year before we even had the idea for that film. We were planning a completely different film at that time, and I got to know this guy, who was a stranger at the time, who hinted he might be interested in supporting us moving forward. So, a year later, I reached back out when we had a project ready to go.
Guacamole Yesterdays had a single investor who happened to hear me on a podcast. The podcast host asked me, “What’s next?” after This World Alone, and I talked about Guac. A stranger emailed me asking for the script, loved it, and he wrote us a check for the entire budget before we ever met in person.
I’ve had co-workers, old high school friends, and strangers we’ve met at film festivals all invest in our films. Why? Because I talked about it.
I don’t give a Shark Tank pitch. I actually don’t treat them like investors at all. I just talk about why I’m passionate about making movies and why this particular movie matters to me. That’s what inspires people.
People don’t invest in your movie. They invest in you.
Important side note here: You can’t find supporters sitting at home. You have to get out and experience life. I found these investors because I was spending time with friends, travelling, going on podcasts, and attending film festivals. I didn’t do any of these things because I was looking for support. I did it because I enjoy connecting with people.
The support came as a byproduct of living.
4. Take the leap.
It’s like having kids. You will never be more ready and never be less ready than you are today. The point is to take the leap. I promise you, the ground will come up to meet you.
I have so many seemingly miraculous stories of this happening.
On This World Alone, we had some locations and about $10k in promised funds fall through. We were going to shoot on location, two hours north of Atlanta, and had nowhere to house our crew. It’s two weeks out from shooting, and I hop on a plane out to San Diego Comic-Con. I struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me. She asked me what I do, and I talked about it. “I’m an indie filmmaker, I’m shooting a movie in two weeks in Hiawassee, GA.” And amazingly, she responds, “That’s funny, I have a 5-bedroom vacation home in Hiawasee on 200 acres of land.” That woman was Michelle Moreland. She ended up coming on board as a producer on our project, becoming our local liaison, letting our entire crew stay in her home, and shooting half the movie on her property.
The guy who heard us on the podcast, the stranger who loved Guac at a film festival and asked to invest in Gargantuan, the old co-workers who let us shoot Gargantuan at their house… The more we leap, the more miracles we find.
5. Make them the hero.
You know how they give the dating advice, “you’ll find the one when you’re not looking for it?” It’s the same thing with investors. If you are desperately looking for money, those supporters will see that desperation. And no one is inspired by desperation.
The key is to make your supporters and investors feel like they are the heroes of the story. They are the stars of the show. Not you. You are going to provide something for them that will make their life better and more exciting.
You should absolutely figure out how to keep your budget low enough, keep your concept marketable enough, and keep your revenue model realistic enough so that they will see a return and continue the relationship over time, but that’s not why they invest.
People want to be a part of something real, passionate, adventurous, and magical.
I had an old high school friend tell me he was investing because “I’ve never had a ‘dream’ I’ve really wanted to do with my life, but I see you with this passion, and I want to be a part of that.”
All but one of our investors from This World Alone opted to roll their returns from that film into an investment in Gargantuan. Because they believed in us. They continue to believe in the larger story. Not just one film, but in the mission of what we’re doing, and they’re not ready to hop off the train.
This is how we make movies. We don’t wait for permission. We plan, we work our asses off, and we take the leap.
And that’s how miracles happen.
Not every supporter has to have a big bank account. We make crowdfunding an important part of our process because it turns a dozen “investors” into hundreds of “supporters.”
Our goal is to use movies as a form of connection. That’s what crowdfunding is for us.
It was never really about the money. It’s about letting supporters in on the ground floor, where they get to read the script, give notes, come to the premiere, and be the reason this thing exists. Imagine if you got to be a part of the process of your favorite movies being made? That’s an exciting story to tell.
Seed & Spark Donation Page with everything you need to know about the movie and the people involved.
https://seedandspark.com/fund/beforeweweremonsters#story. PLEASE CLICK TO SEE HOW TO CREATE A GREAT SEED & SPARK FUNDRAISER (AND DONATE IF YOU LIKE!)