18 months from now is normal. It's not failure. Separate momentum from progress on paper. So
think about like what can you do every day? How many phone calls can I make every day? How many
people can I reach out to? Keep your momentum going, even if that doesn't necessarily signal progress.
Momentum and progress are two different things. So momentum is you doing work. Progress is the results
of the work. Welcome to Off the Lot, the podcast for filmmakers building careers outside the studio
system. Where your hosts can cab it off in Anthony F and this is where we break down what it really
takes to get indie films made. Let's dive in. Everyone, welcome back to Off the Lot. This is a show
about independent film and my name is Anthony F and as you will notice if you're watching this
on video today, it is just me again. Ken is off getting remnant ready for its eventual premier. So
he's working on some marketing materials and also is working on a new project right now.
So I'll have Ken tell you all about that next time when we have him on. So you're stuck with me
today and if you'll notice my background, I'm at an undisclosed location. I guess if you want to use
some spy parlance, I am not at my usual desk. So I will be doing this from a small little hotel room
in a place that I can't tell you about right now because it's a bit of a secret. So you know that
if you follow us along in our journey about making films, we talk a lot about getting our projects
off the ground and of course the common term for all of this is called development. This is the time
and I guess the part of producing that we all spend the most time in and in fact, I would say that
if you are trying to get into the wonderful world of independent film producing, you are going
to spend 80 to 90% of your time in development. So today I thought what we would do is we would
go through because it's hard to quantify what development actually is without and it's sometimes
it can be a bit of a nebulous thing. It's like I have a project in development. I have a project
in development. What does that actually mean? Because you obviously don't have any footage yet.
You haven't filmed anything. If you have a poster, it's probably a sample poster or sort of a
wide poster that you're doing to basically help sell the project but realistically your poster is
not the poster for the film. You know I have a release date. For the most part is indie filmmakers.
We don't have release dates. We have projected dates that we're hoping for but we're not like
Star Wars or anything. That way they've figured out their premier two years in advance and you know
they kind of are working backwards towards that. We always sit there and think well this is a film
festival we hope to get into or a targeted date and as you know from having talked with Ken and
remnants post-production schedule it's kind of like we're trying to get hit this date but that
decision was made largely during production and post-production with an eye towards certain film
festivals or certain release dates but nothing really concrete. So I guess the point of that is
is that when we start in development we're kind of just like this is the stage we're basically just
trying to put the project together and get everything together so that we can make the movie and
then start thinking about when we're actually going to release the film. You know obviously Ken's
project is in that phase right now where he's working on release dates and getting the marketing
up and running for when that film is going to come out so they can have the maximum chance of an
audience and with quite Canadians we're kind of in that state of development which is where we're
talking about today. So I'm going to walk through the stages that I see of development and hopefully
this is a much more practical approach and a much more step-by-step way of talking about development
in a way that doesn't just say well at some point we you know we went from an idea and now we're
funded and now we're shooting. Grab a coffee and let's just get into it. So one of the first questions
you're ever going to be asked is about attachments and so that's something we're going to talk about
a little bit as we go through this. What we mean when we talk about attachments and packaging
whether that means director leads sales agents, tax credits, those kinds of things. What we are
doing along the way you know when is the appropriate time to create footage, a poster, rip reels,
when's the appropriate time to talk to actors to other key individuals who are going to be part of
your project. That's the kind of thing we'll get into a little bit more and then you've got an
idea for a script what are all the things you want to be putting in place in at what stage you
doing those things before you actually call it what we will call green light and they're roughly
about five phases so or five steps along the way. So let's talk about that and maybe as you're going
through this if you have a project in your brain right now what I would do is I would start thinking
well where does my project fit on this timeframe and if you or if you're talking with other filmmakers or
if you have a friend who's got a film that and a film idea and it's been kind of stuck in a place
of that sort of almost their kind of place which is where a lot of us wind up then maybe this
is a good way to take them through it and kind of go okay well where do I fit on this in this
sort of life cycle of a development of a film called the development life cycle. All right so
what we do is we talk about this in a series of stages and each stage exists so that you basically
finish the stage and then you move to the next stage. Each stage has kind of a job to do and its
job is to accomplish certain tasks before you move to the next stage. Some of this is financing
tasks because some of this is just like things that you're doing to get things going. When we talk
about putting together a film we're not talking about a magical like one person comes in and finances
it which of course can happen but there's a lot of things you're doing along the way and even when
you're not getting that initial money in or you're not getting that big you know three or four
investors who are going to finance the film there's a lot of things you should be doing and can
be doing along the way to help just make the project more and more real and gain some what we call
momentum and progress towards the end result. Always be thinking about progress and momentum and
that's something where we talk about a lot about just making some kind of confident move forward
and it makes it feel more real each time you do that so a conversation with an investor that
doesn't lead to anything is not what I would call momentum or progress that's sort of learning
it's like there's an idea of like you're either winning or you're learning and so what you're
trying to do with your development is work on momentum and gain confidence not just confidence in
the project but confidence in yourself so that every time you talk to someone new there's better
chance of someone partnering up or saying yes to you and what you're trying to do is stack a
series of yeses along the way because ultimately what development is is it's about taking the project
from a single person with an idea to the right partners to put into place to make it happen.
So let's talk about stage zero this is sort of like the before I spend a dollar
who do I want in my corner because right now it's not about money it's about putting together a
team and I think what you want to be doing is looking at it's almost like a stool of a chair right
you know you are one leg of that stool and you need two to three other legs to make it stable
so it's not crew it's not like attaching your DP or something like that or getting your editor
or getting your production designer even getting your first cast member what it is is
it's about finding people who are kind of at the top run of your production team so let's talk
about who is the leg of the stool first of all you need a money person so someone who's going to
understand the money aspect of the film of of filmmaking now traditionally you'd go with someone
who understands film financing and can do it that way that doesn't necessarily need to be the case
in an independent film project I think that the elements of most money raises are applicable
across the board in any business whether this is for a real estate project or a film festival or
a motorcycle racing team or a car racing team or an athlete and so on the elements that go into
putting together financing for a project are relatively transferable so if you find someone
who's just good with that idea of raising money or understanding how things get financed you
can certainly bring them along into the film financing world it's just a matter of the language
that we use the second leg of the stool is someone who's got some credibility someone who's name
on the project makes people look twice or think twice about the project so this is this isn't
necessarily like an influencer someone with like a bunch of Instagram followers or something like
that it's actually someone who's got some credibility some credits a producer could be an executive
producer someone who has made films before who understands how to put projects together because
that 200,000 or 150,000 dollar budget range you know that micro budget first film sort of raise
you can do a lot of this yourself but when you start to get into million and above it's really
good to align yourself with someone who's got some level of credibility and you know luckily for us
on on our project with quite Canadians in a weird way that's sort of we are those people because
we we have made movies at that budget level we've made movies in the two to four billion dollar
budget range as producers we've worked as assistant directors on them and so on but it still
doesn't hurt to have another person on board who's got that kind of like credibility and basically
can look at the project and go yeah we're not just doing this for the first time and then the
third leg of the stool I would say should be someone who is a little bit more of a creative
truth teller in a way someone who can basically take a look at your script and take a look at
you know ideas and so on and on the way and
and kind of give you the hard truths about it,
especially I would say in the early stages of the story.
