How to Start a Limited Liability Company for a film company and get your movie off the ground.

A year of my life making a movie – so far.

Okay, so this has nothing to do with watching movies, but instead, is all about making movies. I have NOT made my first feature yet, but I’ll explain the process of starting the company, opening a bank account, making a little make-shift office, pre-production, and other nightmares I’ve endured.

A big problem with 90% of film schools is they teach you the creative end of things and not the business. When in reality, 90% of filmmaking is business and around 10% is creativity. You can’t teach creativity, (you can’t really teach business either) but hopefully this will help you get started.

(To defend film school: you can teach good filmmakers to be great filmmakers. However, you can never teach a bad filmmaker to be good.)

So is film school worth it? The short answer is: Yes. Go to film school! Nothing is more important than going and being immersed in a culture of like-minded people who are all aiming toward the same goal. You know all those Kubrick jokes no one ever got in high school? You’ll be with people who will get them.

If you have that where you are from, then you might want to just make a movie or go to business or law school, otherwise, hit up film school.

“He who has begun has half done”

This is a quote I had hanging on my computer and I think you should too. Starting is the hardest part. Stop talking about your movies and start making it.

Starting out:

First off, start a journal Journals are so important. They gather your thoughts, organize your mind, log your goals and thoughts. I’ve got tons of journal entries in here and they highlight pitfalls in my life. They make a great tool for how much you are getting accomplished as well. Also, if you shoot yourself, people will get to gleam into your weird little world. So in that case, don’t write about your cat banging fantasies. That can be left just to you. All these journal entries are 100% genuine. I left out my cat banging fantasies though.

Make a list of goals.

Really? Really. Make a list of things to accomplish. You have just become your own boss and you need to stay focused. Everyday I make a list of five things I have to get done and I have a list of ten things that I will get done by the end of the month.

Get a library card and fucking use it!

The library is the filmmakers greatest tool. Scatch that, it is a  human being’s greatest tool. You can learn anything in there. Calculus, Astrophysics, Communism, computer programming, sex positions, the average size of a dog’s penis, anything. Also, it is a great way to get out of the house and get work done if you’re that type of person. Just watch out for homeless people masturbating.
Create a workspace you’re comfortable with.

You need a desk, internet connection, a filing cabinet (anything will do). Don’t just use the excuse: I’m kind of a messy person and that works for me. Learn right now to be organized. Right now. Figure it out before you get to Hollywood or New York. Get comfortable with knowing where important tax forms, credit documents, screenplays, certificates, masturbating lotion, and other important things are. You can’t just have them sitting on your framed picture of Justin Bieber.

Lastly, and most importantly, the time has come to cut the shit.

What do I mean by that? Cut everything that distracts you: Girls, booze, video games, even jobs you hate. It is time to lose them. I had a perfect job a year and half ago. I sat at a desk, did nothing, and got paid almost twenty-five grand a year. That’s not a fortune, but it is a lot to someone who lived at home and didn’t spend anything.

The problem was I wasn’t getting my dreams done. So I was very vocal in the company that I wanted to do something else and I was selected to leave when they down-sized the company. I’m not saying this is what you should do, because in reality I should have just worked and saved money for my movie and done all this stuff in my free time. But if you can’t do that, figure something out.

If you have a girlfriend or boyfriend or dog that takes up too much time – lose them.

If you spend to much time smoking weed – quit.

If you want to be a level 80 War Elf in World of Warcraft (Is that even a race? I never played? Lol) – it is time to cancel your account.

You have to learn to sleep, eat, shit, and live your movie. Every night I go to sleep thinking about my movie and every morning I wake up thinking about it. You have to think about it while watching TV, while eating, while at work, even while masturbating (this is also why I get hardons when reading my movie). My point is: You have to become your movie.

Otherwise you won’t be ready for the trials you’ll face later. It just won’t be worth it. You’re going to have to accept being poor, criticized, scoffed at, lonely, all for the purpose of working on a film which may or may not get made. You’ll face people who are excited for you and others who are skeptical for you.

