Finding a Producer & Funding.

I

Indiefilming

Hi, thanks in advance for any advice about this.

I'm co-writing/directing a feature and I don't know how to go about it DIY style. My mind caves in when thinking about this actually.

I've read many books and articles, and have been googling this question but all I ever get is "Step 3. Find a producer. Step 4. Raise money." And the SEC and LLCs... I get that I need to find someone who really understands this stuff.

Is it a lawyer I need (and must pay for out of pocket as we have no money yet) or an AD to do a schedule?

So far I have a great script (as confirmed by feedback from multiple industry professionals), a Sundance award winning DP and a well known actress as one of the leads. I also have a young actor, coming out in a pretty big blockbuster 2012. The actors are close friends and very supportive of the project so they are not asking their regular quotes.


Any advice?? Thank you!
 
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Use the connections you have already made.

The actress you already have, who already believes in the script
and in you has some experience and knows people. She's been
hired before so she knows producers who have hired her. She is
working on four, maybe five, movies this year so she is on set
with a lot of potential first time producers. There is a connection.

The DP knows producers - he worked on a movie that won at
Sundance. Ask for an introduction.

The young actor who has done mostly indies knows indie producers.
There is another connection.

The TV and Film writers you know also know producers. There are
more connections.

The problem I see in you need this fast. That is unrealistic. Not impossible,
just unrealistic. It takes time to get meetings with all these producers
your team has worked with and they are unlikely to produce your movie.
If they like you and your script they may introduce you to a producer
they know who will. This takes time.

On all these projects your friends have worked on there are people who
want to be producers. AD's, UPM's, even PA's. You don't need to limit your
choices to the producers of those projects but setting up meetings with
all of them is the step in the right direction.
 
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Excellent guidance, Rik.



Should a producer decline, or anyone for any position, that's fine. Ask if they could recommend someone else.
Don't include "... that would be interested."
That forces the person you're speaking with to filter out potential people.
Since there's no way to know what someone else will consider - don't put that filter in there.

Ask the producers to recommend tax and legal contacts.
Ask tax and legal contacts if they could recommend producers.
Build your network.

Network_Tree_diagram.png
 
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Yeah, Rik and Ray are right on. You have some well connected players already. They will know people. If you are worried about scaring them off by asking for help then they probably aren't fully engaged anyway.
 
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Thanks everyone. Yes, good advice. And I appreciate. But it's true I don't want to "scare them away." I've already asked for (and received) a lot as far as favors go and I've seen people push these relationships too far.

I don't want to test their level of engagement and have them disengage.
 
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Indiefilming said:
But it's true I don't want to "scare them away."
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That’s an unusual take on making connections and it puts you in
a rather difficult situation.

You need to find a producer and financing very soon so you don’t
lose the actor. But you fear if you ask any of the well connected
people who are your friends to help you, you will lose their interest
in the project.

Lose - lose.

Sorry you feel this way and I’m sorry these aren’t friends you can
go to about this, but you know these people much better than I do.
So you are left with asking us on indietalk how to find a producer
with financing very soon.

My only advice under these restrictions is to put together a package
with all the attachments and their professional experience and cold
call producers you research on the internet. I suspect this will not
be something that happens very soon. But it might. It sure can't
hurt you to try that method.
 
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Maybe you're right, Directorik. Like I said, I'm relative new to this side of things so if you sense my perception of what you can ask of "connections" is off, it may well be. Could you please tell me about experiences asking for and recieving favors like these from good friends in high places, from agreeing to work for cheap in your earlier feature films, and also helping you find producers, financing etc? I'd really appreciate hearing success stories and particulars.

After that I may remove this original post (if I'm able). I didn't mean to imply these connections, these friends of mine are anything less than wonderful people.

As for raising money in a hurry, we're planning in doing it under the ultra low budget agreement (if that persists with SAG-AFTRA) with a budget of $70,000. That's why I'm hoping we can raise it fairly quickly.
 
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There are a lot of cons who go under the title "Executive Producer" looking for newbies asking for millions for their first production. Too many newbies are too thick headed to realize they need to fund their first few productions themselves to test the tides of the waters themselves to see how much "Potential to make money" their scripts really have.

There are "Executive Producers" ready to take your money and promise you the world before they pull a disappearing act.

There are even some "Entertainment Lawyers" who will promise you they will show your script and letters of intent to investors their other clients have found and always turn up empty by saying, "The deal fell through." And, you are left holding the bag of empty promises.

Don't get ripped off that way.
 
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There are even some "Entertainment Lawyers" who will promise you they will show your script and letters of intent to investors their other clients have found and always turn up empty by saying, "The deal fell through." And, you are left holding the bag of empty promises.
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Yeah. Sadly lawyers are opportunists who aren't working in your best interests. Once your movie is done lawyers don't care if a distributor is good or bad, if using a distributor is the right thing to do, etc. The lawyer just wants to hurry up and get paid for negotiating a deal or fine tuning a deal.
When making movies there's people from all angles looking to make money.
 
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Well thanks. Sorry it took so long to report back. I did get some referrals and leads. My lead actress agreed to do a video letter of intent for a kickstarter campaign to raise the seed money.

Thanks! I love this site. You guys are awesome.
 
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