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Film Distribution, Filmmaking, Fundraising

Q&A: Future of Filmmaking – Building an Audience, Film Financing, Gaining Experience

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June 23, 2024

- Film Distribution, Filmmaking, Fundraising



In this episode of the “Don’t Suck at Video!” podcast, I cover a variety of questions posed by members of the filmmaking community. In particular, I cover a lot about what the future looks like for filmmakers. I talk about ways to gain experience as well as whether filmmakers should pursue building their own audience, among other things. I hope you enjoy!

If you’d like to check out the podcast, you can find it wherever you listen to podcasts as well as the YouTube channel.

Transcript:

I’m Nick LaRovere. Welcome to the “Don’t Suck at Video!” podcast. I’m a filmmaker, video producer, and cinematographer who helps filmmakers tell stories build a career and helps businesses grow using video marketing. Today I wanted to do a Q &A especially for my friends in the Arizona filmmaking community that pose these questions to me. Yeah, so I just thought it’d be fun to go through and answer some questions that people have so without further ado, I’ll get started.

And I would like to add that I’m not an expert in everything. There’s a lot of stuff that I don’t know. So I’m just gonna try my best to answer these questions to the best of my ability. I can’t promise that I have all the information, but I’ll do my best. And I’ll let you know, I’ll be honest with you if I’m not sure. There’s a lot of other great resources out there and people in the community that have these answers if I don’t. So, all right.

We’ll get started. So the first question that I got was how to secure an agent, which is a great question. And I’m not certain if this person is talking about an agent in terms of being a director or an actor or what have you. There’s agencies and agents that represent different kinds of people. So I know a little bit, this is one area where I’m not particularly an expert, but I do know people who have had agents and I have looked into it myself. So basically from what I understand, I think the first step is that you need to build up a body of work that is going to interest an agent or agency.

Basically, you need to be able to show that you are someone that is worth the investment to promote, that you are sellable, right? So they are acting as your representative going out to people and saying, hey, you should hire this person. So you need to have work that looks really good or great acting reel. You basically need to have, I think it would help to have a good brand basically overall. How can you position yourself in the best way possible so that someone else thinks, yes, this is a bankable person, this is someone that we can push, this is desirable. So that’s my thoughts on that.

The other thing I will say is from what I’ve heard from people who do have agents and that’s actors as well as crew, they’re not everything. They’re not a magic ticket to success. So if you think that you’re going to get an agent and then magically you’re going to get all this work, it’s just not how it works. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, it’s the same with like business stuff and agents and everything. You are going to be your own best advocate, right? No one else cares as much about you, about your career as you do. So you are going to be the one who books most of your work. An agent can help, I think, add a sense of credibility maybe or be someone that’s an intermediary that can help you with negotiation maybe. But especially what I’ve heard from actors is that a lot of the time you are going to be the person that ends up booking yourself a lot of the time and but it can help to have an agent. So that’s my answer on that. Okay.

So next question is two questions that people asked. One of the questions was, how do you get funding for your film? And the other question was, how do you get funding if you don’t have any connections or friends? This is like, could be its own whole podcast, right? And I’m still learning and I’m trying to dig in and learn as much as I can so I can share with other people. Cause it is a very painful topic in my experience for a filmmaker who wants to make films.

But filmmaking is expensive. Especially if you like to do sci -fi and stuff like I do. Because I’m crazy and I like to have no money I guess. So anyway, so how do you get funding? There’s a few ways. And some of these are going to be obvious but I’ll get into it. Crowdfunding. It is still viable for certain things to an extent. However, it’s not a set and forget thing. It takes a lot of work.

But if you approach it the right way, there is a way that you can get stuff crowdfunded. Personally financing projects is a big one, especially when you’re starting out. And I can talk about that more in a second. But yeah, personally financing it. I don’t recommend doing anything like putting your film on a credit card, but you can have a target goal, a budget for your film, and you can save up for that. You can do extra jobs if you’re motivated. Do extra work.

Find ways to make extra money, set a little bit of money aside at a time, and eventually you can save up a budget. Another common way for small films, and I’m assuming feature films here, short films is going to be another issue altogether. For the most part, I would say assuming you need to either crowdfund or personally finance short films. So for feature films, for small ones, it’s pretty common to do like small investments.

