In talking with a mixture of private clients, FS members, and the Facebook community this past week one thing that seems to be going on right now is that everyone is ‘stuck’ somewhere. Stuck waiting to hear back from a distributor….stuck waiting to hear back from talent….stuck trying to find the money to make their film.
Listen up people – waiting to hear back from people and looking for money is never ending and is all part of the process. I don’t care where you’re at in your career … you’ll always be doing some version of waiting and looking – just at different levels and for varying periods of time. So might as well get used to it and learn how to work with it instead of against it.
One proactive thing you could probably do right now is to start looking for more projects to get involved in. I met with an A-list writer last week who is working on 3 projects at once and has 3 more in the hopper (yes that’s she’s writing!). As a ‘new’ Producer, I personally have 8 projects on my slate and am signing another 4 in the coming months. Big producers have dozens of projects on their slate at any given time.
So whether you’re a writer, director, or producer you need to have several irons in the fire all at once and firing on all cylinders which each one of them. If you’re going to be in a constant state of waiting anyway, you might as well have several projects at various stages of development and financing so that while you’re waiting for Project A, maybe Project B hits, or Project C moves forward, and you close a deal on Project D.
Also, I like to look at my list of projects first thing every morning and go down the list and figure out what I need to do on each of them to move things forward. Sometimes I’m in a holding pattern – waiting to hear back from talent or waiting for a writer to turn in a draft. On to the next project on my list – what can I do there… and so on. You get the idea, right?
Also, if you’re a writer in particular and waiting for a Producer to come on board… first of all ask yourself if you’re casting a wide enough net. Are you approaching at least a dozen potential producers who make sense for your project – even ones beyond your immediate circle of contacts? And in the mean time, you should be acting as your own producer…. are you approaching talent directly and working on getting attachments? I have a client right now doing this – all from a small town in New Zealand…. attaching Hollywood talent to a film with no financing in place and only one film under his belt. He’s acting as his own producer (with my gudiance) to get the job done. Next stop, he’ll be going after pre-sales.
I had another client tell me he was stuck because he can’t get a producer to respond. Why don’t you have other projects you’re pursuing simultaneously I wondered…. never put all your eggs in one basket.
Most importantly – TAKE ACTION on something every. single. day. Make a phone call, send an email, meet someone in person, and never stop learning. Go listen to the on-demand versions of my Distribution In Reverse & Film Financing 2.0 courses…. it’s all in there! Everything you need to get your project moving NOW.
So let me ask you this – Where are you stuck right now? Or what can you do right now to get un-stuck? I would love to hear from you in the comments section below…
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I’m stuck in the distribution phase for getting pre-sales. At the moment I have a script with one distribution company I pitched to and they’ve had it for about 2 weeks and mentioned they would most likely get to reading it next week. That’s fine…my issue at this point is being able to find the distribution companies who offer presales. I’m finding that the companies I’ve been contacting mostly this week all either don’t do presales or rarely get involved with films before they’re shot. A good example is Magnolia Pictures who I contacted and spoke with Acquisitions — extremely cool guy, but said they rarely do pre-sales, but definitely willing to have a discussion once the film is in the can.
Is it that most distribution companies not do pre-sales regularly (major studios aside)? Or are there just a bunch of not-so-popular distributors out there I may not be aware of?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Jay, you’re probably contacting the wrong companies. The only companies that do pre-sales are the big ones – the studios, and places like Lions Gate, some of the bigger DVD players, etc. ALSO… you said you have a script but mentioned NOTHING about cast. Pre-sales are almost ENTIRELY predicated on having bankable cast. You should be going out to distributors yet until you have that in place…so maybe you’re also putting the cart before the horse. Make sense?
Hi Stacey — sorry, I left that out of my last post, but I have the cast in fact that was the first thing the distribution company asked me that does have the script, along with a few other questions to make sure I had my ducks in a row.
When you say the only companies that are doing presales besides the studios (the big DVD players) I think that’s what I’m having trouble identifying. For example – Phase 4, the only reason I even know they exist is because Adam mentioned it in his interview with you, but they’ve done a ton of films. I guess those types of companies is what I am having an issue finding.
Hi Jay, post this in the FS Forums and we can help you over there and point you to some of the companies….
Okay — will do thanks!
Great article, so easy to forget to keep staying in action!
That’s right Laree! Thanks!
