How to Make LookBook for an Independent Film
Decks and lookbooks are not the same. Here’s how you make the latter.
I’ve written previously about what goes into an indie film deck, but as I get more and more submissions from filmmakers, I’m realizing that most of them don’t fully understand the difference between a lookbook and a deck. So, I thought I would outline what goes into a lookbook, and then I’ll come back in a future post to outline when you need a lookbook when you need a deck, and when you need a business plan.
What goes in a lookbook is less rigid than what goes in a deck. It’s also designed to be a more creatively oriented document than a deck. But in general, these are the pieces of information you’ll need in your lookbook. I’ve grouped them into 4 general sections to give you a bit more of a guideline.
You’ll often see the term stakeholder. I use this to mean anyone who might hold a stake in the outcome of your project, be they investors, distributors, or even other high-level crew.
Basic Project Information
This section is to give a general outline of the project and includes the following pieces of information.
Title
Logline
Synopsis
Character Descriptions
Filmmaker/Team bios
The title should be self-explanatory, but if you have a fancy font treatment or temp poster, this would be a good place to use it.
The logline should be 1 or 2 sentences at most. It should tell what your story is about in an engaging way to make people want to see the movie. You probably want to include the genre here as well,
The synopsis in the lookbook should be 5-8 sentences, and cover the majority of the film’s story. This isn’t script coverage or a treatment. It’s a taste to get your potential investors or other stakeholders to want more.
Character descriptions should be short, but more interesting than basic demographics. Give them an heir of mystery, but enough of an idea that the reader can picture them in their head. Try something like this. Matt (white, male, early 20s) is a bit of a rebel and a pizza delivery boy. He’s a bit messy, but nowhere near as bad as his apartment. He’s more handsome than his unkempt appearance lets on, If he cleaned up he’d never have to sleep alone. But one day he delivers pizza to the wrong house and gets thrust into time-traveling international intrigue.
Even that’s a little long, but I wasn’t actually basing it on a movie, so tying it into the film itself was trickier than I thought it would be. That would be alright for a protagonist, but too long for anyone else.
Filmmaker and Team bios should be short, bullet points are good, list achievements and awards to put a practical emphasis on what they bring to the table DO NOT pad your bio out to 5000 words of not a lot of information. Schooling doesn’t matter a lot unless you went to UCLA, USC, NYU or an Ivy League school.
Creative Swatches
These are general creative things to give a give the prospective stakeholder an idea of the creative feel of the film. They can include the following, although not all are necessary.
Inspiration
Creatively Similar Films
Images Denoting the General Feel of the Film
Color Palette
The inspiration would be a little bit of information on what gave you the vision for this film. It shouldn’t be long, but it definitely shouldn’t be something along the lines of “I’ m the most vissionnarry film in the WORLD. U WILL C MAI NAME IN LAIGHTS!” (Misspellings intentional) Check your ego here, but talk about the creative vision you had that inspired you to make the film. Try to keep it to 3-4 sentences.
Creatively similar films are films that have the same feel as your film. You’re less restricted by budget level and year created here than you would be in a comp analysis, that said, don’t put the Avengers or other effects-heavy films here if you’re making an ultra-low budget piece. I’d say pick 5, and use the posters.
Images denoting the general feel of the film are just a collection of images that will give potential stakeholders an idea of the feel of the film. These can be reference images from other films, pieces of art, or anything that conveys the artistic vision in your head. This is not a widely distributed document, so the copyright situation gets a bit fuzzy regarding what you an use. That said, the stricter legal definition is probably that you can’t use without permission. #NotALawyer
The color palette would be what general color palette of the project. This is one you could leave out, but if there’s a very well-defined color feel of the film like say, Minority Report, then showing the colors you’ll be using isn’t a terrible call, Also,, it's generally best to just let this pallet exist on the background of the document on your look book.
Technical/ Practical swatches
This section is a good indicator of what you already have, as well as some more technical information about the film in general. It should include the following.
Locations You’d like to shoot at
Cities You’d Like to shoot in
Equipment you plan on using
Photos are great here, if you use cities or states include the tax incentives for them, The equipment should only be used if it’s the higher end like an Arri or Red. If you’re getting it at a fantastic cost, you should mention that here as well. People tend not to care about the equipment you’re using, but if you’re going to put it in any pitch document, this is the one.
Light Business Information
The lookbook is primarily a creative document, but since most of the potential stakeholders you’re going to be showing it to are business people, you should include the basics. When they want more, send them a deck.
Here’s what you should include
Ideal Cast list & Photos
Ideal Director List
Ideal Distributors
These are important to assess the viability of the project from a distribution standpoint. It can also affect different ways to finance your film. If your director is attached, don’t include that. If you have an LOI from a distributor, don’t mention potential distributors. Unless your film is under 50k, don’t say you won’t seek name talent for a supporting role. You should consider it if it’s even remotely viable.
