Money Matters: Talking Financing at This Year’s Forum, Part I
Last month, Film Independent held its annual Forum at the DGA complex here in Los Angeles. A wide range of topics were discussed but given the interesting times our industry is going through, one that kept coming up was how to get financing for your film.
Producers, financers, executives and more all gave out valuable advice over the two days and multiple panels. We’re breaking down talk-by-talk some of the advice that was doled out to this year’s attendees. In part one, we’ll take a look at what was said in three panels, The Money Puzzle: Financing Piece by Piece, The New Wave Filmmakers: Making Movies for Change and Shopping Your Project: A Pitching Clinic, and we’ll bring you even more advice in part two.
The Money Puzzle: Financing Piece by Piece
Our very own Daniel Cardone spoke with three filmmakers about the art of assembling financing from many different places, which might be the best description of independent filmmaking I can think of. Producer Jen Blake, Partner at Diversity Hire Ltd talked about how Fiscal Sponsorship is “America’s version of grants and non-recoupable money,” where unlike other countries with government art’s programs that can provide funding, U.S. films can use Fiscal Sponsorship (like Film Independent’s Fiscal Sponsorship Program) to turn non-recoupable funds into non-profit donations that can be used as tax write-offs. She noted that some large corporations like tech companies match donations that employees make, and that can double or triple the amount that you receive from one person’s fiscal sponsorship.
The film she produced, A Sad and Beautiful World, is also an international co-production, and she shared her experience with international grants. Long story short, they can be complicated, the money doesn’t come in right away, and filmmakers should have a plan for that.
Producer Sarah Strunin talked about her experience in the documentary world. She emphasized finding an issue that institutions and large donors care about. She also noted that many non-fiction grants require you to have a fiscal sponsor. After money for a film she worked on fell through, she and her team decided to go the crowdfunding route and not only lean into the importance of the subject matter, but also the appeal of a tax write-off.
Strunin then broke down how to fund a documentary in stages. For development, the funds were all out-of-pocket. Once there is something to show, the team went out fundraising, including going to pitch forums, including Points North, and speaking with international financiers like producers that can open up co-production deals.
Writer/Director Izzy Shill talked about the difficulty of asking for money and really knowing why a person should give you money they won’t or probably won’t make back. Her microbudget feature Going Nowhere was made in Louisville Kentucky, and she got half of the funding for the film from the community in Louisville and said that it was a point of pride for the people there to have a film feature their city. She noted that for many people being let into the world of filmmaking is a great price of admission, whether that’s learning the ins and outs of one particular part, like the legal or financial aspects of a production, or wanting a bit part in a film. If you know what you have of value as a filmmaker, you can share that as part of the reason why you should be getting their money.
The New Wave Filmmakers: Making Movies for Change
In a panel about issue driven films moderated by Rosalina Jowers of Inside Projects, three filmmakers talked about the difficulties and rewards of making a film that is both impactful and a piece of entertainment.
Documentary director Sam Mirpoorian spoke about the importance of capturing the zeitgeist. He was already making a film about midwestern farmers when the first Trump administration started a trade war that affected soybean farms. When the news started focusing on the farmers plight, funders became more interested in his film. He also was honest about the risks he took to get his project made, including taking a loan out in his name. One thing he strongly recommended was to always have more projects ready to go, because when you do find funders and distributors, they generally like to invest in known entities, and being reliable to both execute and keep coming up with ideas can turn a one project deal into a lasting relationship.
Shoshannah Stern, director of Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, comes from a family that’s all deaf. When PBS wanted to make a documentary about deaf icon Marlee Matlin, the one condition Matlin had was the film had to be directed by a deaf woman, and that’s how Stern became involved. She warned against trying to make a story that you think is a “safe bet” from a funding or distributing perspective. She emphasized that investors respond to authenticity.
The story of Rosemead started out as an LA Times article that producer Andrew Corkin couldn’t get out of his head. It deals with difficult and heavy subject matter, and even though Lucy Liu was attached to star in the film, Corkin still had trouble finding funding. He mentioned organizations like Impact Partners that do still look for projects that have a social message and really helped get the film made, but still stressed the importance of knowing who your film is for and how to get people to care about your film. While acknowledging how hard it is to get funding in this atmosphere, Corkin encouraged people to be persistent, because it can only take a couple “yes’s” to get a project off the ground.
Shopping Your Project: A Pitching Clinic
While the art of pitching was the main event at this panel moderated by Film Independent’s Angela Lee, the end result of a successful pitch – getting financing – inevitably became a big part of the discussion.
Chris Quintos Cathcart, Co-Founder of Unapologetic Projects, a funder talked about what her company looks for in a project to make sure the films are profitable. She said she looks for projects that have gotten grants and gone through Labs like the Film Independent Artist Development Labs, as a way to make sure the project and team can deliver a great end product. “I need to know that I can write you a million-dollar check, and I’m going to get a movie on the other end of that,” she said. Quintos Cathcart acknowledged that films are risky investments, and talked about emphasizing “Return on Impact” versus “Return on Investment” when it comes to talking with investors.
Nina Parikh, the director of Film Mississippi, talked about local tax rebates and incentives. The money from those incentives are generally guaranteed as long as the bookkeeping is all in good order, and in the case of the state of Mississippi means 25%-35% back of all money spent in the state, including payroll. Another benefit is that the incentive comes in a cold hard cash. A large difference between incentives and other forms of financing is that it comes after the money is spent. That can be mitigated by loans though, if you have a letter-of-intent to show the lender.
Finally, Brenda Robinson an executive producer of films such as Passing and the Acting President of Film Independent explained how relationships are some of the most valuable things for investors, and for filmmakers to appreciate that most of the time, the investor is on the filmmaker’s side and wants to be additive to the process, “making sure you see people as a whole person, not as a dollar sign; someone who cares and has sincere intentions of being your partner and not just the check writer.” In her work with Impact Partners, she sees equity investing coming in more because with some projects seeing bigger audiences, money is being recouped. On the flip side, grant money is coming into the fiction world as finding traditional investors for indie productions becomes more difficult and investors want to see that broad “Return on Impact” that a fiction story can provide. She left the audience with a reminder of how the relationship between investor and filmmaker is a partnership and that it’s an equal one at that. “You are the one -the storyteller- with the talent. You have what the rest of us don’t have, and that’s so special. You have leverage, it turns out.”
For over 40 years, Film Independent has helped filmmakers get their projects made and seen. The nonprofit organization’s core mission is to champion creative independence in visual storytelling and support a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision.
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