On Trees?

If your motivation to make a movie is solely for your own entertainment and satisfaction, then you can (and probably should) skip the financing stage of preproduction. Buy a cheap 3CCD camera and a Mac-Mini with iMovie already installed, get some buddies together, and shoot what will end up being at best a fond memory and embarrassing product. Use your own money for the camera ($500), computer ($1000), and snacks for your buddies ($100 - $2000 depending on length of shoot and number of fatties in your posse).

Or, buy a crappy camera ($200), install cheap movie editing software on your already sluggish PC ($0 - $200), and make your buddies provide their own snacks.

Either way, shoot the movie in your house, a buddy's house, some woods, a family business, a park, on a boat, in your garage, or any place where you won't get in trouble.

If, however, your motivation for making a movie is closer to Robert Rodriguez's, get some money. In other words, if you want to make movies as a career, secure some kind of financing for your movie. Money doesn't grow on trees, so you have to be creative in your search. I wasn't creative, and I ended up with less money than I would have liked.

Here's what I did. I researched the financial records of other movies, mostly independent movies that garnered success. Like Blair Witch, Napoleon Dynamite, Open Water, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I used that data and painted scenarios for potential investors to see what they could have earned had they made a similar investment in any of those movies. When you get into the 6-digit percentage returns, you can't help but at least ponder the potential.

I packaged that data with investment scenarios for my movie, a synopsis, reasons to invest, reasons not to invest (honesty is important), and answers to other anticipated questions. The neatly packaged investment prospectus was sent to my (and one of my co-producer's) closest friends and family. I was surprised by the results. Quite honestly, I had a few people I thought I could count on that didn't invest, and I had a few that surprised me by investing. I don't think any differently about anybody for the decision they made, although I am ridiculously thankful to each and every investor in Horror House.

Had I been more creative and approached others outside my ring of friends and family, I may have connected with someone willing to finance the whole movie. That's one of the many mistakes I made with Horror House. I didn't sell the product as well as I could have. I have to become a better salesman to really succeed as a producer in this field. I will.

Most who invested did so predominantly because they wanted to support my (and/or my co-producer's) endeavors in moviemaking. They don't necessarily care, nor expect, to make any money on the movie. I, of course, believe whole-heartedly they will make money. Time will tell, of course. Even if Horror House proves to be a financial failure, it was an incredibile learning experience and we have a visually impressive, entertaining story that should lead to bigger projects in the near future. I still believe Horror House will make a nice profit, but if it doesn't, the next one will, and if the next one doesn't, the next one will, and if that one doesn't... my point is, I won't give up. Never.

And that might be the biggest point out of this whole blog. If you truly have a desire to make a career out of making movies, you absolutely cannot give up. It's hard. It's scary. It's not something normal people do. But if you believe strongly enough in yourself and have received reliable, positive feedback from people who know what they are talking about, and you're willing to work harder than you've ever worked before, then don't let the imminent failures and struggles along the way deter you.

More on that later.

~ Justen

PS - The term "fatties" as used above was used in a humorous tone. I am not prejudiced against fatties, or lardasses, or fatsos, and I don't mean to offend anyone in the 400 club. Please accept my apology, which is also meant in a humorous tone. :)