Financing / Crowdfunding : How did you fund your movie. by Sav Cornin

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Begging.

Pitch your short film to people hearing pitches on Stage 32.

I started as a poster designer and used the profit from that to make my first film.

I was lucky enough to meet an actor and actress who liked my short film idea and could work for free. If I could do it all over, I would have gotten 2 jobs and saved the money to hire a crew and pay the cast. I had to do all the writing, filming and editing AND MARKETING! That’s way too much work for one person!

I have invested wisely in the stock market and expect to use the growing profit to finance my next feature film. Caution: the stock market is very fickle and can go up or down. Not for everyone. But thankfully I picked a cancer-fighting drug stock which is on a fast track with the FDA and has unlimited potential.

Self-funded, pooled together from the producers on the project. We know we stand to benefit the most from its success, so we're willing to put up the initial money. Plus, once the first few are done, crowd-funding will be easier because there will be a track record investors can trust.

Self funded

Self.

I have invested my own money, and part of the team invested their time. I wrote and directed the short myself. The DOP is a friend who decided not to charge me. The on-set photographer is also a friend and took pictures for free. One of the actors also owed me a favor, so she did it for free. I managed to get the location (an office) for free, and the production house where I rented the camera slider and the operator lowered their price significantly because their guy enjoyed working with us so much. Oh, and another friend who's a restaurant owner didn't charge for catering either. The 7-minute short cost me around 1000 euros plus fees I paid to submit it to festivals, another couple of hundred euros.

I absolutely love reading all your comments here about self-funding your own movie. I think that is such a brilliant and brave thing to do. If you believe in yourself and your talent as a creative, the best bet you can make is the bet you make on yourself. Can you all on this thread share what happened AFTER you invested and made your film? Did you do the festival rounds? Did it lead to opportunity? Did this open doors for you? Did it help make raising financing easier the next time? Would love to hear what you all learned.

Keep the cost low. and ask for everything, and everybody for free. I once got to shoot 3 episodes of a scripted comedy short in a really cool bar. I just asked the owner, and he said "sure, sounds cool"

Self.

Selling my artwork, and through friends.

Won a script contest with my very first short...prize was getting produced by the organizers, so they funded a pro editor with camera and equipment and I scrambled some friends + a friend's dog and we shot it cost free...

Later found out that the organizer delayed payment to the editor, but that's the way it goes in the world of filmmaking...

Student loans & credit cards, and working a square job.

My POC female-driven story had a budget of $5k. I shot 3 days, had 6 person cast + extras, 12 pages, 12 crew and used Kickstarter to fund most of the budget. I neg with local crew for rates I could afford (and I did pay everyone). 9 months of planning. My goal was to have a sleek calling card for the story -- "What I can do for a dime IMAGINE what I can do for a dollar"

Self funding your film is empowerment however, there are also woes and risks of using your own finances. I self funded my short with $3000 then a second with $10K followed by a feature which is in the works. Pretty expensive calling card and I am still waiting for the call.