Moreover, if it does get made it might just make you financially destitute or, worse, just plain suck. I could give you a thousand reasons not to do it, but I wouldn’t listen to them and I don’t imagine you will either. One thing I will say is that it is really fucking hard to make a movie, but really fucking easy for a person to say it is not going to happen. So read on:

Should I get a lawyer to create my company?

The dirty question. The one everyone asks me and the one everyone wonders about. The short answer, surprisingly, is yes…probably…I think. I know this is an annoying answer, but one you should really think about.

Here is some food for thought:

I called up the Rochester, New York Film Commission and asked them who was a good entertainment lawyer for a young filmmaker wanting to start a company. She pointed me towards some dude in the biggest sky scraper in the city. I went to the top floor in my best suit.

I sat there waiting for two hours before a dude walked in who was so short he could only head butt my dick if he were wearing stilts.

I explained to him my ideas, my project, the company, my dreams. He sounded excited. Then I told him my budget. He immediately told me to do everything myself, except the company forming, and that they could do it for around 900 bucks.

Sound expensive? It did to me as well. I told him, in so many words, I wasn’t really interested in spending that much. If I could do all the other stuff myself, I might as well do that too. Simultaneously, I regret this decision and am thankful for this decision.

(On a funny side note, the lawyer had been talking up a movie that got made in a local town. I inadvertently mocked it only to find out he’d written and produced it. Needless to say, we haven’t spoken since. I still have his little business card on my wall though.)

Here is an excepert from the journal, AMAZING stuff. I’ve edited out the lawyers name and his film because you’d find out who he is.

March 9, 2010

“I took a break from my journal not because I was being lazy but because I had such an intense few days that I’d literally fucking forgotten to post in my journal.
To sum up the past week: Fucking bizzare. I went in to see ——, the best entertainment lawyer in the city, and it didn’t go too hot.

Not because he didn’t want me as a client. But because —— really didn’t seem that interested in working for prices as low as I wanted to give him. He basically said at such a low budget the best move I can make is to do most the work myself and include a lawyer in the project when I need to sell it. Sounded fine to me. I just don’t want to get sued.

I took the elevator up to the 24^th floor and sat in the posh waiting room. I was really nervous, but for no reason. The dude was a two foot little nerd pussy. We talked about his film ——-. He could tell I wasn’t that interested. A super market dating service? Hmm.”

Anway, here are the pros and cons:

Pros of not getting a lawyer to create your company:

• You’re going to learn a fuck-ton – Everything is on you now. You’re going to have to call in a lot of favors and advice from a lot of people. You’re going to have to research, dig, analyze, and figure it out. You’ll  also develop important skills to bring to other productions.
• Fees. Lawyer fees are a fucking bitch. Paralegals are the ones who usually do this type of busy work and you get real-lawyer prices.
• You know exactly what you’re getting yourself into. You learn the rules and get the facts. A lot of this legalese rhetoric is transparent now.
• You can back out at anytime. Well, not anytime, but you get my point. You can usually stop and just shut everything down if you think it is a bad plan. The best tool a filmmaker can have is to pump the brakes and get organized again.

Cons of not getting a lawyer to create your company:

• Unless you went to school for law, you will make mistakes. I did. The first major one I made was when I was filing my Articles of Organization. I didn’t put LLC on the second page. I waited three weeks to get them back just to find they were fucked up and I had to send them back. Whoops.
• Lawyers know the ins-and-outs. For example, in NYS you have to file with different publishing companies to show you’re a business. There are different prices, angles, and bullshit you have to deal with. There are certificates to file in this process and money to be lost. If you don’t play your cards perfect, and I mean perfect, you will fuck stuff up and it will cost you money.
• The most obvious reason is you don’t have to do anything and can spend your precious time working a job, to earn more $ for your film, or working on the million other things you have to do to make a movie.

Conclusion on this:

My conclusion is to get a lawyer to do it. Please. You’ll save money, heartache, and time. Yes, lawyers are scary and it sucks dealing with them. But do it…..please. Your heroes did and they came out on top.

Moreover, you might need a lawyer at some point in the game anyway and best start a relationship with a good one now.

