Funding an Indie Short Film
When I tell people I’m making an independent short film on a $68k budget, the first question I get is “Where are you going to get the money?”
The truthful answer is, it’s different every time. And it’s challenging every time. If getting funding for a short film (which rarely has any return on investment) was easy, everyone would do it.
To go a bit more in depth, there’s a few ways to go about getting funding for an indie short.
Self Financing - This is good for really low budget films (I’m talking under $1,000) if the filmmaker(s) have the spare money and are willing to put it into the project. Self financing means that you have full ownership of your project, and you typically can move forward with production on a quicker timeline.
Public Crowdfunding - This one is the most common amongst indie filmmakers. It’s great for any short under a $20k budget and is most ideal for those in the $2,000-$10,000 range. Crowdfunding refers to platforms like GoFundMe, Indigogo, and Seed&Spark (my personal favorite). It relies on your extended community, and typically is successful due to a large number of people each donating small amounts of money to the project. It’s great because you don’t have to ask for too much from any one person. The downside is that this method can be EXTREMELY time consuming, and it’s hard to replicate after doing once. I did this for my last short film and successfully raised $18,000 on Seed&Spark, but I was spending every waking second campaigning and calling everyone I’ve ever met. If you’re a filmmaker and are interested in seeing an example of a successful crowdfunding campaign, feel free to check out my last short’s Seed&Spark page here.
Fundraising Events - These are typically done in conjunction with one or more of the other strategies. When I crowdfunded for my last film, I hosted a networking / fundraising event at my apartment, complete with free booze and a QR code to donate to the film’s crowdfunding page. Other types of events can range from free concerts, to a film screening event, to a straightforward fundraising party. They work best when there’s something else “going on” to entertain guests and incentivize them to come. The downside is that the event itself can end up costing more money than you get from the proceeds of it.
Grants - There are plenty of online grants available for films of all scopes. They are easy to find with a quick Google search, and many of them are allotted to specific niches of filmmaking. For example, there’s an abundance of grants available for documentary films. There’s grants specific to female filmmakers, people of color, LGBTQ+ filmmakers, students, international films, environmental films, and many more. Grants can be great for getting a stamp of approval and credibility on your project while also getting some, if not all, of your budget covered. The downside of grants is that they can’t be relied on - they are competitive, and applying does not guarantee that you’ll get it. They also typically operate on longer timelines. All in all, grants are great for longer term projects, but not so good for films that need a quick turnaround between development and production.
Private Investors - This is the most high risk / high reward option; this is also the main strategy I’m using for Mirage. Private investors are the unicorns of the indie film world - they’re next to impossible to find, and come few and far between. Interestingly, they’re typically not professional filmmakers themselves. Think about it - if you’re a filmmaker with a ton of money, you’re going to put that predominantly into your own films, not someone else’s. Instead, investors typically come from industries such as tech, entrepreneurship, and finance. They can really come from anywhere though - the key is finding someone who is financially able to take a risk with zero to little ROI, is interested in your mission with your project / you as a filmmaker, and is willing to be involved to a degree that you are comfortable with as the creator. What private investors are really good for is bigger budgets ranging from $50k-$200k, where it would be very difficult to raise the money without a few big donors. They typically are rewarded with some degree of producer credit for their financial contribution to the film.
The best choice of funding strategy depends on many factors including the scope of the project, the timeline, the industry appeal, the long term goals of the filmmaker, and the filmmaker’s access to each of these tactics.
For Mirage, I chose to prioritize my larger budget and short timeline, meaning that the best option for me was going the private investor route. Because I’ve already crowdfunded significantly in the last 2 years, it would be difficult to replicate my crowdfunding success a second time, resulting in even more reason to go the private investor route.
One major asset I have while taking this approach is the fact that Mirage is fiscally sponsored. I’ll get more into that in another post, but it’s a MAJOR advantage to receiving funding and staying under budget.
The goal of this blog is to demystify the process of making a film from start to finish, and provide tangible information to other independent filmmakers. Hopefully this helps to break down some of the logistics of getting the money together to make a film! I’ll be continuing to document my process as I go through everything from production to final cut of Mirage.
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