2. INTRODUCTION
Film Funding is a very important part of producing a film.
Without good funding for a film, the production quality will
suffer and several areas of the production may need to be left
out as they simply cannot be afforded. For our film there are a
variety of funding options which I will be discussing in this
presentation. But as a first time film-maker funding a film can be
difficult due to limited previous work (showreel) or even no
previous film success.
3. A COMPETITION
Many organisations such as “Cinemagic” offer a competition for small film-makers to request their film ideas.This
competition will have a prize fund which then allows the producer to go and create their film idea.This type of funding
is generally on a lower scale, but it allows the small film industry to develop through a creative ideology; whereas a film
funded by the likes of Warner Bros would be taken over by someone else as they want it to be the most profitable and
not necessarily the most creative, as they are mostly interested in profitability of the film.
For our film, a competition could be a great way of getting audiences to see it, which could grow the films success by
making an impact on those that are going to discuss the film with others.The possibility of getting funding for the film
is also a great way of getting the project kick-started.There is no harm in applying to a competition as you could try
numerous other methods of funding if it doesn't work.
The first advantage of funding our film through a competition would be that we can produce the film we initially
intended to without much altering from investors; this would benefit our film as we can produce the scenes we
intended to in order to target our intended audience.
The next advantage of funding our film through a competition is that it means no loan repayments need to be made,
this is a big positive for a production like ours as it could potentially fail due to the limited funding we currently have,
and costs for advertising etc in order to get the film seen can be significantly expensive.
The disadvantages of funding our film with the funds from winning a competition are that the amount of funds won
may not be enough to produce the film, this would leave us in the situation where we would have to get investors from
elsewhere which would take more time and leave us with further responsibility of paying it back.The reason why are
film may be quite hard to produce with limited funding is because of the developed narrative and variety of scenes
which takes time and a lot more funding as our intentional target audience are of a fairly high social economic class
which means they want to be fulfilled from watching the film, so therefore more money needs to be invested to make
sure it is of a good enough level.
An example of a film funded through a competition would be “TheVisitor” which was funded by the microwave
scheme.
4. CROWD FUNDING
Crowd funding is another way to fund films. This can be very effective or not so effective as you are reliant on other people funding your
project. There are many crowd funding opportunities on websites such as patreon, go fund me & kick starter; these are all slightly different
but all have the same kind of idea behind them. The funding you can get from these crowd funding websites ranges from very little to
staggering amounts; an example of a film that was funded through a crowd funding project was “Stray” this film raised $125,000 in a very
short amount of time and it allows the producer of the film to start the production process without consulting other private investors.
However you have received capital from people that are interested in the film that you are producing and therefore they may be demanding
in what they want to see in the film; you have also got to get funding from a large amount of people too, and as you get more funding the
responsibility also increases.
This could be one of the potential sources of finance for our film. This would allow us to gather an audience as well from those interested in
the film idea; these people are likely to share and discuss the film with other people as well, which would be an effective way of advertising.
The first advantage of us using crowd funding as a source of finance for our film is that we can gather a large amount of money if members of
the public are interested in our production.
The second advantage is that you don’t have to discuss the funding with each individual person, they are taken to a site where they can see
what they will receive and how it will benefit the film by donating.
The First disadvantage is that it can cost a lot of money to advertise the campaign in the first place, this would be from the advertising costs
initially, and social media campaigns to promote the idea would take a long time to get running at an optimal level.
And the second disadvantage is that it is not a reliable source of finance in that you don’t know how much money you will receive and by
advertising the campaign you could end up losing money, rather than making money.
An example of a film funded through crowd funding would be “Veronica Mars” which raised $5,702,15, and raising its $2 million target in less
than 10 hours with donations from card-carrying Marshmallows averaging at around $4000 per minute (making it the highest Kickstarter
project to hit $1 million and $2 million).
5. BANK LOAN
A bank loan is another way of funding a film.This is by far the best method if you can safely say that
you're film is going to be successful and make a profit; however if you cannot safely say that it will be
a success, you are better of getting funding elsewhere as you will need to repay the debt even if it’s
not successful!
One big advantage of funding your film through this method is that you can get the exact amount of
capital needed to start producing your film; this is an area a lot of films fail in and they have to cut the
film short as they have run out of money for all of the scenes.