If you did listen to me -

Just open up a spreadsheet and begin plugging in all the lawyers in your town. Are they entertainment, business, defense, etc? Begin making phone calls. Have columns for consultation prices, free/otherwise, helpfulness, names, and other important shit.

Another thing, learn to send thank you letters and notes to these offices. I do this ALL the time. I write complaint letters to people who fuck me and thank you letters to people who help me. This is important not just in business dealings, but in life as well.

When someone is nice to me at the supermarket register, I learn their names and send a compliment call/letter/E-mail. When people fuck me, I send a complaint call/letter/E-mail. These complaints are generally multiplied to reference a greater number of people. When Bestbuy’s salesman pushed me too hard to buy a computer for my pseudo office, I told him that he just lost my business and I’d never shop there again. A promise I’ve kept. Too harsh? I don’t think so. I also wrote a letter to them, which got me free coupons and an apology note. Companies love feedback; give it.

Eventually, you’ll find someone you like and who finds the idea of working on a movie business interesting. Find rates you can afford and be careful. Don’t agree to anything you can’t afford. You might want to take a night job for a few months to afford some fees, but I SWEAR they will be worth it.

If you didn’t listen to me -

I was pondering whether to even include this section because I don’t want to encourage you not to get a paralegal to start your LLC. Just fucking do it. I promise you you’ll be so happy. You don’t have to write the Articles of Organization. You don’t have to fill out documents. You don’t have to get fined for late publishing certificates, you don’t have to do anything. Go to work instead and earn more money for you movie. Don’t make the mistake I did. But if you do…

1. Again, hit the library. This is where you’ll learn the majority of what you need to know. I’m not going to tell you here, because, frankly, that would be legal advise. I’m not a lawyer.
2. What I can tell you is what I did. All this information is taken from my journal, another reason why you should keep one. There is a secret here….I’ll tell you at the end.

First off, I grabbed NYS Articles of Organization and fill them out. Cool. Simple. “But wait Collin, didn’t you fuck them up by not filling in the LLC?” Yes, I did. My mother and father, one an engineer and the other a talented school teacher, made the same mistake recently. So I don’t feel that bad. 

Then I wrote up my Operating Agreement. Perhaps the hardest part, because it is the least specific and is very important in the later stages of your company. It will decide how your money will be raised, how your company will run, why it will run, and how you plan to raise capital. It was especially tricky because I still hadn’t decided how I was going to raise money for my film yet.

I will post the document online eventually. The most important thing to remember is that this document is for your company. Modularity exists. Make a point of including ways you can change the rules through voting and decision. The next decision is to whether the company will be run by managers or members. This is VERY sketchy. I made some phone calls and asked around. I found out that I could make the company membership or management run. This means either I can have members make decision or managers.

Now you might just think: Hey, me and my buddy are just going to be running it, so it is manager run. Be careful. If you take this approach it means all these other people with membership money in your company are investors, the dirty word that we all worry about. Investor. That means you have to register with some very scary people and pay exemption fees. Exemptions you will likely quality for, but the whole process is very bizarre.

Next, the business plan. So many businesses practice a bizarre approach towards abusing wannabe filmmakers. Many of them are failed-filmmakers or smart businessmen. There were many ways I could pay for Business Plan Examples, set-ups, programs, blah, blah. Instead, just sit down and write what you’re planning to do: Here is an excerpt from my journal entry to outline this process and madness it dealt me.

May 16 2010-

“I’ve been held in my room turned pseudo office for a about 10 to 12 hours for 2 days straight writing a business plan. It was awful. It is pretty much done now. But that doesn’t negate the fact it was terrible. Considering most of the funds will be raised through a PPM, a business plan is basically for business practices reasons as well as for opening a bank account. Most banks won’t let a business open one without them for legitimacy reasons. I don’t get it. I’m looking around for a job for 10 or 15 hours a week. I need some $ to support myself.

Describe the film, why it is being made, where and who will be hired to make it. How these people will be acquired. How the money will be raised etc etc. Making sure that any individuals who see it are well aware the the document is not a securities offering. What I have more time I’ll detail it completely.”

