Tips: Raising Money for your Short Film

So you had an idea and now you've written a screenplay, but you need money to continue to make your short film.

The good news is, digital technology has made filmmaking a more accessible medium. You don't actually need film to make your film. You can get HD Camcorders at every price point-- some prosumer cameras can be found for as little as $1300. So, although it would be great to have access to one, you don't need to spend $40,000 on a Red kit to make a quality movie.

What's more important is hiring a quality crew, beginning with a knowledgeable and experienced Director of Photography (DP). A skilled cinematographer with a low-end camcorder will always capture much better video than a non-skilled person with the most expensive camcorder. Your DP should be able to help you gather other crew members. But, capable crews cost money. And besides the crew, you'll also need to budget for actors, locations, equipment, editing and postproduction. Indeed, even a low budget film has some budget.

With that in mind, here are some tips for raising money for your film:

Find Investors
You may be able to find people who will front you money to make your film. The best investors will be passionate about your potential film, because they are film enthusiasts or they are personally invested in its subject, or they simply believe in you. If, instead, they are looking for a bottom-line profit, you should encourage them to go elsewhere.

Even those who believe in you most will want to see a clear outline of how you plan to make your short movie. Who is making it? How much will it cost? What is the audience? How will it be shot? How are you trying to distribute it? Jerry Kobler has some excellent pointers for writing a business plan for your independent film in his article on MovieMaker.com.

Then, make sure you involve your investors in the process: ask them if they'd like to be extras in the film. Invite them to preview screenings. Update them about your progress via e-mail newsletters. Thank them. They should feel that they are a part of something important and special, even if it doesn't ultimately generate them money.

And, make sure you are doing everything legally. From Reel to Deal by Dov S-S Simens gives an overview of all of the legal, business and insurance issues involved with filmmaking and provides a list of resources... You may want to call in a favor with a friend who is a lawyer.

And speaking of favors, that brings us to our next tip:

Call in some favors
Funding your short film is not simply about raising money; it's also about saving money. One way you can do this is to cash in on any favors owed to you. Do you know someone with an apartment that would be a perfect set for dinner party scene? Does your friend have a van she'd be willing to let you borrow to haul equipment? Will your brother make some of his fantastic sandwiches for the cast and crew to eat on days when you're shooting? Is your cousin a musician who could provide you with a royalty-free soundtrack? Remind your friends about how you helped them move/ gave them a free place to stay/ photographed their wedding for free/ brought them soup when they were sick or whatever it is you did, and ask them to return the favor. Or, if you haven't been a particularly generous friend, see if you can barter something now for their services: photoshop lessons, office work, and homemade dinners are all valuable commodities. And, remember, give them credit in the film's credits. A thank you on the screen goes a long way.

Still need money? Try to:

Get a Grant
Look for grants that are more specific to you or your projects. Grants can be location-specific, gender-specific, ethnicity-specific or subject-specific. The New York Foundation for the Arts has an amazingly comprehensive directory, NYFA Source, for grants, professional development programs, equipment access, etc.

When writing your grant proposal, as with your investors' packet, clearly define your project.

If possible, contact the granters: request guidelines and inquire about their decision process.

Submit everything so that it is formatted exactly as they ask for it, and make sure you submit on time. Don't give the granting organization a reason to immediately discard your application.

Finally, Don't get discouraged.
Raising the money for your film is one of the most difficult aspects of filmmaking, and even if your budget of $5,000 is small compared with the Lord of the Rings budget of $270 million, that $5000 can still feel daunting when you aren't sure where you're going to get it. Take solace in the fact that if you can get through the fund-raising, you've gotten though the hardest part. The actual filmmaking will be cake.

Good luck!

Faculty Updates

Honeytrap, directed by the MPS Live Action Short Film Program's chair, Bob Giraldi, and edited by faculty member Patrick Burns, Jr., will premiere at the 18th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival on Thursday, November 19th.

Tips: Your Short Screenplay

So you have an idea... Now how do you transform it into a short film? The first step is to write a screenplay. But even before you do that:

Map it out.
Outlines and storyboards are key to helping you write your script. You should know your beginning, middle and end before you begin writing. What's more, the elements laid out in the beginning should be clear in the film's ending; they should have purpose.

Now you're ready to write. Make sure you:
Format your screenplay correctly.
There is a particular style that is used for screenwriting. Final Draft is a program that will help you to format your screenplay to the industry standard.

Keep your desired length in mind.
Typically, each page of a screenplay translates to one minute of film. So, the screenplay for a feature film might be 90-110 pages.

But your short film will probably be 5-20 minutes long. It could even be as short as 1 minute! That means that there is no time for subplots and complicated plot twists. This brings us to our next tip:

Create a strong opening scene.
Your opening scene will need to quickly set the story up: it needs to introduce the characters and communicate the conflict. In Bob Giraldi's short film, Second Guessing Grandma, the first line of dialogue is "You shouldn't have told her." This immediately establishes that the son has told his grandmother something difficult (that he's gay), and that this film will deal with the consequences of that.

Now you're into the meat of the story. You'll need to:

Write your remaining scenes. Easier said than done. Economy is integral to writing scenes for a short film, so remember, a good scene is dramatic; it moves the story forward; it reveals something new and important. In short, each of your scenes should be engaging and purposeful.

Don't try to write the shots.
You're screenplay shouldn't be filled with directions like, "Close-up" or "The camera pans out." Instead, describe your action well enough that the kind of shot needed should be obvious, and trust your director of photography to make the right call. He or she might even come up with a shot that you hadn't thought of, but that better serves the story.

Don't write long dialogues, or worse, monologues for your characters.
The actions of the character are often far more meaningful than what they say. One of my favorite short films, Spike Jonze's How They Get There has almost no dialogue. But there's meaningful interaction between the characters that establishes a rapport between them and builds up to the dramatic conclusion. All in under two and a half minutes.

So you have an idea? Well now get to it-- write that screenplay!

YouTube!

The SVA MPS LASF Program has a YouTube Channel!

We'll be adding faculty short films, and writing about others that catch our eye. Check it out!