Film vs TV: Why It's Easier For You To Finance A Film

hey everyone it's alexis here from

exile accelerator in this video i'm

going to talk to you about

finance as it relates to both film and

tv

and i'm going to explain to you why it's

easier to finance

films and why you should opt for

financing a film

over a tv series

[Music]

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when we post a video okay so before we

dive in

i do want to start by giving some

context

around how film is financed and how

tv is financed so when it comes to

financing films there are really a

couple of ways that that can happen

the first is that you sell your script

to a major studio or a mini major and of

course now that includes streaming

platforms

now in that case those companies

are going to finance produce and

distribute the film

so you don't really need to worry about

the financing stage

all you've got to do is negotiate

so that you stay on the project either

as a director

or as a producer of course if you're

just a writer and that's all you want to

be then that's fine as well

and once you have done that then it's

really just about showing up and

executing the creative because they take

care

of everything else the second way to

finance your film

is to independently finance your film

and that's really when

it's up to you to get the film financed

and into production

and the typical sources of finance for

that

are private equity distribution advances

tax rebates get gap financing

and soft money so those are the

elements of finance that are available

to you

and within that there's really three

ways

that a film can get financed a

combination of all of those things that

i mentioned

a combination of some of those things or

only private equity so that's really how

a film gets financed

now let's talk about tv so the way that

tv gets typically financed

is similar to how the first option

i gave you with film is finance so it's

where you take a project to

a broadcaster in this case or a

streaming platform

and you pitch them that project and they

can come on board as

either the sole financier or the major

financier

if they're the sole financier then of

course you don't really have to worry

about

any of the finance so you can just go

along for the ride

if they're the major financier you may

need to bring in some

other elements of finance that i spoke

about and with tv

that's really going to be tax rebates

soft money and potentially distribution

advances

and just to elaborate what i mean by

distribution advances

if you get a broadcaster attached in

your

domestic country so let's say you're

producing a series in

australia and you get a major

broadcaster on board as a majority

financier

and in that case let's say that they

haven't taken the international rights i

only want the australian rights well in

that case you can actually go and sell

the international rights

to either a sales agent or to

distributors or other broadcasters in

different countries

so in that case distribution advances

can come

into the financing of your series

so that's how film finance works and

that's how tv finance works

now i'm going to tell you why film

financing is that much

easier the first reason is that you can

raise

private investment to finance part of

or all of your film whereas you can't do

that with tv

now this is something that not everyone

realizes not every filmmaker realizes

this but

if you're going to try and finance

a pilot for a tv series or an entire

series

uh even an online series so online or

tv then you need to think about

what's in it for the private investor

how are you going to generate a return

for the private investor

the reason this is tricky for tv

is because of the elements of finance

that are available for both of those

formats and the way that they're

financed that i just described about

so with tv what typically happens is

that streaming platform all that

broadcaster just comes

up and finances that film uh that series

and this then this makes it extremely

difficult for you to show an investor

how they're going to generate a return

because when a broadcaster or a

streaming platform is financing a series

if they're just paying for the whole

thing then there's no return in there

for the

investor they're just paying for the

hard costs of actually making it and

they're taking the rights

well what happens in a case where

they're only partly funding it let's say

that they're majority funding it and so

you need to find that gap

well again if you if they're taking

all the rights around the world then

even if there is a gap it's irrelevant

because there's going to be no other way

to generate

ongoing returns and royalties

now you might say well what if you

retain the international rights well in

that case

then yes it is an opportunity for

investors to come on board but what

makes it

very difficult to get them on board

is that there's no data out there around

the sale of tv shows

so this is really the clincher and this

this is essentially the reason why it's

so much easier to raise finance for film

because there's a proven way to generate

a return

for investors which means that you can

actually

raise private investment so going back

for a second

the issue with tv is that there's no

publicly available data

out there that tells you how much of

a series was sold for to different

territories

and or or or how much reruns was sold

for

and the reason is that those are to b

sales so they're business to business

sales

so there's no consumer data out there

whereas with

film it's extremely easy to find

commer data historic data around the

performance of films

so anyone can go and search for box

office data

and you can even find some home

entertainment data

and what this allows you to do is allows

you to create

financial models for your project

based on historical data from similar

projects

and that then allows you to take create

projections

and with those projections you can

demonstrate with some level of

confidence

what a film can potentially return to an

investor so this is why

film is so much preferable when it comes

to independent financing

it's because you can raise private

investment and the reason you can raise

private investment

is because you have the data that allows

you to create the models

that allows you to pitch to private

investors

following on from that the second reason

is that your

funding options are limitless

and what i mean by that is if you're

going to raise

private investment for your film which

really every film that's financed

independently requires some level of

private investment

then the potential individuals

that you can reach out to is limitless

right there's no

i mean there's there's a limit in terms

of the population of the world but

there's really

that that that number is

so high that the potential that you have

to raise

private investment is so large

that it makes it so preferable as

opposed to tv

because with tv the number of

of potential companies that you can

pitch to to finance your project

is limited it's extremely fine art and

it's extremely small

so even in if you're in america which

which would have the largest amount of

broadcasters networks streaming

platforms

