My fellow filmmakers, my name is Tim Ogletree and I’ve been chasing this thing since January 2009, just on the heels of the 2007-2008 WGA strike. After graduating from The University of Texas at Austin with a Radio-TV-Film degree, I made the official move out to LA with a pretty killer short film and a truck full of clothes, books, and DVDs. The short caught some eyes, landed my writing partner and me a manager, and catapulted us into meetings and pitches that led to our first feature script. Two weeks in, I had the buzz. I had made it. No clue why people thought it was such a long shot and that I’d have to wait tables for years.

CUT TO:

Four years, four feature specs, a few pilots, and three service industry jobs later, the buzz had become “You have a really great voice!” Cool to hear unless it’s all you hear, and inevitably followed by “But our mandate right now is *insert whatever genre my script wasn’t* because that’s where the market is.” So yeah, I hadn’t made it.

But I had also purposely (to the dismay of my parents) not given myself a plan B, so I had to make it. It was the only thing I wanted to do, so after meeting a savvy producer in my hometown of San Antonio who was knocking out some high-quality Ultra-Low Budget features, I realized that the best way to break in and finally live my filmmaking dream was to just do it myself. Write and produce for pennies, just what I learned in film school.

Very much to the surprise of almost everyone, it worked. I wrote a script and got an on-the-fly crash course in actual producing, from idea to distribution and beyond, on the way to our $130,000 feature grossing close to $1.5MM worldwide. Not crazy Paranormal Activity numbers, but returns that made our financiers and their bank accounts VERY happy and got us a few more movies–the result that really matters.

So how did we do it and how can you do it? Honestly, there’s no “right way” and every movie’s journey is different, but there are some rules of thumb that I’ve discovered don’t really change, starting with…

THE IDEA.

The first and most important step to the process, no question. Assuming that you’ve honed your screenwriting skills enough for a script to impress and read professionally, you need to think like a producer for a minute. Odds are that if you’re taking your “big break” into your own hands, you won’t be working with ten million. You probably won’t be working with ONE million, but don’t worry about the exact budget just yet.

You need to develop the most commercial idea that you can produce with money you’ll probably be getting from people you know. Ideally, that idea can be shot on a SAG ULB or MLB level so the recoupment is feasible and realistic because there’s never really a “sure shot” when it comes to movies in general, much less movies being made truly independently. Do yourself a favor and find a way to connect with a reputable sales agent who is hitting every major film market and has a track record selling projects of similar scope. They have their finger on the pulse of the industry, and at this level, unless a true A-list actor is your ride-or-die, the concept is the star and money maker because the odds of landing a name with “value” are next to zero. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still possible and you should make a Hail Mary offer or two to names who your new sales agent or experienced producer friends put their approval stamp on just in case, but if you can’t make a decent offer, your script most likely isn’t making it past the agent’s assistant.

From personal experience, the most commercial and “best” idea for your little indie-that-can might just be your least favorite idea. When my producing Yoda told me, “You should write a zombie spoof,” I literally laughed. No way I was going to write a spoof for my first movie, that’s way too embarrassing. Fortunately, he checked me on that. “We aren’t better than a spoof, man. What have we done?” Truth bomb. You can’t be better than something if you’ve never done ANYTHING, so suck it up and write a killer script that gets you your next one, the one you really want to make.

Write it with production in mind. Use locations you know you can get cheap or free, keep the character count as low as you can without sacrificing the story, and give yourself some solid trailer moments with high production value. If you’re developing the idea with or for a sales agent or producer, listen to their input and feedback. Even though they’re very business-minded people, they’ll have ideas and direction that tailor your script to what they know they can sell. Keep them involved throughout the process and take their thoughts seriously. They won’t always be on point, but the guys I work with usually are, especially when it comes to marketability.

THE FINANCING.

This was far and away my least favorite part when I jumped into this indie-producing madness headfirst because it felt like I was begging for money. I hated it, but fortunately, our budget was low enough that we could piece it together without asking for $100k per investor. It wasn’t until the next movie that I learned how to pitch investing in a movie as a business opportunity rather than a favor. By then I had a successful movie under my belt, so that definitely helped, but if you’re the one doing the bulk of the money-raising you’ll need to hone your financial pitch just like you would a script pitch.