If this was useful to you but you need more, you should snag my FREE indiefilm resource package. I’ve got lots of great templates you get when you join, and you also get a monthly blog digest segmented by topic to make sure you’re informed when you start talking to investors. Click below to get it.
The 12 Slides You Need in Your IndieFilm Investment Deck - WITH TEMPLATE!
Generally, when you have your first serious meeting with an investor they’ll ask to see your deck. Here’s what they want.
Pitching to independent investors is a much different formula than we’re generally taught in Film Schools. The formula we’re taught in Film School is generally built around a studio pitch. A studio does a lot more than give money to a project. They have huge marketing, PR, legal, and distribution teams that they use to monetize any films they finance. As such it’s not the filmmaker’s job to pitch their projects on anything except story when working within that system.
Would you rather Watch a video than read a blog? I've got you covered in the video from my Youtube Channel.
Filmmakers must take a different approach when talking to independent film investors. Generally, angel investors are only looking to finance projects, they don’t have resources to help market and distribute the film. While Film is a highly speculative and inherently risky investment, and most film investors don’t invest in film solely for the ROI, they need to know you have a path to get their money back to them.
There’s a certain formula for creating a successful slideshow for investors. These presentations (Generally referred to as “Decks” in Silicon Valley) have been honed to tell the story of your company. Investors are used to seeing this format when deciding whether or not to invest in your project. It’s pretty easy to find samples of this formula for regular companies on SlideShare, but since the film industry is so specialized there must be some modifications made to the formula in order to make a good Deck to pitch your film to an investor. Below is a breakdown of what should go into a Filmmaking deck, or you can just grab the template in the resource pack.
SLIDE 0 – Project Name/Artwork.
In a standard company pitch, the first thing that appears is the name of the company and the logo. For a film or media project, instead use the name of the project, the name of your production company, and the one sheet for your project.
SLIDE 1 – Project Overview
Generally, this would be where an entrepreneur would put an overview of his or her company, what it does, and what its mission is. For a film or media project, put the logline of your project, as well as the genre and a basic overview of the story.
SLIDE 2 – Why Does this Project Need to be Made?
In a standard company pitch, slide 2 and 3 would be the problem that the company seeks to solve, and the solution it offers. Since Films are generally made more as entertainment, they don’t always have a problem that they’re fixing. So instead, focus on why this project should be made.
Some approaches you could take on this would be that there’s not enough family-friendly media being made, Women and minorities are vastly underrepresented in media, young LGBT kids need a role model, or that whatever niche you’re targeting doesn’t have enough entertainment. Figure out WHY your story needs to be told, and it can’t just be that you’re an artist and it’s in your soul.
SLIDE 3 – Why Your Project is the One to tell That Story
In the standard company deck, this would generally be the solution that your company offers. For film, focus on why you and your team are the ones to tell the story you established in slides 1 and 2. Don’t go too deep into the team, you’ll cover that later.
SLIDE 4 – Opportunity
This slide is where an entrepreneur or filmmaker focusus on the size of the market and how they plan to access it. Focus on any niche communities you can target, and the genre your film is in generally performs internationally.
SLIDE 5 – Unique Competitive Advantage
Your Unique competitive advantage will remain mostly the same as it would in a pitch for any sort of company. You need to emphasize why your film should be the one they invest in. Do you have a large following in the niche audiences you’re targeting? Do you have some unique insight into the subject matter that no one has heard before? Is there something unique about your background that makes you the ideal person to tell this story.
Focus on why your film or media project will stand apart from the competitors and has the best chance to make a profit. In short, How will you stand out from the pack when others don’t?
SLIDE 6 – Marketing Strategy
Long time silicon valley strategist Sheridan Tatsuno likens market research to setting up a target, and marketing to shooting the arrow at it. You’ve set up the target in slides 4 and 5, now it’s time to show how you’re going to shoot the arrow and make a bullseye. How will you utilize social media? Which platforms will you use? Are you already a part of the communities of your target market?
SLIDE 7 – Distribution Strategy
Generally, this would be your Go-To-Market strategy. In the film industry, this essentially means your distribution strategy. What rights will you be handling yourself, and what rights will you be handing to a distributor? What platforms will you use? How will you handle US Sales? Are you planning on attaching an international sales agent? How will you go about doing that if you haven’t already?
SLIDE 8 – Competitive Analysis
Show other films in a similar genre that have done well. Remember, this isn’t your business plan, so only show about 3 if you’re showing individual projects, not the 20 you should research. If you’ve already done your full competitive analysis, show one or two profitable representative samples and then the aggregate on all of the 10-20 films you researched. The charts and tables are good here.
You only want to use content from the last 3-5 years. Content older than that doesn’t realistically represent the current marketplace. This is something that even professionals who estimate ROIs don’t always follow. It’s always a red flag for investors when your examples are too old,
SLIDE 9 – Financials
Generally, you’ll need a few of the major line items from your top sheet budget. A good bet would be your above-the-line, pre-production, principal photography, post-production, and marketing and distribution (or P&A) costs. Due to union caps, it can often be beneficial to raise your marketing and distribution budget at a later date. Projected ROI will also go on this slide.
