Friday, March 22, Noon – 1:30 pm
Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, Room 205
The Topics every filmmaker wants to know! Our influential panel will discuss distribution methods and creative ways to fund your film project.
Moderator: Mimi Edmunds – Documentary Journalist, Producer for 60 Minutes/CBS News; Professor of Journalism, Emerson College
Panelists:
Jack Gerbes – Director, Maryland Film Office
Wendy Cohen – Senior Director Film Campaigns, Participant Media
Lyda Kuth – Filmmaker, founding board member and current Executive Director of the LEF Foundation, a major funder of documentary films
Steve L. Burns – Producer, Rollercoaster Road, Former Executive, Discovery and National Geographic Channels
There was also a panalist Wayne Rogers, who is an energy executive involved now in film production.
Any suggestions of what is needed for funding a film?
* Must have a good film! There were disagreements. (And a comment: don't listen to how a critic describes your film.) A good idea, as described in a paragraph, for a film is important at some stages.
* Need a product that people can buy (script or at least story idea, film to be distributed, etc)
* Be organized
* In TV: Discovery/National Geographic about 5 years ago received about 800 pitches per month.
- to be successful you need the right idea matching a current network need
- we look for experience
- we worry a lot about "scheduling issues"
In the non-fiction TV world - pitches are now via agents (eg, for
National Geographic)
* Film Foundation perspective:
- where in the food chain is the filmmaker?
- LEF (California, New England only) gives 3 stage grants
5K for preproduction, 15K for production,
25K for post-production
- look for a well-told story and a good narrative
(several repeated that a good story based on real events is very popular)
- Participant Media has a pretty open submission process for doc films
Where does the money come from?
This depends. What is the filmmakers' objective?
* Is it art? (You just want to enter film festivals)
* Is it money? (You want to distribute to theaters)
* Do you have a script? Do you have a treatement?
Several repeated: You must be organized.
* Get a script or well-written treatment
* Make up a budget
* Try to lineup crew and talent (actors, shooters, etc)
The Maryland Film office has about 7.5 million dollars of incentives for Maryland-based films
* marylandfilm.org
* mdrpg.com (Md film production guide)
* We at the Md Film office want to help you make your film (in Md)
Other resources:
* Ford Foundation (for docs with social message)
* Docs in Progress (in Silver Spring Md)
* AFI Silver Doc Film Festival in June
* Maureen Ryan's book "Producer to Producer" and producertoproducer.com
Is Kickstarter a good idea?
Yes.
Kickstarter-like sites will crop up for films
slated is a new site for raising money for films
Kickstarter exceeded NEA support for filmmakers
* need a great trailer for Kickstarter campaign, which costs money
* there is great talent out there, talented people want to use their talents to create and will show up early in the morning for a shoot, you just have to look for them
No comments:
Post a Comment