Writing A Business Plan (That Actually Works)
This is going to be a long one, so bare with me.
There are a TON of sites online that talk about writing a business plan, specifically writing one for a film. Some offer free advice (well, a FEW), and some offer paid advice or forms they say to use. Ultimately what we did was a culmination of weeks of research, interviews with some people who invest in other businesses or ventures, and lots and lots of reading. I am going to walk you through a “virtual” business plan, as ours is confidential, but it will contain all the key points you should have. To be clear, I am not saying you have to use this formula, or that it is guaranteed to work. I am simply saying this is what worked for us.
Make sure all the pages are numbered. Have your business plan in a simple binder with clear plastic covers on the outside and the clip-binder, preferably black, on the side. Above all else, SITE YOUR SOURCES! You’ll be detailing various numbers and stats in your business plan, let your potential investors know that these figures are real! Have your sources sited at the bottom of each page they’re used, not at the end of the business plan on a separate page. We used the following sites for some of our information: IMDB, boxofficemojo, the-numbers, and even Wikipedia.
Title/cover page. Keep it simple. Have the name of the film at the top, followed by the tagline, then your company’s name, your contact info and at the bottom make sure to put that “This document contains Confidential and Proprietary Information belonging exclusively to YOUR COMPANY NAME.”
Table of contents page. This should be self-explanatory. You make a list of what’s on every page and the corresponding page numbers so that your potential investors can easily find what they want to look at.
Synopsis page. This should be a detailed synopsis, but only one page long. It should cover every major character and what happens to them. This is tough to do, but essential, especially if your potential investor has not read the script.
Business proposal page. This is somewhat deceiving. At the top you should have the name of the film, copyright date, and the copyright owner’s contact info. Then you have your proposal. Include the Theme of the film, the Goal of the film, and your intended Audience. That’s it. No numbers yet, no money talk.
Marketing plan pages. The next several pages need to talk about your marketing plans for the film; in other words how you plan on recouping your investors’ money! This is a big deal, and is in my mind the MOST important part of the business plan.
On the first page you should have the following: Talk about what genre(s) the film fits in. What are your target customers/audience and what are their age ranges? What time of year is the best time to release this type of film (DON’T guess, do the research and know!!)? How will you advertise to get the word out about the film (be specific)? What sort of merchandise will you have available to people? What are your plans for distribution? Do you plan on doing self-distribution, or are you just looking to sell it to a distributor? Will you be putting the film into theaters? Will you be putting the film into any festivals? If so, which ones? Will you be putting the film out on DVD, Blu Ray, digital downloads etc.? What is your Projected Revenue over a 10-year period? What avenues will you pursue to try and ensure you make this projected amount (theatrical release, DVD, Netflix, Redbox, Hulu, iTunes etc.)? How fast do you plan on making the budget back (NOTE: in our research, 80% of films with a budget of $200k or less make their budget’s back in 2 years time)? What is the potential of the film? And finally, name the films (2 or 3) that you plan on comparing your project’s potential to on the next few pages. Best advice here: Comparisons are fine, but be real. Show winners AND losers. Be up front that they could absolutely lose everything they put into this. And do NOT use Paranormal Activity as one of your comparisons. That is, let's be honest, a once in a blue moon kind of occurrence, and is too unrealistic to be used as a valid comparison. There's a ton more to a solid business plan besides comparisons (which really only were 3 pages of our 26 page plan), so don't get too stuck on that.
On the second page of the marketing plan section you should have: Financial projection, which includes the project title, genre(s), budget amount, cast (actors and who they are playing), revenue comparisons for other films (note- this is different from your comparisons, and you should have 5 films that made profit and 5 that lost profit). Include their Opening weekend box office, domestic gross, worldwide gross and their budget. Show your additional release options (cable TV, Pay-Per-View, online digital distribution. Are there any state rebate programs your film will qualify for?
On page three of your marketing section you should have your first detailed comparison film breakdown. For ours, we chose Primer. Include domestic and international gross, distributor, release date. Genre, MPAA rating, runtime and production budget. Opening weekend gross along with it’s ranking that weekend, how many theaters it was put into, % of total gross, the most theaters it went into, the close date (the last date it was in theaters), and total number of days and weeks it was in release. What was the total box office release while it was in theaters? Were there video sales and how much were they? How many individual tickets were sold? What was the percentage of investment return for the investors?
On page four of your marketing section have your second detailed comparison film breakdown. We chose John Carpenter’s Halloween. For us, this was a great comparison because it had a similar budget range, was an indie film using some fairly fresh faces for talent, and had a small initial release. This breakdown should include the same as the above one.
Budget page. How you breakdown your budget is up to you, but we kept ours simple. A broad breakdown by category only, no detailed breakdown was included. We had 24 categories, including: Script & Rights, Producers, Director, and Cast for the Above The Line Total. Then Travel, Hotel & Lodging, Food, Camera, Lighting, Sound, Locations, Art Dept., Office Expenses, Petty Cash, Memory Cards & Hard Drives, Lab, Insurance, Editing, Shipping, Still Photos, and Contingency for the Production Total. Finally, we had Final Post Online, Final Post Mix, and Marketing for our Post Production Total. For each category we had a sub-category of some details (peoples names, labels like “kit, crew, expendables” etc.), cost per day, tax, and amount required from the budget to cover that category. So as an example:
Category Specifics Cost Tax Budget
Camera Kit, crew, expendables. $1200/Day Incl. $42,000
Plan Summary page. This is where you sum-up the marketing plan, talk about your goals with the film, detail what the investors will receive in exchange for their investment (points, credit in the film etc.), talk about the strengths of the script, and finish it off with the tagline. It is important to note that we did NOT mention anything about creative control, final cut or anything similar in the business plan at all. We only specified what the investors WOULD get. When the subject did come up about creative control, we did tell them that our company maintains complete creative control, and that they would not have any say in the final cut of the film. We went on to explain that we’ve seen too many films ruined because of “too many hands in the pie”, and that because everyone has different ideas of what a film should be, it’s impossible to have everyone getting a say. All the investors we met with absolutely not only understood this, but whole-heartedly agreed. As one of them put it, “I’m not a director or filmmaker. That’s your job. I just want to cut you a check and let you do what you do best.” Like music to my ears. Ultimately we got $400,000 from investors, and we gave up NO control of the film.
Business accomplishments page. This is more of a sub-table of contents page. Ours simply said: “Key Cast and Crew Resumes” and that’s it.
Key Cast page. Another sub-table of contents, simply listing the key casts names and their roles.
The next few pages you should have the key casts resumes. NOTE- Headshots should be put into a “Supplemental” binder that can be made available at the request of the potential investors.
Key Crew page. Another sub-table of contents, simply listing the key crew members names and their positions.
The next few pages you should have the key crews resumes.
And that’s it! Simple, right? I kid, I kid. I can tell you that this was among the most frustrating part of the process in securing our budget. Take your time, do your homework, and put together a business plan that not only impresses you, but your investors as well.