Stacey*
I’m stuck in the funding stage of my short film. I have plenty of people interested in being part of the film and most of the crew sorted but i’m having trouble finding additional funds for my already small budget. I have set up a crowd funding page on indiegogo so if anyone fancies helping out or even just sharing the page on facebook and twitter, that would be a great help! http://igg.me/p/69373?a=47750
Hi Sam, I just had a look at your IndieGoGo page for your project. I have a few suggestions that might help you reach your goal. It would definitely help if you had a trailer and a greater description of the project. I just did a successful kickstarter for my first film, a documentary, and exceeded my goal in a 30 day campaign. It requires a lot of work and even friends who donate need to see more about what they are supporting. Then, the updates are really important as well, giving people an idea of the progress you are making during the campaign (and even after). Would be happy to offer other suggestions based on my experience if you are interested.
Hi
I am new to all this, came into the Industry by accident, in that I wrote my first book The Baltic Triangle Codename Seaforth, and a few movers & Shavers in the Industry thought my script was a goer, anyway, I have completed my third re-write, and feel it looks more professional, than my first attempt (just wonder what the suits were thinking of me) can anyone please advise were I go from here?????
I would say establish a good relationship with several screenwriters w/ proven abilities (have written adaptations) who can give you the necessary feedback. Depending on your genre, the “suits” will want to know how to market your story and budget, but your first step should be structure. Im at this stage myself, re-writing several scripts to send to interested parties. It also helps to have a reliable group of varied readers (actors, writers, producers, directors, producers, Editors etc). Best of luck.
http://www.elmhurstentertainment.com/
Nice blog Stacey – a great reminder just to get on with it all – thanx
Angus
I have a proven director (films have generated over $40 million), distribution agreement (mini major) and a bank willing to set up a line of credit to produce our film with a “guarantor”. Have several investors saying yes but stuck getting them to write the check.
Kenneth, do you have bankable cast attached? Having just a director is not enough. Also, what is your budget you are looking for investors to write a check for? You should be focusing on creating a ‘no brainer’ package and mitigating risk with Pre-Sales. Have you checked out the $1 Million Blueprint yet on Film Specific? We go into detail on this formula! http://www.filmspecific.com/public/1335.cfm
I would say our project is “bankable” since we were able to get a distribution agreement from a mini major. Our cash budget is $750K and market budget is $1.5 million. Pre-sales still need to be monetized and so I am determined to do it with private equity.
Ah OK, thanks for clarifying. So you only need investors to cash flow your pre-sales? Have you thought of using a bank to cash flow them? Not sure if you’re an FS member or not but I did an interview with on this topic which you can check out here: http://www.filmspecific.com/public/1341.cfm
Stacey*
Hi Stacey;
I’m stuck in the sense that I just don’t what steps to take next on my project. Maybe I need to become a FS member or even hire you for some one-on-one…
Anyway, I have a script that has been read and endorsed by a screenwriter who wrote one of the most successful horror franchises ever. He gave me some fantastic blurbs to use, so we’ll see if that helps at all. I also had a well known and veteran horror actor committed to the project. Unfortunately, he passed away last October, so that sucked some of the wind out of our sails.
I decided to shoot the first ten minutes of the movie to give investors and producers an idea of what we’re aiming for and, more importantly, to show that we’re perfectly capable of making the film ourselves. The 10-minute piece is still being put together but a short teaser can be seen here: http://vimeo.com/36394428
Long story short, I’m not sure where to go from here! As another poster mentioned above, I’m contemplating the crowd funding method to get things off the ground but I don’t know if I’ll be able to secure all of the funds using that method. I need to get this in front of some producers looking for projects in this genre or in front of investors looking to invest and hopefully make some $$. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to go about either. Based on what it cost us to shoot the first ten minutes, I’m convinced (minus an actual script breakdown and prepared budget) that this film can be made (not advertised, not distributed) for about 250-300K. I’m really not interested in being bought out of the project, which is what I fear will happen if I were to take it to a pitch festival, or even if I was able to pitch to a studio or major production company directly. I’d much rather convince the former and the latter to let me do the film myself, and doing it myself is also why I think raising the funds myself would be the most beneficial approach.
Okay, I’ve prattled on long enough — where to go from here??