You do need someone who isn't afraid to question
the creative aspects of the project.
And sometimes it's good because you're too close to it.
I think as a screenwriter and even if I'm a screenwriter
and I'm a director or I'm just someone
who came up with a story, it's really good to have someone
who can kind of be on the outside and say,
this is working, this isn't working,
and be able to take those kind of notes and feedback
and use them appropriately.
Now what you do want to do, you don't want to just go after
someone for this role who's going to be critical,
for the sake of critical, or to put you into a box of,
this is the type of film this is.
So therefore you need to have this.
So for example, with a spy thriller, like quite Canadians,
there's certain elements of a spy thriller
that you want to have there.
But you also don't, you don't want someone
who sits there and says, well, the only way this will work
is if you spend $100 million the way
the James Bond series does, because what you do want
with your truth teller is someone who can take a look
at what you plan the budget to be and what the film needs to be
and tell you whether the two are aligned.
So you can make a $3.5 million or $2 million,
even a $1 million spy thriller, and have it be very competitive.
But you need someone to tell you, look,
you are not here to compete with James Bond.
You're here to make a film that you can make
in that million to $5 million range,
and make it look and feel like a proper movie
for lack of a better way of saying it.
So there's a certain amount of technical qualities
that need to be involved.
And so this is where the idea of having
contained thrillers is in and where
like contained horror films are in.
It's like, if you don't have $30 million to make a film,
what can you do with a million to $5 million
and make it look as good as a $30 million film?
And that just means taking out some of those expensive set
piece items sometimes, which is explosions and big stunt pieces
and giant special effects and all these other things
that go into a big visual effects budget and things like that.
Like there are ways to make smaller budget films,
but still don't sacrifice the look in the story of the film.
And that's ultimately it is like a good story
will always trump anything else.
So yeah, I would say like if you can put those pieces together,
I think what you do is you now have a solid team.
Now these can be, you can call them producers,
you can call them whatever you want to call them,
whatever that role means.
I mean, ultimately in the end, they can also just be advisors
and consultants for your film, like your truth teller doesn't.
So I have to be a producer on the film that could just
be a reliable resource who can give you honest feedback
about the type of film you're making.
And you just wanna make sure that in giving you the truth,
they're also, they understand what the film you're trying to make
and don't try to steer it off in a direction of the film
that they wanna make.
Yeah, so that's some of the things.
And if you don't have these people in your life,
this is the kind of thing where you've got to start
like going out and meeting them.
But it's good to identify who do you have already,
who you can put into those chairs,
into those lengths of the stool.
If I were starting with one person,
I would say definitely get the creative, you know,
honest feedback person, the truth person in your corner.
Because especially if you're aligned
on the type of film you're making,
they will also be very good champions
for how that film's gonna work.
And it will also help you in talking the money person
and the credibility person on board
to help fill out those likes of the stool.
Before we go into the next part,
you wanna make sure at every stage of this
that the people you're bringing on board
are aligned on the type of film you're making.
And I can say this quite honestly,
having developed 13 miles and the quiet Canadians,
when you start talking to people who almost like they're talking
as though they never read the script,
like they've read the script,
but they're talking about the film in ways
that don't have anything to do with the way the story is
or that are taking it outside the scope
of what the movie is supposed to be.
These are the people you kinda wanna keep on the outside.
What you want is people who understand the movie
and aren't just looking for ways
to insert their own ideas into something.
And that's really important.
You need to make sure they're aligned
because once these partners are on board,
you've gotta think to yourself
that this is a two-year relationship you're about to build.
And along the way, you're gonna go from script
to casting, to pre-production production,
and so on, so all these creative decisions
are gonna be made along the way.
And all the people who are involved in your project,
if they're not trying to make the same film as you,
then you're gonna be getting notes and input
that isn't gonna be useful
because when you're all trying to make the same film,
then the notes become more useful.
Everybody, even if they're critical,
even if they're saying, look, this is not the right direction.
It's like starting a business, if I'm starting a business,
and my objective is to sell this.
And you're telling me, you know what you should also do,
is you should also sell this item.
Well, the more that that person keeps pulling you
in this direction, the less you're making the thing
that you came to make.
And if that makes sense, then great.
That's ultimately the thing.
So alignment is super, super key.
Otherwise, you're gonna sit there
and you're gonna be recutting the same 10 minutes, 50 times,
because if you're a director, you're gonna be directing,
and you're gonna be giving that cut,
and then you're gonna have two producers coming in
and saying, no, it's wrong, it should be this way.
Because they're making a film that they think they're making.
And ultimately, at the end, you also want all of these people
to know what they're selling.
If you go to the market, try to pitch people,
you're trying to pitch for money on a film
that is different than the film that you're actually trying
to make, or someone is pitching on your behalf
up for a film that you're, for a different film
than you're trying to make.
That will be reflected in the film.
The film will feel like it was made by Capiti.
And ultimately, you want one artistic voice
behind the film, and that doesn't necessarily mean
that it's one person.
It means that the artistic voice is unified.
But think about that as your business partner,
your money person is going to be the contact
a lot of times with your outside investors,
and sponsors, and distributors, and so on.
So even if they are just in there
for the business side of things,
they should understand the film you're making.
In other words, let's all understand what the assignment is.
The assignment is to make this type of movie.
What I would say on all of this is that, in the end,
these are the things that are worth investing time in now
because that's all you need is time.
You just need time to do it.
Now, if you can get this all sorted out in the first month,
that's great.
But I would take time to put the right people in place
so that you're not just grabbing the first person
to come and then says, "I've been interested."
And that also, as a, just as a psychological point,
means that you're not going to be just pitching everybody.
You're going to look for people who you think
are right for this film.
Okay, so stage zero.
Stage one, so this is now, we've moved out,
we've got kind of the core team in place.
I think this is the stage where you're kind of putting
your own sweat equity in your own money into the game.
You're not yet ready to ask people for money for the project.
