Preparing for Film Investors

These 10 Keys to Film Finance make it clear that that savvy, experienced film funding companies and investors are taking the time to offer their indie film financing advice. This means they ARE interested in film production financing and are trying to help you put your best foot forward. Listen to your successful predecessors advice so you set yourself up for the best chance of film financing success.

You have a great idea for a film and now you "just" need to raise money to make it. With several hundred articles and experts around the internet, it is difficult to make heads or tails of which tools-templates-documents and professional services you need and those you may want. If terms like Business Plan, Private Placement Memorandum, Finance Agreement, Investor Agreement, Producer's Package, Active and Passive Investors have your head spinning, check out our definitive guide to Film Investor Financing Templates.

From creating a budget to identifying revenue streams and film investors, our guide will provide an overview of the basics of film financing. Movie finance has become increasingly complex over the years due to the emergence of new financing models and technologies. In the past, movie financing was typically provided by studios or wealthy individuals. However, the rise of crowdfunding and digital platforms has opened up new opportunities for independent filmmakers to secure funding. Despite the challenges, movie finance remains an essential part of the film industry. Our Movie Finance 101 guide breaks down the basics of film financing, including budgets, investors and revenue streams.

How to structure your feature or short film budget is a must-learn for any aspiring or experienced filmmaker. We know many of you are great at the creative side of filmmaking, but might have questions on how to best finance movies efficiently. You'll want to focus your budget on your talent, equipment, post production and be able to explain to investors and anyone else with a stake in your project your low, breakeven and high scenarios when it comes to ROI, which is dependent on your budget. Learn More: Film Production Budget Template Best Practices

Film Finance is one of the most difficult tasks an indie filmmaker will face. This is not because there is not money available or people interested in indie film investment. Rather, it is most often because indie filmmakers tend to approach the business-side of film making with trepidation at-best, or not at all, at-worst.

Learn more about: Vital Steps to Investment in an Indie Film Production

"What is a Producer's Package?" is a great question we get asked all the time, with a long and varied answer. A movie producer's package changes depending on your target audience for the pitch. For example, are you pitching a producer investor, actor, studio, composer, product placement or another entity? Each pitch meeting requires a different presentaion. Some will be more financial in nature and some will focus more on the creative aspects of your project. Read More: What is a Producer's Package?

Sign up today for our FREE How to Write a Film Business Plan Course (sign up FREE right here and start immediately). Writing a business plan can be overwhelming to some, and while our FilmProposals package will save you hundreds of hours with prewritten text and templates and speed up your learning curve by showing you how to complete complicated financial projections, there is still a lot of information to process. Each week you'll receive your homework assignments, and if you follow along and stick to the plan, it will be 10 short weeks until you have a complete film business plan and are totally ready to approach the film investors we teach you to find.

Finding a consistent film producer definition is a challenging task, as the role is wide and varied. The movie producer tends to be one of the most misunderstood jobs in the filmmaking industry. What exactly do they do? And why are their jobs so misunderstood in the first place? Finally, and possibly most importantly-what can a movie or film producer do for your own movie?

Understanding the Importance Of A Business Plan For Film Projects is a crucial step in becoming a filmmaker. You are required to take a realistic look at your film project from a business perspective, including distribution and subsequent revenue streams needed to recoup your investment. You cannot approach investors until you can demonstrate you have worked out all the challenges of your project.

Using all your film funding options does two key things. First, it lowers the cost of your movie, thereby giving you greater equity and creative control. Second, it makes YOU far more attractive to investors, because now you present yourself as a knowledgeable and invested filmmaker, one who has utilized all the film financing options available.

Your First Film Budget, part of our "How to Make a Movie" mini course, covers small and micro cap film budgets, costs of talent and crew, film bank accounts and how to handle your film money. When preparing for film investors, it is vital you show you know to manage money.

Creating realistic Independent Film Sales Projections for your project is critical, so you can properly budget, as well as tell film investors what you are offering them. In order to raise movie financing and ensure your chances of paying your investors back, take the time to put together realistic independent film sales projections.

Gordon P. Firemark, Entertainment Attorney, states, "Too many filmmakers jump the fundraising gun and post notices on facebook, twitter, or their websites saying “we’re now looking for $1 Million” to produce this film/show.” Guess what… game over!

Before going out to film investors, it’s important to have your ducks in a row. Six Things You Absolutely MUST Know before you start raising money will dramatically streamline the process, and get you closer to funding, faster.

Our glossary of film production terms explains the most commonly used points when discussing a production company and film financing. Wondering what MG is? The Waterfall? Chain of Title? We have filmmakers covered with all the industry lingo. Raising money for a film and becoming familar with all the industry language can be daunting, but the more any filmmaker knows about film financing, film investors and the film business, the more likely they are to secure their movie financing. Check our guide to Film Production Financing Terms Glossary

If you're convinced you can take the lazy approach to finding film investors by searching the internet and emailing people with something like, "I have a great project, email or call me," then skip this article. If you've tried this and found it hasn't worked for you...then this article about really understanding Why You Can't Find Film Investors may just be for you.