It’s The Film Business

You’ve got an idea. One of those “Oh, that’d make a great movie!” ideas. And whether it’s a documentary or a narrative film, you start putting in the hours to wrangle your subject or hammer out the script. You toil and labor to a point where your idea is now a solid, actionable project and you only need one more thing to make it happen: money.



And not being independently wealthy, you need an investor to get that money. But you’re an artist! You operate with the right hemisphere of the brain and never were one for math or contracts or any of that film finance rigamarole. You just want to rent Cinema Lenses on KitSplit and jump onto set and start shooting.



Well, that’s nonsense! Divorce yourself from this way of thinking. Remember, it’s the film business. And like any business, it operates with the almighty dollar leading the way, and you’re going to need several dollars to finance your steampunk vampire hunter script (or your documentary about real life steampunk vampire hunter Gordon Von Streusel). In this overview, we cover different approaches to seeking investment, and what you need to know to pitch your film to investors.

Meet Naomi, an expert when it comes to Film Investors!

For this article, I spoke with filmmaker Naomi McDougall Jones. She has written, produced, and starred in several award winning films including Imagine I’m Beautiful and Bite Me. Naomi has also adapted Miranda July’s Roy Spivey for The New Yorker Presents. And she’s known for her TED Talk on “What It’s Like to Be a Woman in Hollywood”, which has over a million views online. And she coaches and teaches on Film Finance via KitSplit EDU: she’ll consult on your crowd-funding project, screenplay, or your project more broadly. She shared some of her experiences getting films financed with me.



“It is really, really important that filmmakers educate themselves before they go talk to investors. I know a lot of filmmakers come with the perspective that distribution is not part of their job and that, therefore, they shouldn’t have to learn it. That is, unfortunately, a wrong-headed approach that can get you into hot water with investors when the film is released and cripple your ability to raise money for future films.

Let’s get something straight…

If you are raising money for your film in the form of investment – where the investors have an expectation that you will make at least a reasonable attempt to make their money back – you have an ethical and, in some cases, legal responsibility to have a clear-eyed understanding of the current film distribution landscape and have a solid plan for how you are going to make that money back.”



So in this post we’re going to be throwing some new vocabulary your way. Acronyms and terms that will help you understand what you’re asking an investor to do, and strategies for making your project as attractive as possible so you can find investment and get it made.



And to do that, we need to spend a little time answering another question first…





Where Are All The Film Finance Investors Hiding?

Before you can talk to an investor, you have to find one. Film investors seeking projects are not unicorns hiding under rainbows, but sometimes it can feel that way.



As a filmmaker myself, and a former intern at Gigantic Pictures and Magnolia Pictures, I’ve attended many industry events and screenings with panels over the years. The one question that always comes up at any event for a new film is “How did you get financing for the film?”.

A Tough Investment

Ask 10 producers where they find there investors, and you’ll get 10 different answers. It’s a hard question because every film comes together in its own original way. There is no equation you can plug and chug to calculate your way to the right investors.



But there are certain things you can learn about the process of raising film financing, and what happens to an investor’s money when you do get, that will make you much more prepared to find investors, and convince an investor your idea is worth it.



Film financing is a notoriously volatile investment. It is not a government bond or a CD with a guaranteed return on investment. There are so many factors on hand when making a movie that it can be difficult to convince someone who has money that they should part with it to invest in your film (since there’s no 100% certainty that they get an ROI).

ROI – Return On Investment

This acronym is at the heart of understanding how to talk with prospective investors. If they invest in your movie, how are you going to make sure they make a return on investment?



How do you assuage someone that your steampunk vampire hunter film is going to make the big bucks at the box office? Well, let’s talk about what tools you have at your disposal to help show them. And yes: some investors are not in it primarily for the ROI: they want to support films and filmmakers they believe in. But they all want to know you will do your best to at least return their investment.

Track Record

I’m not talking about how fast you can run the 100 meter dash. This refers to how your previous projects have faired. If you’ve had a hit movie, it’s a lot easier to get an investor excited about your next project. But what can you do if you don’t have a track record?



A short film that wins festivals on the local level is not going to count in an appreciable way on your track record. If you have a big win at a major festival, like Cannes or Sundance, this can help show you have a voice worth investing in on your next project. But it has to be a big one and it really helps most if you win.