Again, this is where sales and distribution connections will pay dividends. Anyone who’s smart with their money will want numbers and data from comparable titles to verify that their money has a chance to come back, and if you can get some tasty numbers from people who are involved or could be involved down the road, it makes cutting a check for thousands, or tens of thousands, of dollars a little more exciting.

BUT! Here’s the biggest thing I tell people who want advice on raising money for their indies:

Try to talk them OUT of investing.

Seriously. I know it sounds absurd, but investing in film is one of the riskiest things you can do with your money, and the people you’re approaching to be a part of YOUR dream deserve to know that. Do you want people to trust you with their money? Be brutally honest. Make sure they know that there are never any guarantees in this business and that they should only invest if they’re comfortable kissing that money completely goodbye. Not only will that show your respect for them and for their money, but it also reduces the chances that they come after you if the worst case happens and your movie is a bust. And maybe the most crucial: it shows you whose money is real and who is just talkin’ big.

So put that clean, poppy pitch deck together that showcases the vision, the team, and informs potential financiers of the timeline, and returns waterfall–a full blog post on its own. Get that sexy budget put together before running the full package by other producers, sales agents, distributors, and some legal minds just to make sure everything is buttoned up and transparent. There are obviously many more steps involved when it comes to starting an LLC, bank account, etc. but for the sake of your writing time, we’ll move to the fun stuff.

THE CAST.

This, my fellow DIY writer/producer, is without question the most important factor in selling a movie. It’s the first question that sales and distribution companies will ask, and the first reason they’ll give for passing on any movie. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard or read, “We loved the movie, but unfortunately, the cast just isn’t big enough.” It sucks and always seems like a cop-out, but if you’re lucky enough to be shooting your movie in the $3MM-$5MM budget range then you should have enough in there to make a couple of very respectable offers to actors of “value.”

Side note: an actor’s “value” is largely determined by their international sales appeal, not just how high they are on the StarMeter or how many Instagram followers they have. Actually, while we’re on the topic, stop looking at social media followings–it’s fool’s gold. Nobody cares and it’s not an indication of anyone’s value; the belief that someone has a built-in audience and that one post from them will translate to millions of views just holds no weight. Cast talented actors, simple as that.

When we’re ramping up to make offers, we put together tiered lists for each lead and maybe where we could plug in some big-name cameos. Tier One is our dream names that are most likely unrealistic but worth a pie-in-the-sky offer. Tier Two are names with international value, which we run by our sales guys to verify, and are realistic but would need a solid offer. Tier Three are recognizable names that are very realistic, but their international value is debatable.

Above all, you want to put together the best cast for YOUR movie, actors who blow you away for each character, but do everything in your power to draw as many names to as many roles as possible, otherwise the chances of landing a distribution deal of substance, potentially with a Minimum Guarantee (becoming less and less common for true indies), go way down.

MAKE THE MOVIE.

Finally, right? All the business stuff is on the backburner for a few weeks and you get to execute your vision. One of the best parts of producing your own script is that you get to stay involved creatively, to whatever capacity you feel is best for the film. Be on set as much as you can, as things will always change in some way once the cameras are rolling. You may need to cut a scene, tweak dialogue, or offer ideas to the director (if you’re not directing), plus if investors want to see what their money is up to, you should be there. I obviously can’t go into all-out detail about production in this post, but there is one thing I do want to briefly touch on because it can be a big way to make your investors happy early–

Shoot on location in a place that has some juicy incentives if you can. If you’re shooting ULB, it may not meet the minimum spend, but it varies state by state. Assuming you meet the requirements for a rebate/credit, you’ll be getting a nice percentage back (25%-35% in most states) just a few months after you wrap production. For easy math, if you spend $1MM in, say, Oklahoma, after your third-party accounting is done, you should be getting around $250k back from the state, which you can use to immediately cut a check back to investors. Some productions cash-flow it for production purposes or use it for post-production, but trust me here–it’ll go a LONG way with your investors if you give them an early start on their recoupment.