The business plan went like this:

I made a business plan that was about 10 to 12 pages and I just wrote exactly how a film is made, why, and how I can accomplish it. This was SO important to the process. Every person I’ve ever asked for money has mentioned how the business plan was a huge element of their decision to help me with money. The time, effort, and professionalism that went into making my business plan has a great deal to do with how much money I’ve raised so far. And, for the first time, I’d felt my movie was actually going to get made. It was exciting.

You probably noticed the abbreviation PPM. That is a Private Placement Memorandum. I originally planned to model the business on the following idea: I’ll just file for an exemption and ask 50 of my friends and family to invest a grand in my movie. Here’s another journal entry:

Entry from March, 18^th 2010 -

“But the economics…profit sharing and membership interests fucks with my head. I hate this stuff. I think of it this way. If you invest a 100 bucks in a thousand dollar film you own 10% of the company.

However, language has to be used perfectly so that if the film makes profit. Money can be made on that 10% interest but while fitting into the original profit sharing model: Investors will be paid back in full plus 10% on their investment, then get 50% of the profits.

So if the film was sold for (10,000) bucks. The person who invested a 100 would make 110 bucks. Then 10% of (50% of 10,000) so (5,000) so that would be 500 bucks. So they invest 100 and get 510 back. I mean that’s also a 10x profit margin, which is ridiculous. That would mean my film would have to sell for half a million. Which literally is ludicrous. Investors will be lucky to make their money back. This will all be outlined in the PPM accordingly. Also, I’m not sure how to deal with donations.”

As you can see writing the PPM took a lot of time and fucked with my head. It was also difficult because I hadn’t made a proper budget yet. The old catch-22 for filmmakers is how to make a budget for a movie when you don’t have a schedule. Or how do you a schedule a movie you don’t have a budget for because you don’t know how much money you’re going to have. Especially tricky is how to hire someone with money from a budget that they’re going to make. Lol, believe me, I struggled with all these ideas as well.

That unfortunate truth is that you may have to do all these things yourself. This is where it turns into a full-time job and not just a after work hobby. We’ll, get to this…

Reading through my current business plan many notice that I’ve all but abandoned the PPM approach. A prospect that is disheartening, but I would gladly trade spending extra time fundraising instead of dealing with security laws. This is something, to this day, I’m not sure about and I’ll let you know why at the end. I might just be bringing back my PPM someday. We’ll see.

Moreover, back to the business end…Next I applied for my EIN number, which, ironically, was the easiest thing you’ll ever do. I just went, filled out the form with the information I got from you Articles of Organization and boom, I got my number. But whoops, I filled out the form and, again, didn’t put LLC in the name. I clicked the button and my EIN number was created for Underground Film Productions (without LLC).

Fuck! That was a mistake. So I filled it out the right way and click – another EIN number. Two! I had two EIN numbers! I was hoping there would be a journal entry about that, but I must have been so stressed out about it that I didn’t even bother. I mailed the IRS what had happened and told them to get rid of one of them. On my wall, pinned-up, remains the EIN number form with huge letters saying, “CORRECT ONE!!!!”…fact.

Okay, so you’ve got your little business set up on paper, time to open up a mother-fucking bank account. Nice.

Bank Account

This was actually one of the most surreal, and enjoyable, aspects of the process to me. Rolling into a bank, business documents in hand, finally made the whole thing seem pretty real for me.

We lucked out because our bank offered free business banking if you already had an account there. Sweet! Call ahead, have all the important documents – EIN number, business plan, etc with you and, boom, you’re in. We lucked out and have a totally hot Brazialian banker who actually smiles at me. Weird right? She was weirded out by our company and what we were doing, but so are most people.

Now on to the pre-production stuff.

Making the budget, production board, and other stuff equal to being prison raped.

I’m straight as an arrow sexually, but I’d rather be fucked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex dick than do another budget. This is why so many nuts-and-bolts women and men are highly valued in the entertainment industry. People are more or less born to be directors, but to be a nuts-and-bolts person, this is learned through blood, sweat, and tears. I am not one of these people, but had to learn for the sake of the movie.

