Why Films Under $2m Can’t Catch a Break
From Jeff Steele at HuffPo:
You might have a good script, a talented cast, an experienced crew, a director with terrific “indie-cred,” a small budget and a huge upside, and yet no investor, packaging talent agent, or lender will talk to you. Why?
In my experience, lower budget films are just too combustible: 90% fall apart prior to completion.
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Film financing is like playing Monopoly. Buyers might not have the resources for Park Place, but that doesn’t mean they’re interested in Baltic Avenue — not if they can get a reasonably good deal on Marvin Gardens.
Lower budget movies usually come with less experienced personnel, from the caterer to the director.
Then the good news:
Budgetarily speaking: $250k is the new $2.5m. That’s right. Due to the down economy, and major advances in affordable technology, you can now create for $250k what was once the purview of $2.5m films. In addition, once your film is complete you don’t have to try very hard to sell $250k+ in foreign territories, so that makes for a pretty good return on a $250k film, even after you net-out the costs-of-sales.
For more of the article, go here.
For Jeff’s website, go to FilmClosings.