SLIDE 10 – Current Status
This should be fairly self-explanatory, but here are a few questions to ask yourself. What have you accomplished so far? Do you have any talent attached? Are you talking with Sales Agents? Where is the script in development? Are there any notable crew on board?
SLIDE 11 – Team
Focus on why you and your team are uniquely qualified to not only bring this film to completion but deliver a quality product that can give an excellent ROI to all involved. Has your leadership team won awards at festivals? Have projects they’ve been on done impressive things?
SLIDE 12 – Summary/Thank You
For the final slide, put the three most important and/or marketable things about your project into a single slide. Investors get approached with a lot of opportunities and their brains can get cluttered. If an investor walks away knowing only these three things about your project, what do you want them to be?
Most importantly, thank them for their time and consideration, and make sure there’s an easy-to-find way to contact you ON YOUR DECK. Ideally on the first and last page. We’ll often send out decks when we send out the executive summary, so make yourself easy to contact if they’re interested.
Also, I alluded to this at the top of the article in the image caption, but this post did indeed originally appear on ProducerFoundry.com. But, this isn't just a port. I also set up a FREE template in both Keynote and Powerpoint in my resources packet. Grab that with the buttons below.
7 Things to Prep BEFORE STARTING your Festival Run
If you want to find success at film festivals, you need to prepare. Here’s a guide.
Far too many people consider the festival circuit as the be-all and end-all of their marketing and distribution plans. While there are quite a few things wrong with that approach from a distribution standpoint. (See last week’s blog here for an outline of why) film festivals can be a great way to market your film. Although getting ready to attend a film festival is generally a bit hectic. There’s always a lot to do, and it’s easy to forget something. So with that in mind, I’ve prepared a prioritized list of the top 7 marketing assets you’ll need to prep before going to a film festival.
1. Business Card
If you bring nothing else, you should bring a business card. Well, also a set of clothes I suppose, but I digress. If you want to make lasting connections, you need a way to follow up with people. If you want people to follow up with you, they’ve got to have a way to reach you.
Simply saying that you’re easy to find online is not really an acceptable answer at networking events like this. It’s far too easy to forget that they were going to reach out at professional events like this.
2. All your social media pages Set up and active
As we discussed last week, a big part of the reason to attend film festivals is to build your brand and build awareness of your film. You want to make sure your film is easy to find online, and that there’s a way you can establish a connection with anyone who might want to buy it in the future as soon as you’ve connected with them at a film festival.
For more, check out this article I wrote on proper Facebook management.
Related: How to manage your indiefilm facebook page
3. Your Website
Its 2019. Your film needs a website. Even if it’s just a splash page going to your social media outlets. The only reason this is below social media is that if you’re going to drive people to your website when you’re not at a festival, you’re going to need something like social media to do it.
For more information on what should be on your website, check out the blog below.
Related: 13 things you NEED on your Production Company Website
4. Printed Materials to give away
Even a business card can sometimes be hard to remember, and it’s nowhere near enough to capture the attention of the overworked journalists that may attend this film festival. That’s why you need larger, harder-to-lose festival printouts. These can give all the information a time-strapped reporter would need to write a quick blurb about your film, and direct to something like an EPK for more detailed information. Learn more with the article below.
Related: Printed materials for your festival run
But speaking of EPK…
5. An EPK (Electronic Press Kit)
Every filmmaker will have assets that would be useful to a reporter, but not really something that could be easily handled by a printed brochure. That’s where an EPK comes in. The EPK is more detailed information and assets that can be used by a journalist or reviewer. It should have blurbs, links to your trailer, sizzle reels, and interviews if you have them.
For more information, click the link below.
Related: Everything you need in your Indiefilm EPK
6. An Email List Capture page
Going back to your website, if it’s anything more than a simple splash page, you need a way to capture the email address of people visiting your site. With their consent, of course. This will be much more valuable to you than almost any other social media, as it’s more static and doesn’t change its terms as often as other platforms may. Although that’s been less true as of late with Gmail’s aggressive filtering systems.
Related: 5 Steps to Grow your Indiefilm Email List
7. A Giveaway for people joining your list
Finally, if you have an email list set up, you should give something away to entice people to join. I’ve listed 5 ideas for filmmakers below, as the standard fallbacks of ebooks, and other marketing giveaways aren’t always valid. Check the article below to see what I mean.
Related: 5 Giveaways for your IndieFilm Email Marketing
Thanks so much for reading! If you want more content like this, you should join my mailing list. Just as it says in #7, I have a few giveaways for you including a monthly blog digest and a FREE Film Marketing Resource package!
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Everything you need in an Electronic Press Kit (EPK)
If you want to get press for your feature film, you’ll need an electronic press kit. (EPK) here’s how you make one.
