How Do You Finance An Independent Film?

everyone has a different way of finding

money for me it's really just all about

finding the white whale and most

producers will tell you that is a

finding that one rich dentist or

used-car salesman from Detroit you know

that you go to and say hey you want to

make some movies and they go sure how

much five dollars great okay and try to

make it work

sometimes you can get into a really good

place where you have a company that is

willing to give you you know five

hundred thousand dollars to go and make

a you know indie movie that then they

may be able to sell to TV that's like a

really nice comfortable range where you

can because you can keep going back to

that and you know then there's also just

trying to raise it yourself by going to

different you know loan offices and or

trying to sell the idea and like a

poster in foreign territories you know

like a Brazil just buy this thing it's

yours for three grand you know and you

do that for a bunch of little tiny

foreign territories and you try to make

the money and you know I mean you're not

going to have a million dollars from

that but you'll have something that you

might be able to make it or at least

match another person's finances and

investment and then it really just all

kind of comes down to what makes money

because unfortunately high-concept and

original ideas aren't interesting to

investors because there's really no way

to properly monetize them and that sucks

because I love original storytelling and

I love high concepts and I'm always

having friends of mine that are coming

to me going like I got this original

idea you know it's a it's a you know

werewolf movie that's a ghost and I'm

like wow no one's ever done that before

and you know but it's like no one ever

will unfortunately maybe someday that'll

happen if ghost werewolf movies become

really successful and well let's put

that together but there's never been

there's nothing to look at to go well

that made money you know and you can see

it when you go see movies you can see

when those type of films start to like

oh we're just gonna keep making it

because I

how the business works as you find the

formulas that work and what people are

watching right now and it's and it's I

know it's always really you know it's

sucky to sort of look at and go there's

no original stuff out but there's still

good stories being told they may be in

the confines of what's popular but

that's just what we have to do in order

to make movies and we're going to make

entertainment for people we have to work

within the confines of you know what is

popular and what people are gonna give

money and invest in the high concept

original idea is you're more likely to

get money for from the used car salesman

in Detroit verse the company that makes

TV movies kind of thing because each one

of those you know one is just looking

for a really cool story to tell but

maybe not know how much to monetize so

you can kind of go I will make the ghost

werewolf movie you know I'm just not

gonna make your investment back whereas

the other one goes no no this is what

tracks well on you know on our on our

festival circuits and our TV sales and

our VOD sales so then they they know

they have all that right in front of

them so they can go no we need

female-driven thrillers that have

nothing to do with that aki war you know

so suddenly you have that you're like

okay that's how i gonna make a story fit

within those confines

you