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Truly Free Film

The New Model Of Indie Film Finance, v2011.1 Investors

Today I continue my series attempting to define the NMOIFFv2011 with a look at the individuals who make the courageous decision to back a film in this current climate. We’ve already determined that it is hard to predict success either here in the US or abroad with an independent film. Will an investor commit without a clear upside — and if so, why the hell will they?!! The answer to this generally dictates whether your film will get made and certainly indicates WHO will finance your film.

When I started this series of posts I thought it would a simple and single one. I have a formula I have been using, that when I am able to follow it, I am confident that I will be able to finance my film. I want to share that with you, but feel I need to provide a little context first. My original post on the New Model Of Indie Film Finance v2011 conveyed that a film needs to make absolute sense. I then addressed foreign value and it’s dictates, and domestic (US) value in hopes of helping to explain what absolute sense was. Examining the market here and abroad makes it clear that one will never be truly secure predicting the value of your film. There will always be risk, right? So what kind of individual or corporate entity will those that assume that risk and put up the equity needed for your film?

I see five types of financiers interested in movies these days:

  • 1) Those that can take advantage of Federal 181 tax provision;
  • 2)Those not only want to do well, but those that want to do good too — these are more than just patrons of the arts — they often look to advance the social issues as well;
  • 3)Those that need a steady supply of product, and hence are generally corporate entities;
  • 4) Those that can gain by association to the film and those involved with the film;
  • 5) Those that are looking for excitement, glamour, and glitz.

I find that investors regardless of their persuasion, have one common attribute. No one wants to look stupid or foolish. They might have different goals, but they need to be able to show their friends why your project offers a clear path to that goal. It is your job to explain it to them. Your ability to do so will greatly enhance your ability to close with them.

Investors in film generally either made their money in another field or inherited it from someone that did. Investors usually believe that the lessons they learned coming to the film biz are applicable to our industry too. Some may well be, but most film investors still marvel at the way we do business, for better and for worse.

To get a movie made often requires profound ego, bullheadness, and outright arrogance — or else when confronted with the realities of the field, most aspirants would surrender. These “gifts” may be useful in getting work made, but they are not particularly helpful when it comes to collaboration.

Investors are filmmakers collaborators and your ability to at least appear to be ready to collaborate is helpful in closing an investment deal. Your ability to actually collaborate is going to determine what kind of experience you will have. The nature of your business relationships will effect the work you make. Understanding both your investors’ wishes, expressed and not expressed, and learning how to work with them is required to close a deal and yield the intended result.

We are half way through an examination of NMIFFv2011.1 now. You have your numbers and you have your investors (or at least know what they will look like when you seem them). But it is not just numbers and willing investors that gets your project funded.

To make your film happen, there are some factors you need to inject into your project if you reasonably want to expect it to happen. Let’s discuss that next, okay?

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Truly Free Film

Goodbye & Please Join Me: I Am Migrating To A New Home

Today marks my last post here on “Truly Free Film” at HopeForFilm.com. Starting tomorrow you can find both my rants and ravings, and all of those of our contributors, over at IndieWire. My hope is that we can all use this opportunity to expand our community and goals in the year ahead. We can truly bring about some change if we work together to build it better.

I started this blog for many reasons, but chief among them was

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Truly Free Film

My New Home Means…

Today is my first post on IndieWire. I think it is going to be a great home, and like any home most of the value comes from opening it up to guests. As we now reside on a platform dedicated to expanding its reach, our collective voice just got a whole lot louder. It’s time to expand our community.

I got into the habit of defining HopeForFilm/TrulyFreeFilm as part of my experiment in social media. When I got started blogging, the media mattered a great deal more to me than the social. As I begin my experiment v2.0 the social matters more to me than the media.

There were a lot of reasons why I felt I needed to step forward and begin blogging. Business has been bad in the film world for several years, but opportunity still remains great. The potential to have a sustainable culture and community dedicated to diverse and ambitious voices, free from mass market dictates, grows daily — what I define as Truly Free Film. Social media is second only to the film community’s desire in terms of being the necessary foundation . The community still lacks leaders with experience dedicated to an open and transparent film culture that embraces the audience and the artist alike. In fact, the majority of participants in our film culture remain dedicated first and foremost to their own individual work rather than the health of the community at large. I remain committed to the belief that we all benefit when our focus moves away from ourselves and towards true unity. Independent is the antithesis of what I hope non-corporate filmmaking can become. Artist-driven for sure, but community-centered.

I have always been a generative sort. I have enjoyed having an outlet that encourages community but doesn’t require perfection. Blogging has exposed me to new ideas, new processes, and new friends. It has given me a front row seat to an ever expanding community of Brave Thinkers and committed artists. My greatest rewards have come from contact with other bloggers and offering up this platform to the community at large. The conversation we have here and the diverse ideas and methods we have are truly the initial steps towards building it better together.

The strength of a society can be seen in the culture it creates. Corporate filmmaking, driven by profit only, rarely any more gives rise to the sort of movies that inspired me, helped me empathize with people from all walks of life, connected me to individuals and communities of ambition for a better world, or exposed me to the expansive and transformative nature of the human spirit. Independent film — as we can build it to be — will never die out, but it desperately still needs our help to gain the foothold that can allow it to really flourish. Those days are before us, but it takes more than just lending a hand. We determine the culture we have. It requires stepping up and giving voice.

It is my sincere wish that HopeForFilmv2.0 continues to expand well beyond my own musings. I am easy to find. Let me know what needs to be said and say it. This will not be my blog. I want it to be ours.

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Truly Free Film

Come Spend Some Time With Brian & Me

Three months ago, Vimeo reached out to me & Brian Newman, inviting us to have a conversation offering our perspectives on the state of the film business. Brian is a smart and engaging guy. Me, on the other hand…. Well, if you have an hour come join us here. If you just have ten minutes, you can check out Vimeo’s view of the highlights below:

Making it Happen (Highlights) from Vimeo Festival on Vimeo.

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Let's Make Better Films

The Complete Hitchcock/Truffaut Audio Interviews

Why not learn from the best?  Download them all here.

Thanks to MovieCityNews for tip.

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These Are Those Things

Dean Haspiel’s THE ANGEL

Dean Haspiel’s “THE ANGEL” from Daniel J. Kramer on Vimeo.

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These Are Those Things

Eternal Cool

Last month my ten year old son developed a sudden interest in scat singing courtesy of Scatman John.  I wasn’t going to let him hold his claim that Scatman John was the greatest EVER.  I trotted out Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald. Minnie The Moocher scored well, but it was this clip of Ella in her later years that did it for me.  As I approach 50, those that know how to hold their cool get extra points.

Got to hand it to Scatman though.  He prompted a nice bit of the evening.  Scat singing didn’t enter my consciousness until college I think.