Rich Uncle Pennybags

Interpersonal relationships are often a key factor in making your first sizable budgeted film happen. Yes, having an eccentric Aunt Gladys who is fond of you and willing to pony up some dough without giving thought to when or if she’s paid back is nice, but I know it’s not the norm.



One method you can try is to spread out that budget request over many different personal acquaintances or family members, raising one small check at a time until you hit your modest budget.



Lots of filmmakers have started out this way. Rian Johnson, who most recently directed Star Wars the Last Jedi, spent 6 years trying to make his debut movie, Brick. In the end, he and his family scraped together the cash (around $200,000) to make it happen by “passing the hat” he said. Then they leveraged that with other investors to double that number and get the movie made. Of course, many of us don’t have friends and family with that kind of change to spare. But with micro-budget films getting easier and easier to make, a small budget can go a long way.

Consider Crowdfunding your Film

Another approach popular for up-and-coming filmmakers is a crowdfunding campaign. Raising capital through crowdfunding can be a useful and highly rewarding endeavor.

In addition to serving as a great funding option, crowdfunding can serve to engage in a meaningful way with your audience.



Naomi tells me, “I am an enormous advocate of crowd-funding. It helps build audience early (and, to boot, audience who now personally have a stake in this film being a huge success so that they can say, “I donated to that thing when…”, which is the kind of audience that is worth their weight in gold). It’s free money (what is better than free money?!!), and gets you thinking about how to market your film far in advance of the film being finished, which is a very, very good thing.”



But don’t enter into a crowdfunding campaign lightly. They take a lot of work, and are basically a full time job when you start, so make sure you have the time to meet your (realistic) goal.



It’s all about taking a look at your project and trying to determine what makes it special, and finding a way to capitalize on that. Steampunk has a dedicated subset in this culture, so if you can activate that by creating a prescience on social media and getting people that share your passion excited about your project, then go for it!



Often times, crowd funding will include making a video of some kind as a proof of concept. If you are considering crowdfunding, we recommend checking out Seed&Spark, a partner of KitSplit that’s geared specifically towards filmmakers and has a lot of amazing educational resources about running a successful crowdfunding campaign for your film. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are also popular options.



Shorts And Trailers…Are They Worth It?

One method filmmakers have to show proof of concept in absence of a track record is to take a small amount of money and shoot a short version of their story.



This is tricky. Again, financing movies is not an equation. Finished Script+trailer does not necessarily equal fully funded feature film.



If you take a micro-budget approach to shoot a short version of your film or a trailer composed of certain scenes, then do it well. Like, really really well.



Naomi elaborated, “This approach can be a real double-edged sword. On the one hand, yes, if you’re in a situation where you need a tool to help investors or financiers understand what the project is – let’s say the “tone” of the piece is hard for people to get on paper or you’re dealing with investors who aren’t familiar with reading scripts and may need some other way of getting hooked into the story of the film, they can useful.

But the real pitfall of making these – and I see this a LOT – is that the filmmaker have to understand that anyone who watches the shorter piece will assume that the quality, production value, acting talent, and all other elements are representative of the longer-form version.

…you can’t tell an investor, “When we have enough money, the vampires won’t have plastic Halloween teeth, they’ll be giant CGI fangs dripping with blood!” Not gonna cut it.

Even if you explicitly say to people, “Now, we didn’t have very much money for this, so just take this as a demonstration of the story. The final film will be much better/shinier/better-acted,” it won’t matter. Human brains don’t work like that. Even subconsciously, they will watch the short/trailer and automatically peg you as a filmmaker who makes content at that quality.

In other words, only do this if you have the time, money, and resources to make a short-form piece than is, in and of itself, gangbusters amazing.”

So you can’t tell an investor, “When we have enough money, the vampires won’t have plastic Halloween teeth, they’ll be giant CGI fangs dripping with blood!” Not gonna cut it. So make it good to prove that the full length version will get them an ROI.

Fiscal Sponsorship

What if there were a way for you to look an investor in the eye and tell them they will absolutely see a return on their investment?



Sounds too good to be true. But it isn’t! There are non-profit companies that qualify under the law as being tax exempt. This is called a 501(c)(3).



There are several non-profit organizations that operate programs called Fiscal Sponsorship. This is when a non-profit company with 501(c)(3) status will take projects, like films, under their umbrella. And so the project, in this case your film, is able to accept charitable donations tax free.