At this point, you’re no longer a writer/producer, you’re a producer. That’s where your mind needs to be because it’s a business now. Obviously, you’re in post and your creative mind is still needed, but you’ll also have to kill some darlings in the edit and it helps to see the cut through some producing glasses.

THE TRAILER.

You’ve got picture lock, you’re scoring and mixing and coloring, and everything is looking incredible. But during all of that, you need to save some space in your brain for the trailer because…

The trailer sells the movie. It’s the pitch. Remember, you wrote the script with trailer moments in mind, now showcase them. Showcase your names. Make it pop. This is your first and only impression.

I’ve found it best to outsource it to a company that specializes in cutting trailers because it’s an art in its own right, but some Editors and Assistant Editors might want a stab at it. Budget for the first option, but don’t say no to the second because they could knock it out of the park and save you a few thousand.

SHOOT YOUR SHOT.

With that killer trailer locked and loaded on a private Vimeo link, and the sales poster polished up (budget for and schedule poster asset pictures to be shot during production, TRUST ME), it’s time to start firing off emails. If you have a sales agent already they’ll handle most of this. If not, have a hit list of companies, both sales agencies and distributors, of various levels and work your way down as you did with your cast. Shoot. Your. Shot. You only get one, so make sure that the email package is perfect. You can find emails on company websites, IMDB Pro, LinkedIn, etc. but fair warning now, some will respond that they don’t accept unsolicited submissions for legal reasons, which is where a sales agent is handy.

Once you get responses and start setting up calls, be prepared to have essentially the same conversation many, many times. They all say pretty much the same thing when pitching their services, but you should make sure to figure out a few things:

Sales Agents: What cuts are they asking for off the top? Domestic should never be more than 10% and there should be no marketing expenses. International should stay around 20%-25% and there will be a non-accountable marketing expense that shouldn't exceed $35k–but you need to make sure that they are using that to attend all major markets (AFM, Berlin, Toronto, Cannes, etc) because that entire sum has to be recouped from their sales before you see anything. And domestically, who are the distributors they are targeting? Who do they have relationships with? Dig through their titles and see who released them, that’s usually who their go-to distributors are. Most importantly, go with someone who communicates well and keeps you involved. Remember–they work for YOU.

Distributors: What is their release strategy and marketing plan? What is their percentage? Something that a lot of first-time producers aren’t aware of is that almost all distributors at some point are going through an aggregator to place titles on various platforms. That means your cut from the distributor is coming from THEIR cut. If they plan to do a small theatrical to get better placement on iTunes or Amazon, how many screens/cities? The more screens, the more money, but it’s also a marketing opportunity and there’s always the outside chance that it makes some money. But that money is split with the exhibitors, so again–a cut of a cut. Definitely be sure they’re putting some money into social media marketing and P&A (Print and Advertising). They may want you to front that money or they may come out of pocket, to be recouped from sales. I’ve started budgeting in marketing dollars just so the option is there.

DVD has all but faded from mid-level release strategies, but make sure they pitch the title to Redbox. It’ll end up on their online platform, but if you can get a full order of hard copies that they pop in their vending machines, that’s a good chunk of change because there are now “buy-backs” like there would be at retailers like Walmart and Target (who probably won’t take an indie title with a smaller release anyway, but you never know).

More than anything, make sure you go with a sales agent and/or distributor who will work WITH you and keep you in the know. Transparency is key at this point in the process, and the best way to keep everything above board and keep these companies accountable for their numbers is to use a Collection Account (CAM). These are approved companies who collect the checks from distributors and sales agents, then distribute those checks to investors, production, and whoever has backend in their contract.

ENJOY THE RELEASE.

Participate in the marketing, hype the title on your socials, and have fun with it. Maybe you have a premiere, maybe you just have a watch party. Whatever you do, just remember that YOU DID THIS. You made a movie and got it released! Enjoy every moment and be proud of what you did.

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