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Filmmaking - The Magic Film Financing Ratio
Making films costs money. Get over it.
You wouldn’t think so, to read filmmakers on filmmaking
forums. They usually don’t write about raising money.
Here is what they write:
“Where can I buy the best camera?”
“What is the best camera?”
“What is a camera?”
“Which end of the camera do I look in?”
That’s about it.
There’s also a lot of scribble about how to save money, by
somehow not spending any money. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
It takes money to make money.
What does it take, to raise money?
Blank look. This is all news to them.
Here is the news today. Top stories:
Film costs money. Cameras and equipment cost money.
Hiring Actors costs money. Renting Costumes and Props
and Stage space costs money.
Scrimping is not the answer.
Raising money is the answer.
Even if your Cast and Crew work for free, your craft
service comes from Pizza Hut, and your lights come from
the Home Depot, you still need money.
If you raise money, you can make films.
If you don’t, you can’t.
Here is the good news:
Raising Money for your movie is not particularly hard,
once you’ve made up your mind that it’s important.
You just need a system, which starts by recognizing
there is an ideal proportion of “money-raising time”
to “filmmaking time.”
If you are going to spend your time filmmaking, (and by that I
mean effectively making films and selling them, so you can
make more of them), here is the magic film financing ratio.
You need to spend 80% of your time raising money.
You need to spend 20% of your time making films.
That is the truth. You may not want to hear it, but it is true.
I am giving it to you as straight and honestly as I can.
80% film financing, 20% film making.
That is not some arbitrary number. I watched successful
filmmakers a long while, before I started doing it. 80/20
is the magic ratio, so your movies get made and sold,
and so you can make more of them.
Maybe you think you “should” be able to make your films
all day, every day. That is like saying you “should” be able
to drive your car all day, without putting gas in the tank.
It can’t work.
If you do what most people do, you’ll spend all your available
time making your films, with not-enough time and not-enough
money, and your films’ quality will suffer. Don’t do that.
If you work the magic ratio, the 20% of time you spend making
films will be a joy. The 80% of time you spend raising money
will feel worthwhile and purposeful. Hey, if you raise enough
money, you don’t need a day job!
Later, when your films are making money, and you have name
recognition, you can spend all day making your films, but only
after many days of setting up your money-raising system.
Raising money doesn’t just magically happen. You must
make it happen. Start by managing your time according to
the Magic Film Financing Ratio.
###
Sam Longoria is a Hollywood producer, working in film since 1970,
in a variety of jobs. His work graces several Oscar-nominated
films, and one Oscar winner.
Resources:
Sam Longoria’s Digital Filmmaking handbook
Film Financing “10 Biggest Mistakes Filmmakers Make Raising Money”
Sam Longoria Filmmaking Blog
© 2007 Sam Longoria, All Rights Reserved.
8 Responses to “Filmmaking - The Magic Film Financing Ratio”
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well wov its just great this has taught one of the basic thing to make a film and to start in movie making and with my past experience too i feel its right
I can put in some money in part for good short indie projects. Any takers?
@ Gajendra:
Well, since you asked for it - your contact details plz :) - I have an awardwinning short script waiting for co-producers…
[...] WWAY article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.Here’s some of the articleYou need to spend 20% of your time making films. That is the truth. You may not want to hear it, but it is true. I am giving it to you as straight and honestly as I can. 80% film financing, 20% film making. … [...]
Sam, thanks for the details on the percentages. Slightly more skewed than I would have expected.
Since you’ve observed successful filmmakers do this - can you share traits/strategies they had in common to get the $ raised?
@Sam,
Thanks for such an interesting article. Wish you could have written more.
So only being dreamy about cine making or being pasisonate about cinema is not enough, one needs to be having a good marketing sense and one should have got art of raising money also to first start his film and then finish the same film.
Its, in most of the cases, not possible because mostly creative people cant have this art of raising money.
So Directors are out of this list, But perhaps you are referring towards Producers who wish to make certain films.
Is that the reason Merchant Ivory kind of collaboration works wonderfully? They had a compact team, Ruth Jhabarwala took care of writing department, Ismail Merchant raised money and saw that every project should get completion and Ivory handled the direction.
Such teams are the dream teams but once formed then they can make the kind of cinema they like.
RK bang on about merchant ivory, perhaps as Shri pointed out, we waiting for more from you, stratergies/ etc etc of the filmmakers your observed.:-?
Merchant Ivory is an Excellent Example. They did things in a sparse, lean way. No waste. They chose and developed properties of quality. The perceived value of their products in the marketplace is very high. Great Example.
If you have three divisions to your organizations, which in a reduced case or in this particular case is only three persons, handling Marketing, Production, and Direction, what is the ratio?
If they do an equal amount of work, (Which never happens, by the way. Production and Marketing people - both departments raise the money and sell the film - are necessarily far more energetic), the ratio is nominally 67:33.
(Raising Money and Selling the Film are two sides of the same coin, actually. To Raise Money, you must Sell the Film. Selling the Film raises money, if only for the next film.)
Production and Marketing do more work than Directing and Artistic components. They have to, or they and the artists don’t get paid. Making the film is Expense. Raising Money and Selling Product are Revenue. So by definition they work harder and more.
How much more? I say 15 - 20% more. Even if it’s only 5 - 15% more, it’s within tolerance for the Magic Ratio.