So basically local people that you know, either people do like the dentist and doctor, family members, that sort of thing. And it’s kind of like a big version of crowdfunding, right? Like you are basically going to select people and asking for investment into a project. And it’s kind of like crowdfunding in a different way. You could raise 30, 50 grand that way. It just depends on who you know. And then the other way is, seeking a person who is a film investor or someone who is interested in investing in film. And this is a connection saying when you start to go in this direction, and I think it’s true when you’re asking anyone for money, but especially when you start asking total strangers for money for your project, you really need to have a pitch deck that’s clear, that shows that you have a plan, you know what you’re getting into, and you’re not just like, yeah, I want to make my movie. Can you just… finance my hobby for me, but that you’re showing hey, no, this is a business plan. I have this all thought out Here’s my team. Here’s what we’re doing. Here’s similar films and this is how much they’ve made Here’s our plan for for selling the film and so even if you aren’t able like you haven’t done that before it’s going through the process of Putting the best business plan together that you can Yeah, so is there anything I miss anything?

Investors. I think that covers everything. The question, the part of the question about if you don’t have any connections or friends is if you want to be, in my opinion, if you want to be a successful filmmaker, you need to start making connections and friends because filmmaking is not a solo sport, it’s a team sport. So if you want to make good films and you want to do it sustainably over time, I think you need to…

You need to form those relationships. You need to be networking with people. You need to be building those relationships so you have people who want to work with you, who want to invest in you, and you need to…

Yeah, people who want to invest in you. And connections, the more people you know, the more people that you talk to. You never know that someone that you know knows someone who, if you ask them, potentially could be interested in funding your film. So you just got to get out there. I know that it’s not comfortable. I know it can be very difficult, but you just got to get out of your shell. I’m an introvert, so I get it.

You gotta get out of your shell and you gotta talk to people and you gotta meet people, you gotta make connections. It’s just, it’ll help you so much. So, that’s what I have to say. Those are methods to get funding. The nuts and bolts of it, I probably need to move on. At the end of the day, I think if you are going to fund it yourself, you can do whatever you want, right? You get total freedom, so that’s kind of the cool thing. But, that can be tough.

It’s very expensive to make films. So you just have to weigh that against getting investment, which means you’re going to have to put in the extra work to put a pitch deck together and find that money or crowdfund that money. And at the end of the day, you just need to commit internally to the fact that it is going to be a lot of work no matter what. There is never going to be a silver bullet that gets you what you want to make your film. So there you go.

Who me can talk about financing more later? I plan on releasing a document of my collected notes. I need to write down some more stuff. Okay, so the next question is, what are the best steps to take in addition to networking to getting on projects and becoming a more skilled producer? Hmm, the best steps to take to get on projects and become a more skilled producer.

Addition and networking. Well, I would say there’s two ways to get experience, either on your projects or someone else’s projects. So networking, offering to help other people so that you can get experience. Hey, I want to help you produce this project. I think there’s no substitute for experience, in my opinion. So you can become a more skilled producer.

Also though by doing your own projects. So if you’re having a hard time finding those opportunities that work for you, the alternative is make a project happen yourself, right? Let’s say you don’t want to direct, but you do want to produce. You can put the team together, right? Like that is sort of what a producer does is putting the machine together. So you don’t have to have all the elements. You just have to find them and put them together.

So you can find a director with a script or you can find a director and find a script. You can make this thing happen. I think the key is you want to find a director and you want to find key people who are excited about that project. Like they want to do it and also carry it because you as a producer, you’re not the creative lead, right? So you can’t carry that whole project on your shoulders. So you’re going to want to find a director that wants to creatively carry.

They’re part of the burden and not just get a free ride to get to direct something. So yeah, but then you could also direct it and then you get the experience of producing and directing and you run the show. So that’s a way that you can get experience. Yeah, and I just think with repetition, you improve your processes, you create processes and you document what you did last time and you continually improve. That’s how you’ll get better with producing. You also seek mentors and… read and stuff like that.

Next question. Okay, so I’m going to mention this question, but I’m not going to answer it in this episode because it is a well, let me just tell you what the question is first. How do you handle proper channels to report, etc. being harassed and or assaulted on set or behind the scenes, please? So like I was saying, this is a very important topic and it is a serious topic and the gravity of this question deserves its own episode and something more well thought out than me just going off the cuff. So I will at some point take some time to go through and answer that to the best of my ability and talk about stuff surrounding that topic because obviously this is a problem that needs to be addressed and it is…

It requires some thought on my part to articulate what I think about it. And so that’s why I want to take some time and not just jump into it. It takes, it needs some thought because it’s not totally clear what needs to happen in different kinds of situations. There’s some nuance to different situations that can happen. Like there’s stuff that’s very clear, like, Hey, I was assaulted versus harassment. Sometimes it can be more unclear what should be done.

Like on the one hand someone could get arrested by the police and go to jail. That’s pretty clear on the other hand if something is not illegal Okay, but it’s bad. What do you do about it? So Anyway, I’ll get into it and I’ll cover it thoroughly in another episode because I think it’s important Okay, next question is Have you had an experience dealing with an actor with a big ego? If so, how did you deal with it?