Tax Free’s The Way To Be

If you can obtain Fiscal Sponsorship for your film, an investor can put in any amount of capital and then write off that exact amount on their taxes. Give and ye shall receive!



Fiscal Sponsorship is a powerful way to entice an investor.

As Naomi explains, “Every single film should apply for Fiscal Sponsorship – there is no downside, and the upside of being able to take tax-deductible donations from people is huge.



There will be people who might want to support your project, but would rather take the tax write-off than mess around with investing, and there are other people who might donate to your film no matter what, but would donate at a higher-level if it comes with a tax write-off. Definitely get a Fiscal Sponsor for your film and make that option available to people.

Make sure in the process of doing so that you read up on the legality of how Fiscal Sponsorship works for movies. Films are a gray area in this land because they are a) art (which makes them eligible for fiscal sponsorship/non-profit status), but also b) a commercial product (which makes them ineligible for fiscal sponsorship/non-profit status).

The workaround on this is that any costs that go towards making the actual film itself (so, all production and post-production costs) can come through a Fiscal Sponsor/tax-deductible donation. BUT, and this is important, those tax-deductible funds may NOT be used in any way to market or release the film (festival fees, marketing costs, etc) – because at that point, the making of the art is over and it is now a commercial product being sold. Make sure you don’t do anything illegal here, so do your research.

There are plenty of organizations that offer Fiscal Sponsorship umbrella status for films. My favorites are NYWIFT and From the Heart Productions, but there are plenty of others.”

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Does Your Film Qualify for Fiscal Sponsorship?

There are several caveats here. Not every film will qualify for Fiscal Sponsorship, as again, the companies that run these are non-profits. They will each have their own set of qualifiers that your project has to meet in order to obtain Fiscal Sponsorship.



For example, my friend and fellow filmmaker Sam Wilson obtained a Fiscal Sponsorship for his film The Molok through the non-profit Naomi mentioned called From The Heart Productions. Sam’s project is a narrative film with a focus on practical effects and puppetry. He’s very passionate about bringing back this physical art to a filmmaking world that’s increasingly relied on computers.



Sam’s film is a commercial property, and it is not a documentary. But From The Heart’s stipulations regarding projects is that they are “unique and make a contribution to society.” And the noble intentions Sam has regarding practical effects and puppetry fit that stipulation. Now he has Fiscal Sponsorship!



So take a look at your project and find what makes it special, and find yourself a fiscal sponsor that’s mission aligns with yours.

Ancillary Benefits (And Costs) Of Being 501(c)(3)

Getting a sponsorship from a non-profit is also a notch up on your track record. Many of the organizations have reputations that will help boost your profile when you’re talking to investors that are interested in putting capital into your film in the traditional way as well.



Fiscal Sponsors will furnish you with a letter stating that you are now under their wing, so to speak, and this seal of approval can be put into your fundraising materials and shown to investors. It’s a way to show investors that there is another organization that sees worth in what you’re doing, and when you’re fighting to get that first big movie made it can make a difference.



There are also fees involved. For every donation you recieve, your fiscal sponsor will take a percentage. The amount varies but is commonly 5-8%, but hey, it’s money you wouldn’t have gotten in the first place so weigh the pros and cons there to see if Fiscal Sponsorship is right for your project.



Take a look around and see if there are any Fiscal Sponsorships that your film qualifies for. And while you’re there typing away on the interwebs, there’s another type of funding you should be looking into…



Grants Galore

Take stock of your project, and the people involved up to this point. Ask yourself what unique elements you have? Look at your subject matter and any cast and crew you have involved this far. Because chances are, there is a grant out there that you qualify for.



There are a lot of grants for documentaries, but narrative films with a social impact may also qualify. So don’t disqualify yourself just yet!



Oh, but there’s so many grants out there. How will I ever sort through them? Well, we already did that for you! Take a look at KitSplit’s blog post from October on The Ultimate Film Grant List.



Whether you get your funding through grants, fiscal sponsorships, crowdfunding, or investors, you’re going to need a lawyer to help you manage it.

Entertainment Lawyers

We’ve been having fun talking about steampunk vampire hunters, but this is when we buckle down and get serious. I can’t stress enough that you are going to need real legal representation to help you through the process of garnering investors for your movie. This post will offer an overview, but the things we’re talking about here are going to get complicated in a very real and legal way.



