Finance:
Sources of finance
“Film finance is a subset of project finance, meaning the film project’s generated cash flows rather than external sources are used to repay investors. The main factors determining the commercial success of a film include public taste, artistic merit, competition from other films released at the same time, the quality of the script, the quality of the cast, the quality of the director and other parties, etc.”
There are four main ways to fund a film these include government grants, tax incentives and shelters, private equity and hedge funds, debt finance and equity finance.
Another way of providing funds is through the Film Council or British Film Institute, however the Film Council is now closed with the BFI taking over it’s responsibilities.
As for short films there are a variety or ways to fund these such as local councils, charities and production schemes and competitions.
Local councils will often put money into short films if it aids the local community or deals with issues regarding the community. Visiting the local council or it’s website can give you an answer to whether they will fund your film. A number of charities will fund short films usually organisations will fund these short films if the film is somehow linked with their charity. For example the ‘Wellcome Trust’ a medical research charity has an Arts Award that funds projects inspired by biomedical science. Now and again film broadcasters and other organisations produce a series of short films. Schemes like this seem to arise often and can be found on the internet.
Requirements:
Equipment
As stated before I would need a camera, tripod, memory card, microphones and lighting equipment the prices of these vary when it comes to big budget films depending on the specific equipment you need. Lighting can range fro £50.00 to £200.00 depending on how advanced you would prefer it to be, cameras can also vary in price ranging from £30.00 to £1,000 on the upper hand there are available websites in which you can loan this sort of equipment at a smaller price, however that may not always be an advantage as buying the equipment then allows you to re-use it which may save money in the long run.
Transport
When shooting a big budget film transport may cost you a lot of money especially if your locations are in various places around the world, as you have to pay for your crew and talent to travel to these places. Plane prices vary from around £40.00 to £500.00 depending on where and how often you are traveling. For my own production however I will only need to provide the transport for at least 10 people this will be very cheap as my talent and crew live locally and if they can not afford their own transport prices then I will be able to fund it considering it is very cheap.
Talent
When it comes to short films majority or directors would usually pay their talent a low wage or more commonly use people that are willing to do it for free just to be noticed for bigger films or even as a favour. However when it is a box office film talent wage usually lies around £250,000 or even £10 million. For my own production my talent are participating voluntarily.
Crew
According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, producers and directors in the motion picture industry earned an average annual income of $115,920 in May 2011 and producers and directors involved in TV and radio broadcasting earned $69,540 on average. Income can vary from one professional to another depending on role, experience and size of project. As for my own production I will not need to give my crew a wage as they are participating voluntarily.
Facility Hire
In big budget films location usually needs to be hired, the prices for this can vary depending on the location if it is in a foreign country or in a private area the prices can be quite large which is not a problem for largely funded films. For my own production Southport College will be my main location which is free so therefore I will not need to use any of my finances to pay for location.
Clearances
“Copyright defines the ownership of an intangible piece of intellectual property in the same way that the deeds to a house define the ownership rights to that tangible asset. It is intended to protect the creators or owners of the rights in some creative piece of work by establishing precisely what they may do with those rights and preventing anyone else from using them in that way without permission from the copyright holder.”
In bug budget films copyright is very important as if even a branded logo is shown without permission it may cost the production in copyright funds, also when using soundtracks the production company may have to pay the artist to use the soundtrack unless the track is too outdated to have to pay.
For my own production I need to be aware of copyrighting therefore I am going to try not to use a copyrighted soundtrack and also I will try not to include any known brands which can cause copyrighted payments.
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