even if you're there the number of those

companies is limited

so if you can't get your film picked up

by one of those companies

then it's impossible for you to finance

that project

and if you're not in america if you're

in another country

then your options are likely even more

limited

whereas when it goes when it comes to

film

again the amount of individuals there

are in the world

means that the potential investors

for your film is huge

as opposed to tv series so this is

another really important reason

why film financing is so much easier

because your options are limitless

the next reason is that there are no

gatekeepers

when it comes to independent film

financing

so when you're pitching to a tv series

or an

online series to a broadcaster or a

streaming platform or a network

those are gate keepers you're

essentially

at their mercy they either like your

project or they don't

or worse still you can't even get into a

room with them because you don't have

the network you don't have any

relationship with them

you can't get in the door so these are

the gatekeepers of that industry

and if you are not in with those

gatekeepers it can be extremely

difficult for you to even get a seat

at the table another

reason why this is

a real problem is that

if they just don't like your project

creatively

then again your options are so limited

so if you go and pitch it to all these

different companies and they all say no

then you don't really have another

option from there

whereas with film again going back to

raising private investment

those are not gatekeepers you know you

can get in front of any number of

private investors that you want

and pitch to them and even if you need

to bring

say your finance is say your finance

requires a higher level of finance so

you can't just raise private investment

well with tax rebates they're not

gatekeepers because as long as you tick

certain

uh boxes that aren't related to

the creative then you're going to be

eligible for a tax credit

with distributors and sales agents those

are gatekeepers but you don't need them

on board if you have access to tax

rebates

and private investment so again

with film yes there are gatekeepers in

that

industry but if you can't get through

those gatekeepers then you have a backup

plan

another issue is that even if

you're pitching a tv series or an online

series and they like the creative

if you haven't made tv before

then it's extremely difficult for

um for those platforms all those

broadcasters

to team up with you and when i say

extremely difficult

what i mean is there's a higher risk on

their part

because the budget that you're going to

be responsible is quite high

for a series they're likely going to

want to either have an

established relationship with you so

that they know what you're like and they

know

that they can trust you with the project

or they're going to want to know that

you have the resources

you have the knowledge and the

experience to actually

execute what they're what you're

saying that you will execute so

the gatekeepers is a real issue the

first issue is just getting in

into a room with them the second is even

when you're in the room with them you've

got to convince them creatively

and then thirdly even if you convince

them creatively you then need to

convince them that you can actually

execute at a production level on what

you're saying

you can execute okay and the fourth and

final reason why financing a film

is easier than tv is

that it's just cheaper so

it is extremely expensive to

finance and produce a tv series

whereas financing and producing a

low budget or micro budget or even mid

you know low to mid level film is

much cheaper so

by virtue of it being cheaper it is just

easier to finance because there's less

finance to have to raise

and when it comes to raising private

equity or even just

raising finance for a project

the lower the budget the easier it is

most of the time there are obviously

exceptions to that rule

but typically you know the lower the

amount that you're trying to raise the

easier it is

and this is a really important

consideration

and it's extremely important as well if

you're just starting out

as a filmmaker you know as a producer as

a writer director

because it's it's

it is difficult to raise private

investment

for a film so the lower that that can be

the easier it's going to be to raise it

on the tv side if you're trying to raise

private investment for let's say a pilot

episode

a not only is it um can you not

demonstrate to the investor what the

return is going to be

so it's it's it's i can't i can't really

think of how you would then

pitch that to an investor i mean that

would actually be

absolutely crazy but even if you did get

them on the amount that you're going to

spend on a pilot

if you make a 60-minute pilot like

you're almost

you're pretty much at the range of

making a a feature film

and but you only made one episode out of

a whole series

so this is why with film

it's so much easier to finance and i

think it's preferable especially when

you're starting out because

even if you're able to finance a pilot

all you have is a pilot

whereas if you finance a film you have

the end product you have the final

product

and so you can get that out there into

the world whereas even if you go and

finance a pilot

you're still left with just a pilot and

you have to try and raise the finance

through a series

so you're not going through the process

of you know financing a film producing

it

and getting it out there into the world

and i think that that's really important

to do

especially in the early early stages of

your career

it is really about creating and it's

about

getting audience to see the work that

you've created

and then learning from that experience

and then moving on to the next project

okay so that's it for this video i do

hope you found it useful and informative

i hope it also answers

a lot of questions that you have around

tv financing

as much as film financing so you know if

you're working on

a tv project right now tv series or a

pilot

and you're just not sure how the hell

you're gonna finance it

i mean it's okay because you know the

pathway to financing tv

is almost non-existent at the

independent level

so if you did like this video hit the

like button

subscribe to this channel jump into the

comments

and let me know about any of the other

reasons why you think

financing films is easier than tv

and also let me know about whether

you're working on any of those types of

projects

right now i do want to tell you about

our producing accelerated program

that helps you consistently finance

produce and distribute your own

films now it's obvious

that i am running that program because

i make films i produce films but one of

the reasons that i started producing

films and didn't turn to tv and still

haven't turned to tv

is because of the way that it's financed

and because i

truly believe that independently

financing films

it is much easier than tv and it allows

you to retain

much more control both creatively and

over your career

so if you're interested in learning how

to finance

and produce and distribute your own

films then you want to head to the link

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