I thought about this before when I read it and I honestly, I can’t say I’ve dealt with an actor with a big ego yet. Not really. I mean, generally speaking, most of the people that I’ve worked with have been very reasonable and everybody’s got their problems and their flaws. But generally speaking, everyone I’ve worked with has been good. So…

How would I answer this? First off, try to cast people that are reasonable. I don’t know how to put this.

If you’re getting red flags from an actor at some point in the process, you don’t have to hire them. Like honestly, if you feel that they are going to be a pain or you feel like they are going to be unreliable or you feel that they are going to cause you problems on set, then you should think about whether that is a person that should be in the role or not. If you’re dealing with a situation where, hey, but they’re really good, I… really want this person. You’re just gonna have to make a decision. It might work out, might be fine, or you might have to deal with some stuff. You might have to deal with a difficult person. And this can happen with crew too. It’s not just actors, I’m not picking on actors. But you’re just gonna have to make a decision and you can make a decision that no, I’m gonna wait, I’m gonna find someone else. Or you can decide to go with that person.

And just understand that you made the decision and you have to deal with the consequences. How would I deal with it?

It’s hard to answer that outside of a specific scenario, but you just try and be diplomatic with people and understand, unless they’re just totally out of their mind, most people can be reasoned with, like they are there for a reason, they want to be there for a reason, so you can, it’s a give and take, like, okay, I need this from you. What can I do for you to make this go smoothly? And just…

Try and understand where they’re coming from and maybe you can figure something out. Yeah. Okay. boy. Big question. Okay. So the next question is what is going to be the future of content and independent creators and filmmakers? Second part Hollywood is basically in shambles and is on eggshells due to the potentiality of IATSE going on strike talks.

Going good, thankfully it seems. Are people better off doing their own projects and tailor it to the internet, or should people continue trying to go the traditional route? So the question is, what’s the future of content and independent creators, filmmakers? Should people just do their own thing, or should they try and continue to do the traditional route? I have a lot of opinions about the traditional Hollywood route.

I would say for quite a while now, it has been clear that we have been moving away from the traditional system just because equipment and method of distributing your films out to audiences, the ability, the means to create your own audience and provide content to them on your own outside of any established system.

It’s been democratized, so everybody has access to these distribution platforms and the ability to create an audience and cheaper ability to create content. So, I mean, that’s been going on for like 15 years, right? Basically since YouTube existed. And there’s more and more streaming sites, which means potentially more and more places where your stuff could go. I would say there still is a traditional route, but…

What’s going on right now is over time, over the past few decades, studios, there have been fewer and fewer studios, and those fewer studios are making bigger and bigger budget films over time. Like, there’s a term called the tent pole feature, which is, this is the biggest feature film that a studio does in a whole year, right? It’s the big spectacle, it’s the biggest budget film, it’s got the biggest stars. It used to be those only happened, once in a while. They were much rarer. And a big budget film was like $20 million. Like I’m just, you know, I’m just spitballing numbers here, but like the films were not two or $300 million. That’s an insane amount of money. And considering like we’ve got more technology and filmmaking is actually easier in a lot of ways. It’s like insane how much the prices have ballooned. So in my opinion, so.

I guess what I’m getting at is they’re doing fewer films. Like studios are doing fewer films, so…

There used to be more opportunities for filmmakers to break in, I think, because if, let’s say you do a $10 million film or your $300 million film, you can do 30, yeah, my math is right, 30 $10 million films. That’s 30 directors that get a potential opportunity versus one. So I think it’s difficult because the opportunities in the traditional side are becoming fewer.

And being concentrated with certain people. There are still smaller movies, but I think the gap is widened. So the low budget movies are lower budget, the higher budget movies are fewer in between and bigger budget. And so I guess what I’m getting at is the question is which one of those do you want to be? And how realistic are you going to be with your goals? Of course, do we want to be the guy making the $300 million movie? Of course. But realistically, it’s like, a portion of a portion of a percent of people are ever going to get that far. So you just you just have to do your best and I think that it’s good to be realistic but also set high goals. So if you are trying to be a filmmaker you want to make films full -time I think it’s not a bad idea to create your own audience and I have done a lot of research on this and you can make a full time living creating stuff online for people like obviously we have youtubers right but there are other niche audiences that don’t you there are so many niche audiences that you’ve never heard of on YouTube and other platforms that create and tell the stories that they want to tell maybe they’re not feature films but it’s stuff that they enjoy and also feature film makers as well but small budgets.

And they have built up an audience of people that are interested in seeing what they produce. So there’s a theory called 1000 true fans and basically it’s the idea that you only need a thousand really strong fans that support everything that you do. Like if you put out a movie they’re gonna buy it, they’re gonna tell their friends about it, they’re gonna share it online. There’s basically different layers of audience. There’s like general audience that are just like, cool.