You can either spend a few hundred bucks on Gorilla Software or something similar, or get down and dirty with your script. I got down and dirty with my script and believe me, I got past second base…

I side-stepped the whole software route. Something I deeply regret, for reasons I’ll get to at the end. You should only start all this shit when you’ve locked your script, but wait, scripts change don’t they? So what am I supposed to do if the scenes change, budget changes, character change, and all of that. Your best bet is to do your best.
Put on you favorite CD, comedy series, whatever, because the next fews weeks of your life is going to suck.

Break your script in 1/8s

I’ve done this a couple times and still don’t really understand the process completely. Basically you want to take a script of you page and break into “1/8ths”. Sound stupid and antiquated? It is. Hollywood and film productions have a stupid system in place that makes production easier. I say stupid, but until I come up with something better I should probably keep my mouth shut.

While you’re doing this you should make sure you put scene numbers at the tops of each scene. You might find it difficult to divide a page into 1/8s, to be honest, it took me a while  too. Use a ruler to measure that shit out and divide the number by 8. I’d tell you what the length of an eighth page is, but it is best you figure it out for yourself or, I swear, you will fuck it up.

Every time a scene changes, mark across the paper with a pencil line. Eventually you’ll get a script that is broken totally into huge sections of 1/8s. Add that shit up and write each number at the beginning of each scene. For example: you’ll see that 2 pages equals 16/8s and one and half pages equals 12/8s. This system might sound treally stupid and annoying, but soon enough you’ll seen the world in 1/8s. Like my dick is just over 1/8th of meter long.

Highlight Script Elements and Plug them into Breakdown Sheets

Buy a whole shit load of markers and stuff like that or raid a pre-school, I don’t know, just get a bunch of different highlighters. Go through and highlight the characters with a color, the location, the stunts, the props, special equipment, and other important elements. Again, do you best. This is not an exact science yet. Just make sure you don’t fuck anything major up.

You’ll want to grab Script Breakdown sheets. You can make you own or grab some off line. I made my own because I’m fucking psycho, but just have good Breakdown sheet. It will look something like this:

Get around 60 of these sheets and stack them up. Fill them out as you go along, whole punch them, and throw them in a binder, trust me, you’re going to need them.

This is going to take many days, if not a couple weeks. It sucks. It is realy fucking annoying, but if you get through it, guess what? You’ve got something even worse to make: A Production Board.

Production Board:

This will be the most annoying thing you’ve done so far. Dealing with lawyers, legal admin, forms, nothing compares to this. It is a nightmare and it still hasn’t been completely finished for me personally. When the script changes, so does the production board. Here is a sample of mine:

 

There are many people there who will critique the way I have done this, because frankly, I kind of made up this process in the program Open Office. There are better ways to do it, but this way worked for me. I just took a spread sheet, created a pseudo-template, and worked from there. If this looks like it is tough, it is. You have to know your script in and out. Like I said, I got farther than second base with that bitch (Psst. We went all the way), but just take your time and construct it in a way that makes sense, is organized, and will work for you and your eventual production crew.

The first column is most important, put one category for each element on the Breakdown sheets. This makes it easy, at a glance, to understand a shooting script. There are also rules that you should work by when it comes to highlighting scenes. For example, you’ll notice my Night Interiors are all blue. This is actually unorthodox. I had done this throughout because that is what I’d put on my Breakdown sheets.

Just make sure the crew members know you changed the typical color coding. It was a mistake on my part, one that I will either rectify by redoing it or just say fuck it and go with what I have.  I go with the school of the thought that as long as things are labeled, consistent, and communicated clearly, you’ll be fine.

Making a budget and schedule are a bit more tricky…..

Budget and Schedule

This the part in the process where only your instincts, script, expectations, and other elements will make up the two most important parts of your pre-production. Budget and Scheduling is particular to only your film. No one can really tell you how to do it because it varies for everyone. My scripts budget and schedule is always changing because the money coming in is always changing. If you get stuck on just one way to shoot your movie you’re going to fuck yourself. Take the following with a grain of salt, it is very specific to my film. Not yours. You may find a way that is better. Look for it. This is just what I did, maybe you’ll find it helps you in some way.