So whether that's your own money
or it's money that the partners that you have pooled together,
you're looking to basically put your own skin
and put your own steak in the game.
I mean, it can be anywhere from $5,000 to like $25,000.
I mean, the dollar value is actually not as important
as what you're doing during this stage.
So the first thing you're doing is making sure
that the rights to the film are appropriately owned
by you and your production entity.
Now, that's the next stage is that you're going to want
to form an actual company.
And this will be the entity of the film
that the single-purpose vehicle company,
and we've talked about that many times,
that you want that's going to now own the rights
to whatever the story is.
So if you wrote the story yourself
or if you have a screenwriter, colleague or friend
who wrote the story or if you co-wrote the story,
first of all, get that agreement in place.
Make sure that there's a writer's agreement
between the script and the film project.
And this is important whether it's you or anybody else
because the more people you bring on board,
the more it's going to be important
that that part is taking care of.
So, for example, if you have an outside writer
or you have a colleague who's the writer who wrote the script,
make sure that there's a screenwriting agreement
between them and the film's company.
Do that as soon as you possibly can.
Now, for now, you're not going to set up the new company
but you're just going to set yourself up as,
you're going to direct and produce the film,
but you don't want to set up a company yet.
Option it to your own personal film production company.
So like for us, we have Habithee Films,
we option scripts through that company.
And then when we make a decision to go forward
or to go further into it, we'll form that special vehicle,
which is very easy to do.
So set that all up.
If you have a tentative name for the script at this point,
what I would do is I would get an email address
for the story, it can just be a Gmail address if you want.
I would buy a domain built around the title of the movie.
Even if it's a tentative title and it could change later,
I would buy it for a year anyway
because the moment that this becomes public,
it's possible someone is going to scrape
and pick up that domain before you have a chance to get it.
So by the domain, you'll probably be able to get an introductory offer
for like $15 for the year.
You'll buy the domain and if you change the name later,
the moment that you decide to change the name of the movie,
buy a new domain, you know, buy a domain for that
and then let the old one expire if you've changed the name,
that's fine, let the old domain expire.
And it sounds like a lot of wasted money,
but it's like you never know when that's going to become valuable to you.
I would also, if you're not going to run your social media
through your own personal company,
I would get your social media handles in place
as well at the same time.
The next thing you want to do is create some kind of visual lookbook
and a log line and sort of a visual representation.
Now, one of the things we did with quiet Canadians is we did do a full pitch deck, but what we've
also done is done a two-pager, which is basically a poster on the front.
So if you look at it as like an eight and a half by 11 sheet of paper, there's a representation
of what the key poster for the film could look like on the front.
And on the back is the text.
So on the back we have the text of the log line, a short synopsis that doesn't really give
away the ending and any other details like what stage we add, so on, so that, and this
is something that we can make as a living document.
So we just update it and then print off new copies and hand them out to people if we need
to.
But it's good to have that.
It's good to have like a leave behind that you can do with meetings, so on.
I would spend some time getting script coverage on your script at this point.
You're trying to prove the concept, so the whole point at this stage is trying to prove
the concept.
You're not trying to prove the budget, you're trying to prove the concept at this stage.
So script coverage is good from an outside reader.
You can pay for script coverage if you'd like, but get something that's going to give you
honest feedback.
It's all, it's sometimes good to get that like consider, pass, recommend kind of ranking.
But you know, to be fair, it's just good to get feedback on like what's working.
And I would get it from two or three different sources who are independent of each other.
And then you can kind of a look at what's consistent in the feedback you're getting.
So like look for the consistencies, the things that people like.
If three different script readers like the same thing, good, then that's a good validation
right there.
If three different script writers are pointing at the same problem, not necessarily same symptom,
but the same cause, like the symptoms all kind of equal out to the right cause, that's
a good thing to flag because you are going to probably have to go back and rewrite the script.
Getting ever survives like first drafts never survive.
So you've always got to think to yourself that your first draft is just getting the ideas
out on paper.
Now you've got to spend some time refining this script.
And so getting those disinterested readers is really important.
And then that is that you might be paying for and so on.
You might not be who knows.
So all of that told like this could cost you a couple thousand dollars is to cost you
twenty thousand dollars if you pay for the lookbook and the and the key art to be made
that could be four five thousand dollars, but you can also try to do it yourself if you've
got that kind of a line.
But just remember that anything you hand out at this stage is a representation of whether
this film is a real thing or if it's if it looks like a hobby or a side project.
So if you're going to make a lookbook by yourself, it still has to look just as good as
though like Warner Brothers made it, right?
Like this has to look good.
It can still be a million dollar film or a five million dollar film or whatever the range
is going to be.
It's can still be and be that, but it has to still look promising like the key art,
the poster has to be something that is exciting and interesting and and and gives off the
bright vibe of the film and is appealing.
So test the bad on people before you start making it public.
Test them out on trusted colleagues, friends, whatever and say like, what do you think?
What do you think?
What do you think?
And if you get good responses, great.
Finding like wow responses, go back, keep refining it, keep making it better.
That can cost you a little bit of money.
So think about this at this point is like your skin in the game, not a lot has happened
here so far.
There's a little bit of legal costs.
There's some website costs and things like that.
You can simply set up a website with a very, very simple landing page and what I would
do at this stage is I would get some kind of an email service provider like, you know,
mailchimp or kit.com, I use kit.com, no, no sponsorship here, but just set up a straight
landing page with like a little just notification.
So if anybody comes across your page, even if there's nothing to talk about, they can leave
an email address to find out more information.
You can never be too early to have that set up at this stage, who's kind of becoming part
of your team.
It's going to be the writer, if it isn't already, an entertainment lawyer to make sure
that the option and the chain of title is all good, coverage readers, your creative producer.
And then you're now, you're spending your time stress testing the ideas.
So you're making sure that the film is good, you're testing some market questions, I think
at this stage.
So you want to be looking at what's the premise, what's the emotional drive of the film,
what's the audience of the film, what's the proof that the film has some kind of marketability
out there and what makes it different.
So telling me you have a zombie film is great, but a zombie film that takes place in a roller
hockey rink, you know, zombie hockey players or something like that is different.
So there's always be looking for what's the differentiator between your film and other
films.
If I have a spy thriller, what's my differentiation?
Well, my spy thriller is about Canadians.
It's a chase across Canada for our Canadian spies.
And so it's going to highlight the Canada's role in spy world and in espionage and told
through an entertaining and interesting lens and it's about a gripping spy thriller.
So my differentiator is it takes place in Canada.
We haven't really seen many Canadian spy films.