Last week I shared a few different types of printed materials to use at film festivals. This week, I thought I’d follow up with a post on the essential components of the Indiefilm Electronic Press Kit. I will say that this is one thing where reasonable people can disagree, so if you think there’s something I missed, comment below and I might change the post to include it.
How people should access your press kit
Your press kit is not the same as the press tab on your website. The press tab on your website is primarily to promote your film to consumers and assemble the press that you’ve gotten for both your company and your film. The EPK is a kit to give potential reporters and reviewers of your film so that they have most of everything they need to do an article on you, or a report on you. Here’s what you’ll generally need to provide them. (Often, this will be behind a password firewall, that you’ll include on your printed materials.)
Synopsis
You’ll want to include a catchy summary of your film. This will be in lots of places on your site, but you want to make it easy to reference for the press.
A Running Festival Acceptance/Award List
This section will be on the press tab as well, but you should keep everything on a single page for your film. It’s essentially just a list of any and all film festivals you’ve been accepted to, as well as any and all awards you’ve won.
Trailer/Clips from the film
You should include your trailer and maybe a scene or two from your film to give those who are writing an article on your film the ability to do their job both easily and well. I’d also include a direct link to wherever the videos are hosted.
Full Bio of Cast/Crew/Production Company With Social Media/IMDb links.
Your regular site will have a lot of this information, but you’ll want to make sure you include the names, bios, previous credits, and links to public-facing social media profiles of all your key cast and crew. These would be the producers, directors, leads, and strong supporting characters.
Photo Gallery/Downloadable Zip File
Articles tend to come with a few photos, so I’d include around 10-15 photos including stills from your movie and headshots of key personnel. Make sure they’re high-res, but not Raw.
A Password Protected Screener
You should definitely include a password-protected screener for your film. In this instance, it’s acceptable to have something akin to an email for a password below it. Normally this isn’t something you’ll want to do to people reviewing your movie, but since you’ll probably hand the other password out as part of your printed materials that may end up in the wrong hands this one might be wise to include.
If you’ve got too much to do and wish you had templates for your printed materials, I’ve got your back. My resource pack is chock-full of templates including festival brochures, investment decks, contact tracking, form letters, and exclusive educational content to help you grow your filmmaking career. Click the link below to grab it.
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The Printed Materials you Need for Film Festivals and Markets
If you want to get the most out of a Film Festival, you’ve got to maximize it as a promotional opportunity for you and your work. Here are some things that might help.
Most filmmakers only think about festivals when they’re getting ready to market their film. There are lots of reasons that this line of thinking is flawed, however, it would take far more than a 600-800 word blog to even begin to touch on them. However, if you’re going to have ANY level of success from your festival run, you’re going to need some really snazzy printed materials. This blog outlines a couple of examples I’ve used personally and had success with.
Why you need Good Printed Materials
Just getting into a festival is no guarantee people will see your movie. Generally, you have to spend a good amount of time and energy driving people to your screening. One of the most effective ways to do that is by having them a tangible piece of paper that has all the information they’ll need on it.
Generally, the cheapest thing you can hand them is a postcard, however, for festivals, I strongly prefer a Tri-Fold Brochure. The Tri-Fold Brochure has more space for everything a reporter or reviewer may need to know about your project, all put into a piece of paper that can be easily turned and segmented to group relevant pieces of information.
The point of getting into a film festival is less about getting people to see your movie, and more about validating your film and giving it a chance to get meaningful press coverage. Both of these things are significantly more likely to happen if you can make a reporter’s job easier by giving them all the information they need in one compact piece of paper.
Postcard Outline
Generally, you’ll want the promotional art for your project to take up the front of your postcard. If you don’t want it to take up the entire front of your film, you could leave a space for screening times towards the bottom. If you want to get more use out of these cards, you could also leave a space that can be covered with a return address mailing label on the bottom where you can put the time and locations of screenings at this festival.
On the back, I’d put a synopsis, information about the director, and maybe a little bit about how the film was shot. You probably won’t have space for much else.
Brochure Outline
I’ve added a template for this in my resources section, but I’ll outline what I mean here.
On the front panel, you’ll want to put the key art, where the film is screening (The mailing address label works well here too), and maybe your social media links or where they can purchase the film.
When they open the brochure, on one of the two panels you reveal you’ll want to put some stills from the film to add visual interest. On the other panel, they’ll see when they open your brochure, you’ll want to outline your production company, including your creed/mission statement and other projects you’ve made.
Then they open the other panel, you’ll want them to see photos and bios of your key cast and crew.
On the back panel, you’ll want a bit more art, a bit about what you’re working on next, the next steps for the film, and then a press contact and a link to download your EPK. If your film is available for sale anywhere, you’ll also want to include that there.
I actually a template of this format for MSWord and Apple Pages. You can find it in my FREE Resource package alongside other templates.
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How to Write an Independent Film Business Plan - 7/7 Pro-Forma Financial Statements
If you want an ivestor to give you their money, you’ll need to show them how you’ll spend it and how they’ll get it back. That’s what pro-forma financial statements are for. Here’s how you make them.