Another advantage of funding a film from a bank is that the funds can be granted fairly quickly when
compared to other methods such as crowd funding as you will need to make a social media impact
initially.
A disadvantage would be that dealing with a bank you are likely going to need a well planned out
production, otherwise they may be sceptical on investing into your idea. So you need to make sure
that the film you are selling can be clearly shown to be a success.
The final disadvantage of a bank loan would be the interest on the repayment of the loan.You have
also got to remember that if the debt is not paid further interest will also be added.And for some
smaller production companies one film could send the business into liquidation, therefore they need
to consider this funding source effectively.
For our film this would be the last resort for a source of finance as we have no previous reputation to
show, and we currently have no funds to pay any debt back. However it could be said that as we are
taking a unique approach to the thriller genre, this may be the only way of funding the film as many
crowd funding programs may be too confusing for the public.
6. BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE & UK
FILM COUNCIL
The British film institute can fund small productions through various methods such as Lottery
Funding.This is a great method of funding for small productions, but for larger film projects this
would not be a sustainable source of finance as more capital (money) would be needed.
There are a range of reasons why you would go for this method of funding; one of them being that
you don’t have to repay the BFI, like you would with a Bank loan.
The BFI also have a lot of experience in the UK film industry and they could therefore give us some
helpful tips to maximise the films success e.g. use this angle to make the scene more dramatic.
However there are also a variety of disadvantages to sourcing finance this way as you are reliant on
getting accepted, which can be a very slim chance; as you have got to remember the film must be in
the best interest of the UK Film Council or British Film Institute.
Another disadvantage would be that the entire budget annually is just £4 million, which when divided
down is a very small amount to produce and market a film.
For our film I would say that this could be a potential source of finance as we don’t have a previous
reputation, therefore banks would be very curious on lending money. Our film idea is also very unique
and therefore may be of interest to the organisation, and they may want to be apart of something
new in the film industry.
If we were to use this method of finance for our production we would be more likely in charge of the
genre, themes, style & target audience; as the organisations mission is to keep the creative side of
film-making alive and not just for profitability; this would be a very beneficial point of this source of
finance as it would allow us to produce what we initially intended.
7. DEFERRALS
Deferrals is where everyone gets started working on a project and they will hopefully get paid once the film is released
and successful.
Everyone is generally paid by getting a shareholding of the film, so if the film is successful you will get a good return
from the work you have put in.
The first advantage by using this source of finance is that you have got no interest to pay as no loan repayments have
got to be made; however you have got the responsibility of the people working for you, who will be expecting
payment after the film has been released.
The next advantage of this source of finance is that the staff will have the incentive to work hard, as the harder they
work the more likely the film is to be successful; however this also has it’s negative aspects for instance if some staff
members decide to leave this can effect how other staff feel and they may get less productive or even leave as they are
worried the film will not succeed.
A disadvantage of using this source of finance is that the film contractors such as filming companies are not going to
work for free very easily. Any work that has to be done by other companies will be very hard with no initial budget.This
may work for certain films where the intentions are to raise money or something similar as the companies can use this
to show how they are ethical but otherwise it is very difficult to persuade them.
The next disadvantage of using this method of finance is that when/if the film is highly successful there can be
arguments around the film paying out as technically everyone involved is a share holder which can make the
management of profits out of control.
This funding source wouldn’t be a good idea for our film as we don’t have any other previous large success in the film
industry, therefore making it much harder for people to invest their time in us. Our film idea is also based around
conveying a illusive effect, which requires professional CGI.This would be significantly more expensive and these
companies would want payment before the films success.
8. CONCLUSION
So overall I think that the most suitable source of finance is crowd funding.
The first reason for this is because there is no initial setup fee, however there
are fees for advertising the campaign which will cost a considerable amount
of money.
Crowd funding also has other benefits such as gathering your audience
whilst gathering your investment as you know they are interested in
watching the film.
With crowd funding we can also produce our film with more creativity which
was are initial intentions, however we have got to follow certain guidelines
as the film has been invested by people who saw the plans and decided to
spend their money on it, so they could see the final product.
For our film we would use crowd funding, the reason being that we can build
an audience for the film and also produce a relatively large budget if the
correct audience Is targeted as we would like to challenge certain
conventions and stereotypes such as women being portrayed as weak and
men as strong.
