Financing / Crowdfunding

Hi, Salustiano Berrios. You could search for a line producer in the Browse Members section (www.stage32.com/people?name=&location=&roles=Line+Producer).

Did you read this blog called "Influencers vs. Investors - The Future Of Film Funding"? www.stage32.com/blog/influencers-vs-investors-the-future-of-film-funding...

Stage 32 also has a blog called "Unlocking the Secrets of Film Grants: The Ultimate Guide Every Filmmaker Needs!" (www.stage32.com/blog/unlocking-the-secrets-of-film-grants-the-ultimate-g...).

And Stage 32 has other Financing Blogs (www.stage32.com/blog/tags/financing-85).

Good luck in your search Salustiano Berrios. If you're looking for a film budget www.FilmBudget.com is the international leader in worldwide film budget and schedule, film finance business plans, and producer consulting services. Good luck in filmmaking! :)

Excellent question! There are many worthy film projects that need Producers, and sometimes Line Producers are connected with real Film Producers who are working for them looking for great movie projects to finance. There is another way to raise money, by finding major manufacturers of products that need to include their products in the movie; for example by using only Chevrolet cars in their movie.

Hi, Lorenzo Fleming. That was a fake David Ready account. Stage 32 deleted it. If you see a fake account, scam account, or suspicious account on Stage 32, email support@stage32.com with the person’s name and their Stage 32 profile link. And if someone sends you a scam message (like a producer asking for a producer's fee to make your script), send a screenshot of their message to Support with their name and profile link. Thanks.

You are welcome Wyman Brent, and I am so happy this information is helpful. I am cheering for you and excited for what the future holds for you. Good things :))

Sandra Isabel Correia, thank you so much. I also wish you the best for the future.

Thankssss Wyman Brent

Great advice! There are so many ways of getting a film made and making the most of incentives like these gan give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Thank you Ewan Dunbar. There are significant opportunities ahead—especially for us in Europe. What we need now is the initiative to engage strategically, take decisive action, and shape the right moment to bring our films to life.

I got this email too, could be him privately. I didn't respond as I have no business interest in Hang Seng Bank and these type of messages are often followed up with question to give away contact details and pay a sum of money.

Willem Elzenga 2, it is always a scam, a very obvious scam.

They work at these games all day and night and make a good living at it. They despise their victims and call them stupid.

Ashley Renee Smith They appear to be data-driven and strategic. With Spanish spoken in 21 countries, it’s no surprise that Spanish-language titles on their platform have generated over 5 billion hours of streaming. For Netflix, investing in content hubs like Spain and Mexico isn’t just a choice — it’s a necessary move to produce or acquire Spanish-language content at scale.

Congratulations to you and your team on raising 150 million euro, Alex Francis! What’s one of the things someone would need to raise funds for a studio complex expansion?

That is amazing! Congratulations on your incredible success. I would love to hear more about your studio and what you are doing there. Best wishes from an American living in Germany..

Alex Francis That really captures the paradox of film finance. Raising €150 million for a studio complex, while a massive undertaking, often involves leveraging tangible assets — land, buildings, infrastructure — which banks and institutional investors are far more comfortable backing due to their collateral value and relatively predictable return profiles.

In contrast, a €5 million film — despite being a fraction of the cost — is a highly speculative, non-tangible asset with uncertain ROI, dependent on factors like market reception, distribution, cast performance, and timing. There's no hard asset for lenders to seize if things go sideways, which makes traditional financing hesitant to engage without guarantees, presales, or proven IP.

It’s an example of how film finance remains less about the absolute amount of capital and more about perceived risk and recoverability.

Really helpful Q&A webinar! I'm glad I was able to attend. Thank you, Emma Louise Smith and Stage 32!

Thank you @stage32 team for organising and for the great questions for those who joined!

Ashley Renee Smith NO! oh man, I'm so sorry we didn't get that hug!!! would have loved that - next time please :)

Now I am incredibly creative thanks to being on the extreme spectrurm of creative synesthesia. Plus, having ADHD with hyperfocus. I develop fully realized shows and films in a couple of days. I write songs in less than five minutes. I have everything set up with transmedia and a deep ecoystem laid out. Having said that, how do I get the right eyes to look at my work?

Emma Louise Smith You have an active CPA license in the USA or Monaco?

