Finance is a very important and crucial part of film making. While many people pull you here and there explaining about this vast topic, where as they are all beating behind the bushes, here are some real facts about film making finances.
Every film maker at some point in his career is supposed to make a choice between a hobby and a profession - that is whether you choose film making as a full time career or just a mere hobby. The key to the answer lies in their ability to finance or fund their own projects.
Film making, as we all know involves a lot of money in indeed, most oft the film makers focus on their current project, not the future ones. Hence in order to become a film maker, it is immensely important to understand the professionalism involved in film making, and the mechanisms of film investment.
In this regard many people claim to be Mr. Know-It-All, but as a matter of fact, this is not any toddlers' job. Such people often try to take advantage of your ignorance in the field.
We suggest you to contact a legitimate company who are equipped with the right knowledge and have some experience in the field of film making. But, like all other services and products, there are so many consultancy firms out there. On what basis do you choose or reject one? Here are some basic facts that you must understand:
1. The fake or some average companies would merely try to grab your money away with high dreams and no results.
2. The legitimate and quality organizations would never promise you any investors. They would rather assist you with a list of the potential investors and help you win over them.
3. Whether your project gets an investor or not is matter that is decided by several factors like the subject of your project, the market scenario, your individual potential and its portrayal, and for those who believe, luck.
4. The legitimate consultants understand that there is no fun stealing away those few dollars paid for consultancy that any producer could afford conveniently.
5. The genuine financial consultants at times do not even charge the percentage of the funds you have earmarked for the project. They charge you their fees but ultimately aim towards the success of your project and its effective distribution.
6. They must help you evaluate the accumulated interest levied on the money you have borrowed during production.
7. They would also guide you through a well planned financial end of your project.
The toughest part of this business comes in to the scene when you have to convince a financial consultant of a legitimate producer to get involved in your project. You must find an investor who trusts you and your project well enough in order to invest in such high-risk, that is film making. For this you must step in to the shoes of an investor and evaluate as to what would be his/her investing criteria.
There are some essential basics of film investing. These are:
1. Usually, a film investor contributes around 50% of the total cost of the film. Film producer bares the remaining 50%.
2. 30-40% is quite enough to make the film. This would totally depend on your convincing power to bring forth the end users to become a part of your plan.
3. The investor would always want that the budget of the film project is as low as possible.
4. Foreign sales must cover at least 50%.
5. An investment worth $5 million is should be enough to allow the investor to buy several films.
As getting a film financed through investors is not an easy nut to crack, the independent film makers must consider the film making grants. Those who are passionate about this art and are in love with this profession, have a real scope of getting these grants. Just log on to internet and key in 'film making grants' and you shall get to know about several funders who are all willing to help such budding talents. All you need is to believe in your project. But make sure to gain enough knowledge about each grant as there are several types of grants that define different criteria for each.
