Jon Reiss

Film Business Plans: Learn to Stop Worrying (and Love the Spreadsheet)

Today we have a guest post from the New York Film Academy about writing a business plan for your film.  The one thing I would note is to be upfront with the investors with how long it takes to recoup money and the very good chance that they may not recoup at all (in fact stating this in your prospectus is required by law in the US).  Remember – if your film is cause related – many of your investors may be more concerned about how you will change the world than actually recouping.

by Zeke A. Iddon, New York Film Academy                     

Us filmmakers are, by nature, creative souls and abhor business plans as much as filing taxreturns. Even the very words ‘film business plan’ are enough to evoke groans from seasoned professionals in the industry.

But despite the panic many people find themselves in when it comes to putting pen to paper (or figures on a spreadsheet), the truth is they’re not nearly as beastly as many would have you believe.

Here we explore the very nature of film business plans, what they’re for (versus what you might think they’re for), and why you should keep it simple…

Never Forget the Golden Rule

Investors don’t open your business plan to find out how much you’re planning on paying the dolly grip. They cast their gaze upon it with one – and only one – thing in mind:

Is this investment going to make me money?

And really, that’s all you need to answer. That’s why it’s called a ‘business plan’, not a ‘leather-bound tome of every penny going in and out of our account’.

If you’ve managed to get a potential investor to look at your business plan, congratulations! You’ve already accomplished the two mountainous tasks of a) creating a great film, and b) garnering people’s interest. Be sure you don’t undermine yourself at this critical stage with a flawed business plan!

Don’t Get Carried Away

As long as you keep the golden rule in mind, you’ll prosper. However, it is admittedly easy to lose sight and overanalyze every aspect of the project.

At the heart of it all, you’re an expert in filmmaking, not accountancy, and while the importance of a tight financial projection cannot be understated it shouldn’t take more than a week to write it up. If you’re still stressing about the finer details for months on end – or worse, incapacitated by the fear of starting it – you’re probably over thinking things and taking far too much time away from your actual job. After all, stakeholders would infinitely prefer you to deliver a stellar movie rather than a flawless bit of accountancy.

And on that note…

The Devil’s in the Details

A good film business plan should be concise, filled only with pertinent information and, ideally, be somewhat attractive for investors to look at…

… what it should not comprise of is a ninety-page spreadsheet filled with hundreds of rows of figures typed out in 8-point font. Believe it or not, but stakeholders are humans too – as a rule of thumb, if it felt like murder to compile your plan, chances are it’ll feel like murder to read it and a business plan which doesn’t hold the reader’s attention is virtually a waste of paper.

So what should your plan include? As a rule of thumb, try to stick to the following information:

1) Is the film going to make the investor money?
2) How is it going to make the investor money?
3) It is going to make the investor money, right?

Sorry, just wanted to drive that point home. Joking aside, you’ll best demonstrate the above by sticking to just the following:

Outline: As it sounds, but resist temptation to get into the nitty gritty of the project here.  Do, however, sum up the script in a tantalizing way (no more than 500 words) and provide a few very clear details about your financing requirements. In addition, include some key points about the director/producer/company if these add to the attractability.

Shooting Schedule: This part is a little intense, and you may need to hire a line producer to analyze this for you depending on your experience level. Essentially, it should detail every location, scene, prop, staff and acting talent needed for each part of the script – from here, you’ll be able to formulate an accurate budget.

Production Budget: As above, but accounting for the production aspect of the project.

Marketing Plan: is more in-depth than just listing how many Twitter followers you think will retweet the film’s website. Detail your target demographics, advertising costs and expected conversion rates to said ads, the schedule for your marketing campaigns and any details regarding how you plan on getting bums on theater seats.

Distribution Plan: How are you going to get your DVD/Blu-Ray out there? How much will each sale make, and how many sales can you reasonably expect to achieve? What about online distribution? How about the value of rights sales for your area? These are all things which should be listed in the distribution plan.

Revenue Projections: Against most of the amateur advice which gets trotted out, do not compare your project to similar films. They are nearly always baseless comparisons without meaningful correlation – instead, stick to the hard figures based on all the market research you conducted for your marketing plan, as well as reliable statistics which are specific to your region/genre/marketing budget.

Letters of Intent: These are incredibly alluring to potential investors, so make sure you include them. Not only do letters of intent from recognizable talent, other investors and anyone else attached to the film help inspire confidence, but a letter of intent from an insurance company will allay fears of financial meltdown should the worst happen (heaven forbid).