I started a new spreadsheet from previous templates and start organizing my locations into clumps which look something like this:

Again, this way is not definitive. If you’ve got more time than money, this is one way to get it done. Moreover, you should further organize this into characters in these scenes. Like this:



Notice the orange color. I did this because I would ‘slice’ a ‘strip’ out by highlighting it orange. This made sure that each strip got collected in an orderly fashion. I then broke the scenes down financially, applying budgetary constraints to them. For example: Scene 4 is only 1/8th of a page, but is at a different location than scene 5. How many people have to be there? How long will it take to shoot these scenes incorporating travel time, meals, etc. Only a talented production manager knows this information for sure. I’m not production manager so it takes a lot of educated guesses. What I did was take an educated guess and multiplied it by three. After all, I always want to have more time than less.

This information only accounts for the cast so you’re going to have to start another spreadsheet for the budget. This is an old sheet that is no longer applicable, but serves the purpose of demonstrating how to get shit done:

This is helpful because it will allow you to find ways to cut out shit you don’t need. Scenes you don’t need. Production elements you don’t want. Things will change if you decide to defer wages, change wages, change how much each person gets paid, how you’re going to get paid, if anyone is going to get paid at all. Are you gonna pay people in possible profit? It all gets very complicated so do you best and make sure the numbers you put down on paper are reasonable, effective, and fair.

I really think doing this stuff yourself, even once, is important. It gives you a perspective about filmmaking that you will always respect. Most filmmakers in college are posh artists. This will let you get down and dirty with some really weird production stuff. Even getting your hands dirty for the beginning of it, or doing it with a production manager, will be advantageous.

Storyboards

Okay, here is a journal entry because it highlights story boarding so well. From July:

I’m using Google sketch pad and importing pre-made models. I’m able to move the camera around fluidly for a “comic-book” style throughout a 3-D space. Its time consuming, but really fucking useful.

I’m sure I’m not the first one to do this but I was proud of myself for coming up with something rather innovative.

The idea behind the visuals is a meticulous one. I want the camera angles/style to emphasize perspective.

For example, the first half of the film will have a “boring” or plain visual styles such as long shots, few cuts, and very few close-ups.

As —– starts, the film will be shot more and more in close-ups, snorricam shots, and claustrophobic framing. Such a visual scheme is risky for such a low budget film because the set-ups are so exotic and numerous. But typical hollywood coverage is fucking annoying. Master………close-up………..reverse shot. Boring. I’m not fucking D.W. Griffith.

A good example of this is this picture:

This, if anything, will help you imagine the space, the camera, and how these elements will intertwine. Imagining how things will look in a real space and not in an “imagined spaced” is something that is really tough for me. It helps me visually make a shot list and do other important parts of breaking down a scene. Whenever I’m writing a script I always put a note on my computer that says:

You’re writing a film, not a story.

This is to remind myself that the space is visual, not abstract, like in a novel, poem, etc.

In my journal entry you can see my angst towards the “continuity” way of shooting something. Don’t take that to heart. Usually shooting a master, close-up, and the works will save you time, money, and heartache. If you want to see a person who totally forgot about continuity, self-admittely, watch Delicatessen by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The dude just totally forgot about establishing shots, 2-shots, and all that other important stuff they teach you in Youtube videos. Either way, you can be good or not, it is your choice.

When I’m writing anything I sometimes create these “Google Sets”. It is great for imagining a scene that is, until it is made or visited, merely astract. Just popping the computer open and putting some characters in it can really help visually.

Moreover, you might choose not to storyboard anything but set pieces. That is fine. Many of my storyboards were used for production packages I created to raise money.

Speaking of raising money…

So how to do it: The reality is kind of annoying. A lot of people ask me how to stay in shape. I tell them to eat less and move around heavy things. This is fact. Raising money is not all that different.

It is like trying to get laid. I’ll wait around for months vaginaless and then all of a sudden I’ll have sex with like three chicks in a row. Whats that joke about a bus?…

Moreover, raising money will be the hardest part of the process. Maybe the hardest thing you’ve ever done. Raising children? Nope. Doing prison time? Piece of cake. Open-heart surgery. Nope. I’d rather cut my arm off like Aron Ralston than raise money for a movie, at least his movie got production money. This is the subject where no one has definitive answers. Your ability to raise money will separate you from the pack. Turn you from student to master.