More and more studios, streamers are leaning in toward the safest bet. The level of risk aversion has had a negative effect, with less product and lower results. The door is open for indie players with an eye for quality.

Geoffroy Faugerolas, did you have any comment on my above question? I'm genuinely curious if you have any experience or insight into how the process works submitting offers to talent behind their agents wall?

My experience is that the prospective talent wants to know we're funded, while the funder wants to know we have the talent attached. I don't like pickles.

Geoffroy Faugerolas I think there is a market for both Some will prefer or seek packaged while some will prefer clean scripts.

Cannon has it. Talent and investors want security, even if that is never a sure thing. Catch 22. Don't have money, can't get great talent. No talent LOI, no money.

Insight post, Patrick McIntire! I learned a lot. Thanks for sharing these things.

Great post! Thank you!

Patrick McIntire Not to question your years of experience, Patrick, but shouldn't film investors already know the projections? Obviously with all the box office failures happening in 2025, all of those financial projections were off. With creative accounting, a $5M budget film that grosses $150M gross revenue can still lose money for the investors depending upon the distribution deal especially if the distribution deal is part of the studio producing the movie or the production company is a dummy studio of a bigger entity.

So what are these these investors looking for anyway? I can throw whatever numbers into whatever equation they want to get the desired results, but how can any equation calculate the corruption and greed of any number of paths a film has to go to get into streaming services or at best some kind of theatrical release. No amount of addition or subtraction is going to total out a favorable result if audiences stay home to wait for it to come to streaming and there's definitely no equation that accounts for any numbers of actors in the film flapping their big mouths and turning the entire population against them also hurting a film revenue stream.

If these investors either new or veteran need projections based on fantasy numbers, I can give them scenarios all day and if the film or film company isn't on the stock exchange, the SEC really doesn't give a damn. I know. I asked them unless they are prone to giving out false information. Granted you can't go out and commit open fraud, but investors should know what the risks are. How else would they have accumulated so much money in the first place to invest in something as risky as a film?

Film investors should know the ropes. If they want to risk a smaller amount of money on an independent film then the independent filmmaker should have a secure plan in place and hope that they can create a buzz about their film that builds a hunger in a large enough audience to force a distribution company to try and compete for the best deal without wasteful costs to promote the film. If investors want to risk big and go with the flashy studio and big name talent, they should know the risks as well. Investors should have a firm grasp of the market shares of film according to every category from genre, to rating, to source material and they should know not who's hot talent wise, but who can keep their mouth shut.

Whatever sales projections they're feeding to investors lately are crap and if Hollywood doesn't stop blaming the audience for their bombs, they're not going to have an industry left for investors to lose money on.

Philip Lee-Again, words of EXPERIENCE FROM A FILM MAKER THAT HAS MADE MONEY!

Patrick McIntire This is interesting.

Check Delaware ... lots of companies set up their companies in that state.

Awesome! Thank you. Will do.

Good Luck

I contacted the local law school and they helped me set up an LLC for free.

Guil Parreiras Creating an LLC in the U.S. is generally straightforward. The more important consideration is that LLC statutes vary significantly by state, and your choice should be guided by the features you value most. For example, if asset protection and anonymity are priorities, Wyoming ranks highly. If cost is the main concern, states like Kentucky may be appealing. Keep in mind that states differ not only in formation fees but also in annual maintenance costs—Nevada offers strong benefits but has some of the highest ongoing fees. You should also consider how easily a court could pierce the corporate veil, which can depend on the number of members in the LLC and varies by state.

Thanks, Geoff!

Hi Douglas, I represent Freeway and would love to have a conversation. Shall we connect?

Hi David, please email me at dsross007@mac.com so we can have private conversations.

There are other ways in which you really don't need an attorney to setup an escrow account, because I have one and I didn't use an attorney.

Douglas Ross When handling investor funds—depending on the amount—and using escrow or custodial services, it’s generally safest to work with a major, well-capitalized bank. If you use a smaller or less-established institution, a bank failure or similar default could create serious complications. The top 3–5 banks typically have significant expertise in managing escrow accounts and the assets to back up large deposits. Examples include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs. While Comerica can handle escrow services, it operates on a different scale. The process of escrow itself isn’t particularly complicated; the key is choosing a reliable, financially stable institution.