In fact, we haven't seen any Canadian spy films, we've seen some history films on Canadian
spies, but there's not a Canadian spy story out there.
So that's my sort of differentiator in a way.
Then you want to start to think about your capacity questions, like what's the risk involved
in this film?
So think about your budget at this stage.
This could be a time where you actually are bringing in, if you don't know how to do
it yourself, bringing in someone who can tell you what the budget range of this film should
be in a realistic sense.
Where you want to film it, what are the risks involved in this production, what are some
of the key things that are going to be like that could blow things out of the water in
terms of budget, but also be just like, difficult logistically.
What's the path to finding your audience?
What do you define success as, and we've talked about this a little bit before, it's like,
what is success for you for this film?
If this is your first movie, what does success mean?
Is success making your budget back as success, getting into a really recognized film festival
is success finding an audience.
You have to find something tangible that's going to make this worth the two to three
or five years you're about to spend on this film.
Be practical, give yourself scores on each one.
If you take a look at your marketing questions and your capacity questions, score each one
as a thumbs up, thumbs down, or maybe, anything you have that's maybe or a thumbs down, you
want to start working on, well, this is going to determine whether or not we proceed with
this film, or what can I do to take a thumbs down and turn it into a maybe or a thumbs up.
Because ultimately, you do want to make sure that your budget matches the script or the
budget, the amount of money you think you can get to make this movie is commensurate with
the kind of film you want to make.
You want to make sure that there is a path to the audience, what kind of audience is going
to watch the film?
You don't need 30 million people to want to watch your film, but you need to know that
there's an audience out there for it.
It could just be a community of people, a community that you think are going to really resonate
with the film.
That's something that it's like, even with us, we're thinking with a spy thriller.
It's like spy thriller's travel, they're good internationally, but realistically, what
we're also looking at is the hyper targeting spy thrillers and Canadians who want to watch
entertaining films.
That's two really important markets, and there's probably a Venn diagram of the two of them
intersecting, which I think will be really good, and ultimately that's our path to an audience.
Once we find that sort of really primary audience that are going to watch the film, those
are the people who are going to tell their friends and tell other people to go and watch
it as well.
What can you say publicly right now?
You can say that you're developing a project, you're in development.
You have the rights to a story that you're really excited about.
Those are the kind of things.
I wouldn't even give titles at this stage.
I wouldn't necessarily even give log lines at this stage until you're confident that the
film has a market, and you have to do a lot of like internal work first.
Pressure tests, the internal work.
Then let's get to stage two.
Stage two is now looking for believers.
Stage two is about getting development money, and it's about getting development money
from people who already trust you and trust your ability to take this to another level.
You're validating the project.
You're trying to find ways to, in Canada, really trying to find ways to de-risk the project.
You're not trying to make the film yet.
You're just trying to find ways to make it to find believers.
This would be the stage two believer stage.
Again, what do you want from this?
You want some development money, and the money you're looking for should be in the range
of about, I would say, $25,000 to $50,000, and maybe a little bit more.
If you could get up to $75,000 to $100,000, that would be great, but $50,000 is probably
somewhere where you can land.
This is the kind of money you're going to be getting from friends, family, loose associates.
Some people have means who have the ability to find it, so this is not a bad time to think
about, and we haven't discussed this before, but if you wanted to, this would be the kind
of thing where you might even try to shoot a proof of concept for low budget, so don't
try to shoot a proof of concept for $50,000.
Try to shoot a proof of concept for $10,000, but try to raise $50,000 for it and go from
there.
Now, it doesn't have to be proof of concept.
It could be a rip reel.
is basically like grab a bunch of clips.
from other movies that are like yours and you edit together a trailer and you make like a movie
trailer but you use other clips from other films. There are editors out there who do this for a
living and I imagine they make quite a bit of money because this seems to be like the new thing
is a relatively inexpensive way for you to get your point across. As long as again you kind of like
keep the film in mind. So it's okay to grab like those higher budget films but don't grab a scene
or a cut from a film that you will never be able to replicate in real life. So like those big
action stunt pieces of mission impossible are probably not appropriate for five million dollar
under spy film. You have to find clips and things that could potentially have been in the film
if we filmed it if we could afford to film it. So a lot of personal things you could have some
fight sequences like hand-to-hand fight sequences. You could maybe have a small car speeding off
or things like that. That would be for a spy film but you could also have if you're a horror film
this is even better because horror films a lot of things that you can do in horror are not expensive.
So you can put a lot of scares in there from films and as long as you cut it together and this is
again what you're proving is when you have a vision too you have an ability to tell a story in like
90 seconds and you know how to craft it together because editing a trailer with footage from footage
that exists with other films it can be harder than actually cutting the trailer together of
a movie that you've shot except for the fact that what you do what it'll also do is it'll also
give you an indication of the types of shots you're going to want to get in your film in order
to make a trailer that is very similar to the trailer you're about to that you're releasing
and that you're showing people. So you're not trying to do like a formal round of fundraising
necessarily you don't necessarily even need to be going out to hide it worth investors at this stage
but you can certainly be having those conversations. Getting some kind of like business plan
structure in place is important there's you know having a business plan is nice but it can also
I would say like first figure out what the structure is going to be like what's your financing going
to need to be in order to make the film happen so how much money are you actually going to need so
that's you're going to hire a line producer or someone who's going to put together a real budget
of the film and then you're going to want to have an explanation of how the film waterfall works
and we've had that in other podcasts about what a film waterfall looks like and ultimately in the
end your first money is probably not going to come from a stranger it's going to come from someone
who already trusts you and so you need to you need to have people who trust you feel people who
trust that you can do what you say you're going to do which is to make a film. The worst case
scenario in all of this is that this is still money that could potentially be lost because you don't
have a film project yet what you have is you have an idea and you have some some growth happening so
if we were talking about a company this is very preceded this is pre-customers this is before
we've got anybody else who said they're going to commit to this movie and always make sure again
along the way you're getting paperwork paperwork from your lawyers and so on so at this stage you're
going to be developing subscription agreements you're going to be checking with what the security laws
are in your province in your country and in your state making sure that you're you're adhering to
all of those as you bring in people who might be investors in the project you might run a crowdfunding
campaign whether or not you think that's the right time or not is kind of up to you but ultimately
and you're just trying to build some pieces of the project so this stage what you're buying for
yourself is you're buying a real budget a real schedule like a like this is what this could look like
in reality like how many days do we need to film this what's the budget going to be and then
something you can defend you're going to create a finance plan out of this and we talked about
you know how finance plans are put together you are going to have your pitch deck probably at
this stage some kind of a pitch deck some kind of a business plan something that you can