Your best bet is to get ten like-minded people together, have everyone make a company together, everyone work for six or seven months for ten bucks an hour and put all that money into a movie. Thats almost a hundred grand if you’re counting.

If that isn’t the case you can do it the way I’m doing it. I send out hundreds of E-mails asking for small amount of money that I’ll pay back if my movie breaks even.

This is what the great Darren Aronofsky did for his film Pi.

I was going to take the Private Placement route, but in New York, they bust your balls hard for security exemptions. If you were to read my journal in full, you’d find pages and pages of bitching about this.

Like I said, for many it is simple. They just know the right people. You probably have someone in your life RIGHT NOW who has the money to put into your movie. You’ll find that promises will be broken, things will fall apart, expectations with be shattered.

This is all normal…I think. People you think will help you out, will not. And people who shouldn’t have the inclination or means…will.

My biggest failure of the preproduction was my arrogance in regards to raising money. It is taking for me much longer than I thought. Once you have everything in place in terms of filmmaking, I recommend you go back to your job and work fucking hard and save up. Raising money is going to take a long time and most people won’t return your E-mails/calls until after 5 anyway.

The Coens funded Blood Simple by getting  a list of the richest Jews they knew and asked them for money. Sam Raimi, at nineteen, projected a fake trailer on people’s walls to make Evil Dead. Trey Parker and Matt Stone got their group of college friends together and everyone found a few people to give them a grand. Everyone has a story like this. Making your own is an initiation process that will be painful and solely yours.  I’d include pictures of my Fundraising spread sheet on it, but it has people names, E-mails, and other things in it, so I can’t really put that on the internet.

Three tips I’ve come up with.

1. Be professional

People will be really skeptical of a person coming to them and asking for hard earned money for a destitute artist. Why shouldn’t they? Even if it is your best friend, be professional. Don’t just ask them like your asking for a beer. This is business. I’d also include be passionate, but if you’ve come this far. Of course you are.

2. Be fearless

Time to bust out the spreadsheet again. The worst thing you can do is be pussy about asking money. Don’t beat around the fucking bush. Just ask. If someone says no, just say thanks and move on. If someone says maybe, log that as a no, but ask again. If someone says eventually, log that as a no, but ask again, but sooner than the maybe person.

3. Be delusional

Much of filmmaking is delusion. I’ve met people who have gotten movies made and there was never a reality where they didn’t get it made. That fact didn’t exist. It was getting done. The money is out there somewhere. Whether you choose to raise money through securities, earn the money yourself or with friends, takes donations, suck dick for money, or a combination of all of them, is up to you. You’ll likely never face a more horrible process in your entire life. It will be trying, it will destroy your soul and make you feel as if the film will never get made. But if you just stick with it, have a realistic budget and expectations, you’ll get it done.

I always tell people who talk to me about writing a screenplay, or producing one written by someone else, that you have to be stubbornly passionate about it. Not for artistic reasons either, but because you have to be able to sit down every time and read it and be inspired. Everytime I sit down and read my movie I know why I wrote it in the first place.

Where I am now:

This is kinda’ where the story stops. I mentioned that I might use a PPM sometime. That is up in the air. Promising money in return is prospect I might start doing. Also, I previously said that I regretted doing my production schedule the way I did. This is because I’ve since rewritten much of the film and many of the hours of work I had done previously were, seemingly, for nothing. Try your best not to do this, but sometimes you’ll see tons of the things in the story that need to be changed and act accordingly.

Gorilla or similar scheduling software would likely be able to handle these changes. Unfortunately, someone, hopefully not me, will have to go back through and change everything to make it work. We’ll see, I try not to think about this stuff too much…

-Collin

You can donate a dollar, one cent, a billion dollars, anything at the following Paypal Account at collin.gilbert2009@gmail.com (don’t spam my actual E-mail) or click the donate button below.