Executive Summary: Oddly, many people feel that this should be at the forefront of your business plan. The clue, really, is in the name – your executive summary should come right at the end, almost as an extended version of your overview in which you highlight the script’s strengths, the team’s talent and why all of the above figures mean that this film will be a not-to-be-missed opportunity. That all said, we would be naïve to say that investors don’t often skip to this section, so keep your two pages here a fine mix of being too the point as well as being effusive about the film.

Close off with any supporting materials you have, including investment packages and cashflow statements (where applicable) or anything else that will tantalize potential stakeholders. Just don’t overdo it with photo shoots of all the team, et cetera.

What you’ll be left with is a clear and well-thought out business plan which will scream out to anyone reading that you know precisely what you’re doing… and that’s the name of the game.

One Final Note

Writing a solid business plan is not as arduous or painful as many would like to make out. That said, don’t try to cut corners by using templates or adopting other people’s plans – you’ll invariably end up in a pickle, and it’s more hard work than just getting on with it and writing your business plan from scratch.

Zeke A. Iddon is a consultant writer for the New York Film Academy, having previously come from a background in business marketing. He’s more familiar with words and film reel then numbers, buy hey, that’s what Excel’s AutoSum function is for!

Top 10 Things Learned in the IFP PMD LAB

Jon talking Merchandise at the IFP PMD Lab

Top 10 Things Learned in the IFP PMD LAB

By Jon Reiss

I have had the good fortune to be involved in IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs for the past several years now and I have seen innumerable benefits to the films and filmmakers who participate.  The Labs provide an opportunity for first-time filmmakers to not only receive feedback on their films from their peers and experienced filmmakers but it is the first lab to prepare filmmakers for the essential work of distribution and marketing.

This year we launched the IFP PMD LAB (Producer of Marketing and Distribution) the first of its kind.  This year, the PMD Lab worked in conjunction with the Filmmaker Labs, with all the participating PMDs attached to a film in the Filmmaker Labs.

Since the end of the year if full of 10 best lists – I thought I would compile the 10 best results of the inaugural year of the PMD Lab.

1.  Defining What A PMD Is. I think this is of critical importance as this nascent crew position develops.   A PMD is not just a social media manager.  To be a PMD a person must be involved in all aspects of a film’s distribution and marketing, including audience identification and engagement, creating a distribution and marketing plan, budgeting that plan, creating marketing elements, creating and managing other assets to help promote the film, etc. All of this in concert with the filmmakers.    See this post for more.     I think the PMD trainees were amazed and excited about the scope of this position.

2.  Learning how to identify audience.  After understanding the goals of the team, the first assignment for the trainees was to identify the audience for their film.  Many of the films had already started this process in the spring Filmmaker Labs sessions.  But rarely do first-time filmmakers fully understand their audiences in the first go round.  It also takes time for the notion of niche vs. core audience to sink in – and how to view how audiences can expand from a core. See this clip from one of my workshops for reference. 

3.  Learning how to engage that audience.    This is a career-long process and can be daunting at first.   It is important again that it is not just about social media – we stress that it is crucial to know how each particular audience learns about films and then to target that source – influencers, social media, organizations, traditional media – whatever works.

4.  Develop marketing tools for the film (after understanding who the audience is).   We have the PMD trainees (and in fact all Lab films) create initial marketing materials most of which are essentials for a press kit: logline, one line synopsis, short synopsis, key art, website and, if possible and appropriate, trailer and social media sites.

5.  Workshop those marketing tools.   One my favorite parts of the Filmmaker Labs and PMD Labs are the Marketing Labs held right before IFPs Independent Film Week.  Each team presents the marketing plan for the film and it is workshopped with a panel of professionals.  Some heated discussions result.  The process either helps crystallize the beginnings of a plan for the team – or makes them realize they have a ways to go.  Either way I find that they are so much further along than most filmmakers by starting this process in post.

6.  Writing a distribution and marketing plan for their films.  The last assignment for the PMDs was to write a distribution and marketing plan for their films.  I am a broken record on this: every film is different and needs a unique plan.  It is essential that PMDs learn not only how to write these plans – but to understand all of the aspects contained within.  It is hard to teach this in a crash course (which we had in September and December).  But what I found most instructive was:

7.  Evaluating different distribution options.   In the December Distribution Labs, we had the opportunity to see each of the 20 filmmaking teams present their distribution plan, and to have that discussed by incredible experts in emerging distribution models. It became very apparent what types of distribution options are available to filmmakers and how those can be crafted for each individual film.

8. Learning how to budget that plan.   In order to execute a plan you have to figure out how much money you need to execute the plan.   Going through an extensive distribution and marketing budget can be daunting – but it is also important to know what you need to pay for in order to achieve that film’s goals.