In the final part of my 7-part series on writing a business plan for independent film and media, I’ll be going over all of the financial statements you’ll need in your business plan. This is a section that you’ll want to write before you write the financial text section of your plan, as it will have a great impact on that section and potentially other sections of the plan. Each document should take up only a single page.
Topsheet Budget
If you’re reading this, hopefully, you already know what a topsheet budget is. In case you don’t, It’s the summary budget of your entire film that should take up no more than a page. Unlike the rest of these documents which should be made by an executive producer, the top sheet budget is best made by a line producer or UPM. It’s important to note, that you can’t just make a topsheet budget, it comes as a byproduct of making a detail budget for your film. It’s not something that should be effectively created for it’s own sake.
Revenue Topsheet
This page is a summary of all the money that will come into your project, and how it will go out and come back to the production company and the investor, loosely organized by what comes in domestically vs internationally, and what media right types bring in what money.
This is not something that all people writing business plans for films include, however, I feel that it’s an important document that gives an angel investor a simplified snapshot of the entire revenue picture before diving into some of the more gory details.
Waterfall to Company (Expected Income Breakdown)
Louise Levison says you only need an expected income breakdown. When I create proformas, I tend to include how the overall revenue table that outlines where the money will be divided among the major stakeholders. This includes the distribution platforms, distributors, sales agents, producer’s reps, banks, and investors. It’s likely that if this is your first film, you won’t have all of those stakeholders, but it’s important to include the stakeholders you do have.
Additionally, I use this outline what cuts are standard for each of those stakeholders, and what remains from each right type to go to the production company and the investor.
Internal Company Waterfall/Capitalization Table
This is another document that not everyone includes, but due to my time in the tech industry, I find something like it is essential. The term capitalization table (or Cap Table for short) is taken from the tech industry and outlines who owns what part of a company.
This document goes further than a standard cap table, in that not only does it outline the major owners of the company, it also shows where the money goes once it comes back to the production company, and how it’s divided between debt, investors, producers, actors, and other people within your production company who made the film.
This document should calculate the investor’s expected Return on Investment (ROI) as well as how much is likely to go to producers and anyone else who has received profit participation. If you have more than one set of people on the crew receiving profit participation, then you may want to lump it into a cast/crew equity pool.
CashFlow Statement/Breakeven Analysis
This is a yearly/quarterly estimate of how the money will go out and come back in. Generally, your entire budget will go out before any money comes back in. If you’re using staged investments, you’ll want to outline when additional rounds of funding are likely to come into the company. Part of this is keeping track of the cash flow as you spend the money and as it goes back to investors.
I’ll generally make an assumption that it will take a year from investment to complete the film. After that, money will start coming back in about 3-4 quarters, and trickle in from each source according to however you think the film will be windowed. That’s actually the optimistic version timeline. By the end of 5-7 years after the initial investment, you’ll likely just want to end the cash flow statement since it’s unlikely your film will be producing that much revenue. Films are not evergreen.
Research/Sources
This is as it sounds. it’s all the resources for your comparative analysis that you used to make revenue projections, as well as any other sources you may have referenced in your plan. If you did a comparative analysis, you’ll want to include the details on the films you chose as well as where you got the data, as reporting is inconsistent across major platforms like IMDb pro, The-Numbers, Box Office Mojo, and Rentrack. I also have a useful whitepaper and some useful links in the resource pack.
Thanks so much for reading this blog. Thanks even more if you read all 7 parts! If you’re a film school teacher and would like to use this in a course, feel free to email me using the link below to get a free print-ready version of this series, or anything else you may want to reverence.
Making your pro-forma financial statements requires a lot of research. My resource package has a whitepaper and collection of links that will help speed that process up a bit, as well as other templates and related content. Grab it for free with the button below.
If you need a guiding hand through the process, I’ve written. few dozen plans. Check out my services page if this is just. a bit too daunting to do on your own.
Lastly, if you want to review any of the other sections of this 7 part series, here’s a guild for you below.
Executive Summary
The Company
The Projects
Marketing
Risk Statement/SWOT Analysis
Financials Section (Text)
Pro-Foma Financial Statements. (This Section)
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How to Write an Independent Film Business Plan - 6/7 Financial Methodolgy
If you want to raise money from investors to make your independent film, you’ll need rock-solid financials. Here’s how you write that section of your business plan.
In part 6 of my 7-part series on independent film business planning, we’re going to go over the text portion of the financial section of the business plan. This is where you explain the methodology you used in your financial projections, the general plan for taking in the money, and then an overview of what you’re going to present in the final section, the pro-forma financial statements.
It’s pretty common to send this section out as a standalone document, or perhaps paired with the deck or executive summary. That said, the reason it’s at the back of the business plan is to force your potential investor to flip around through the plan and better acquaint themselves with your prospectus and project. That, and this is relatively standard practice across multiple industries.