leave behind with investors as you're talking with them and you know basically this is the point
where you're actually starting to talk to potential high net worth investors about coming on to
your project and you want to figure out like how many do you want to be servicing do you want one
person to come in for all the money or do you want series of four five ten people to come in for
for portions of the funding are you going to get a tax credit loan because a tax credit loan in
Canada is you know it's a certainty in terms of the tax credits coming if the film is finished
and there's a distributor on board but whether or not you have the credibility with a bank to
get the loan is another story so you might you might need a partner who's gotten who's got some
credibility to step in and be part of the film who can help you get the loan from the bank for
the tax credit so this is another person it could be the money person it could be that credibility
person that you that we're talking about in stage zero who I want to have at this stage is I want
to have that line producer I want to have my producing partner I want to have a few people who are
now part of the film project whether that's as you know potential fans who've signed up for that
email list or who are who I've talked to about the film at this stage and then what you can
honestly be telling people at this stage is that we are we have development funding because you do
you have you know $50,000 we have development development funding and we've we've got a budget for
the film in a ten of schedule so at this stage it's like you're like if someone gave you the money
tomorrow you could go into pre-production next week if you needed to how long pre-production is
and so on you'll figure that out you know this is kind of like we're just above this stage with
the Quai Canadians we have a lot of people who are interested we have you know our budget in place we
have our finance plan in place and so on and this is where we'll enter into the next phase which
is there's a really you know kind of like a dead zone if you want to call it that there's a great
phrase that I learned recently from another film producer his name is Ron Newcom and he kind of
came up with this phrase of like it's like a chasm it's sort of like this no man's land no person's
land phase where like we're at this development stage and now you need to get to the next phase and
so the next phase I think is is kind of important because you've got all the pieces in place now what
you're doing is you're you're probably entertaining a whole bunch of knows and you're trying to get as
many like yeses or babies on the on the books and you're trying to turn those babies into yeses or
knows so stacking yeses at this stage so people who are saying yes to you rather than people who
are saying no to you so their goal at this stage is to get to what I would say basically your goal at
this stage is to get enough money where you could where you can confidently attach key people
who are going to make your film packageable and marketable in film parlance that means you're
getting a director and you're getting key cast and I think that's basically about it like cast
and directors are the only things that really move the needle at this phase so if you're the director
and you're kind of like not going to be that person is going to move the needle then you definitely
need to be focusing at this stage on getting getting really good cast and the only way you're going
to get cast is if you start to get some more committed financing in place unless you already have
these associations but and this is kind of one of the things where it's like results will vary
depending on who you are so if you have connections to cast this is the time to be having those
conversations but you're while you're doing that you want to also be talking to potential investors
and about who you're thinking about for cast because you've got to get investors excited
about the potential for who you think it's going to be in there because ultimately in the end
we're we're looking for like who are the faces of the film who are going to be on the poster
who's going to sell this movie at this stage I would say like are you going after distributors
or anything like that I you know you could be but notice I our experience has been that
distributors you know when you don't have a director or cast attached there's not much to talk
about at this stage they're looking for directors cast and some financing in place or or something
like that if all the financing was in place then you might find a distributor but realistically
if all the financing is placed you should be able to go to cast and be like all right we've got
the money here we go so I still think you're in pitching high net worth investors still you're
going after investors at this point and I would say that again like if if if you are going to be
the director then you really have to invest in the other side of things which is the casting should
you bring a casting director on board I think if you don't if you don't have those
contacts directly like with the cast that you want for the film then definitely a casting director
is is worth it but I would say that bringing the casting director on before you have a certain
amount of money in the bank and I would say like for a million dollar to five million dollar
film you probably want to be like 25% ish to you know 25% to 50% of the budget of the financing
raised from your film you want to make sure that you've got 25% to 50% ish of like your budget
already kind of like committed because starting conversations with actors even of casting director
without having some kind of level of okay this is going to happen it can be an awkward thing to do
like you can engage a casting director and then that just that thing can you could wind up
starting auditions and you still can't really like offer anything and that can
give potential actors and potential casting directors a sense that oh this project isn't real yet.
So if it were me, what I would do is I would be making my list of actors. I think I would want
for the film. One or two or three key people. I would be making that list. I would be thinking,
are they realistic? I'd be, if I can get any kind of a sense of how much those actors might cost,
that's great, but I would definitely be like finding some kind of an element of a person who is
interesting for investors, get the commitments in place, and then start bringing on the casting
director. So now that you've got that, I mean, I think what you can say really is at this point,
at this point at this stage, you know, like you're in that nebulous phase again. So like once you
kind of feel like you've got like that committed amount of money or committed amount of financing
in place, then you're at a stage where people are actually now starting to take your phone calls,
I think you're at that like, you know, people are actually now paying attention to you. So you can
start getting a casting director. So this is like, you know, again, 25% ish of the budget. So if you
have a $4 million film, if you have about a million dollars already, that's great. I think that's a
good starting point. If you have $2 million, then like let's say like $500,000, like something real,
but doesn't necessarily have to be all there. Like if it's a $2 million budget and you have $500,000
in cash and you're in Canada, you know, a third of your budget is probably going to be your
tax credits anyway. So you really are a third of the budget plus a quarter of the budgeting
in financing. You're kind of already over halfway in terms of financing your project. And that's
when you can start to make real phone calls and real like get some leverage, I guess, if you want to
call it that. At this stage, I think a casting director is appropriate, or if you have connections
with agents and cast, you could probably actually start trying to reach out to them. And if they ask
it, are you financed? You can say that you do have financing. You know, are you fully financed yet?
Probably, probably not at this stage. So what should you say? I would say you have financing,
you have letters of intent and so on. And I would, and I would just make sure that you're,
you're not overselling the project, but you're not underselling as well. Like you, things are
things are moving right now. So contact, contact casting agents at this stage, see if you can get
some people interested, you know, give them names of people you want to talk to, who you think you
might might work. And if it's an insane person, like, you know, trying to get Tom Cruise, if you want
Tom Cruise on your project, it's probably going to be a very difficult thing to sell. But you can
probably start thinking about like one or two key cast that you think you could could make key
attachments if you want to call it that. Your objective here is to kind of make the project legitimate
and so on. So the casting director adds a bit of legitimacy to the film. And at this stage,
you've got some money in theory, you could, you could start talking to people about, you know,
if we put your name on this project, you know, this will help us get the rest of the financing.