Remember, we’re talking about raising thousands and thousands of dollars. Depending on your budget, maybe even hundreds of thousands of dollars (or millions!). So how do you handle that sort of money?



Your investors aren’t going to write you a personal check that you deposit in your Chase Savings Bank Account, so let’s talk about what steps you are going to need to take in order to be able to talk to (and take money from) an investor.

Form An LLC

Making a film is like starting a business. And to deal with the business side of things, you need to have a corporate entity to do that. One way that many film productions do this is by forming a Limited Liability Company.



An LLC is an entity that you will form to act as the operating body of your film. It’s the LLC that will be accepting funds from investors. You can think about it as if an investor is buying a share of the LLC when they put capital (money) into your project.



LLCs and Lawsuits

Another benefit of an LLC is that it protects you from personal liability. If something happens during the making of your film (someone is injured, or makes a claim against the movie etc) then you might get sued.



Nobody wants that to be the case, but hey, it happens. And if you don’t have the film set up within the structure of an LLC, then you are leaving yourself open as the sole proprietor of the film. This means that you personally can be sued and all your assets could be endangered. But if your film is operating as an LLC, the buck stops there. They can sue the LLC, but not you.



Even production companies that produce many films a year will form an LLC for each individual film. This way if someone sues them for something having to do with Film A, their other movies Film B and Film C are safe. But if they had all their films under one LLC (or worse – no LLC) then a lawsuit could go after the assets of all three movies!



Easy To Start, Big Benefits

Starting an LLC is really quite simple, and not outrageously expensive. In New York, it’s $200 and a simple online application. There are some ancillary costs involved that you can discuss with your lawyer, but an arcane law requires new companies to advertise in two newspapers (yes you read that right, the newspaper), once a week, for six consecutive weeks.



I know, it’s insane. But only 3 states do this sort of thing, and there are companies you can pay a fee to and they will take care of this for you (your Entertainment Lawyer will be able to get you through this ancient hurdle).



The rules regarding the operations of an LLC are also fairly pliable. This will come into play when you start to take money from investors, and when you have to pay taxes for the film. That’s the complicated part that your Entertainment Lawyer will help you through.

Chain Of Title: Get It In Writing!

Our steampunk vampire script is an adaptation of a novella that our friend Sally wrote, and she said it was cool for us to do it. That’s good enough for our prospective investors, right? Wrong!



Handshake deals won’t cut it now. Get your contracts squared away. You need to make sure you have the underlying rights to anything you’ve adapted, and the script needs to be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office (the WGA is not enough).



You’ll also want to assign the rights of the script to your LLC. Keep it all under one roof.



When you talk to an investor, you need to be able to show them a document that says, “Yep! I own this story that I’m making”. Chain of title is just one of the things an investor will need to see before deciding if they want to invest.



And before you take any money, it’s time to remind you of a few legalities.

SEC And You

The Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC) is a federal agency that oversees and enforces federal securities laws. How does this affect you?



Well, the laws regarding selling shares in companies are extremely intricate. Since you have an LLC, and your investors are putting capital (money) into your company as if your movie is a kind of stock (which is what they mean when they say securities), then you need to be aware of securities laws.



However, there are exemptions to these laws (and you should go over them with your Entertainment Lawyer because each state is different). But for most films of the size we are talking about, you can use Rule 504.

Rule 504 – What’s In Store?

This rule in Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933 allows you to be exempt from having to register your offerings (in this case the offering of shares of your LLC, the movie) with the SEC. Registering with the SEC is a long and expensive process, and so for smaller offerings like movies, there are exemptions like Rule 504.



If your eyes have started to glaze over, I understand. But this is the important stuff. And your investors are going to know about this, so you need to know it too.

5 Million Bucks

With Rule 504 you can raise up to 5 million dollars for your film without having to register. There are other rules as well, and in each state there may be others to follow, so consult your Entertainment Lawyer to make sure you are following the law.



Even when you qualify for an exemption with Rule 504, you still have to be careful in how you pitch an investor. Because there are laws regarding investments, and if you misrepresent your film and the kind of money it can make, you can wind up in a lot of trouble.

Be Careful And Don’t Lie

Do no overproject the type of revenue your movie can make. Yes, you believe that your movie can be a huge success. You wouldn’t be going through all this if you didn’t.



But remember, it is an investment and there are securities laws that exist to protect investors from predatory people looking to defraud them out of their money.