Investment Plan
This subsection is devoted to how you intend to raise your funding. As a hint, the answer SHOULD NOT be that you intend on raising your funding entirely from equity investors. You’ll want to outline where you intend to raise each part of your money from, as well as how that money will be raised.
Some questions to ask yourself here are as follows, how much are you planning on raising in tax incentives? How much are you planning on raising in product placement? Do you have any pre-sales from a distributor or sales agency? Are you planning on any other forms of backed debt? Did you have a successful crowdfunding campaign? How much are you looking for in equity investment? And how much do you intend to raise in unbacked debt?
For more detail on this, you should check out one of my most popular articles.
Related: The 9 ways to finance an independent film.
You’ll also want to figure out if you’re staging the investment. By this, I mean are you planning on raising money for development first? Do you plan a separate raise for completion or marketing funds? There can be some pretty big advantages to raising funding for your film across multiple rounds.
For more information on this, I encourage you to check out my blog on the 4 stages of independent film investment.
Related: The 4 stages of independent film investment.
You absolutely must to make sure they understand your offer. Some questions you’ll need to answer are: What’s the amount you’re raising in equity and what percentage ownership in your project are you offering for that funding? What’s your minimum buy-in? Who are the other stakeholders?
Additionally, you’ll want to highlight the potential revenue for your film and give them their estimated Return on Investment (ROI). This will have to be done after your pro-forma financial statements. You’ll also want to outline when you expect them to break even.
Financial Assumptions
This section is primarily about outlining the assumptions you used while making your pro-forma financial statements. You’ll want to outline the criteria you used when creating a comparative analysis, as well as what assumptions you made while creating your cash flow sheet, and waterfall to your company/expected income breakdown.
For more detail on financial projections, please check out this blog below.
Related: The two main types of financial projections
Pro Forma Financial Statements
Finally, you’ll want to outline your Pro-Forma financial statements. For reference, these are the following documents.
Topsheet Budget: A snapshot of how the money will be spent on your film. You can only get this by doing a full detail budget. If you try to make a top sheet from scratch, you’ll end up creating more problems than you solve.
Revenue Topsheet: An overview of money to the company and to the investor.
Waterfall to Company/Expected Income breakdown: An outline of how much money your film will make based on your comparative analysis, and from what sources. Generally, when I make a waterfall like this, I’ll also deduct the fees from various other stakeholders including platforms, distributors, sales agents, and producer’s reps (if applicable.)
Internal company waterfall (capitalization table). This sheet is something that not everyone does, but it essentially outlines where the money will go once it gets to your company. I feel this is necessary if you’re using a more complicated financial mix that incorporates debt and tax incentives.
Cashflow Sheet/ Breakeven analysis: This document is an overview of how money will flow through the company and subsequently come back in. you’ll want to highlight when they can expect to recoup their investment.
Research/Sources: This is self-explanatory, it’s the research you used in the other sections of the plan, particularly the films you used in the comparative analysis.
Thanks so much for reading! I’ll be back next week with the final installment going into much more detail on the pro forma financial statements.
The reason I was able to write this blog series is that I’ve written a few dozen independent film business plans. If you need help with yours, you should check out my services page.
If you need more help researching for your business plan, check out the indiefilm Business Resource Pack. As mentioned above, it’s got a whitepaper to help you with your research, as well as lots of other helpful links and resources to aid in the creation of all the documentation you’ll need to talk to your investors. Plus, you’ll get a monthly blog digest full of helpful content so that you can be as knowledgeable as possible when you speak to your investor contacts.
Finally, if you want to check out the other sections of this 7 part blog series, I’ve included a table of contents below.
Executive Summary
The Company
The Projects
Marketing
Risk Statement/SWOT Analysis
Financial Section (Text/Methodology) - This Post
Pro-Foma Financial Statements.
Check the tags below for related conent!
How to Write an Independent Film Business Plan - 5/7 SWOT/ Risk Analysis
Investing is always risky. Investing in Film is moreso. If you’re raising money, you need to make sure your investors know this.
In part 5 of my 7-part series on business planning, we talk about the risk management/SWOT Analysis of your project. It begins with a risk statement that goes into exactly why film is a highly speculative and inherently risky investment, and then goes into a SWOT Analysis that illustrates how you plan on managing those risks. For those of you who don’t know SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Risk Statement
This is a boilerplate legal copy that you should not write yourself. You’ll need a lawyer to write it, or some editions of Filmmakers and Financing by Louise Levinson have a statement you can use. You’ll see it in the related books section below. The purpose of this statement is to ensure that any potential knows that film investment carries a fairly significant risk of losing everything you put into it.
This is something you MUST include in order to not paint too blue a sky, or make false promises. If it scares off any investors, it’s probably better you didn’t work with them anyway.
SWOT Analysis
The way I do my SWOT analysis is on the bottom third of the page that contains the risk statement, I do a 2*2 grid of strengths weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that outlines everything that will come for the following pages. If it fits, this is succinct and a great way to manage space while informing your people.