There’s people who are maybe more interested in them, there’s true fans at the top. So the idea that you need millions and millions and millions of followers and subscribers or whatever to make this thing happen is not true. You need fewer maybe than you think. You need fewer and more dedicated audience members that are really interested in what you’re doing. So I think learning how to build your own audience and pursuing that is definitely a good alternative.

It’s not going to necessarily get you to making multi -million dollar movies. But the thing is, is if you have an audience, you can leverage that. And that’s something that is very powerful because you know, you have, will have dollar amounts. You will be able to say, here are my metrics. And you can actually take that to leverage and leapfrog two bigger projects.

Like, if you were looking for investment, you’re like, hey, I already have this existing audience. They’ve supported me in these ways, like that you have metrics that can show that you have it. Bankable subject matter or whatever. I hope that makes sense. That being said, building an audience is not easy. It is a long term thing. I have not really been able to do it. Part of it is just because I didn’t want to.

I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to be the guy that was making YouTube videos every week or whatever. But the other thing is I think if you don’t do something that is very resource intensive, like I’m doing sci -fi and post -apocalyptic, it’s very resource intensive. It makes it harder for me to find a way to create things on a regular basis in order to build the audience. So if you’re not in the same position as me, I think you’re in a better position than me to work on creating your own audience.

So, and that doesn’t have to be YouTube, but certainly it can be. YouTube will help you with organic audience growth because of the algorithm and everything. And if you do another method, you won’t have that benefit. So anyway, just do some research on that. The future of content creators, I don’t know what’s gonna happen with Hollywood. I mean, Hollywood is spending a lot of money and they’re spending a lot of money on movies that not a lot of people want to watch. And if you look at some of the last couple years, some of these top movies, the top movies that they’re spending money on, they’re not making their money back. And it’s a problem. And Netflix is having the same problem. These other streamers are having the same problem where they’re spending a lot of money and it seems like they’re kind of going upside down on these projects. It’s just not sustainable. So we’ll see what happens. I would say don’t rely on the Hollywood system. I think that you need to focus on figuring out how to forge your own path with your filmmaking. So that was the last question. Yeah, so I don’t know what the future is going to hold for independent filmmaking, you know, for someone like me who wants to be directing full time, I think that there’s nothing wrong with doing it on the side either. If you love doing it, you can do other things and you can still make films. You can do other things and do a job and take that extra time that you need to continually build an audience, to build upon your skills and to not give up. Just understand that it’s not going to be quick, it’s not going to be overnight, it’s going to take a long time. It could take you 10 years to build an audience, to learn the skills that you need to learn, to finally get some attention. It could take longer, it could go much quicker. I think the key is finding something that you can be really passionate about for a long time and that you can make…

You can tell stories in that box for an audience, a particular audience, and you can focus in on them and making stuff that they will enjoy, that you also enjoy. I think that focus is the key there. An example that a friend of mine uses, he has a friend that has a, I don’t know if it’s YouTube or whatever, but.

He has an audience that’s only focused on bikepacking, which if you haven’t heard of bikepacking, it’s like backpacking makes bicycling. So long distance bicycle, but you wear backpacking, you camp. And that’s a pretty niche thing. It’s pretty specific, but people who like backpacking, they really like bikepacking. So he’s able to cater to that audience and he can talk about and show what he really enjoys and the audiences into it. And he has his thousand true fans and he is able to make a living through that. So that’s just one example. Yeah, there’s no easy way or shortcuts here, but it can be done. It can be done. So don’t despair. Just keep trying. Do your best. Figure out what it is you can really focus in on and dedicate yourself to for a long time. Go where the audience is to some extent.

Like find that crossover between what you love and audiences that are interested in the thing. I know another guy who he makes basically Hallmark style like Christmas movies and stuff. And you know what? Is that exactly the thing that he wants to do? No, but he does enjoy it and he enjoys directing most of all. So the fact that he gets to direct for a living and create these films is awesome. And so that…

He may not be doing those forever, right? That may be a phase of his life and that’s what he’s doing right now. And it’s not quite exactly what he would want to do, but it’s pretty close. So.

Boy, I think that’s it. That’s all I got. I don’t have any other questions here. So…

I guess I’ll add one more thing and that is don’t feel like you need to suddenly or quickly be able to make money from your audience. I feel like I kind of fell into that trap. I think you’re building a long term asset. I’m not sure how else to put it. Your audience you are forming a relationship with by regularly, consistently sharing stuff that you’re creating with them and bringing them along for the ride and entertaining them or providing some kind of useful value or information. It’s not going to make money right away and so I think you can treat it like a business and create a plan. I think you should go about it in a directed and structured way.

