Financing / Crowdfunding : Dismal AFM by Peter J. Gibbons

Dismal American Film Market report...I have attended no fewer than ten AFMs and have sold and/or optioned four feature scripts as a direct result, two of them were to off-shore companies. I've also forged lasting associations with US and foreign companies and government agencies that I leveraged into paydays as a facilitator. The last AFM I attended was 2019 and I secured a co-pro on my script THE 109 with a UK-based sales/production company (budget - $10m). We closed the agreement in January 2020 and covid killed it in the crib. I ignored the next two markets since they were virtual and a waste of time and money. I returned last week for Day Two (ignore any advice that says attend the back end). There was no buzz in the air, very little energy, even less urgency (which was always the dominant sensation). I have a pic on my phone of the sixth floor promenade on Wednesday at two pm. There are three people in the shot...three. In any previous year there would have been dozens. For those who know the layout, entire hallways on the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth floor were vacant, as was half of the fourth floor. ............What does this mean?...........To me, it means that the covid-reaction forced shutdown of movie theaters around the world has severely wounded the independent film industry. With significantly fewer screens, and most of those still functioning being controlled by the studio blockbuster non-story-movies, the funding model of equity+incentives+pre-sales+gap loans is now missing the 15-20% that came from the pre-sales leg. That's a hole that will sink far too many previously viable productions. The streamer model doesn't address that hole in production financing. Only additional equity does (good luck)..........Is the model dead?.........Not yet, maybe not even in ICU, but it is on crutches. Next year's AFM will tell the tale...........Silver lining?...........I had a great market, here's why.....1) Covid shutdowns killed off the weaker players so the companies that were there, the survivors, are the fittest and strongest players. Some will not survive this round but those that do will have found a way and will need content. 2) The reduced level of activity meant that my targeted companies had time on their hands. In previous years I was satisfied to get two minutes to pitch a post-market conversation. Last week I had three twenty minute dialogs with decision makers and multiple five-ten minute impromptu sits. They were glad to talk. The result is genuine progress on multiple projects in the US, UK and Malaysia, and a ton of follow-on work to be done.........Pete