The Art of Film Funding

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Our guest, Morrie Warshawski, works with nonprofits and filmmakers having difficulty realizing their full potential.  He helps them create roadmaps to a better future through strategic planning.  His work is characterized by a commitment to the core values of creativity, thoughtfulness, transparency, and tolerance.  Warshawski has worked in the field for over thirty years as an administrator, consultant, facilitator, teacher and writer.  He was the Executive Director of two media arts centers (Bay Area Video Coalition and The Media Project).  He has served on numerous grant panels, was recently a judge for the International Documentary Compettion at DocAviv in Tel Aviv, and has consulted with dozens of independent filmmakers on career and fundraising issues.  Warshawski is the author of many articles, and of two books on fundraising, Shaking The Money Tree: The Art of Getting Grants And Donations For Film And Video- 3rd Edition (Wiese Books, LA), and The Fundraising Houseparty: How to Party With a Purpose and Raise Money for Your Cause -2nd Edition.  You can find him in cyberspace at www.warshawski.com.

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Our guest is Jason Brubaker, he’s the author of Filmmaking Stuff: How to Make, Market and Sell Your Movie Without the Middle-Man. Jason is a Hollywood based Independent Motion Picture Producer and an expert in Video On Demand distribution. His focus is on helping filmmakers make, market and sell movies more easily by growing their fan base, building buzz and creating community around their title. Visit his website at FilmmakingStuff.com

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Our guests are Dean Grant award winner Suzanne Mitchell and finalist Helen Hall. Both are documentary filmmakers who share tips on producing and financing in today’s economy.  Each filmmaker has worked on their film for many years and they share how to overcome obstacles, financing tips, marketing and distribution concepts.

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Internationally renowned speaker and story consultant Fernanda Rossi will be talking about how to make a sample that gets your project off the ground both financially and story-wise and how to structure your film once you have shot all that footage. She has doctored more than 300 fiction scripts, fundraising samples and documentaries, including two nominated for the Academy Award® and many that went on to receive funds from ITVS and NEH in the U.S.and NFB in Canada. In addition to lecturing around the world in all major film festivals and markets, she is the author of Trailer Mechanics: How to Make Your Documentary Fundraising Demo. www.documentarydoctor.com

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Norman C. Berns ([email protected]) has a 35-year track record of producing award-winning films, from features and documentaries to TV series and commercials. He was the line-producer on television’s first super-gritty, “reality” cop show, The Street, for Universal and the CBS series, Wish You Were Here”. He earned an Emmy creating “Intermission Features” for The Metropolitan Opera. And joined Fallon-Minneapolis as a senior producer on the internet’s first ground-breaking web series, The Hire. His recent documentary series, The Writing Code, aired for over a year on PBS and can now be found in schools and libraries worldwide. Norman is the moderator of The Budgeting Group (http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/filmbudgeting) and owner of the online film community, reelgrok (http://reelgrok.com) where he teaches his popular classes on budgeting, scheduling, creating business plans and successful pitching. Norman is currently producing The Enlightenment, a feature film about James Cook’s voyages of discovery.

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Our guest today is a well known attorney in the film industry, Hal Corky Kessler from DEUTSCH, LEVY & ENGEL of Chicago.  Corky regularly speaks on the business and legal aspects of feature film development, including tax incentives.  He has participated in seminars and conducted speaking engagements throughout the United States and Canada on legal issues impacting the entertainment industry. He has been a lead speaker for many years at various film festivals throughout the country, including the Toronto & Sundance Film Festivals, where he has conducted seminars on "Funding" and "Legal and Business Pitfalls, Screenplays through Distribution." Corky has been the attorney on numerous film projects across the country. He has represented and served as executive producer on feature films and theatre projects and he is Carole Dean’s attorney and a generous donor to the Roy Dean grants.

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Our guest, Robert L. Seigel, is a NYC entertainment attorney who specializes in the representation of clients in the entertainment and media industries with an emphasis on fiction and non-fiction projects. Bob has over twenty years experience as an attorney in these areas and has represented such projects as "Trembling Before G-d," "Which Way Home," "Forty Shades of Blue," "Planet B-Boy," "Entre Nos," and "Interview."  He is a donor to the Roy Dean Film Grant and has written business and legal articles for The Independent Feature Project blog, Indie Slate and Filmmaker magazines. Visit his website at  http://www.rlsentlaw.com

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Our guest Bill Woolery, ET and the Usual Suspects, is  also known as "The Trailer Specialist."  Bill will offer his wisdom on trailer editing from his 25 years of experience with movie studios .He is a donor to the Roy Dean film Grant and wrote a chapter in my book, The Art of Film Funding.  See his brilliant work here: http://www.billwoolery.com/

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Our guest Jilann Spitzmiller is a Documentary Producer, Director, Editor, Cinematographer and teacher whose award-winning work has been shown around the globe. She most recently won a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for her work in the POV PBS documentary, CRITICAL CONDITION, which she co-produced and co-directed. Learn more about her at her website DocuMentors http://www.documentaryhowto.com/                                          Jilann did a successful fund raising campaign through From the Heart on Indiegogo and she will share what she thinks are the top items that bring you money.  You want to have your pen and paper ready to take notes if you want to do a crowd funding campaign you could not get better tips.

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Our guest, Tom Malloy, shares new information from BANKROLL II on film funding 2012, current status of independent film financing and international financing.  We will cover where to find investors and how to close them.  Plus current methods of marketing and distribution, using the 5% finder’s fee, 10% pay or play and more. If you'd like to visit his website go to www.bankrollthebook.com Tom has raised over 15 million dollars and produced 5 films recently so he is in the know.