Don’t plan so much that it stops you from doing the thing, but line out like, okay, here’s where I wanna be in five years. Here’s some of the steps I’m gonna take to do that. I’m going to, here’s my audience, define my audience, define the kind of things that I’m gonna make. And you can change as you go, but like just pick something at first. Define the audience, define the subject, and come up with some sort of content plan. Like, okay, I’m gonna post.

I’m going to do my best to post every two weeks or every week or once a month I’m going to post a short film, whatever that is, and just do it on a regular basis and continually improve as you go and have a business plan and just look at what you’re doing, see how it’s performing and keep posting. And that’s the thing that I have seen consistently no matter who you talk to. Doesn’t matter whether it’s blogging, video on YouTube, anything, any time you’re building any kind of audience.

They’re looking for consistency. And you, that’s just, consistency is gonna be the number one thing that’s gonna help you. So if you have a plan going into it and you commit to that plan, it gives you some structure. I think that will help you a lot. So that’s what I’m doing for me. So anyway, hope all that information is helpful. I know I probably didn’t totally answer all the questions here me some of these things I could just talk about forever. So anyway, yeah, hope that helps and thanks for joining me on the “Don’t Suck at Video!” podcast. I’ll see you next time.
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Directing, Film Distribution, Fundraising

Storyteller Podcast Ep. 3 | From 1st feature film to Netflix w/ Joseph Mbah

By on

January 7, 2020

- Directing, Film Distribution, Fundraising

LISTEN TO EPISODE 3 HERE.

The Storyteller Podcast can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.). A quick way to find it is to search for “Storyteller Nick”.

This episode, I have a discussion with writer/director Joseph Mbah. Joseph has directed 4 feature films and written 2 of the 4. We discuss his experience making his first feature film and what he recommends for those who want to do the same, including how to approach filming, funding, and distribution. 

We also talk about his experience getting his recent film “Expo” on Netflix, and how that came about as well as what filmmakers can expect when looking to get better noticed for their work.

This episode is full of experience and wisdom from Joe – so don’t miss out, especially if you’ve been feeling ‘stuck’ and unable to get enough wind under your sails to get your first feature film off the ground.

You can find Joseph’s film “Expo” here. Follow him on Instagram @Joseph_Mbah.

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Business, Filmmaking, Fundraising

4 Facts You Need to Know about Profits for Your 1st Feature Film

By on

June 23, 2018

- Business, Filmmaking, Fundraising

Money matters can be quite complicated…
…and I aim to sort them out in a comprehensible manner to help you get ready to launch a bigger project (such as your first feature film).  

Just like with securing film distribution, I’d never handled any of these matters prior to producing my first feature film. The university of life taught me how this stuff works – plus some input from mentors.

I must mention that while I have learned a lot from my experiences thus far, there are many things in regard to investing that I do not understand and have not encountered.

This is only a basic breakdown of how your film’s profits will break up if seeking some investment or when sharing profits with your team.

It’s important to understand what people expect, what they are talking about, and what your obligations are once you’ve made promises of giving any amount of ‘profit’ or ‘ownership’ of your film to anyone, and what you’ve really promised to share with them.

Since there are a handful of terms in this article that not everyone may be familiar with, I’m going to define a few things before we get started.

Super-exciting definitions you can (but shouldn’t) skip
‘Points’. This is the common term for profit participation percentage points.

Profit participation (how much of the profit a particular person or party receives when the film makes money) can only be out of 100 percentage points, which is where the shorthand ‘points’ comes from.

Gross profits. Gross profits, according to Investopedia, is “the profit a [film] makes after deducting the costs associated with making and selling [it].

Gross profit will appear on a company’s income statement, and can be calculated with this formula:

Gross profit = Revenue – Cost of Goods Sold

This is a generic business definition of gross profits, commonly referred to simply as ‘gross’.

Within the film industry, gross is commonly understood to include all costs of producing a feature film, including prep, production, and post, but not usually including other expenses such as marketing, also known as print and advertising (‘P&A’), production company overhead, miscellaneous company expenses, or other costs not directly attributable to the production of the film.


I know. This stuff is boring, but it’s important, so keep reading!

Net profits. Commonly referred to as ‘net’, Investopedia defines this as, “Net income (NI) is a company’s total earnings (or profit); net income is calculated by taking revenues and subtracting the costs of doing business such as depreciation, interest, taxes and other expenses…”

An important element to note is the part of the definition that says, “…and other expenses… “

Oh… What could that mean? The truth is, ‘other expenses’ can be anything a company decides is part of their operating expenses of one sort or another. This is something you have to watch out for when dealing with people.

You need to make sure the definition of net profits is clear.

Generally, the definitions of gross and net profits can change depending on with whom you make deals. Whatever the case, it’s important that everyone is totally clear on their expectations and define things clearly.