And that's something where maybe, maybe you're talking to a sales agent about getting some real
numbers at the stage or just trying to make connections. And this is again, where the networking
helps is like getting ideas of what someone's actually worth at that point. So the things you
can talk about at the stage is you can, you know, you can describe things precisely. So if you have
a letter of intent from someone is it's still okay to say that. You're not putting these things
in public, but what you can do is use that to talk to investors, use that to talk to potential
distributors in the future. Key people that you're going to be building partnerships with are the
kind of people you might be talking to about this. And one thing I will caveat on all of this is
that I think there is some value in having non disclosure agreements, especially with investors.
Distributors, I mean, they kind of understand and you probably don't want to be like giving out,
asking them for NDAs, but definitely for investors and for any, any partners on the way. You want to
make sure that you are getting NDAs. So like if you do bring up like I have a letter of intent from
this particular actor, you should only be saying that to people who have signed NDAs with you
already because you don't want to be naming anyone publicly until you've got a papered contract.
And they've agreed to be named in public because that can be very dicey. But putting that in a
private discussion is totally fine. I think as long as again it's private. Be careful about
overselling your project at this point. Yes, it can be exciting if you have some people who are
interested, but you've got to be careful about overselling and oversharing. It'll burn you twice
because it's going to burn you with a person that you might have named. And it's also going to
be burning you with the people who hear you naming it. So if that person doesn't work out
and they or they get they get cold feet for one reason or another and you've already told people
that they're in the film, that could really be harmful to your film. Be confident in your film,
be confident that you have someone. You can say you know we have letters of intent from some
very key actors. I've had I've had people tell us tell me before that for films that were like
yeah we've got some really key people attached. We're not ready to announce it yet, but we've
got some really key people attached. And that's great. And that I mean at that point you kind of
say great that's fantastic you know. Go forth. And then if I'm an investor, if I'm a potential
investor and I want to know who those people are again I would say like we can talk to you about
that but we want to make sure that you're serious. So the end day is important. We also want to
make sure we do some vetting before we get to that point because if if we think it's going to
sell an investor we want to make sure that that investor is capable of investing in the film
and that they're not just kicking tires. If you start to get a whole bunch of people kicking tires
and they start asking you who do you have you who do you have and you start telling them you're
effectively giving away information that is private and and I would be careful about that.
If you have an investor of course like if the someone is actually put the money in or it's made
you know has signed a paper saying they're going to put money in. Of course you can share that
information with them but again it's private and it's a it's it should not be released publicly.
Until you have assigned contract and an agreement to publicly release the name I would say you
don't release the name and you don't ever really need to announce the names of the people who are
in your film publicly like put a you know have Hollywood reporter put something out
until you have a press release for the film and that should be something in coordination with
publicity person which you might consider at this stage. You might consider having a publicity
person at this stage so like suddenly saying like oh we have this person attached and you're
five months away from filming I would say is probably not like a great time. Once it becomes a
situation where it's like it would be good to have that in place like have that where that publicity
can help you then that's a good time to do it because that publicity isn't going to help you with
a distributor or with a sales agent like having it publicly named is not going to help you with those
folks what what having publicly named is about is about setting up future marketing for the film
because when you talk to a distributor and you talk to sales agent things like that you might tell
them that you have these people attached but that's always going to be private information so when
you put it out into the world like you put it out onto your social media we have this person
attached make it serve a purpose for you the purpose of that is to is to build marketing and
an audience for the future release of the film it's not to try to attract investors if that makes
sense like your first contact with investors or stakeholders or sponsors and things like that
should always be like direct outreach and direct outreach and conversations and then if they pass
certain thresholds you can start sharing these kind of information with them it's the same thing
it's like well you wouldn't publish your script online don't publish these items don't give away
stuff for free until the right moment it tells serves you the purpose of the film so now you've
gotten your a couple key attachments these are people who can start to have have real chances of
like making the film real this is probably when you are talking now to potential distributors potential
sales agents basically you're trying to put together like the next phase of like who's going to
get the film out there for you what are they bringing to the table in terms of what they're bringing
in are they bringing in minimum guarantees any pre sales that they can bring in some of that stuff
I mean nowadays there might not be a lot of that happening necessarily but even just the you know
that for in Canada you want you need a Canadian distributor you need a Canadian or a Canadian
broadcaster to qualify for tax credits so you know that's something where now you can start
to see if someone's willing to step in and provide that checklist item for your tax credits
your film is going to start to pick up speed at this point though because you've got investors
involved you've got one or two actors involved you can start thinking to yourself we're still in
development don't ever say you're in pre-production yet that doesn't mean you can't be locations
scouting or doing things like that but I would be careful about going too far down the line on
those things until it's more of a sure thing this is the point though where you know getting the
paperwork in place for the tax credit loans will be good getting your estimates will be good
talking about who's going to be loaning money things like that basically at this point what
you're trying to do is you're trying to fill out the rest of the pieces your budget is this
amount of money you had raised a quarter of that money already you're not trying to go from a
quarter of that money to the full financing so that includes the tax credits that includes the
rest of the it private equity that includes sponsorships and things like that that could include
a little bit of crowdfunding anything you can do to package the film together and don't rely
on necessarily one particular source for all of it nice thing with Canada of course is like
again tax credits are a thing where we know that with the right calculations and the right
answer the right and shooting the right territories for the right number of days we can you know
conservatively
in British Columbia get between 35 and 40% of our labor covered, which usually winds up
equaling out to about, you know, a third of the budget of the film. So that's a really
good way to think about it. If your budget's $2 million, you only really need about a million
three to be ready to go. This can still take some time, though, because, of course,
if you're trying to get alone, sometimes that could be two to three months of work to get
approved for the loan. So think about that. If you do get some pre-sales, you know, you probably
won't get the cash flow all together at once. So you're going to be getting loans against
the pre-sale money. And then you've got to figure out what's left to raise. And if you can get
within spitting distance, like I would say, if you can get within 80, if you can get to 80% of
the financing that you need with all of these pieces in place, I think you're at a pretty good state.
80% is like, I would say a greenlit level. You're at greenlit at this moment. You're at, like,
soft greenlit at this moment. With 80%, you can actually put things down on the calendar and
start committing to things. Obviously, you want 100%, but 80% kind of gets you within spitting
distance of the end result. And what I would bring in at this stage, you know, this is what we call
sort of stage four. You're just sort of bringing in your sales agent. You've got your tax incentive
specialist who should be on board. You like, you want to have kind of those business operations
parts in place, make sure your entertainment lawyer is dealing with all the paperwork,
papering everything you possibly can, hedging as much as you need to, because again,
until you actually have all the money, you don't want to get into production without knowing
you can finish the film. But at once you're at 80%, you're kind of like knocking on the door. So
just you can start proceeding with plans, hold off on committing until you know you can finish
the film. This is also the phase where you can start talking to key people, your DP, your production
designer. I'd say your DP, your production designer, if you have, I would bring on visual effects
person or the very least a post-production supervisor who's going to be coordinating with the editor.