Best,
Scott
Hi Scott,
Sounds like a very common predicament! Well if you’re looking to make the film in the micro budget range you indicated, then yes crowd funding can help get some momentum, but you’ll still have to explore other areas of financing. I did a seminar on this — part of my Micro Budget series, which you can check out here:
http://www.filmspecific.com/public/1493.cfm
Part 3 in this series is taking place this week (on Distribution) and I think you’ll find value in that too.
Essentially you should focus on getting some marketable cast on board and creating a package for investors that makes sense. Hope this helps and hope to see you over at FS!
Stacey
Very interesting article. I love the idea of working on various projects at different stages of production. Do you have any tips on keeping it all organized?
Keeping things organized — honestly I use a moleskin notebook and just use that to make my lists every day. And then I have a folder for each project on my computer that I file all correspondence under and keep all my contracts and other documents together. Hope this helps!
Stacey*
Yes! Thanks!
Hi Stacey
The stuck place we’re in happens to be the “deliverables” phase. We’ve been approached by a group that wants to get our horror film out to the masses but needs multiple platforms including HDCam and DigiBeta tapes, DLTs for DVD pressing, M&E and surround mixes, etc., before we can go further.
These expenses, which will run in the thousands of bucks, were not something we’d budgeted for. That, and their up-front fee ($5,000 for turn-key formatting, uploading and marketing for VOD and limited theatrical) pretty much restricts us from doing both things.
So it comes down to getting them only a digital copy and pay their fee to middleman the Netflix’s of the world, or get all the dubbing done for VOD, etc., and then not be able to pay them their up-front. Ugh.
Looks like another fundraiser is in our future…
Steve
Fist In Post Films
Hi Steve,
Yep, a crowd funding campaign might come in handy right now
Stacey
We are looking for 600K to 1 Million of finance. There seems to be a lot of options and we are not 100% clear on where to start looking for the first dollars. So I guess you could say we are stuck in the funding phase of a dramatic feature. Where do you begin? Any advice on the process of who to approach first?
Shayne
Hi Shayne,
For a film budgeted in that range I would personally focus on packaging some name talent first before you start seeking finance. Have you done that yet? Here’s a couple of Podcasts I did that might help where you’re at:
http://www.filmspecific.com/public/841.cfm
http://www.filmspecific.com/public/738.cfm
http://www.filmspecific.com/public/742.cfm
Hope these help!
Stacey*
Hi Stacey,
Like you I started in the biz as a filmmaker, made one feature, then went into distribution (director of Marketing for Fries Entertainment) to learn the business end of the biz. Then came back to produce a second feature (starring James Gandolfini) and now I’m trying like everyone else, to juggle a slate of films which I would love to produce! Like you said, no matter what level you are on, it is a constant dance of waiting and looking and pitching and being pitched. That’s what we do. And like you said, the most important thing is to take action every single day, stay away from negative people and naysayers, especially those you think are your friends, and keep moving forward.
Thanks for sharing all of your experiences. Knowing we aren’t alone is a great incentive to make things happen.
Best regards,
Peter Guzzardo
Awesome Peter….best of luck with your slate!
Stacey*
This couldn’t come at a better time. I’m stuck on how to talk about my scripts and how to engage a co-producer to come on board a project at the script level. At this point, I know I need a dedicated team.
Morning Stacey
I’m stuck in a number of areas. We are budgeted at 200,000. I have half. we are going after crowd funding on kickstarter and private investments.I have 2 investor so far. We have 23 days left on KS and waiting for two more potential investors to get back to town. I have attached two familiar named actresses but waiting for another actor to read the script and get back to me.
I met with a post production house a couple of months ago. they agreed to do the post production work. (their investment) however, they’ve been talking about producing. Mine would be one of the films produced. It sounds good but there hasn’t been much or very little movement on that. waiting. I’ve done the FB, the Linkedin, my email contacts. I should add that this is my second go around on kickstarter. The first time I wasn’t as prepared. I’m doing something daily to keep the energy going. I guess like everyone else I’m stuck waiting. I’m open to any advice.
Peace
Henry
Hi Henry, Yes, Kickstarter is a tough one! You hear of these wild success stories but most of those raising the $50K and $100K have very large existing audiences already in place…they have their cast promoting…. they have a specific TARGET AUDIENCE they can market to, etc. Are you doing any of that? My other thought is why not just shoot it with the 100K you have? Also, are you exploring tax incentives?
Stacey
Hi Stacey. I gave myself 6 months to build up my FB and Linkedin contact, while blogging from time to time to let them know about ‘Carla’, hoping they would help spread the word. Oh well. You’ve started me thinking about shooting it for what I have. I wanted to be able to pay something so I wouldn’t lose people to a paying job.