9.  Creating a community of PMDs.  The trainees told me that one of the best outcomes of the PMD Lab was the community that they created amongst themselves.  While we had monthly phone sessions and 2 separate Lab meetings, the trainees would contact each other on a regular basis, which has continued even after the Lab’s completion.  They are even supporting other films from the Labs that did not have PMD trainees.   Several of the trainees have been so excited by the concept that they will be participating in the PMD website that we intend to put on the IFP site next year and to determine a way that PMDs around the world can find community (stay tuned!).

10.  Learning how to develop a career as a PMD.  This was a strong interest for the trainees – naturally.  What I stressed is that the PMD is just like any other film position.  You have to start small to build your way up – finding any way to gain experience.  Little by little filmmakers are realizing that they need to budget for this crew position.   One of the goals of the above mentioned site is to provide a centralized place that filmmakers can find PMDs for their projects.

If you think you can be a PMD please feel free to contact me so that I can keep you abreast of these developments.

Ways to Distribute Merchandise

I recently posted a short piece about innovative merchandise.  Here is a quick rundown on the different ways to sell your merch!  Let me know what you think!

SFM documentary funded by House Parties & Kickstarter

Today we are hosting a guest blog post written by the team behind the documentary STREET FIGHTING MAN. The documentary (twitter, FB) is due out in Spring 2013, and the production and post-production have been funded almost entirely through two Kickstarter campaigns, which raised over $30,000. Additionally, the Street Fighting Man team threw a series of old school house parties, hosted by some of their biggest Kickstarter cheerleaders, in cities across the United States to supplement their campaigns. The combination effect of the Kickstarter campaigns and the house parties is noteworthy. Not only did they raise the needed money to help complete production on the documentary, but they also managed to create an audience for STREET FIGHTING MAN months before its release in the process. The following interview features insights into their success from director/producer/cinematographer Andrew James and producers Sara Archambault and Katie Tibaldi.

1) Tell us about SFM. What story does it tell?

ANDREW: STREET FIGHTING MAN is a character-driven documentary that asks tough questions about the real challenges facing the people of Detroit and offers a nuanced portrait of daily life in urban America. In essence, it’s a story about three men, each a generation apart, who are struggling to build a future for themselves in Detroit. Deris Solomon is a young father who wants to leave behind a high-risk life on the streets; Luke Williams is a middle-aged man remodeling a former crack house after being homeless for several years; and James “Jack Rabbit” Jackson is a retired police officer struggling to save his neighborhood from crime after the local police station is dissolved. Through their stories, the film reveals how hard it can be to build a future when everything seems to be crumbling around you. STREET FIGHTING MAN is is a celebration of the fighting spirit it takes to build something lasting for yourself and for future generations.

2) Importance of crowd-funding to SFM? 

KATIE: STREET FIGHTING MAN had two Kickstarter campaigns – one during pre-production and one at the start of post-production. Our first pre-production Kickstarter campaign (ending September 3, 2010) raised $8,152, with 153 backers, surpassing our goal of $6,500. Our second, more recent post-production Kickstarter campaign (ending June 10, 2012) raised $23,673. The post-production campaign had 353 backers and surpassed our goal of $20k. In both cases there were some people who gave checks directly to the film who weren’t as comfortable donating online. We were overwhelmed by the support and generosity we received through both. We can honestly say that we couldn’t be doing this without the support of these true believers!

3) SARA’S 6 Lessons from the STREET FIGHTING MAN crowd-funding campaign(s)

Lesson 1: Get some strong cheerleaders out of the gate. Your friends and family love you. They want you to succeed. Encourage them to like the film on Facebook, spread the word about the campaign, and give on the first day so that people new to the campaign will see that you already have some support.

Lesson 2: Success requires getting beyond your family and friends. Those people who love you can only get you part of the way there. In order for you to reach your goal, you need to find people who are inspired by your work or feel connected to the subject and dip into their wallets to make sure the work will happen. When you craft your appeal, keep this audience in mind. And then get out there and find them. Are there organizations working on the same issue your film is about? Will they send out an announcement about the film and campaign in their next newsletter? Is there a fan group obsessed with a character or place in your film? Does anyone out there blog about what the project focuses on? Go out there, find them, and tell them about what you’re doing.

Lesson 3: Communicate. A lot. Meet your new best friends, Facebook and Twitter. Share news about the film and campaign every day using social media. Over 50% of the donations to our campaign came from direct links that people posted on Facebook (thank you, Analytics!). Send a message to your donors at least once a week updating them with news on the campaign or updates on the film. Encourage your donors to spread the word through personal emails to their friends, or letting their circles know that they donated to the film by posting it on Facebook. Yes, these kinds of campaigns do often have a viral quality, but someone needs to tip the first domino. That person should be you.

