How Film Financing Comes Together
and why the path to production isn't linear either....
Hi everyone,
Hope you’re having a great week!
Last week in our Path To Production series we talked about Re-Approaching The Market after Taking The Temp and Applying Market Feedback to our projects, and all of that is good and well but you’re probably thinking by now….well how and when does the financing actually come together?
Because by this point in the process, I’m thinking the same thing!
Enough of all this back and forth, let’s get the show on the road right?
Like I’ve said before, development isn’t linear and nor is our path to production. As much as I wish I could apply a magic formula to it, unless it’s a straight equity investment from high net worth individuals who can instantly green light your production, there’s multiple pieces that have to be pulled together, coerced into being, timed perfectly, and otherwise made a reality before you can actually get into production.
I’ve seen and gotten films financed in a multitude of ways over the years so there’s no one right way to do it, but over time I’ve developed my own framework that I like to follow (which is the process I’ve been sharing with you in this newsletter series) knowing that I’ll have to take detours along the way, stall out for periods of time, and come back and pick up where I left off.
I’m currently in the throes of putting together financing for a half dozen films, either that I’m producing or that I’m an EP on, while also advising several members of our FS Pro Group and what’s working right now seems to be a mixture of all the financing modalities we know about - tax incentives, mostly equity, and depending on cast hopefully a few pre-sales and some debt. All of that is taking more time than any of us would like but ultimately, in one combination or another, is how the financing is coming together.
Spoiler alert - it’s also how financing is starting to come together for Series now that the standard commissioning model as we know it is broken….but that’s a post for another day! Just know that as your hone your financing skills over here in feature film land, you can apply all that to getting series made too. I’ll be exploring more of that in my upcoming MIPTV newsletters.
In the mean time, if you have a feature or series project you’d like to run through our Submissions Service, fill out the application here and let’s start a discussion about your project.
On that note, I’ll wrap things up for today. If you have any questions, feel free to post them below or email me at stacey@filmspecific.com.
Have a wonderful day ahead everyone and I’ll speak to you again soon!
To your success,
Stacey
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