Fixed and contingent compensation. “Fixed compensation is the upfront money that is paid [to cast or crew] when the film goes into production, regardless of what happens to the movie in the distribution phase. The contingent compensation is the percentage of a pool called the ‘producer’s adjusted gross.’ Today, virtually all films produced include some form of contingent compensation.”
(by producer Kathryn Arnold on HG.org)

When it comes to your first feature film, you will, in all likelihood, use a lot of contingent compensation, since you don’t have much (if any) up-front payment you can provide.

These terms are relevant because any ‘points’ you give to key cast and crew for their help are a form of contingent compensation. While there are ways to use this method of compensation in a professional manner as well as ways to do this in a manipulative manner, there is nothing inherently wrong with contingent compensation.

Tricky terms. Sometimes, there will be some tricky terms out there that look like something they are not.

This is where having good mentors or a good entertainment attorney can really come in handy. For example, ‘adjusted gross proceeds’, or ‘modified gross proceeds’ are other ways to basically say net profits, in my opinion.

My knowledge and understanding of accounting/economic terms and concepts are limited and imperfect, so I recommend you do some research on your own to learn more. If you want to look at some more definitions, I found this interesting sheet of info.

Ownership versus profit participation
Big difference!

While I am not a lawyer, I know that there’s a difference between signing an agreement that says you are giving someone ‘5% of the film’ or ‘5% ownership of the film’, and an agreement that says you are giving someone ‘5% of the film’s net profits’ for their help, and then defining net profits.

Always be careful what you sign.

I almost made this mistake, since I didn’t make that distinction.

The difference is this: owning your film is owning the intellectual property (the script, the ideas, the creative input) and rights of the physical images, voice recordings, and images of the actors.  Basically, everything that makes up what the film actually is.

If you give someone some of the film’s profits, all you owe them is a certain amount of money based on what the film makes.


What you want to do with their money to spite them is another issue entirely. You still have all the rights to the film and they don’t get any say in what you do with it.

I almost signed away some of my film’s actual ownership to some people who worked on my film. Oops. Don’t be like me – pay attention and make a distinction between these two things.

Structuring your project – who gets what
So, let’s say you’ve found a partner with whom to make your film. You’ve also found someone who is going to contribute a bit of funding to your film, in addition to whatever you and your partner contribute.

This is a sample scenario for someone making their first film. You couldn’t find someone willing to give you a ton of cash, but between yours and theirs, it’s enough to get something off the ground.

Before you get to that point, you’re going to have to decide how you’d like to allocate the net profits of your film – the ‘points’. Having a plan will allow you to negotiate with people properly when it comes to their contingent compensation.

You’ll know where you intend to allocate things, how much you’ll have if you offer someone ‘x’ amount, what number of points you want to reserve for yourself and investors, and how much you can realistically give away.


Above, I’ve included a sample breakdown of your film’s points. Assuming a lot of people involved in your film are working for very little up-front cash, it is common to offer them a reasonable amount of points in exchange for their work.

What ‘reasonable’ means will vary and be based upon that person’s apparent worth given their skill and how valuable their time is. Okay, from the top-down, let’s break these numbers down.

The executive producer (EP). The big cheese. Whatever the case, they are offering something so valuable to your production (whether money or resources) that they earn this title along with a substantial chunk of your points.

The amount they receive will be entirely between you and them, but based on my limited experience, it seems likely for this number to be anywhere between 20-50% and depends greatly on how much they are contributing compared to you.

You and your producing partner. This is, of course, assuming that you do have a partner. In a prior article, I suggested that you should find someone with whom to co-produce your first film and how to find a great partner.

If you don’t, this is easy. Give yourself as many points as you realistically can, while treating your cast, crew, and backers fairly. If you do have a partner, on the other hand…

You and your partner are going to have to have a candid and transparent discussion about who will be doing what, how much work each person will be doing, and what they are bringing to the table. Basically, you have to come to what you feel will be a fair arrangement for both of you.

Whatever you decide, make sure you are satisfied with the agreement. If you feel troubled about what you’ve agreed to, bring it up. The last thing you need is to be harboring any feelings of bitterness or resentment toward your partner several months into making the film.

For my first feature film, my partner and I decided on even responsibilities and an equal split.

From left to right: Michael Alvarez (one of our actors), Joseph Mbah, and Nick LaRovere

The stars of the show. For my first feature film, we offered those that were committing a significant amount of the time to the film, the lead actors, a few points. We based the amounts on what we gave others for the same level of commitment. I believe this is only fair, especially if your actors are working for no upfront cash payment.

Your crew, your team. Like your lead actors, the crew that is dedicated to seeing your film through is deserving of at least a reasonable offer of points for their assistance.