Lesson 4: Create a buzz in any way you can. Sustaining buzz over the course of a 40-day campaign can be difficult, but that is your challenge. It can start with social media and emails, but it can’t stop there. Write a press release. There will be a lull where donations slow down about halfway through your campaign. Prepare for that by timing your press releases to go out then. Send releases to your local newspaper, your college’s alumni magazine, blogs linked to the subject matter of your film, the Huffpost editor for your city, film magazines, and local independent radio stations and blogs. Hook them not just with – I have a film, we’re raising money – but about WHY you are making the film. Get creative. Because the longer your campaign goes on, the more you’ll need fresh approaches. Sometimes something as simple as just letting people know, “hey, we’re two hundred dollars from breaking a thousand,” will be the extra incentive people need to get involved. Work to create interest on a daily basis.

Lesson 5: Personalize your appeal. Put yourself in your pitch video. You need to inspire newcomers with the film and mission, but they need to trust you and sense your ability to make this happen. Send personal emails to the people in your address book, not group emails. Make follow up phone calls or meet in person with those who have expressed interest in the project, but not yet donated or gotten involved. It takes a lot of time, but it makes a big difference. In the end, you’re not just attracting financial support for your project, you are building longitudinal support for your work as an artist. If this community you develop through Kickstarter loves your work, they will come back for more.

Lesson 6: (I can’t stop!) Set aside time to work on the campaign EVERY DAY. Build a team. Assign tasks. Create a spreadsheet tracking your progress. Make sure at least one person can be monitoring, posting, emailing, and/or writing each day — ideally working in morning, afternoon and evening shifts until the campaign ends. A Kickstarter campaign can be a full time job. Make sure you have the resources in place to make it work.

4) Have any other forms of crowd funding besides Kickstarter been beneficial to SFM?

KATIE: We found a second crowd funding platform that appealed to us: STREET FIGHTING MAN supporters throwing individual fundraising parties for the film. Having established a strong group of supporters from our initial pre-production Kickstarter campaign, we reached out to some of our biggest cheerleaders to host fundraising parties in cities all over the country. For each fundraising party, the amount of money raised has varied. We’ve had different financial goals for each. Factors such as who the host invites and how many people are able to attend play a role. In July we raised over $1,400 at a small party, but last year we raised over $5,000 at an event where we had more attendees and bigger pockets to draw from. It all depends on your audience.

But fundraising parties are as much about raising awareness and growing audiences as they are about raising money. Thanks in part to our parties, we’ve added hundreds of Facebook fans and Twitter followers and built interest in the film in cities across the country. The most exciting part about hosting these fundraisers is the ability to connect with new fans, make new friends, and spread awareness of the project by expanding our networks. Building interest in your project before it is even finished is invaluable. Hand picking the locations, we made sure that at least one of us from the production team could be at each event, and asked the hosts to invite others they thought might be interested in getting involved with our film. This does three things for you: 1) Gives you access to groups of people you wouldn’t have otherwise, expanding your reach, 2) Helps potential donors to really feel part of the film by meeting you in person, seeing footage first hand and hearing from others supporting the project in a relaxed environment and 3) Immediately builds a sense of community around your film, fostering new relationships and a larger audience. In other words, WIN!

STREET FIGHTING MAN – Trailer 1 from Beachfire Pictures on Vimeo.

Fanta-Pstik

The explosion of DSLR filmmaking in recent years has allowed independent filmmakers to create high resolution content with a shallow depth of field. In many ways the technology has done a lot to level the playing field between the independents and major studios. One of the better known examples of this leveling was the news that the 2010 season finale of House was shot entirely with a Canon 5d Mark II.

Anyone with DSLR experience knows that this high resolution imagery can be compromised by stability issues, however. Digital camcorders like the Panasonic HVX 200 had a sizable camera body that counterbalanced the weight of the lens and allowed for relatively stable hand-held shooting. DSLRs do not possess the same intrinsic balance. As a result, the run-and-gun style of many independent filmmakers yields shaky footage if attempted without stabilization gear. Now there are a number of solutions currently on the market that address DSLR stability, but the majority of them are often too complicated or expensive for my taste, which is why I was so excited to learn about the Pstik!

Developed by long-time DP and camera op Stephen J. Payne, the Pstik sells for $60 and utilizes a monopod and a few small lead weights to create a simple counterweight system, enabling filmmakers to run-and-gun with remarkably smooth and stable results. Here is how Stephen Payne explains it:

The Pstik. from Steve Payne on Vimeo.

Stephen started a kickstarter campaign for the Pstik, where you can get more information on the product, ask questions or stake your claim for one of these cool gizmos today.

DP & camera op Stephen J. Payne, inventor of the Pstik