The other four sections of this plan are things I generally dress in a format similar to an outline, starting with a restatement of the Strength, Weakness, opportunity, or threat itself, and then stating how I intend to mitigate the negative and capitalize on the positive. Here’s an outline of what each of these parts of the acronym stands for.
Strengths
Strengths are good things that are inherent to your project. This could be something like holiday movies tend to have longer lifespans because they have regular movies to trigger people feeling the need to watch them, or there’s already an existing fan base for the intellectual property you’ve optioned. Another good thing to focus on would be the track record of your team, and the general stength of any marketable attachments you’ve gotten. If you don’t have any of those, there’s an article on it in the free ebook in the resouce pack.
Weaknesses
Conversely, weaknesses are things inherent to your project that may represent a problem. These could be things like the Fourth of July is a uniquely American Holiday, so the film may be difficult to sell internationally. It could also be something like, the film is completely original and has no existing fanbase. As previously stated, you’ll want to add exactly how you plan on addressing any weaknesses below each one.
Opportunity
While Strengths are inherent to your project, opportunities are more related to the current state of the overall market. This could be a marketable attachment you’ve got that just had a big win, such as one of your cast being cast in a major show or movie that was just announced.
Another example of this might be that there aren’t enough Fourth of July movies currently being made to sate demand and you’ve budgeted your film such that you can make your money back domestically.
Another example would be that a book from the same author as the book we’ve based our script on just got picked up for a television series by *insert name of the studio or PayTV Channel.*. Similarly, if your story is inspired by current conditions going on in the world or targeting a growing audience this is a good place to hammer that point home.
Threats
Just like opportunities, threats are reflective of current market conditions. An example of a threat would be that due to the current geopolitical state of the world, many foreign countries are less likely to buy American than they used to be. A potential trade war would also be considered a threat, although as of right now that’s not incredibly likely to effect to film and media. Without being too political, many threats you’ll need to understand are a result of macroeconomic conditions that you can only really track by being politically aware.
Thank you SO much for reading! I do a lot of this sort of work with my clients, so if you have a direct question that you need help answering for your business, then check out the Guerrilla Rep Services page.
If you like the content, you should grab my free film business resource package You’ll get great research aides and a whitepaper on the state of the industry, you’ll also get a free e-book, money and time-saving resources, templates, monthly digests of content like this segmented by topic, plus a whole lot more. Link in the button below.
Finally, this is part 5 of a 7 part series. Next week we’ll be tackling the financial text section, and then we’ll round it out with proforma financial statements the following week. In the meantime, check out the other parts of the series with the links below.
Executive Summary
The Company
The Projects
Marketing
Risk Statement/SWOT Analysis (This Section)
Financials Section (Text)
Pro-Foma Financial Statements.
How To Write a Business Plan for an Independent Film - 3/7 Project(s)
Filmmakers don’t tend to plan to fail, but they often fail to plan. Here’s how to write the project section of an independent film business plan.
Next up in my 7 part series on writing a business plan for independent film, we’ll be taking a deeper look at the project(s) section of the plan. The projects section of the plan is the most creative section, as it talks about the creative work that you’re seeking to finance. That being said, it breaks those creative elements into their basic business points. This section should be no more than a page if you have one project, and no more than 2 pages if you’re looking at a slate.
GENRE
Genre is a huge part of marketing any film. It essentially categorizes your film into what interest groups you’ll be marketing. This subsection should focus on the genre of your film, as well as who you expect the film to appeal to.
For more information on the concept of Genre in Film as it pertains to distribution, check out this blog.
RELATED: WHY GENRE IS VITAL TO INDIEFILM MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION
PLOT SYNOPSIS
This is as it sounds. It’s a one-paragraph synopsis of your film. When you’re writing it, keep in mind that you’re not telling your story, so much as selling it. Make it exciting. Make it something that the person reading the plan simply will not be able to ignore.
BUDGET
This one should also be self-explanatory, list the total budget of your film. It would make sense to break it into the following categories. Above the Line, Development, Pre-Production, Principle photography, post-production, and producer’s contribution to marketing and distribution.
The last part is to acknowledge that while the distributor will be contributing a large amount to the marketing and distribution costs of the film, it will not be the sole contribution, and you as the filmmaker will likely have to contribute some amount of time and/or money to make sure your film is sold well.
RATING
This section talks about your expected rating. Say what you expect to get, what themes you think will cause the film to get that rating, and how that will help you sell the film to the primary demographic listed above.
MARKETABLE ATTACHMENTS
Did you get Tom Cruise for your movie? What about Joseph Gordon Levitt? Or maybe Brian De Palma came on to direct. If you have anyone like this (or even someone with far less impressive credits) make sure you list that you’ve got them. If you’re in talks with their people, list it here too.
Related: 5 Reasons you Still need Name Talent in your film
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY STATUS
Finally, you’ll need to list the intellectual property status of your film. By this, I simply mean is the concept original? Is it based on anything? Did you acquire the rights to whatever it’s based on? If you optioned rights, when does the option expire? If you optioned rights, who is the original owner of the rights?
