How to Finance Your Film

Whether you are making a short student film, a larger independent, or the next blockbuster, making a film can be very costly. Even for the lowest budget, it can be difficult to find funding to create the film of your dreams. And like any other product, it's not until you have the final film that people will start paying to watch it. Even then, sometimes you aren’t going to make any money on your final film. So when making a film is so expensive, how do people find the money to fund their film?

What is Film Financing?

Film financing is the way that filmmakers obtain money for the creation of their films. Making a movie takes a lot of money– be it for renting locations, equipment, hiring cast and crew, craft services, and so on. Plus, with today’s packaging method of creating, a producer typically has to put together a whole project with a script, IP, or idea, creatives attached to the project, actors, and whatever pieces that might help make the film. This means that having financing and ways you are getting the money to make the film is an important piece that will help sell your film into today’s more holistic approach to film distribution.

Differentiating Projects 

First, it is important to take into account what kind of project you are working on. Depending on the type of project you are working on, you may or may not have certain resources available to you. 

• Student Film: These films can often be the lowest-budget films, done for class credit or just within a group of college students. Because you may be doing it through your school, you may already be getting a lot of school resources to help create your project but that can come with a lot more restrictions for where you can find funding. That said, there are many ways for you to make money as a film student to help support your projects. So while you may not need to find as much money to fund your project, you might need to be more creative with the ways that you fundraise. 

• Independent and Low to Medium-Budget Projects: These film projects may not be looking for large theatrical releases but even creating a film to be self-distributed or played in festivals will involve financing. The biggest mistake a filmmaker can make is putting their own money or assets on the line. Don’t fret though, there are many ways these projects can find money to reach their budgets. 

• Higher Budget Projects: If you are making the next big blockbuster, there are many avenues that big-budget films take to gain their financing. Typically, this requires some big-name support like a prolific director, a popular actor set to be in the film, or a large studio’s support. With these elements, a big-budget film can sell itself to investors and other avenues of financing to accumulate the money that it needs to create the film. 

Ways To Finance Your Film

In this post, we will split up different popular financing methods and finding money for different categories of filmmaking. However, it is important to note that many of these methods are used across each different type of film budget, and often films with medium to higher budgets will also use methods that lower budget films use to finance their films and vice versa. Every project is different and regardless of its budget, different projects will have different resources available to it, so the most important thing to remember is to make the most of the resources you have. 

1. Financing a Student Film 

• Family and Friend Contributors: Like a private investor, your family and friends may have the means to help support your project. They want to see you succeed in school and support you along the way. Make sure to ask kindly and for reasonable sums. While this is one of the easiest ways for students to find funding for their projects, you want to be careful to maintain healthy relationships with the people in your lives. 

• Crowdfunding: This is one of the most popular ways to fund lower-budget projects. Get your community excited about your film and with many small contributions it can make a significant dent in the money you need to raise. There are many platforms that people use for their crowdfunding. Some popular sites are Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe. Keep in mind that some of these platforms may have fees or take a portion of the money that you raise. 

• Grants and Contests: There are many film grants and contests open to students to get money for their projects. Many schools will offer grants for students who apply and fit the required criteria to get more funding for their student projects. There are also many private film grants open to students offered by multiple foundations, collectives, and organizations. With that, there are many contests in which students can participate and win money by pitching projects. A popular site to find film festivals and contests is FilmFreeway. 

• Fundraising Events or Merchandising: Fundraising events or being creative with selling merchandise related to your film can also be a great way for students to fundraise for their films. You can partner with a local restaurant or coffee shop to have a day or night so that your production can get a portion of their sales. You could also consider selling T-shirts or stickers to help raise some extra funds. 

1. Financing an Independent or a Low- to Medium-Budget Project

• Tax Incentives: Many governments within different countries and states will give a tax incentive for filming in their jurisdiction and locations. With that, certain areas will also give incentives to hire locals, which can help lower the costs of production. With these tax incentives, your production can save a lot of money. You can find these incentives on the film commission’s website of the area you plan to shoot in. 

• Government Grants: Similar to tax incentives, to encourage more people to shoot in their area, certain governments will give production grants. Productions may have to apply for these grants; however, because they have no strings attached, they are a great way to get money for just shooting somewhere. 

• Negative Pick-ups: After your film is made, distribution companies may be interested in buying the rights to distribute your film, which will not only help you distribute your film but also help you pay some of the expenses associated with making the film. 

• Pre-sales: These are deals made with distributors where they promise a certain sum to distribute your film after it is finished. While you aren’t getting this money right away, this is a great way for you to have something to show banks and lenders as proof of future cash flow. 

• Equity Financing: Through selling shares or ownership stakes in the film project, you can raise the money you need to make your film. Because you are selling a piece of ownership of your film investors will likely be expecting a return on their investment. That said, be clear that there may not be any profits for them to share, and make sure that they understand what their investment entails. 

• Debt Financing: This should be your last resort because filmmakers should try never to put their own money or assets on the line. That said, there are many instances where filmmakers believe so strongly about their project that they are willing to risk going into personal debt in order to make their vision a reality with success. However, again, it is very difficult to tell what will be a hit and what won’t, so it is best not to go into personal debt when making your film. 

1. Ways to Help Finance Higher Budget Projects

• Product Placement: When working on larger projects, it can be easier to get companies to want to pay you to have their products in your film. This product placement acts as natural advertising for the companies while giving you money to help create your film. 

• Studio Financing: Major film studios will often finance projects or co-finance with other production companies. For this, you will have to pitch a film to the studios that they will want to finance. They will often also offer you more resources to help produce and distribute your film.

• Partners and Bank Loans: Productions can obtain bank loans or find other financing partners to loan them money for their films. To do this though, producers will often have to have collateral or assurance of investment, like pre-sales, a popular actor, or a trusted director. 

There are so many ways to finance a film. Often it will take a combination of these ways to finally get all the money you need to make the film you want to make. Not all of these will be easy to accomplish but with some work and planning you will be able to secure film financing. You want to make sure to develop a strong plan, build a network, make a strong pitch, and make sure to consider legal and financial consequences. Now that you know so many ways to finance a film, go find the money to make your films! 

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