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WHY YOU NEED THIS BOOK

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What Do You Have?

You may know people. You may have friends who are actors. You may have friends who are storyboard artists, experienced DPs, ADs, or line producers. You may even have a connection with a prestigious film producer. You also may have a killer script (more on that in Chapter 4: Selling Yourself on the Project). You may have free location, free equipment… even free film.

But you still need money.

At the end of the day, all that matters is “getting the gold.” The golden rule of Hollywood is “He who has the gold makes the rules.” I heard that expression a few years ago and have come to realize that there’s nothing truer in the film business. To make your dream of a film a reality, you need money.

The Other Books

Over the course of my life, I’ve run into several books that promised to reveal the tricks and trades used to “finance your film.” The one thing these books had in common was that when it came to the nitty-gritty, they all failed me.

Sure, the books would tell you how other people have done it, describing “negative pickup deals,” and “bank financing,” but I kept thinking, “How do I do that?” It’s not easy for a filmmaker to just walk into Sony and say, “Hey, can I get a negative pickup deal for my film?” The funny thing is, if you’re at all familiar with negative pickup deals, you’d know that you still need financing even if you have one!

I kept searching, hoping one of these books would reveal the true secret as to where to get the money and whom to get it from. So many of the books, including one whose entire focus is to show the reader how to write a perfect business plan, consigned the most important elements — the how and the where — to the filmmaker. I was dumbfounded. I had my perfect business plan, so now what? I had stories of how Kevin Smith got his film made (by maxing out his credit cards), so now what? Is that what you want me to do? Is that the only way to make a film?

I equate this lack of knowledge to two potential problems:

‹› Most of the people writing the other books have never funded a film. They were perhaps lawyers involved with drafting the documents for funding, or they schooled themselves in every aspect of how films are funded traditionally, but they themselves never went out and raised money for a film.

Or…

‹› They didn’t want to truly give their secrets away. Let me explain: