An occasional series of posts that will discuss the extensive process of putting together a grant application.

Part II:

When putting together your grant application, the two largest components are the script and the budget. However, the other supporting items can also make or break it.

The synopsis should be brief yet descriptive, and in principle, should reflect the essence of the work. This is one of your tools to encourage the reader to accept your grant proposal. Also, in terms of the biography, it should essentially be a tailored resume that includes anything relevant from college coursework to previous work experiences with film.

Your entire grant application should be a well-crafted piece of artwork in and of itself. Straddling the line between a lack of relevant information that could potentially sway the reader, and an overwhelming deluge of relevant but useless facts, is the key to receiving the grant.

Get more specific details from the following link:
http://2billiondesirables.multiply.com/journal/item/2

Contributed by Christina Chen,
UC Berkeley student

Earlier this month the State of New York put the finishing touches on its new tax credit plan:

NY To Triple Tax Break For Filmmakers

The expanded tax credit comes during tough fiscal times with the hope it will bolster a business Paterson said generates billions of dollars of economic activity in New York each year.

The change will give film companies a 30 percent tax credit — up from 10 percent — for qualified production costs and extend the program from 2011 to 2013.

Here is the summary from WNBC

NY Times Square

New York’s Governor Paterson said in the official press release:

“It is vital to our state’s economy that New York remains a premier destination for film and television productions,” said Governor Paterson. “The entertainment industry plays an important role in fostering economic growth by promoting our state on movie and television screens across the world, and creating thousands of jobs for New Yorkers.”

Wall St.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said: “Film and television play a major role in New York City’s place as a world-class center for culture, and the industry’s continued growth will play an important role in our efforts to diversify the economy. The expansion of the Empire State film production tax credit program is good news for New York City, and I thank Governor Paterson for signing it into effect.”

Great post on Johanna Blakley’s blog over at the Norman Lear Center. She provides an account of the recent AFM Film Financing Conference held in Santa Monica. Some interesting insights into film funding trends:

How do you convince a financer that you’ve got a marketable film?
Once again, financers could care less who’s directing. The real gatekeeper in this business is . . . get this: the sales agent. If you’re a new filmmaker and a credible sales agent has decided to hawk your film, the financing is yours.

Isn’t it hard to get a film financed these days? Why, no! There’s so much “dumb money” out there (read: hedge funds) that the barriers to entry are lower than ever. This may come as a surprise to every indy filmmaking friend you have; their problem is that they probably haven’t made an expensive enough movie. Got a film under a million? Ask grandpa to fund it. Got a film over $10 million? Now you’re talking.

What genres of movies are the easiest to presell (i.e., to sell the rights before the film is made)? According to Nu Image CFO Trevor Short, generally action movies and thrillers are the best bets. Comedy and drama are tough because the quality of the film depends on (get this) the execution.

Get the full story

When it comes to film funding, it is a lot harder to finance your film from jail!

Nov. 9, 2007, 7:17AM

Film producer arrested in Los Angeles in suspected movie-financing scam

From the Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — A film producer has been arrested on suspicion of using bogus contracts with foreign distributors to help secure more than $35 million in loans to finance movies, federal authorities said Thursday.

Gary Howsam, 56, was taken into custody Monday at Los Angeles International Airport on a criminal complaint accusing him of bank fraud, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

He was released on $500,000 bond and placed under house arrest with an electric monitoring at a friend’s residence in Los Angeles. If convicted, he could face as many as 30 years in federal prison.

There is more to this story on Film Funding at the Sacramento Bee

Looking for innovative ideas to fund your next project? Check out two interesting film funding ideas:

Buy a character

and

Movie ticket pre-sales

For more ideas, also take a look at Carole Dean’s new book The Art of Film Funding:

The terms Gap Financing and SuperGap financing have been getting a lot of play lately. As these concepts are sometimes hard to succinctly define, I was impressed by this pithy description from the Wikipedia:

Gap/SuperGap Financing

 

In motion pictures, Gap/Supergap financing is a form of mezzanine debt financing where the producer wishes to complete their film finance package by procuring a loan that is secured against the film’s unsold territories and rights. Most gap financiers will only lend against the value of unsold foreign (non North American) rights, as domestic (North American: USA & Canadian) rights are seen as a “performance” risk, as opposed to more quantifiable risk that is the foreign market. In short, this means that the foreign value of a film can be ascertained by a Foreign Sales Company/Agent by evaluating the blended value of the quality of the script, its genre, cast, director, producer, as well as whether it has theatrical distribution in the US from a major film studio; all of this is taken into consideration and applied against the historical and current market tastes, trends, and needs of each foreign territory of country. Surprisingly, this is fairly predictable to a certain degree of certainty. Domestic distribution, on the other hand, is very unpredictable and far from ever a sure thing (e.g. just because a film has a big budget and a commercial genre and cast, it could still be unwatchable and thus never receive a theatrical or television release in the US, thus being relegated to being a big budget, direct-to-video film.) So, in as much as there can ever be any certainty in the entertainment business, lending against foreign value estimates is almost always going to be a much better bet than banking on domestic success (comedies and urban films being two notable exceptions: they’re referred to a “domestic pieces” or “domestic plays”.)