If the crew is being paid normal rates, then you probably don’t have to be concerned about offering points. However, on your first feature, chances are you will not be able to offer full rates for anyone.

Composer, Writer, and more. There may be others that are willing to assist you with your first feature that are seeking experience and are therefore willing to work for points alone. It is up to you and that person to negotiate a number of points that seems appropriate for the level of work they are contributing.

An example of points structure: The EP contributes $5,000. You and your partner contribute $2,500 each.

Perhaps your EP gets 25 points, and you and your partner get 12.5 each. However, you realize that since you and your partner not only helped fund the film, but also will spend countless hours prepping, shooting, and in post, you increase your allotments to 20 each. The remaining 35 points are split up to everyone else as you choose.

Hold some back. I recommend not giving away all your points up-front. You may encounter a situation where it’d be helpful to offer points to someone.

This might be in exchange for an otherwise un-securable location, expensive equipment lent to you, or any other unforeseen assistance that may need a bit of grease on the wheels to get things moving.

What money goes to who, and when?
Great question. This will depend on what kind of deals you have arranged with all participants in your film, especially the distributor and financier(s).

There are, in reality, many different types of deals and each will have its own peculiarities. Who receives what payments, and when, will vary, as all these sorts of things can be written into a contract. However, for the most part, it will probably go something like this. In terms of priority…


You may be wondering why the distributor gets first priority in this scenario. Didn’t the outside investor take on the most risk by investing in someone’s film (that isn’t their own like it is yours)?

Most likely. However, from what I’ve learned, it is quite normal for a distributor to require they recoup any marketing or direct costs of distributing the film before any funds are disbursed to other parties.

Here’s where your profits go when there’s a typical distribution deal:


What is the distributor recouping?


In reality, the definitions of ‘marketing and sales costs’, or ‘costs of distribution’ can mean almost anything at all. This is an unfortunate problem with this distribution process.

Your best bet, in my current view, is to get an honest distributor. Unfortunately, you don’t control that, but you can do your best to work with someone who seems to work honestly if you get multiple distribution offers.

Marketing caps. Since a distributor will be pushing your film, they will incur expenses, perhaps every year, as long as they have the contract. So, they may include a marketing cap which encompasses all expenses, such as traveling to Cannes Film Festival, the American Film Market (AFM), and other popular sales locations.

It’s important that there is a marketing cap in your distribution deal. Otherwise, if the distributor gets ‘marketing and sales costs’ taken off the top of the profits before anyone else gets anything, they have no limit or accountability as to how much they spend in that category.

An arrangement without artificial limitations may lend itself to some creative accounting. What is ‘priority’ or ‘first-money return’ of investment? This concept simply means that your EP wants to get their investor paid back to them first before anyone else (aside from the distributor) gets anything. Since ordinarily, they are the primary 3rd party risk-taker on a film, this seems like a fair arrangement.

The EP should be reimbursed monetarily for his or her initial investment before anyone else is paid since they have nothing but a monetary stake in the project – unlike you.

When do you get paid anything? Well, unless you arranged something different with everyone else that received points, after the distributor has recouped their marketing costs (reached their cap) and after the investor has been paid back their initial investment, the percentages of net profits will be split evenly and without priority to all parties.

Reporting what the film makes. In your deal with a distributor, you should be promised by them that they will report what the film is pulling in, at least every year (for a limited time) if not every 6 months.

After that, if it isn’t already in your contract, it’s a good idea to share those reports with your EP (at the least) for the sake of transparency and good business, as well as any other major points-holders.

If those holding few points on your film trust you, chances are they won’t mind not having those numbers shared with them, as long as they are getting checks in the mail.

Otherwise, you should let them know that the film simply isn’t making money (which is an unfortunate possibility) so they don’t have any unrealistic expectations.

Movie profits in a nutshell
1. Definitions:

‘Points’. A common term for profit participation percentage points.

Gross profits. The money the film makes, aside from the costs of making it and getting it to a distributor.

Net profits. The money the film makes after marketing and sales costs of the distributor are subtracted.

Fixed and contingent compensation. Fixed is the up-front cash you pay people. Contingent is money they are promised on the back-end, including points.

2. Ownership versus profit. Remember that these two things are not the same. Ownership implies having rights to the film itself in some way. Profit is just money.

3. Structuring your project. Have an understanding of where all your points are going, who is contributing what, and divvy the points out carefully.

4. What money goes to who and when. Every deal structure will be different, but remember that the money being made on the film most likely won’t be for you, at least not at first. Make sure you handle the funds appropriately and pay the right people.

5. Additional resources: A wonderful, but more complicated breakdown of where the money goes in a film deal: read the breakdown HERE.

More definitions, including many terms I don’t understand, HERE.

So, feel ready to make a feature film yet? No? That’s understandable.