And then I would also be looking at DP, production designer, editor, visual effects. I would say,
you know, a first AD or someone who's going to be doing kind of like, can start thinking about
the logistics of the film is not a bad idea to like start looking at at this stage. Again,
I would not hire people. I would be interviewing at this stage. And if you want to hire people,
what I would do is hire them on a small limited basis. So like I'd hire the assistant director,
for example, to put together a preliminary schedule, like a real preliminary schedule. You might
have already done one, but it's probably like now that you've got more reality in place. You can start
like actually targeting dates and things like that and start thinking about an actual schedule.
You might hire a production designer and a DP to help you create a look for the film or do some
initial scouting for the film. But you're still waiting for green light. So like you, I would definitely
like hold off on overspending at this point. Like because again, these could be sunk costs that you
don't, that if nothing comes out of it, if the film falls apart, you're out. So what you could
honestly say out loud to people is that we now have a sales agent. We have a pre-sale in this
territory as long as it's papered and signed. You're never fully financed and tell the monies in
the bank. So you don't ever want to say you're fully financed until there's like that money is
in the bank or until I should say until it's papered because you're never going to have all the
money in the bank. But you're going to need to get a portion. So then that'll take you to phase
five, which is basically at the stage like stage five is like you've now got all your full partners
in place. So these are the people who should be finishing what's left, right? So these are the
people who are going to bring everything to an end. So by this point, you've already got your
tax credits figured out. You've got a good portion of the equity figured out. So like 25% of the
equity 35% to 40% tax credits. So basically you're you're now bringing on your your distributors,
your your brand partners, all these other people to finish off that stack. And what I would consider
is that at this stage, you know, you're like you got to think of this as like baking the project
a little bit like you're you know you're you're you're slow cooking the project like slow cooking
is fine. Slow cooking means that there's longevity to the project. So like it's okay to kind of like
marinate on different stages, but to what you want to do is think about which strategic partners
are going to move the project along. And sometimes you have to kind of think about like sort of like
just right. So like not too early and not too late. You're with each stage of this project,
you're building some leverage, which is key for making a project out of percent. Just remember that
for 99.99% of us who are making films that are like not backyard projects like $50,000 micro budget
films, you are needing other people to come in and be stakeholders. So if you are too early with
all of this, you will you could burn a relationship because they just never believe that you've got
anything that anything is real. And it's kind of like it's it's just it's not cooked enough.
If you're too late, you've overcooked it and you might have give up a chance to get the project
off the ground. So there's there's that early late kind of thing. So what I would do with regards
to distributors and sales agents at the stages, I would say what you want to do is ask for it to build
the relationships with with distributors and sales agents is like ask for market feedback and
not necessarily commitments, but just market feedback. And sometimes the way to get market feedback
is to pitch the project to them a little bit or like say like hey we've got this project. If you
happen to go to a film market, you could like I've got this project. They ask what if you got a
task to it, you say this, this and this or you say we don't have anything yet and they say okay
too early or they say okay call us when you got something. Which is what's happened a few times
sometimes with with projects we've been involved in or they're like you know it's not at the level
where we'll get involved. This is what we would need to have involved to get involved and you're
like okay well that's what we need then. And you start to bring field those things out and the more
people see you out there doing you know they might they might need to see you two or three times
before they actually will come on board but distributors and so on. If they see you two or three times
especially if you've made some progress then that's that's where you start to build those
relationships. I think that Ken has a really good sub-stick article on finding investors which I
think you should all read and I would also say that you know at this stage when you're at stage
five you're kind of you're now you're now at the start. You've put all the pieces in place and
now you're at the start of the company you're at the start of the project. The project is Greenlit
and that means you're now ready for production and that's when you have like a hundred percent and
you've got all your partners in place and you're ready to eat the steak. So being a hundred percent
funded something to think about is that that is the start not the end like getting all the money.
Sometimes we also focus on how I just need to get the money. It's like no like you need to get all
the things that show that once you have the money and once you make the project there's a thing for
this at the end. So that's those market conversations you want to be having. Now where does Telefilm or
any of these other grant organizations fit into this? I would say you want to build the plan entirely
without Telefilm's involvement. Assume that that's not going to happen and not to dispel that you
might not get it. It's just that the chances are very low. It's so hard to get Telefilm money. It's
so hard to get grant money because it's so targeted. You could be well definitely one of the people
who get it and of course you can always increase your chances. But ultimately you're in competition
with other people and there's only so much money to give out and if you apply and you have to wait
for that funding it's going to be six months before you actually know if you've gotten it or not
and if you didn't get it but you built your entire plan around getting that money then you have
to now revisit the plan. So I would plan as though you're not going to get it. Put the applications in
if you feel like it. Make it as strong as possible. Get those applications in. Have the conversations.
Take it seriously. Put the application in. As soon as you send that application in your finance plan
should reflect never getting that money and then if the money comes from Telefilm later you get
approved. You're one of the one of the chosen's great. You know you can revamp the project at that
point. You can revamp the thing but if you've already raised all your private equity at that point
your conversation with Telefilm will be very different. The jury has to pick you in order for
you to receive that money and as we've been saying you know waiting for to be picked is kind of
opposite of what Kennedy's approach to the show has always been. So the idea there then is that
if the project is a no that then it doesn't you know if you if you if you build your project around
Telefilm and you get a no then a project that's built around that money doesn't just slow down.
It just stops and you have to start it again and you know the juries have timelines and so on
and the private money is all reliant on you going out and get in talking to people. So I won't
believe at the point on the Telefilm side of things obviously like you know some some films are
well suited for it and some films will get it but you're it's a very competitive market out there.
There's period of time where you want to be thinking about like what are you going to do if you
have a project that's getting stalled you know say 18 months from now you know you had this project
and it didn't happen 18 months from now is normal it's not failure separate momentum from progress
on paper. So think about like what can you do every day and there's always like that sales
thing of it's like how many phone calls can I make every day how many people can I reach out to
keep your momentum going even if that doesn't necessarily signal progress momentum and progress
are two different things.
So momentum is you doing work,
progress is the results of the work.
As you're going through your project,
identify which specific things are blocking progress.
There's almost always one thing at least,
and it could be casting, it could be some early financing,
it could be at the beginning, it could be the rights issue.
There's always something that's blocking the next step.