To put it simply, if you claim that your movie is going to make more money than Titanic and Avatar combined, you’d better have real reason to believe it and data to back it up. Presenting your film as an investment opportunity is not the time for hyperbole because you could wind up in jail. Yes, jail.



If you mislead investors by saying your movie is going to be the next Titanic, and then it isn’t, they could file a grievance with the SEC and you could wind up in prison for mis-representing the investment.



So be careful here, and consult an Entertainment Lawyer! The contents of this blog are an overview of an incredibly complex process and not legal advice. Get yourself an entertainment lawyer. They can help you prepare a document to keep you covered and make sure your investors are well informed.



We’ve spoken a lot about getting to the point where you can talk to an investor. So what do you bring them when you do get to sit down with one?

Pitching With A PPM

A Private Placement Memorandum, or PPM, is one way to make sure you are giving investors accurate information about the film you are producing. It is a legal document (that you can prepare with the help of your Entertainment Lawyer) that has materials that help pitch the film.



Think of it as a business plan. You’ll include materials to help show the worth of your movie: Bios of cast and important crew members. Script Synopsis. Director’s Statement. The sort of things that can help pique interest in the project.



If you have artwork that is impressive, like character designs or storyboards of that key action sequence where your vampire hunter uses his hot air balloon to fight the dragon, you can add them here. But just like with a short film or a trailer, the caveat is the same – investors will judge these items to be representative of what you’re going to make. So they better be good!

Back it Up With Numbers

Then you also need the numbers to back it up. Include that Chain of Title you have. And the budget that you and your producers have so diligently put together. A prospective schedule is also a good idea. These do not have to be a day by day, line item accounting of every dollar you plan to spend and a breakdown of each shootday, but you want to show them that you’ve considered where you’re going to spend their money.



Include information about where and how you plan to distribute your movie. Distribution is a whole other animal that goes hand in hand with how to prove an investor you’ve given the life of your film clear thought.



This is your chance to show them how responsible you are going to be with the investment you’re asking for. So make a good impression!

Risky Business

And not the Tom Cruise kind (heck, if you have Tom Cruise in your movie you don’t have much risk). But seriously, you have to spell out the risks here. Let investors know, on paper, that investing in a movie is not a guaranteed ROI.



This is to protect you later on as well, because if your movie doesn’t make money, you can say that you informed your investor and were totally honest with them (because remember, lying or misrepresenting things to investors can be a federal crime).



So when you pick other movies that have been successful and say that your film is on par with them in the budget and you aim to follow their trajectory, do it wisely. Again, don’t claim you’re going to be the next Titanic. Research your projections of revenue and discuss them with your Entertainment Lawyer before putting them in your PPM.



You can discuss with your Entertainment Lawyer whether a PPM is necessary for you. It could be that there is a stripped down version that will work that doesn’t delve as deeply into the projections and risks.



But informing your investors of the risks involved is something you should do to cover yourself in case things turn sour and your movie doesn’t make money and the investors lose their money. (again, knock on wood here, it’s not what we want to happen, but we must prepare for the worst case scenario). This way you can say you’ve appraised them of the risk.

Congrats, You Raised Your Budget!

After our movie Steampunk Vampires got Fiscal Sponsorship from a 501(c)(3), we obtained a donation from a business that makes wooden stakes that needed the tax write off. They were impressed by the success of our crowdfunding campaign that managed to raise the money to create a short film we made that was kick-a$&. And we leveraged all that to create a great pitch book and PPM (with the help of our Entertainment Lawyer) and landed some venture capitalists.



The movie’s funded! And that’s the last we have to think about money, LLC’s, PPM’s, or any other kind of paperwork related acronyms…right?



Don’t make me laugh!

Escrow Accounts

When an investor wants to write you a check, it needs somewhere to be deposited.



You’re going to be depositing the funds in what is called an Escrow Account. In this type of account, you won’t have access to the money until you meet the guidelines set up with your investor. This typically means the minimum budget has to be met before you have access.



This keeps all parties pacified, and it ensures a degree of failsafe for the investor because they know the filmmaker can’t just skip town with the money for a vacation (not that you would, but we need some checks and balances to protect from bad apples).



You’ll need to keep the funds ‘In Escrow’ as they say until you’ve met your funding goals and are ready to make your movie.

