Getting Funded With Telefilm
I love reading Reddit.
Take a look at this advice on pitching a TV show. What do you see?
I vomit in my mouth slightly.
Have these people ever pitched an idea successfully?!
The standard advice generally DOES NOT work. What does work?
Here’s a great primer on effective pitching.
But what if you’re more interested in grants than pitching?
Last week I spoke with Telefilm, one of the biggest funding agencies in the WORLD, and they exposed how you can get from $250,000 to $2,000,000 (even internationally) with them. It’s not easy! But you wouldn’t be here if you were interested in easy.
In it, we talk about:
- 1:45 – How do you get funding for your feature film, given that you’ve produced several shorts already?
- 5:24 – What does the submission process look like to getting grants?
- 9:15 – What makes a “good” grant application?
- 12:37 – The catch-22 of need A-list stars to get money, but then needing money to get A-list talent in the first place. What do you do?
- 20:48 – What works in distribution, and what doesn’t.
- 25:32 – What are some of the beginner mistakes filmmakers make when putting together a budget? (student question)
- 27:28 – How do you get that first funder on board? (student question)
- 46:05 – How can you pitch to an investor, when you can’t necessarily show ROI? (student question)
If you have any other questions, hit reply and I’ll do my best to answer them on an episode of Ask Curt.
I have ONE favor to ask of you: If you find my material useful, then share the above video with one person who’s struggling.
Listen… You know what it’s like to work HARD, you’re a filmmaker, so I know you do. And I work hard too. I work hard on changing this industry — giving away 99% of my material / secrets AND still generating original content on a consistent basis is not easy.
I do this because this industry needs to change and I must be the change I want to see; leading by example… But I can’t do it alone.
Let ONE new person know about indiefilmTO. It goes a long way.
Let’s change this industry together.
Heh Curt
Great job on the Telefilm interview! Excellent questions from you and clear answers from the woman.
I keep telling my Montreal cowriter about the opportunities you are describing in Canada. Makes me want to be a Canadian so I can apply to Telefilm but I am not.
We have $60,000 now from fundraising and are making a war movie in Thailand about two gay soldiers. Script was #1 on Zoetrope– Coppolas website.
The Thai military may help with props and a helicopter and I have an Emmy award winning DP and many Thai crew who will pitch in for small pay shooting on land my husband owns in Thailand. Mayor of Sikiu Thailand will help us politically. We will bring 6 actors from US and Canada. Market to gay and open minded mainstream millenials in 2 or 3 target cities theatre release and distribute through indierights.com for Netflix and Amazon. Maybe get a Logo channel TV release.
We found if we shot in Georgia we could get loaned $400K upfront on a $2 million film but we need to shoot in Georgia and raise the other money somewhere and Georgia doesnt really look like SE Asia 🙂
What I got most from what the interview was that I need a producer. I mean there were many other items but that struck me as number one. I need to step out of that role and work on the script to be able to be realistic about micro budget.
If only we had Telefilm in US. But if onlys dont make films 🙂
Many thanks
Best Wishes
Richard Gayton
Wild Spirit Films
Cinema Verde Productions Inc