Writing a business plan that can actually raise funding is a lot more than just using a template. If you want a leg up you should check out my free resource pack which includes a deck template, a free e-book, digests of relevant industry-related content, delivered to your inbox once a month, and notifications of special events and other announcements tailored to the needs of the filmmakers I work with.
You should know that I’ve written a few dozen business plans for filmmakers, some of which have raised significant funding. If you want to talk about it check out our services page.
Thanks so much for reading! You can find the other completed sections of this 7-part series below.
Executive Summary
The Company
The Projects (This Post)
Marketing
Risk Statement/SWOT Analysis
Financials Section (Text)
Pro-Foma Financial Statements.
Check the tags below for related content
How to Write an Independent Film Business Plan - 1/7 Executive Summary
If you want to raise money from an investor, you have to do your homework. That includes making a business plan. A business plan starts with an executive summary.
One of my more popular services for filmmakers is Independent Film Business Plan Writing. So I decided to do a series outlining the basics of writing an independent film business plan to talk about what I do and give you an idea of how you can get started with it yourself.
Before we really dive in it’s worth noting that what will really sell an investor on your project is you. You need to develop a relationship with them and build enough trust that they’ll be willing to take a risk with you. A business plan shows you’ve done your homework, but in the end, the close will be around you as a filmmaker, producer, and entrepreneur.
The first Section of the independent film business plan is always the Executive Summary, and it’s the most important that you get right. So how do you get it right? Read this blog for the basics.
Write this section LAST
This section may be the first section in your independent film business plan, but it’s the last section you should write. Once you’ve written the other sections of this plan, the executive summary will be a breeze. The only thing that might be a challenge is keeping the word count sparse enough that you keep it to a single page.
If you have an investor that only wants an executive summary, then you can write it first. But you’ll also need to generate your pro forma financial statements for your film, and project revenue and generally have a good idea of what’s going to go into the film’s business plan in order to write it. I would definitely write it after making the first version of your Deck, and rewrite it after you finish the rest of the business plan.
Keep it Concise
As the name would imply, the Executive Summary is the Summary of an entire business plan. It takes the other 5 sections of the film’s business plan and summarizes them into a single page. It’s possible that you could do a single double-sided page, but generally, for a film you shouldn’t need to.
A general rule here is to leave your reader wanting more, as if they don’t have questions they’re less likely to reach out again, which gives you less of a chance to build a relationship with them.
Here’s a brief summary of what you’ll cover in your executive summary.
Project
As the title implies, this section goes over the basics of your project. it goes over the major attachments, a synopsis, the budget, as well as the genre of the film. You’ll have about a paragraph or two to get that all across, so you’ll have to be quite concise.
Company/Team
This section is a brief description of the values of your production company. Generally, you’ll keep it to your mission statement, and maybe a bit about your key members in the summary.
Marketing/Distribution
In a standard prospectus, this would be the go-to-market strategy. For a film, this means your marketing and distribution sections. For the executive summary, list your target demographics, whether you have a distributor, plan to get one, or plan on self-distributing. Also, include if you plan on raising additional money to assist in distribution.
SWOT Analysis/Risk Management
SWOT is an acronym standing for Strengths Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. For the executive summary, this section should include a statement that outlines how investing in film is incredibly risky, due to a myriad of factors that practically render your projections null and void. Advise potential investors to should always consult a lawyer before investing in your film. Cover your ass. I’ve done a 2*2 table with these for plans in the past, and it works reasonably well. Speaking of covering one’s posterior, you should have a lawyer draft a risk statement for you. Also, I am not one of those, just your friendly neighborhood entrepreneur. #NotALawyer #SideRant
Financials
Finally, we come to the part of the plan that the investors really want to see. How much is this going to cost, and what’s a reasonable estimate on what it can return? There are two ways of projecting this, outlined in the blog below.
Related: The Two Ways to Project Revenue for an independent film.
In addition to your expected ROI, you’ll want to include when you expect to break even and mention that pro forma financial statements are at the end of this plan included behind the actual financial section.
Pro Forma Financial Statements.
If you’re sending out your executive summary as a document unto itself, you will strongly want to consider including the pro forma financial statements. For Reference, those documents are a top sheet budget, a revenue top sheet, a waterfall to the company/expected income breakdown, an internal company waterfall/capitalization table, a cashflow statement/breakeven analysis, and a document citing your research and sources used in the rest of the plan.
Writing an executive summary well requires a lot of highly specialized knowledge of the film business. It’s not easy to attain that knowledge, but my free film business resource package is a great place to start! You’ll get a deck template, contact tracking templates, a FREE ebook, and monthly digests of blogs categorized by topic to help you know what you’ll need to have the best possible chance to close investors.
Here’s a link to the other sections of this 7 part series.
Executive Summary (this article)
The Company
The Projects
Marketing
Risk Statement/SWOT Analysis
Financials Section (Text)
Pro-Foma Financial Statements.