Film Funding Fundamentals - Writing a Solid Film Business Plan

 Once you've launched a film production company, the next step is looking for funding for your productions. Funding a film is much easier than you may have heard. Most of the people writing books and teaching classes how to raise money for a film have never actually managed to do it themselves. This makes them set the bar to unachievable things like A-List Cast or Signed Distribution Agreement. Some of the things you may have been told you need may actually be liabilities in the eyes of most funders. Expensive cast and bad distribution deals make a film very hard to fund.

The truth is, films get funded because they have a good "package" in most cases. A film package is nothing more than a very solid and attractive business plan for funding, a good script, reasonably priced/well-known talent, proven key crew, the right budget, a solid marketing strategy, the right distribution plan and rational financial projections.

The right film package in the hands of the right funder always results in investment.

Image courtesy of Andrew Magill (cc)

Film packages are created by film producers. Sometimes the producer of a film is also its writer, or its director, or its leading man. A film producer is just the guy who decides he is going to take responsibility for putting all the pieces of a film together, from the caterer to the camera man, from the leading man to the editor. The producer embodies and champions a film before it is made.

To create a good film package, a producer must simply decide that they alone are responsible for creating a profitable film.

Most unsuccessful film producers have a distribution plan that stops with "get a distribution deal" or "get a sales agent". Their marketing plan stops with "get our film into festivals."

A good producer explicitly and concretely nails down exactly how a film funder is going to get their money back. Producers prove, through their package, that they have created the relationships, skills and information required to make a film make money.

Read on to the next page to find out more about what should be included in the business plan for a fundable film package.