Independent Film Blog

Crowd Funding vs. Hybrid Film Financing

There’s seems to be all kind of fuss lately about ‘new’ film financing models such as Crowd Funding. And for good reason! Independent Producers are making real headway financing their films this way. Almost every day I hear of a new case study of someone successfully raising money for their film utilizing crowd funding methods- [...]

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Pressing Issues: Film Distribution 2.0

After a couple of weeks exploring the topic of Distribution 2.0 virtually (via this blog, Facebook, and my Film Specific newsletters) AND in person live (at my Micro Major Berlin workshop), I can tell you this — there are THREE Key Issues that everyone seems to be grappling with right now in regards to Distribution [...]

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Film Business Plans In A 2.0 World

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about all the new revenue models for independent film distribution and how to communicate them effectively to potential investors. I mean, in the past when you would do a film business plan it was quite simple – project revenue from traditional distribution platforms like Broadcast, Theatrical, DVD, and [...]

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Your Reverse Distribution Questions…Answered!

I love how many questions I’ve been getting on Budgets, Sales Projections, and Packaging over the last week via the comments on this blog! You all have raised some really important issues and instead of just giving you cursory answers, I want to really dive in and get to the bottom of some of this stuff. So [...]

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What Makes A Good FIlm ‘Package’?

If you’ve ever gone out and tried to raise financing for your film before you know how important your film’s ‘package’ can be. Packaging a script for financing is a big BIG job and often takes the work of more than one person on your team (and the task is often outsourced to a consultant). [...]

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Budgeting For Your Film In Today’s Marketplace

Over the last couple of years Budgeting has become a very hot topic of independent filmmaking. Why? Well mostly because most indies can no longer justify the $5 million budget that they used to. There was a time when these higher budget indies could be justified because buyers were acquiring them for up to $10-$15 [...]

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How Do YOU Distribution In Reverse?

I know from the emails I’m getting that many of you WANT to join my Distribution In Reverse Group Coaching Program but may be a little short on cash here in the New Year. Never fear! I’m giving away a free scholarship to the program as well as a 30 min private consult with [...]

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Can You Justify Your Budget?

I think the concept of Distribution In Reverse naturally lends itself to the question of this: What budget level is realistic if you want to recoup your film’s budget via distribution? And a good place to start is to look at how much money independent films are making right now and back into your budget [...]

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Reverse Engineering Distribution (clarified)

My last post entitled “Distribution Backwards?” really ignited something….. I got some messages on Twitter as well as feedback on the Film Specific Facebook page that indicates people do NOT like the idea of: 1. reverse engineering WRITING since all you’ll get is focus group ideas/formula, and 2. following a ‘trend’ too closely because by the time [...]

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To FREE or not to FREE

Wow, there’s quite a discussion going on over at the Film Specific Facebook page on giving films away for FREE. Yes, that’s F.R.E.E. All prompted by a Time Magazine article I posted about the indie movie “Star Wreck” and the filmmaker Timo Vuorensola who gave his film away for free and then made money (a [...]

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