I have 2 celebrities attached to my feature, now need to raise money, any suggestions

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indiefilmmaker

New member
Hey everyone,
I have 2 celebrities attached to an ultra low budget feature length project I'm the writer/producer/director on. The lead has an IMDb STARmeter in the top 2,000. Their star meter has been as high as the top 500, fairly well known person. The other celeb is in the top 8,000 and is fairly well known as well and has been a lead in a few Hollywood films. I'm looking at a budget of around $150k to shoot it. I'm looking at adding 2 more celebs that I feel pretty confident in getting. One I have talked to prior and they said they were interested once it was funded. I just set up the LLC for the movie and I'm in the process of drafting up all the business plan, PPM paperwork this week. I've already started them.

I'm basically gearing up to start raising money for this project and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions who has been successful in raising funds for a movie? My big concern are SEC rules of solicitation, so I don't want to break any rules. Do any of you know of any really great resources...books, websites, etc. that might be helpful to someone in my situation? I considered pre-sells but I read you need a completion bond and it's hard to get one unless you are more established. More research I've done has shown that most studios have shut down their low budget divisions so aren't looking at really funding low budget indie projects anymore. So I'm pretty much prepping for the private investor/angel investor route. I was on Film Specific a few months/to a year back and didn't find a whole lot of information on going this route. I've also read through the Corrado threads and didn't find too much info on funding strategy. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm sure I'll find the answer eventually...however any direction would be greatly appreciated to help me speed up the process.

thank you!
 
Sign up for filmspecific.com - even for a month and read and listen to all the taped sessions. Filmspecific is really all about raising money and selling films. Check out some of the free resources on the site first where you can get some advice for no dollars. If money is tight - do a month and download all the audio files. Don't buy any books just go to the bookstore if the live in LA. Very few books are gonna give you some secret. Better off signing up for a month of filmspecific.com ...DISCLAIMER...I don't work for filmspecific.com - I just think there are good resources there.
 
Attached as in letters of intent? Deal memos? He mentioned that he was already on Film Specific and didn't find a whole lot of useful information...

Is this your first feature film? Is it a distributable genre? Are you allowed to use the two current celebrity names attached to the project to raise funds? You're looking at having a total of four celebrities attached to a project with a budget of $150k? That's pretty ambitious - in addition to the paperwork you've already started, do you have ANY initial capital?

Kegan
 
There's not really much of a science to it when you're looking for an angel investor. Find a person with $150k to risk and pitch the hell out of your project. Be prepared to give up a lot of freedoms.
 
Kegan said:
Attached as in letters of intent? Deal memos? He mentioned that he was already on Film Specific and didn't find a whole lot of useful information...

Is this your first feature film? Is it a distributable genre? Are you allowed to use the two current celebrity names attached to the project to raise funds? You're looking at having a total of four celebrities attached to a project with a budget of $150k? That's pretty ambitious - in addition to the paperwork you've already started, do you have ANY initial capital?

Kegan
Click to expand...

I need to go back and get letters from the actors for the distributors. Will work on that this week. Someone else suggested that I get letters of interest and then take them to distributors and see if I can line up distribution interest. Then take that distribution interest to investors/financiers.

I shot a low budget feature years ago, it was nominated for best drama/comedy in an international film festival. This will be my 2nd. I can definitely use the actors names to raise funds, however I don't have letters yet. I thought about printing out the e-mail as my temp. letter if need be and they always can contact their manager/agent to confirm it if they like too. No initial capital, I'm just now setting up all the paperwork for it, want to have that all in place first and formulate a good strategy.

Yes the budget is very lean to assure it can be made while also maximizing the possibility of a return. We're shooting HD with a lot of deferrals from cast to crew. I wrote the script in a way that allows for minimal days on each additional star coming out, with the script primarily revolving around the lead characters. The lead character is a star that will take up a majority of the budget.
 
I wouldn't rely on printing out emails as your temporary letter. Get a real letter of intent that includes the use of their names to raise capital. Without initial capital, you likely won't be able to get a deal memo unless for some reason they're absolutely in love with your script (not saying its not good, just that it's an unlikely scenario).

Did your first film get distro? As long as you're maximizing your resources and budget to ensure great production value and a good movie, I'm sure you'll be fine.

As for actually raising your capital, have you considered AFM? Or bringing on a producer with some experience with raising funds? I'm sure a producer would jump at the chance of being involved with a production with some names attached.

Best of luck,

Kegan
 
My first feature didn't get distro, it was shot for under $10k, with no names and could have been a lot better if we had more money behind it. We funded it ourselves and decided to not push for distro because we want our first feature that goes wide to meet a certain quality standard. I did a number of shorts since then to really improve on skills prior to doing the next feature I have in the works.

I have considered bringing on a producer with experience in raising funds. I actually contacted a few earlier today and will see what I can do to bring someone on soon. I looked at AFM but don't want to wait on that process since section 181 is expiring and I'd like to see if I can take advantage of it prior to expiring. We'll see.
 
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Try Indiegogo or Kickstarter. With a celebrity attached, you may get money from fans of said celebrities.

-Nate
 
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