the financing spectrum

As we work with clients to help them secure financing for their productions, or with investors as they try to make strong decisions about where to put their money, it is helpful to step back once in a while and contemplate the spectrum of the production financing world.  When clients come in with a script- or even an idea for a script- it is difficult to know where to begin advising them about where to turn for capital to get their project made.  Being in a soft money state helps--Michigan's production tax incentive program still remains one of the best options for producers.  But incentive dollars can never be the first dollars in.  Raising private equity for a first-time filmmaker (or for any filmmaker, for that matter) is a daunting task in 2010--and it can be expensive.  Not that there's anything wrong with expensive private placement engagements, but they tend to be better for us than for our clients.

So I find myself encouraging filmmaker clients to get on board with the DIWO/crowdfunding movements that are popping up more and more every day.  Good work is getting done through sites like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo, and clients have been getting results by giving over their projects to their communities and supporting one another.  A big part of making the leap to microbudget filmmaking is reassessing goals.... Make something, get noticed, and the sky is the limit thereafter.