Financing / Crowdfunding : I’ve been thinking a lot lat… by Sean Patrick Burke

Personally, for me, I have only used private equity for the films I have produced. BUT incentives/rebates are always a big part of the financing plan to help mitigate risk. I have several features coming up that will be using the Pre-sale model + heavy international co-pro deals for additional soft money.

Thanks for the info, Sean Patrick Burke. Are there any special documents or pitch material indie filmmakers need when going the Pre-sale model + heavy international co-pro deals route?

Maurice Vaughan, always need that stellar script, but also a solid look book is handy. I usually make two iterations of a lookbook. One for creatives, agents, and actors/actresses; and the other is more of a proper prospectus deck for financiers. For pre sale models, you just need a reputable sales company to be on board to help put that together. I usually engage a sales rep very early in the packaging process to help bounce names of talent off of them to see who works for the market. Once you get some key attachments, the sales team can go and start doing pre-sales.

International co-pro deals for me so far have just been finding the right production service partners or producers in other territories. You sometimes need to work with multiple companies in different countries to maximize soft money that can be given by the different country's governments. This is only done outside of the United States because the US does not have international film treaties with other countries.

Thanks for the detailed answer, Sean Patrick Burke! I'm sure your post and answer will help indie filmmakers and others!