Why Should Those Rich Tech [People] Invest in your Film? [1/7]
I recently went to an event here in San Francisco aimed at bringing together the more established filmmakers in San Francisco to build a better ecosystem for the industry up here. It’s a wonderful idea, a fantastic group of people, and the energy in the room was electric. However, there was one question that kept coming up that filmmakers had a lot of trouble understanding. Why won’t those rich tech people give us money?
This is something that I hear not only in the bay area. There’s a large contingent of Filmmakers in LA or elsewhere that would like to tap into Silicon Valley investment. The trouble is that the perception of film is that it's just a way to lose a lot of money. There are those of us looking to change that perception, however filmmakers need to understand that the overall potential for return is dwarfed when compared to other sectors. Whether that perception is true may be another matter.
This blog is not to disparage mean to discourage you, but to help you better understand the reality of your position. Understanding your position is key to obtaining your objective. To quote the Art of War…
In order to better understand the position of a tech investor, we need to look at how and why generally invest. As an entrepreneur who’s worked in both film and tech, an organizer of many film investment events, and a consultant who helps vet business plans for viability, I’m in a somewhat unique position to help answer that question. So I’m making this a series of 7 posts regarding every aspect of why a Tech investor would invest in a film.
I should clarify that this project is already a little bigger than I anticipated when I started writing it, so it’s going to be largely focused on Tech investment as opposed to sponsorship or any other sort of tech money entering film. I’ll be releasing them weekly, so check back every Wednesday. This post is to serve as a sort of landing page so you can look at all of the different aspects of why a tech investor would invest in a project. I’ll keep this updated, but here’s a loose table of contents that will eventually be linked. In the meantime, check out these other great resources. From me, Producer Foundry, and ProductionNext.
I should stress that the numbers found throughout these articles are inherently speculative, and largely from personal experience, and generalized research. Due to the fact that it’s only really possible to find data on the films and companies that made a return, estimating those that didn’t involve not a small amount of educated guesswork. Generally, the estimates in wins vs losses for films are based on personal experience in distribution, coupled with research and data from sites like IMDb Pro and The-Numbers.com. Tech portfolios are generalized based on research coupled with talks with several professional investors.
In short, these numbers are not meant to be scientific, but more some of the best analyses on this topic you’ll find online for free. If you have any thoughts or issues with these numbers, please feel free to comment below. I’d love an active thread, and I will monitor as much as time permits.
Here’s a handy dandy table of contents for your reference.
Part 2:
Why Angels Invest, and Why they Choose Tech.
Part 3:
Examining APR: How does Film Stack up to Tech Portfolios?
Part 4:
Breakouts vs Decacorns
Part 5:
Diversification and Soft Incentives.
Part 6:
What’s really stopping Tech Investors from investing in Film?
Part 7:
How do you make a sustainable asset class out of film?
If you liked this, you should check out my FREE Film Markets Resources pack. It’s got lots of things you’ll need to make talk to those rich tech people about your film, including a deck template, form letters, and even a free E-book called The Entrepreneurial Producer. Link below.
If this is all a bit much, and you need more individual attention, check out the guerrilla Rep Media Services page.