I don’t have the cast involved, yet. Good idea. I’ve included the tax incentive in my finanical preposal. I’ll keep giving it my best shot. Thanks.
Henry
Hi Stacey,
Thanks for the feedback on the crowd funding site for my short film ‘Old Dogs’. I’ve made some changes to the pitch and spread the link and we’ve started to get funding contributions now. Thanks for the help.. Take a look at the revised campaign here http://igg.me/p/69373?a=47750
Sam
Looks great Sam! Let us know how it goes….
Stacey
Great post with excellent advice as always Stacey, most especially making sure to take action every day on your projects. A good few years ago I made the mistake of putting all my eggs into one basket on one project and spent a year on just that only to watch it fall apart. Never again. Now we have a large slate of varied projects at all different stages. Makes it much easier to stay motivated every day for one thing.
The other thing I am finding useful as well as multiple projects is to have a varied slate, ie different genres and different budget levels. Often we meet with financiers, distribs and other contacts who are interested in working with us but maybe the initial project we are pitching is not for them. We’re finding it useful to have a raft of varied projects to pitch in order to always have something that may be of interest to anyone we meet.
Alongside the idea of taking action every day, we use a lot of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) philosophies which means like you we are always looking for the next strategic action we can take to move something forwards. Keeps a sense of momentum and progress for sure.
The only difficulty I find with managing multiple projects is how to allocate the time between them once more than one start coming together. Cloning oneself possibly?….
Thanks again for the motivational post. Great food for thought in both the post and responses as always.
Mark
Hey Mark,
Some great points here about having a varied slate. I find that helps too – having all different types of projects – even mixing Film with TV and Web projects. Keeps it interesting too!
Stacey
Hi friends!
or You will loose time and energy for maybe nothing!
These articles and posts are some kind of motivation for me… People openly sharing their experiences – its nice to see. I was stuck in the final stage, just till few days ago.
I directed and produced my film for about 70 000euros and now we are ready to have film on DCP. But – I lost 2 months because there was posibility that I could get more funds, that I still need. After all the talks I did almost nothing! I realize it was mistake! If You have the plan – stick to it; and dont allow to be manipulate by yourself
Stacey I took Your advice and I contacted few sales agents here in Europe and they were interested and I sent them more info and link to trailer but after 1month I still didnt send them press book as they asked… Now I think – did I closed that door myself for nothing, because I could not do it on time?!
p.s. One writer said: The man who is waiting, he is like in prison!
I was always thinking about this when I needed to wait and I was always trying to find way to escape and not to loose time in that prison. Most of the time it worked…
Djordjije
Hi Djordjije, you are right – waiting does feel like a prison! To answer your other question, I do not think it’s too late to get back in touch with the sales agents, follow up with them and send them what they asked for. Good luck!
Stacey*
Dear Stacey,
My first film, Road To Nowhere, which I Produced and Edited nights and weekends (trailer can be seen here: http://www.allmovie.com/movie/road-to-nowhere-v549364/ ), was just released on DVD in December, 2011, and my first copy just arrived in the mail. Thank you, Stacey, as the whole reason I got distribution began with your assistance in getting a Sales Agent, which proved invaluable in my particular case.
Having fallen into Producing a movie and subsequently finding a passion for it, I now (at 56) would like to make another and turn it into my second career. Having listened to The 1 Million Dollar Blueprint, I’ve decided that this “Blueprint” make the most sense for me and my goals, which pretty much align with Adam’s, i.e., I want to Produce marketable movies because I love doing it, make a living doing it, and at the same time work toward making something that I really want to make. My plan would be to make a $1M to 3M movie.
My impasse: I recently became unemployed. I want to make a next film, but feel like I need to work on all the research and contacting and business plans, etc., full-time to do it, yet, I need to make a living to pay the bills. I have hard choices to make in the next month, as I will be out of my apartment April 1. Life choices.
I’m stuck at which choices are best to best allow me to follow a version of the 1 Million Dollar Blueprint, and, as quickly as possible turning it into a career.
I can:
Put my stuff in storage (in Phoenix), rent a room in LA for 3 months, work full time on putting a project together.
Do the same and work on the plan part-time in LA for a year, and try to get work as a P.A. or something so as to be around the Industry and close to people I might need to see.
