How To Create Partnerships For Film Financing

My film KEMBA drops today on BET+

As I touched on last week, my latest film Kemba dropped today on BET+. Give it a watch! It’s such a special film and probably my favorite part of making it was working so closely with Kemba Smith (the subject of the film) and her family to bring her story to life.

This film is also a great example of the innovative funding models we talk about a lot here and which I go into detail on in my Funding Strategies Playbook course. It’s also a great example of a partnership done right.

In short, this project combines a traditional broadcast funding model with donor funding. It’s a film with a cause (prison reform) so there were plenty of foundations and organizations to partner with on getting this film off the ground and into the world to make an impact.

Speaking of impact - in addition to our festival premiere at the Pan African Film Festival last week, there’s a whole roadshow of screenings taking place in parallel to the release to keep growing our audience and getting the film’s message out.

A successful roadshow is a perfect example of how to ‘hack’ attention in this over-saturated world of content and I foresee a lot of films relying on these hybrid models as we go forward this year. Whether it’s tapping donor and foundational support or brand funds, finance plans are becoming more hodgepodge all the time…. but in the best of ways!

I touched on this topic in last week’s newsletter and in next week’s lesson in the Funding Strategies Playbook course I’m covering Distributor Funding Models and Pre-Sales…. so you don’t want to miss that! You can register here if you want to join us.

Register Here

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Partnerships Done Right

With EFM in the rear view mirror one of things I’m reflecting on is the continued emphasis on collaboration and co-production to get our films off the ground. EFM coined their Co-Production Market many years ago so there’s a natural bias towards this financing model at this particular market.

Like in the example above with Kemba, you have to keep in mind that with any partnership you have to figure out how to strike a storytelling balance with economic realities and culture - whether that partnership is with a network, streamer, or another country (in the case of international co-productions).

A new film that I’m working on is set in another country, organically as part of the story, but in order to access funds from that country’s funding board and local broadcaster, we have to make adjustments to the script to please a few different entities. Luckily none of these changes are major, but going into the process of creating an international co-production the writer and director need to be aware this money isn’t ‘free’ - it comes with strings attached, which is fine if you realize going in that cooperation is key.

One of my other projects is a international Series based on a book, and the adaptation is being completely rewritten for a new country/location to be able to access local and national incentives, soft money, and partners that make sense for this particular project.

All this to say, I’m witnessing lots of shaping and shifting going on with production company slates to balance funding needs with storytelling!

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Brands & Non-Profits - Time To Level Up

I think there’s another conversation to be had here about non-profits and brands leveling up their aspirations to help fund more long form content - both films and series. So many brands and non-profits operate in the short form space - for obvious reasons because it’s cheaper and poses less risk - but I think there’s an argument for them up-leveling their aspirations to create films and series worthy of major distribution.

If you’re a brand or non-profit reading this and want to discuss specific ideas, hit me up at stacey@filmspecific.com!

And if you have questions about any of this, let’s discuss in the comments section below….

Thank you for sharing!

Thanks to all of you who keep sharing this newsletter and helping us reach new audiences. Here’s a button to make it easier if you think there’s someone who can benefit from what we talk about around here :)

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On that note, I’ll wrap things up for today. I hope you have a wonderful day ahead and I’ll speak to you again soon!

Stacey

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»»» Are you in a place where you just want to *show up* and have me do all this with you (kind of like a Personal Trainer)? Then consider joining my professional community FS Pro. Applications are open now and I’d love to partner with you and help guide your funding journey.

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