Look, most of us in film are in it for the creative side. Unfortunately, filmmaking involves a lot of business and marketing, too, which (yuck) means numbers and finance.That's why it's good to get familiar with the business side and learn from experts like Zac Reeder, who knows what it takes to get a film financed. The Emmy-nominated producer and former Netflix executive recently broke down the realities of raising money for independent films in a Film Courage interview, offering a roadmap that scales from $100,000 projects to multi-million dollar productions.Check out the interview and takeaways below. - YouTube www.youtube.com Starting at $100,000At the lowest budget level—around $100,000—filmmakers are primarily on their own. "You are typically not involving state tax credits or location-based incentives," Reeder said. "So you're probably doing that mostly on just straight equity." This means cobbling together investments from friends and family, maybe $5,000 or $10,000 at a time, without the leverage that comes with bigger budgets. This is usually the level where crowdfunding is the focus. You ask directly for the money and make your project at a lower budget without involving outside firms.Getting a Tax Credit The game changes once you hit the threshold for state tax credits, which typically start around $200,000 to $300,000 in minimum spend. "If you know you can make a $300,000 film and get back $100,000 in estate tax credit, you've already got a third of your budget raised," Reeder said. For investors, this creates a safety net—they know they'll...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday