How to Finance your Documentary

It’s hard to find reliable information on film financing.  I’ve written a fair amount about independent film financing for narrative projects.  Since writing those blogs and doing numerous presentations on the topic, I’ve gotten a lot of questions on how to finance documentaries.  Since I haven’t seen a good guide, I thought I’d write one.  Here’s a step by step guide on financing documentaries.

1. Establish a deep connection with the audience that cares DEEPLY about your message.

Authenticity has been become incredibly important in all aspects of making your living as a filmmaker, journalist, or content creator of any kind.  As documentaries are primarily message films, authenticity and accuracy are even more important than they would be in your standard genre picture.  A deep understanding of the subject matter you’re tackling is absolutely vital for documentaries, as documentaries tend to rely much more heavily on word of mouth and community involvement than traditional narrative films.  

The primary goal you should have when establishing yourself within this community is to speak authentically about the community in your film. By doing this, you will most likely also establish credibility with the audience that is most likely to shout about your film when it comes out.  As a bonus, through the process of establishing a deep connection with the subject matter, you are likely to find good subjects to interview for your documentary.   

2. Get a fiscal sponsor

A fiscal sponsor is a non-profit organization that can extend its non-profit status to your simple for-profit entity allowing you to take tax-deductible donations, which can greatly help you raise donations from friends, family, and even certain crowdfunding platforms.  They’ll normally take a fee of between 4% and 9%, but they’ll increase your close rate dramatically.  Additionally, unless you are a non-profit, you’ll most likely need a fiscal sponsor in order to apply for grants.  

3. Apply for relevant grants

Next, you should start applying for grants.  You don’t need to limit yourself to filmmaking grants, you can also apply to grantors that tackle the subject matter you’re planning on documenting.  So long as those foundations and grantors back projects to build awareness there’s a good chance you’ll be eligible for those grants.  I wrote another blog with the help of one of the fundraisers for Slamdance a while back, you’ll find it below.

You should start applying for grants once a month as soon as you can.

Related: 5 Rules for Grantwriting.

4.  Confirm one high-profile expert in your field to give yourself legitimacy

Now it’s time to start shooting your film.  Confirm an interview with an expert, possibly using the connections you’ve developed back in step one.  Otherwise, reaching out to universities that have programs related to your subject matter is a generally good bet.  Most of the time, you shouldn’t need to pay the academics or many of the other experts who might be interviewed for the documentary. For them, it’s good press to build their legitimacy and public profile.

5.  Prepare a crowdfunding campaign

This is another reason Step 1 is to ingratiate yourself in a community.  If you’re a known entity in that community, your chances of success are much better and the amount you’ll be able to raise is much higher.  While this is harder than it once was, it’s nearly impossible if you’re not an established part of the community.

Here’s a blog on a crowdfunding timeline.  

Related: Crowdfunding Timeline for Filmmakers

6. Get a few more experts in your network to give interviews

Ramp up your production and get a decent portion of the film shot and start to find the narrative throughline for the finished piece.  You will want to start charting this path as you shoot, as it can help guide you through future interviews or even re-interviews if you can.  

7. Launch your crowdfunding campaign. 

You do that after the first expert as if you’re doing it properly, you should be able to use a portion of the interview as an immediate delivery once the campaign closes.  If you have multiple experts at this point, you’ll have some degree of legitimacy that you could turn into a short as one of the major funding levels.

Even after you raise the money you need for your main round, you should continue to apply for grants on a monthly basis.  The reason n why will become clear later. 

Here’s a blog on the dos and don’ts for pushing your movie on social media.  I wrote it after a few too many people sent me auto DMs.

Related: 5 Dos and Don’ts for Selling Your Film Online.

8. Get a few higher profile influencers in the documentary.

If you get a few subjects in the documentary with some degree of a following, it will likely help boost the visibility of the documentary once it’s getting ready to come out.

9. Release regular updates on social media

If you make sure to release updates and engage with your following on the goings on of the documentary you’ll be much better able to keep in the consciousness of your community which will make a rather large difference when it comes time to distribute your project.

10. Make sure you keep your backers informed.

Take what you’re doing on social media, and give more depth and detail as to the goings on of the project, as well s content to the people who have supported you financially. There are a couple of ways you can do this, the simplest is to continually communicate through whatever platform you originally crowdfunded through.

11. Keep applying for Grants, but now focus on finishing funds.

Applying for grants isn’t something you should have stopped doing, but at this point in the cycle, you should be applying for grants to finish your movie rather than develop or shoot it.  If you’ve consistently been applying all this time, you’re more likely to succeed at this point as you may well be starting to re-apply for the same grants you didn’t get last time.  

12. Launch a secondary crowdfunding campaign for finishing funds

This is part of why you’ve continued to stay in touch with the people who backed your first campaign, as it’s much more likely they’ll come back for your next round if they’re happy with your communication skills as well as the progress you’ve made.  

13. Ramp up the content you’re releasing

Before you may have released photos from interviews on social media, and teasers to your backers.  Now you may want to release teasers on social media and short interview clips to your backers.  You don’t want to release anything that will give too much away, but you want to build buzz and have a deep engagement with your backers.  You want them to feel like they made your movie possible.  In a very real way, they did, and they may have gotten you to the finishing line. 

14. Apply for impact grants

Impact grants focus on getting the film out and into the world.  They cover things like festival submission, travel, and other costs related to marketing and distribution.  You should start applying for these grants when you hit picture lock.  

NOW THAT YOU’VE FINISHED MAKING THE FILM…

15.  Hire a publicist (If you can)

Publicity isn’t cheap, but it is one of the best ways to build both the profile of your film and of you as a filmmaker.  Getting press early on will help you in the next parts of your process.

16. Apply to festivals

Now that the film is done, you should start applying to relevant festivals.  If you’ve already gotten some press coverage, you’re more likely to get in, however, the time your publicist will be of the most use is during your festival rune.

17. Get a Lawyer, and get them to do an E&O Coverage letter.

If you didn’t already have a lawyer, get one now.  A lot of lawyers will do some pro-bono work for documentary filmmakers as a public service, so don’t hesitate to ask.  Along with being a steadfast advisor, they’ll also have the ability to write a fair use clearance letter which will enable you to buy E&O Coverage if and when you need it.  Also, you should really have a lawyer on call when you move on to step 18. 

18. Get a producers rep, or sales agent and distributor

Finally, you should make sure to start reaching out to producers reps sales agents, and distributors as soon as you can after submitting to festivals.  Some of us can help make sure you get into bigger and better festivals, but any reputable person with these titles has a much better chance of getting you a profitable distribution deal on platforms 

After the success I’ve seen from one film I both repped and distributed film Queen of the Capital, I’ve recently started putting a greater emphasis on documentaries, since my direct contacts in that area have grown significantly.  You can learn more about Guerrilla Rep Media Services film below.

Thanks so much for reading, if you liked this content, please share it.  Also, join my mailing list for some great resources including a festival brochure template, ebook, and a whole lot more.

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9 Essential Elements of an Independent Film Community Screening Package

If you’re making a film with an extremely niche audience, it can make A LOT of sense to consider hosting some community screenings in place of a more traditional theatrical run. While this tactic is most commonly used for documentaries that have a strong social message, it’s also a tool that can be quite effective when utilized by narrative films targeting a very well-defined niche.  Here’s what goes into the package you’ll be selling to anyone who might want to screen your film.

Essentially, what you’re selling is an event kit that includes pretty much everything that an event organizer will need to create an event around your film so both of you can make money. 

1. The rights to publicly screen the film

You can’t legally screen a film to a gathering of people without a special kind of license.   Many times, this license is more of a handshake agreement, but if you’re doing anything at scale you need a special agreement.  Since if you’re doing this effectively, it’s probably going to be something that’s replicated across many screens across the country, it’s best to plan in advance and include the full license as part of the community screening agreement.

2. Questions to facilitate conversations after the film

Most of the time, the goal of a community screening is not just to show the film, but to build community around it.  Starting a conversation around the film when it’s over can be a great way for people to begin to understand not only the film, but the other people in the community watching it.  As such, providing a list of sample questions to anyone who would be hosting the event is a great way to make sure that the community building around your film is likely to go well. 

3. Art Assets for social media

Not everyone is good at social media marketing.  I would recommend that you create a set of art assets that can be easily modified to include the host and location for each of the following.

• Facebook (general)

• Facebook (event)

• Meetup

• Instagram

If you think I missed one, leave it in the comments. ​

4. A Pricing Plan

If you want to attract good event hosts, they’ll need to know what they need to pay.  Generally, it’s best to structure this as a hard cost plus revenue share, with the potential to add consumables like DVDs to the list. If you do a Revenue Share, you need to insist that you host it through your Eventbrite. 

Another couple of add-ons you could consider is Skyping or zooming in after the screening to take questions.  You could also include the ability to fly out, but that would be a MUCH higher price point that includes travel. ​

5. Easily printable standard page size flyers in both black and white and color

You should include easily printed and customizable flyers in black and white and in color for your event hosts to put up around town and use for promotion.  You do need black and white and color separately, as color is more eye-catching but black and white is more cost effective.  These should be print-ready pdfs based on a template you created.  Here’s an example i made for a masterclass I recently did in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  (it’s a .jpb it displays in this blog.)

6. Easily printable quarter page size flyers

This is the same sort of concept as the full-page flyers but sized so they can be given out or left somewhere. 

7. A Sample Press Release/EPK

This might be the most important item on this list.  One of the biggest reasons that you want to do these screenings is to increase the profile of the film.  If you get a significant amount of local press coverage, you’ll end up getting a significant boost to your SEO.  You should also make sure you include a few quotes from you about the film, and a few images to make the job of the local reporter as easy as possible. 

