I am in the pre-production, find the money part of my first film's journey. I would like to know where can I find good investors for theatrical release films? What is everyone's success rate with investors? Also, product placement... Has anyone here done any product placement? any advice? does it help with investors? Is it like selling marketing or easier? success rate? - I know, its like a multiple part essay question... but, thank you in advance for your help and guidance!!!
Financing / Crowdfunding : Investors and Product Placements by Joyce Lee
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Hi Joyce,
Finding investors starts with having a solid business plan on how you're going to make an ROI along with having a network of people to reach out to to put money in.
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You are right, Mr. Folker
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Never made the big screen; as far as investors, ask friends & family or hang out at places like art auctions, collector car sales, charity funds- ppl with deep hobby pockets & big egos. Or fund the old fashioned way- credit cards.
Tbh, nobody (from my experience) reads indie business plans or knows how to read screenplays. They gave us money because they trusted us.(Us being key; have a team and a lawyer with contracts in hand to sign now. Dont do this alone). GL!
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Check out the book Bank Roll by Tom Malloy. Great resource on producing and finding investors.
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Product placement is extremely tough for indie films because the brands are concerned primarily with the number of eyeballs on the film. So unless you have stars and a solid distribution plan, it's going to be very tough to interest any brands to contribute anything meaningful to your budget.
One well known firm is BEN. Branded Entertainment Network. They deal with streamers all the time and the average window for commitment is 18 months. Again, this makes it super hard to plan because there's no way you can hold an actor for that long so your "potential" cast will likely disappear making it very hard to package and plan to monetize any commitment from BEN.
The reason it takes so long is their network has to approve the stars, the film and evaluate the amount they'll contribute and that takes forever. BEN is paid by the brands. There's no charge to you. But unless BEN thinks there's a real chance you'll be successful, they won't take it on. My best recommendation is to avoid depending on them and go for it. Apply for it and plan on it as a "nice to have" but don't rely on it as a recoupment strategy. Same holds true for tax credits. Don't assume you'll get those.
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I will say it a hundred times - sometimes going for the BIG money is necessary but don’t leave the smaller money that you can get through product integration - laying on the ground! Engage local brands who might be able to part with $500-$5K to appear in your film! They can be found all around you - even on TikTok!
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Heard a great podcast interview a few years ago on Just Shoot It with Jonny Price of WeFunder. He had a lot of amazing insights on crowdfunding and how to use platforms like his for funding via crowd equity. You can find it here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/whats-deal-crowd-equity-w-wefunder...