You may never feel ‘ready’.

Keep that in mind, keep learning, and working hard… Good luck!
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Filmmaking, Fundraising

3 Lessons Learned from Crowdfunding

By on

February 20, 2018

- Filmmaking, Fundraising

My recent crowdfunding campaign bombed, and I want to share with you why it didn’t work. 

For those of you who have done crowdfunding, you know it isn’t easy. Whether you’ve had a successful campaign or not, crowdfunding any project is a challenging mission. Turns out, it’s pretty tough to get people to part with their money!
(For reference, here is the campaign I did)

I have 3 big things I learned when doing my campaign, so I’ll get right into it.

Audience and Reach: getting your work out there

Ultimately, if you look at any successful campaign, chances are they had one of two things:

  1. A pre-existing fanbase: They had either a fanbase built off of a brand (for example, a fan film or reboot of a pre-existing franchise) or they had their own brand, such as a long-standing, popular YouTube channel, to draw their supporters from – here’s the ultimate example.

  2. Huge social net: The number of people they are connected to – their network – is far greater than an ordinary person’s and they know how to capitalize on it. Examples might include a person with a popular blog, large social media following, etc.

What I’m getting at is that expecting that your own network (even if a bit bigger than the average hombre, perhaps), is not realistic. You can’t expect that (unless the amount is under $2,000, I’d say) your film or project can be propped up by friends and family alone.

Not even considering that you have to convince (yes, even your friends and family) that your project is worth investing in, most people don’t have a ton of disposable income or cash laying around to throw your way.

Physical Perks: conceptual rewards aren’t very motivating

That sums it up in a nutshell: consider your own life. How hard is it to set a conceptual goal, put it out there in the void, and motivate or convince yourself to get up and achieve it? Not easy at all. Now imagine trying to make someone else do that… plus they have to give up some money for it.

Sheesh. Talk about a tough. But that’s basically what you are doing.

Apple doesn’t sell you an idea of how your life will be with their product – I mean, they do in a sort of abstract branding sense, but without the physical product, there wouldn’t be anyone throwing cash at them. People are paying for something they find amusing or has some utility. They pay for the physical device. That’s important to the selling process.

Of course, this problem is really only prevalent if you are making something such as a short film, where there’s not much to offer in regards to physical proceeds of the film (like there would be for tech or even something like a board game).

  1. Offer quirky, unique, or fascinating physical rewards. It’s a pain because you do have to plan and budget time and money to ensure you can fulfill these rewards. But they are motivating. If people know they can get a shiny object (something that interests them) for their money, the stakes won’t be so high for them and they’ll be more likely to pledge.

  2. Offer specific, unique services in exchange for pledges. This is still a tough sell because the offer is less concrete, but if you offer something that is very specific, that people are interested in (not vague like ‘Q & A’), it could just work.

Your Pitch: show the actual product

Based on our statistics, people did not view much of our pitch video, well put-together that it was. Despite the upbeat vibe, informational content, and so on, people just weren’t interested, weren’t engaged, and the promise too vague.

  1. Get straight to it. You NEED to hook people in the first 10 seconds or so, and a ‘fun, energetic intro’ that isn’t specifically a demonstration of what you will be creating isn’t going to cut it. If people don’t know what the heck they are looking at… click. They will watch something else. Tell them exactly what you are making in the first few seconds.

  2. Demonstrate the actual product. While it is important to show that you are a human being with skill and personality bringing the project to life and to give some additional info about the project (what it is, your plan), you should keep it short and sweet. I’d say no more than 30 seconds, honestly. You should primarily plant a vision of what your project will look like in their head. This is best done with a promo or trailer shot for the project (and so yes, this may take more effort). There are a couple of campaigns that did this well. Kung Fury (an internet sensation), and another more recent, Slice of Life, that had a wonderful trailer.

The Skinny: how to elevate your campaign

  1. Your audience. It’s important that you have a plan for reaching and appealing to a wider audience than your circle, or even the circles of your friends.

  2. Give ‘em the goods. Incentivize people with real, physical perks that they will actually care about. This is especially important for short films.

  3. Show the real end-result. Show your potential supporters what they are really getting themselves into. A miscellaneous montage of cool stuff or you talking all about yourself, team, and the project isn’t going to cut it.

You never know unless you try.

When the rubber meets the road, you are better off to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all (to borrow from a similar saying). Crowdfunding is challenging and time-consuming, but you should always give your best effort. Putting theory to practice is how we learn… and you never know. You might just succeed.

Remember, the stories you tell, and how you tell them, matter. Now get out there and do great things!

As always, if you found this article useful or amusing in some way or another, or even hated it with a burning passion, please comment below and share with others. I will always make an effort to discuss the topic at hand and answer questions.

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