So once you hit that next step,
or you get to the end of a step,
and you're finding a block,
what do you need to do to power through that block?
Initially you write a script.
The first thing you want to do is just copyright the script.
That's the first block.
Once you copyright the script,
now you want to have the writing agreement
with the entity that's going to be producing the film.
That's their next step.
Think about it, some of this is very easy.
Some of it gets more and more difficult.
As more money comes in, it gets more and more difficult.
Always think the next step ahead,
don't try to think all the way to the future of like,
oh my gosh, there's so many things to do
before I finish my film.
It's always like one step at a time,
and there's a sequential order to go through
to get to these each and every step.
Once you hit each step,
think about like making another action
every single week that moves the project forward.
18 months is not an unsurmountable timeframe
to get a project off the ground.
Think about there's movies that were pitched in 2019
that are getting financed in 2026 right now.
And yeah, it took like almost a decade for it to get financed,
but I'll bet you those people
who have now gotten it financed
and are ready to go,
are excited about it getting ready to go.
So it can be five years before you get a project
off the ground, it can be 10 years
before you get a project off the ground.
Don't give up, especially if there's something
you really wanna make, don't give up.
Doesn't mean like put all your eggs in one basket
and don't do anything else for 10 years,
but don't give up on that project.
Always follow up with people,
follow up past the point of comfort,
conversations usually take time.
You usually have to build and it's usually like your seventh,
your eighth or your ninth time talking to someone
that it actually will work.
And a lot of people stop at two or three,
like they have like two or three emails back and forth
and they, when things stall there,
they kind of stop talking and they kind of like let it go.
Silence is not a rejection, you know?
Only a no with a rejection, silence is a rejection,
but it's also sometimes good to just get that no.
So if you can kind of keep the conversation going
and then get to a no,
it's been great sometimes to be getting emails back
from people who say this is not really something
that I want to get that I'm ready to get involved in.
'Cause at least it kind of like clears the decks for you.
Assess what you're doing, ask what you're doing as well.
Like are you spending a lot of time on decks
and look books and rewrites,
but avoiding the uncomfortable conversations
you need to have in order to get your financing?
It's okay to be working on those things,
but just remember that the main point is to be pushing
the project forward and gaining progress, not momentum.
So have those things ready to go,
but don't obsess over like redoing them every time
and like trying to like fine tune them.
Once you've made a version that you like,
you try it out, if it doesn't work,
you know, you maybe spend a little time revising it,
but don't take time away from having conversations.
Never wait on one person to bring in the money,
'cause while you're waiting on one person,
you should be looking for five other people,
10 other people, 'cause that one person may never happen.
You know, think about if you really are stuck or stalled,
this is kind of like a secondary part.
If you really stuck or stalled,
if it's been like two years and you've just never gotten
any progress, three years, you've gotten no progress.
I would keep the project going
and what I would consider is funding an easier film first.
So if you, and that's that whole thing of like,
you know, to make a $20,000 film, make a $20,000 film first.
Once you make a $20,000 film, you can make a $20,000 film.
Once you've made your $20,000 film, you know,
if you want to make it, you can make a $200,000 film.
So like, think about where you're at.
If you haven't made a movie yet, don't expect a $2 million film
to work.
Make it, make a $20,000 film.
And you can do that and make that easy film first.
Always protect yourself.
Development runs on conditional yeses
and that can wear you down.
But just make sure that you're taking care of yourself personally
and professionally and financially in the meantime.
Like, never be at the point where you need the film to work
in order for you to survive as a person.
So find your, find your mixed farming.
Find your, you know, what you do to pay the bills.
Make sure you have stabilized your life as much as possible.
Keep your health up as much as possible.
The project is going to incubate as long as it needs to incubate.
At some point, you know, make a decision, whether to kill or pivot.
If you find that the, you know, when you find that this,
if you haven't gotten that initial feedback from the market
that says that this is a film that's going to do,
that's going to be financeable, you know,
it's okay to kill it or to pivot it or to rewrite it
or revise it and tell it does.
If you can't find a premise, an emotional engine,
or a nameable audience for the film,
it might be time to kill it or to pivot.
You can push project as far in the future as you need to,
but only, but you do that if the flags are the only execution.
So in other words, it's like, if the project is still got,
if you think it has market viability,
but the flags right now are just that you can't,
you can't, you're just not meeting the right person.
Don't kill the project.
Just do the work you need to do to find the right people.
Like, if you've gotten, if you think to yourself,
like this is a project people would want to see,
if you've got enough feedback from people
that say that this is definitely a movie that needs to be made,
you know, that's your push.
It just means that you might have to work harder to find,
to do the other side of it,
which is to find the right people who can actually help.
Development is a long game.
It's a slow cook game.
You know, don't be afraid to, to slow cook the project
as much as you need to, but always be looking at, you know,
use momentum to gain progress.
Momentum is your actions, progress is, is, is outcomes.
Always take care of your actions,
but always be, be trying to take care of the progress
as well along the way.
While you're at, while you're doing this, you know,
figure out where your project is right now.
Where is it along this, this, these stages right now?
And start from there.
Don't try to start thinking yourself,
oh my gosh, my project isn't financed yet.
It's, it's, it's too early.
It's like, no, it's probably actually somewhere along these lines.
It's anywhere from, you know, anywhere after first,
the screenplay is written is kind of like,
you're somewhere on this path.
So think about where you are, find it,
and then figure out what the next step you need to do
to make it go a little bit further is going to be.
All right, I think we'll, we'll cap it off there for now.
Thanks again for your time.
Always let me know if you have any questions.
Ken obviously has been through this already.
He's kind of at the end of it.
And so it's fantastic to see like the finished film project
version because it always makes as you start,
as you start the journey yourself,
it's always good to see what other people have done
and how they've gotten there.
But just remember that everybody's path is different.
You know, keep your eyes on your own homework.
Don't worry about whether or not you're,
you're moving faster or slower than someone else
in terms of getting your film financed.
If you're here, you're listening to this podcast.
That means you have a project probably
that you want to get done.
And I think it's important to stay true to that.
Just remember that it doesn't have to be,
you know, if you don't have to eat the whole meal at once,
you know, you can bite off small and small chunks
on the way.
So I wish you luck.
Keep making your films, keep making them independently.
And we'll see you next week.
Okay, so that's it for this week's episode of Off the Lot.
We want to hear from you.
If there are any topics you want covered or any questions
you'd like answered, please email us at
[email protected].
You can also find us on Instagram and YouTube.
Our handles are in the show notes.
Be sure to like, follow, and subscribe.
And share this with your friends.
See you next week.
(upbeat music)
PodcastTranscript AI