Attaching Crew before Raising Funds

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PatsChocolate

Member
I am in the mists of raising money for a feature length horror film. I have until September. I was wondering if it was logical to attach cast & crew before I have any money in the bank? My fear is not raising enough money in time and having to let everyone go. I know having cast and crew attached helps alot when it comes to investors.

The main people I've approached so far have been friends, family, everyone I know. I'm now talking to outside investors. Where exactly should I set up to meet investors when I find them?

My budget is $12,500. It's not a lot, but I've heard the smaller your budget is the harder it is to raise money.
 
Only if they're going to interest investors. Names matter. If they aren't going to interest investors, don't attach them. Otherwise you're just giving yourself more obligations that might not be met. Get letters of intent from people who matter.

The smaller your budget the less serious investors will think your project is, with less room for actual distribution and return. Do you think you can make your money (or their money) back with the budget as you have it? Do you have a business plan to show this? It's perfectly possible to raise that amount, as long as you can show that it would be a good idea for someone to give you their money.

A hint I've heard from someone who has spent many years raising funds: don't sell a product. Sell the dream of being in the business to people who so far aren't.
 
$12,500?! LOL, wow you gotta be kidding me. I've shot a music video and a two-day short film that cost about that much, and we saved tons of money on those projects and did them very frugally...
 
Ha.. I have to see this music video and the 2-day short film that each cost $12500.

You do have a tendency to put down someone else's work, dont you? There are many people who have completed features for under 10k and have got them distributed. Stop the mockery.
 
In my opinion, any budget is good budget as long as you can find resources to meet them.

Who will invest in your movie will depend on what you are going to do with your film and how (convincingly) you can make a good return on investment - basically a plan with activities and numbers.
 
12,500 is a good deal of money for a film, depending on what you want to do though. Television runs through 110,000 a day - varies depending on what show.

But the online thing is pushing people to be creative and push costs as low as they can. 7K is too much money for online right now.

Short answer, having random crew won't help you get money. If you lock a date, lock casting, and have the film 'set-up' then it helps. But if you have the DoP from some great indie film or from a hollywood film similar in style to yours, then it helps. If you have talent locked - then it helps.

Having a friend who shoots things here and there - not so much.

And so long as you use the money wisely, you should be in good shape. I'd much rather have a 12,500 projected than a 1.5 - 1.9 mil projected. I'd say it is easier to get less money. But make sure you have a planned ROI, a planned distribution system, and a plan in general.
 
givemefood said:
Ha.. I have to see this music video and the 2-day short film that each cost $12500.

You do have a tendency to put down someone else's work, dont you? There are many people who have completed features for under 10k and have got them distributed. Stop the mockery.
Click to expand...

Ok, ask any professional if you can shoot a feature for $12,500, they will laugh at you. I'm sorry, that's not even close to enough money, not even for two people in a room talking. Ok, maybe if you shoot it in one day, but your movie will blows chunks. Even El Mariachi wasn't actually made for $12,500, it was much more than that when you take into consideration the additional post sound and music and various color work done to it, probably closer to $100,000. It was shot for like $7K, sure, but it was a rough cut at best with that. And that's a truly grand, amazing story right there, it's not like it happens often.

I just would hate for anyone to waste their cash unless they've really planned it out, because $12,500 is a lot of money to some people, but for filmmaking it's petty cash.

And what kind of amateur work do you do? A $12,500 budget for a music video is peanuts. It's good for indie stuff, but we would have spent $25,000 if it weren't for some really good deals we got from vendors and good relationships that were forged to get amazing crew for not that much money. As for the short, it was less than $9K actually, but with my equipment for free, which is why I say almost $12,500 if you included that sorta thing, and it would have easily been $20,000 if not for a lot of good connections, too, we only paid $500 for two locations total, for instance, one was free, whereas usually you'd have to pay quite a bit for these two locations. It was CHEAP.

You want to see what music video cost that much? Go to a film festival -- mine has been selected to 14 and I've won Best Music Video twice now. ;)

I'm not putting down anyone's work. $12,500 to make a feature is not realistic. It's not even possible to do that professionally. And if you want to make an amateur movie I don't see why you'd bother, but to each his own I guess, it's not my money. I just don't see who would invest in something that isn't going to be made professionally enough to compete with other indie features.
 
You need to get into that thick head of yours that not all people in this forum or into "indie" filmmaking have the kind of money that the so called "Professionals" have. So watch what you are saying... and more importantly how you are saying it. You put down EZLeaves (i dont care about EZLeaves) and started talking about your tool on your site (which no one has seen).. and unlikely that anyone will ever see. Totally unwarranted. Very amateur-ish. No basis for others to compare.

Your music video may have been accepted in festivals not because you spent $12500 but perhaps you did a good job. I'm sure there are others in this forum who probably spent 20% of it and had their videos accepted in festivals.

My "amateur" short films have costed as much as $25k to as low as $2K but the one made with 2K has had a 100% acceptance rate with festivals. So far 4 out of 4. The 1st one even got me an audience award. So it does not matter what and how much you spend... what matters is how you make your movie with the budget you have. And please stop bringing up El Mariachi or whatever the title is as an example... For that sake, you could even bring Blair Witch Project.

If you want to give this guy your opinion offer something constructive that he can think about and not laugh at what he's trying to do.



JonathanLB said:
Ok, ask any professional if you can shoot a feature for $12,500, they will laugh at you. I'm sorry, that's not even close to enough money, not even for two people in a room talking. Ok, maybe if you shoot it in one day, but your movie will blows chunks. Even El Mariachi wasn't actually made for $12,500, it was much more than that when you take into consideration the additional post sound and music and various color work done to it, probably closer to $100,000. It was shot for like $7K, sure, but it was a rough cut at best with that. And that's a truly grand, amazing story right there, it's not like it happens often.

I just would hate for anyone to waste their cash unless they've really planned it out, because $12,500 is a lot of money to some people, but for filmmaking it's petty cash.

And what kind of amateur work do you do? A $12,500 budget for a music video is peanuts. It's good for indie stuff, but we would have spent $25,000 if it weren't for some really good deals we got from vendors and good relationships that were forged to get amazing crew for not that much money. As for the short, it was less than $9K actually, but with my equipment for free, which is why I say almost $12,500 if you included that sorta thing, and it would have easily been $20,000 if not for a lot of good connections, too, we only paid $500 for two locations total, for instance, one was free, whereas usually you'd have to pay quite a bit for these two locations. It was CHEAP.

You want to see what music video cost that much? Go to a film festival -- mine has been selected to 14 and I've won Best Music Video twice now. ;)

I'm not putting down anyone's work. $12,500 to make a feature is not realistic. It's not even possible to do that professionally. And if you want to make an amateur movie I don't see why you'd bother, but to each his own I guess, it's not my money. I just don't see who would invest in something that isn't going to be made professionally enough to compete with other indie features.
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It all depends on your resources and the skills of the people involved... But good work can be done... (But it is equally important to be realistic about what you can and can't do, both to yourself and everyone else involved... for 12,500 is next to nothing) Of course you'll have to try and get as much free stuff and people willing to defer pay as possible.

"Lollielove" is a movie that cracked me up. I interviewed the producer on Filmnut (see link below) the budget was $2,000 and it blew away most comedies I've seen in theatrs recently. You may have heard of the woman who is the lead actor/director of the film, Jenna Fischer, she now stars in the office... Her husband at the time, who co-stars in the movie is writer/director James Gunn.

http://www.thestream.tv/watch.php?v=36 (Link to Lollilove Producer interview)

To the original poster.... Good luck!
 
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