Completion Bonds

Most films that reach a sizable budget (hundreds of thousands of dollars) will need to provide a completion bond to ease investors’ minds. A Completion Bond is an insurance policy that ensures your movie will be completed.



Things happen. Hurricanes. Floods. Injuries to actors (let’s knock collectively on wood here, but Murphy’s Law applies on film sets like it does everywhere else – anything that can go wrong, will go wrong!). A Completion Bond helps give investors peace of mind because film production is a volatile process.



If the movie goes off the rails, and the Completion Bond company determines it is not going to finish on time or budget (or at all), it can intercede based on the agreement to finish the film. It doesn’t mean the film they come in to finish will be good, or up to the artistic vision of the filmmakers, but the investors will know they have a product to sell when it’s over (and thus they have a way to recoup their investment).

Waterfalls

Let’s go chasing waterfalls. Financial waterfalls, that is! This is a term that is used to describe the way that money flows back to investors and everyone else concerned.



At this point, you’ve finished your movie, edited it, played at film festivals, and picked up distribution and are now starting to make money. Yes, this is a gross oversimplification of the lifespan of a movie, but to keep this post from turning into a term paper or novel I have to make a few leaps while also making sure you get all the information you need – because when you talk to an investor, you need to be able to understand how they are going to be paid back (because they are going to ask you and you’d better understand!).



At the top of the waterfall, are the investors. They took an insane risk handing you money to make a movie when they could have just put it in a CD and earned a steady 2% instead. Now’s your chance to repay them. You will pay them back all the money they spent on the film, and whatever profit (premium) percentage you agreed to give them.



But it bears mention that even before investors get their funds, your Sales Agent and Distribution Company will have expenses that need to be recouped. So after they have been paid off, the money can start to trickle down the waterfall.



Next Up: Deferments

If your budget winds up being pretty tight, there are ways to maximize the money you have. Maybe you land an actor who’s interested in playing Gordon Von Streussel, your steam-punk vampire hunter. One of the many talented Baldwin Brothers is going to sign on but you can’t afford him and still get the movie made.



But he is willing to work with a deferment, meaning he won’t be paid until the movie makes money. Deferring salaries with certain cast and crew can help get the movie made on budget. But there’s an inherent risk for those deferring their salaries, because if the movie doesn’t pay back the investors, they won’t see a dime.

Net Profit – When You Get Paid!

At the end of the waterfall, after your investors have been paid and any and all sales agents and distributors have recouped their expenses, and all deferments are paid out, the remaining money is called the Net Profit.



Net Profit gets split up 50/50 into two pools. The Investors’ Share and the Producers’ Share. And it continues to funnel in there as the movie keeps making money, and usually it will be distributed quarterly.



The Investors’ Share of the Net Profit that your movie generates will be split up between investors based on how much they invested, and what their contracts say.



The Producers’ Share of the Net Profit is how you pay out any ‘points’ on the movie. So you start out with 50% of the total Net Profit and that is the 100% of the Producers’ Share.



As a Producer, you want to maximize your profits, so you have to give out as few of these points as possible. But as this is your first project on this scale, you may need to hand out some points to help get your cast and crew on board.



If you get that Baldwin Brother, it could be that you offered him some points on the back end in lieu of a full salary. The Producers’ share is where that money comes from.



It’s common for certain actors, the director, screenwriter, cinematographer and some other key department heads to wind up with (a few) points. Just keep in mind the more you give out, the less you keep.



Also keep in mind that the term Net Profit only means what it is defined as in the contracts you sign. When you hear about “Hollywood Accounting” it is usually when the terms of your deal includes a definition of Net Profit or Gross Profit that is unfavorable and results in circuitous accounting to show that on paper the movie never entered Net Profit so they can’t pay you anything.



Consult with your Entertainment Lawyer because there are as many ways to structure a deal as there are grains of sand on the beach.

Ready, set… pitch!

That takes us through our steampunk vampire hunter movie from inception to passing out the net profits. Financing films is a long, complicated endeavor. Hopefully this helped demystify some of the terms and processes you must go through in order to talk to, and entice, investors! You can now pitch confidently, knowing that you’ve done your homework and that the investments are well-structured for a return.



If you’d like to know more about getting your film funded + film finance, Naomi is teaching a class as part of our offerings here at Kitsplit EDU entitled “Practical Film Finance” in NY. She’s also available to virtually consult on your crowd-funding project, screenplay, or your project more broadly!



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