Same two options, only staying with friends or family in Miami, Denver, or Omaha.
Get a new Project Management (commercial electrical) job – somewhere – which will likely take all my time and energy – but try to make the plan work anyway.
I don’t know what time requirements are required to do what I want to accomplish. Full-time, part-time, what can be done in 3 months full-time vs. nights and weekends only, etc., so I’m stuck making these decisions, and therefore stuck starting anything.
Any advice or recommendations about what I need to do to accomplish that goal of making the $1M to $3M, film, completing it with Producer fees being paid by the end of one year, are welcome and appreciated. I believe that is what I need to do to make it a viable career change. I just need to know how I can most effectively get that done and from where.
Thank you!
Brian D. Meier
Brian,
I have to admit after reading your post I’m wondering why the whole LA thing has to be thrown into the mix. Certainly 3 months here is not enough time to launch a feature – and although it is helpful to actually be here, it’s not required. And you live very close comparatively speaking.
The mistake you are making is combining both problems. You have two disparate problems that you’re trying to solve with one action. As I see it you have a 1) housing / employment issue and 2) a launching your next movie issue.
These are two separate issues that need to be dealt with separately. My advice is to get another job and stabilize your life as this will actually allow you to MAXIMIZE the effort you put into your next feature. You thing having a full time job is a distractor – imagine trying to work 16 hour days as a PA and then scan craigslist during your break for your next gig, all while making 80 bucks a day. I know of a guy who thought he would work his way up to directing from ADing – he did something like 30 features as a 2nd AD and guess what – now he is a 2nd AD. Beware of doing work in the industry that is not in the field you want to work in.
56 years old is FAR TOO OLD to be working as a PA in LA. You will not be able to adapt. Trash that fantasy and focus on making your next movie. First, square away your life.
Probably not what you want to hear, but it’s what you ought to do.
Adam,
Actually, that makes sense, and because it makes sense it is exactly what I want to hear. You boiled things down to their essentials, with good explanations for your reasoning, which places things into perspective for me. I didn’t think of the difficulty as two separate issues, as you correctly perceived; I combined them into one. This prevented me from correctly prioritizing my next actions.
Thanks for clearly and concisely cutting to the heart of the matter.
“My advice is to get another job and stabilize your life as this will actually allow you to MAXIMIZE the effort you put into your next feature…”
“…working as a PA…Trash that fantasy and focus on making your next movie. First, square away your life… it’s what you ought to do.”
That’s what I’m going to do. You hit the nail on the head. I have a lot of work to do, but at least I can now see clearly my priorities in doing what needs to be done.
Invaluable advice – thanks again.
Brian
A PostScript:
Life often consists of competing priorities. These priorities sometimes get jumbled up together and swirl around in our heads so that we cannot see clearly, for any number of reasons – insufficient information, unrealistic or impractical assumptions, or, everything is there, just in the wrong order.
In my case it was a little of each. I needed someone to help me see the truth of my situation, and place it in context of practical reality, and correctly prioritize what needed to be done in order to get unstuck (thanks Adam).
In order of priority:
FIRST pursue that next job that will provide financial stability; and,
SECOND, start planning the methodology for the next feature, which is already starting to gel.
– I can work on both, but without a job and some stability, that next feature won’t get made.
Great forum and useful learning and teaching tool.
Your website used to have all your blogs in the order they were written! Now it’s changed! What happened….?? I don’t know what came before it & in what order……..
Can you PLEASE change it back……?
Dean, I think what might be happening is that some of us (including me), when replying to a post, instead of hitting “Reply”, are just going down to “Speak Your Mind”, which treats it like a new post, thereby losing the thread. Perhaps?
Actually, I can see the Entire “Independent Film Blog” Website has been Completely redesigned, but—I think I’ve already figured out a way to read All the blogs in chronological order if I want to……..
http://independentfilmblog.com/archives/
First off, You’re a badass.
Second, I have to say the more I read this blog. the more I want to read. So tip of the hat for both technique and content.
I personally really take a lot of comfort in the fact that you say Have a bunch of irons in the fire. That’ salways been what people say my PROBLEM is….that being said, it’s served me wonderfully in film.
I have 4 irons in various stages of development now, working on more.
Thanks for the awesome advice.
Ryan
Hey Ryan, thanks for the compliment!
Yeah, I always say…the more irons in the fire the better! Good luck with your slate!
Stacey