Film Funding Blog

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