 

True to its mezzanine nature, in the pecking order of recoupment of investment, generally, gap (or supergap) loans are subordinate to (recoup after) the senior/bank production loan, but in turn, the gap/supergap loan will be senior to (recoup before) equity financiers.

A gap loan becomes a supergap loan when it extends beyond 10-15% of 100% of the production loan required to shoot the film (or in other words, when the percentage of the gap required to complete the film’s financing package becomes greater than a bank is willing to bear, which is traditionally 10-15%, but can sometime be a flat dollar threshold like USD$1,000,000.)

Gap/Supergap lending is a very risky form of capital investment and accordingly the fees and interest charged reflect that level of risk. But at the same time it’s not unlike buying a house: nobody pays 100% of the purchase price with cash; they pay about 20% in cash and borrow the rest. Supergap financing works by the same principal: put down 20-30% cash/equity and borrow the rest.

Over the years, because of the high risk nature, many supergap companies have come and gone, but a few established players have survived the ups and downs of the markets: Screen Capital International is arguably the gold standard in the industry, with Grosvenor Park, Blue Rider, Newmarket Capital, and 120db also being significant “players” in the debt financing space.

[All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) ]

You can also find some useful reference books at the Writer’s Store: film funding

Australian films are getting a boost of financial support. Already rising in prominence in the United States, Australian filmmakers are poised to take advantage of a new film funding plan that provides the Australian film industry with an additional $283 million dollars to pursue its cinematic ventures.

In addition, the government there will soon introduce a 40% tax rebate to encourage the production of Australian feature films, and a similar tax rebate of 20% for television productions. In addition, the location rebate for foreigners interested in filming in Australia will increase to 15%, thus boosting incentive for producers to fund large-budget overseas projects.

Essentially, the Australian film industry is getting a facelift. In addition to the previously mentioned financial support, the government package also includes the installation of the Australian Screen Authority to replace the previous film funding review groups: Australian Film Commission, Film Finance Corporation and Film Australia.

Through this arts package, the government hopes that this step forward will aid in not only improving the Australian film industry but also contribute to economic and cultural growth.

Get more information from MSN News:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=265777&rss=yes

Contributed by Christina Chen,
UC Berkeley student

Moving Pictures Magazine published a useful step-by-step overview covering how to sell your project at the AFM. The article summarizes the kind of coaching Sharp Angle provides to its clients. Here is the quick overview:

• “Identify the elements that constitute your package and be able to pitch it in a brief period of time.”
• “Of the 400 companies at the AFM, it’s unlikely that any film would suit any more than 25 or 30. Put together your list.”
• Utilize the screenings, pitch sessions, locations expo, and other resources
• With your research complete, buy a half-market badge and start making the rounds

Take a look at the full article for additional details. Moving Pictures Magazine

Visit ifta-online for more information on the American Film Market.

The 2007 AFM takes place October 31 - November 7, 2007.

Sebastian Michael�s film, “the study of bunkers & mounds in a temperate climate (relatively speaking),” pioneered an inventive new way of film funding. Cleverly named, “fund a frame”, this new approach to film financing paved its way to success by basically selling single frames of the film. On its main website, people are invited to fund a single frame, thus making this film “the first ever frame-by-frame funded film”.

The idea is pure ingenuity as it mimics the cool factor of the business of selling land on the moon. The filmmakers send out an email that describes the donor’s funded frame as “handpicked for you” along with the actual image of the frame as a high-resolution (HD) jpeg file with your name and the time code printed on it.

In additional, to add a more Hollywood-like collector’s item flavor to the donation, the frame can also be printed on high quality photographic paper, autographed and framed in a black wooden frame. As an additional incentive to get the program running, when funding for the film began, it was even possible for donors to get their names on the credits.

Check out the film’s website for more information:
http://www.optimistcreations.com/bunkersandmounds/fundaframe/bnm-fundaframe.html

Contributed by Christina Chen,
UC Berkeley student

First in a series of posts that will discuss the extensive process of putting together a grant application.

Part I:
Essentially, the only way to fund a short film from an American independent filmmaker�s perspective is either through grant money or your money.

The key to funding a short film is planning. Poor planning can break the project before it has even begun, while decisive and smart planning can jumpstart it. Therefore when applying for a grant, the application has two key parts: the script and the budget.

Ensure that the script is compelling and that the budget is error-proof and airtight. If anything is questionable at all in the budget, make sure to disclose an appropriate note.

In addition to the script and budget, other items to support your grant application include synopsis, style breakdown, biography and casting information. These topics will be covered in a subsequent post on the Film Funding Blog.

Contributed by Christina Chen,
UC Berkeley student

Photo by Mahalie