8. Testimonials

You should get some quotes about your film from any notable person you can that’s seen it.  If you’re past your festival run, you should consider looking at any of the reviews you got about the project. 

9. General best practices for marketing events

Not all community organizations are great at marketing events. So, an electronic file delivery of best practices for marketing a screening like this would be very useful to them.  Having recently worked with a few arts organizations, I wish I had made a template with more detail to better get the word out and get a few more people to show up.  

Thanks so much for reading! Next week I’ll release a blog about how to actually market this package.

This is a service I provide for my clients, so if you’d like me to consider taking yours on, use our services button below. if you want more content just like this, sign up for my email list to get monthly blog digests segmented by topic as well as some great film business resources.

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Filmmakers! - 5 Steps to Successful Grantwriting

A few months ago I worked with the absolutely lovely Joanne Butcher of Filmmaker Success to put on an educational event about grant writing here in San Francisco.  Joanne has raised millions in grant funding for several non-profits over the course of her life.  While I can’t distill everything from her talk into a single blog, I can give the people who weren’t able to make it some of the key takeaways.  So without further ado, here are the 5 rules for applying for grants.

1. Research

This might just be a Guerrilla Rep Media Rule of life at this point.  If you understand the field you’re playing on, you’re going to be much better at whatever game you’re going to play there.  The only way you understand that field is by researching it. But I digress. 

When applying for grants, the first step is to research and find grants to apply to.  (Duh) Focus on grants that match the subject matter of your film. It’s best to only apply for grants you’re perfect for, even if they are not directly related to filmmaking.  

The fact is that no one can apply to the thousands of grants they are eligible for is why limiting to the perfect matches is going to greatly increase your success.  It’s almost always a bad idea to bend something to fit a grant application. The key here is to remove the mindset of scarcity, and instead focus on finding the right fit.

As an example, if we were looking for funding for a reboot of The Little Mermaid, Joanne would recommend looking into marine science foundations, climate change foundations, and local artist grants, local filmmaking grants, or since it’s based on a Hans Christian Andersen book, even Denmark’s Cultural heritage foundations might be worth applying to.  

This article is a good place to start for your research.

FILMDAILY.TV'S GRANT LIST

2.   Set a goal for applications

Set an achievable goal for grants you want to apply for.  A safe bet is one per month. This would put applying for grants as a heavy part-time job for you though.

It can be hard to find relevant grants to apply to get up to 1 per week, so you should consider applying to grants that are thematically related to your content, as opposed to strictly applying for film grants.  What I mean by this is if your film is about homelessness, then maybe apply for grants from organizations helping the homeless, stating how you can help increase the awareness and impact of their foundation through the power of motion pictures.  ​

3.   Answer the Questions

Now that you’ve researched to find relevant grants, and you’ve set your goals, it’s time to start grant writing!  I know that sounds super intimidating, but really it’s just answering a very long series of questions. 

Although when you’re answering your questions, you should remember that it’s more than just providing information.  Your goal here is to sell the grantor on why your project is the one that will get the most bang for their funders buck.  

Every funder’s primary responsibility is to fund the projects that provide the most value to the foundation.  Generally, this means the projects that get the most eyeballs on them, and offer the most benefits to the communities that particular funder serves.  Your job is to convince that funder that your project is the one that will do that. 

4.   Hit Send

I know this sounds rather obvious, but once you’ve written your grant you need to press send.  However, a lot of filmmakers get stuck at this step, and spend so much time perfecting their application that they either miss the deadline, or could have applied to a whole different grant in the time they spent making one of them about 2% better.  Hit send, and start applying for the next one. 
​

5.  Apply Again Next Year

Finally, the first time that you apply for a grant, don’t be put off if you don’t get it..  Most funders get far more applications than they have money to fund, and competition is fierce..  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply, it just means that you need to keep applying, and, over time, improve both your proposals, your projects and your relationships with the funders.  “After all, says Joanne, “you can’t apply a second time until you’ve applied for a first.”

IF you’re a filmmaker, you’re always likely to have some project that will require funding.  Thus, relationships with funders will be very important to your long term career. By applying for film grants, you start to develop a relationship with the grantor, even if your grant applications are unsuccessful.

Also, if you’re declined, you can actually call up the funder, and ask why.  Most times, grantors will share some insight as to why your application was declined.  Doing this can put you in a much better position to get the grant next year. Just don’t be rude when you do; the point is to build a positive relationship

Thanks so much for reading!  I’d heavily encourage you to check out Joanne Butcher’s website below.  Also, check out the free indiefilm resource pack for EXCLUSIVE templates and tools to help you finance your film, as well as a monthly blog digest to help answer any questions that you may end up needing to fill out your grant proposal.

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