5 Ways to Get Help Funding Your Independent Film

If you've ever produced a feature length independent film then you know how hard it is to pull together so many different people, resources, and other minutia. One of the biggest changes to indie films is that of the budget and the funds by which an indie film is made. Although there is no one right way to get an indie film produced, I will go through several ways that have helped me both fund my indie films and alleviate some of the burdens that the budget can cause. Although it's always great to have one executive producer putting together all the funding for a single film, the following is a means by which having only one means of funding is not an option.

1. Get Your Cast & Crew to Work on Deferred Payment.

I would love to always have the funding to pay cast and crew up front on an indie film production but sometimes this just is not possible. This being said, I'm also not someone who will suggest any cast or crew member to work for free because heaven forbid the film get picked up by a distributer and the producers actually turn a profit on the sale of the film. They are not obligated to pay any of the cast & crew especially if the contract says they are working for free or the most common supplement being a copy of the film. Instead, I write into all cast & crew contracts that they will receive a deferred payment on the film, which is usually a day rate that's comparable to the industry standard and is due upon the sale of the film (should the film sale for more than the projected budget). This gives everyone a peace of mind knowing that they will not be taken advantage of by the production company and it gives the production company freedom to find a higher caliber of cast & crew. Plus this is one aspect of funding that the production company won't need to worry about until the film is picked up by a distributor. On the Southlan-Films production "Jack O'Lantern" the cast and crew were all on deferred payment and received payment once the film was sold to Lionsgate Home Video Entertainment. The details of payment were stipulated in the contract and everyone knew when to expect payment.

2. Hire Crew Members With Their Own Equipment and Cast With Their Own Costumes.

One of the biggest challenges for an indie film production is the fact that equipment is always changing and that this is another huge chunk of the production budget. Finding crew members with their own equipment can relieve one less burden on the production. On the Blank Stage Production "No Experience Necessary" director of photography Randy Stewart provided his own grip truck. This saved the production thousands of dollars in rental fees alone (and we ended up writing into Stewart's contract that he would receive a rental fee for the use of his equipment). I used this same method on my feature film "House of Secrets" in which I used equipment from three different people. I ended up not having to pay for any rental equipment to get the job done.

The same can be said for the cast and costumes. Costumes are a big part on any production and can become one of the biggest challenges for the budget if your characters have multiple days with multiple outfits. For my feature "House of Secrets," I had a cast of five females who all had at least five changes in costumes (if not more for some). The first challenge was to first ask all the actors to bring in their own clothes to see what would fit their character. Sylvia Boykin's character in the film had the most elaborate and flamboyant of the group but she brought along a lot of possibilities that I probably would have never thought of. Her costume choices alone were estimated at about $1500 of which I could have never afforded to go out and purchase. Another one of the characters played by Dixie Light called for seven outfits; she brought to the set outfits that were almost $2000 if bought brand new. Having the actors bring their own outfits saved the production in several ways. It saved us having to find outfits that would fit the actors, it saved us the cost of having to buy the outfits ourselves, and it saved the production the cost of a costumer (since the actors all maintained their own costumes).

On an indie production every penny counts and these two aspects just saved the production a whole lot.

3. Get the Use of Locations Donated.

Location. Location. Location. That's one of the most important aspects for an indie film because if you can't afford to build the big sets than you'll have to use all practical sets. You should always try to find locations that are inexpensive but if you can't afford that then try to find locations that you can get for free (without compromising the integrity of your film). Many locations love to help out indie film productions and if you tell them you'll give them a film credit and feature an establishing shot of their location then many times they'll let you use their location for free. On the Broken Lighthouse Pictures production "History of the Vampire" we got permission to film in Key West Bar & Grill for free. Even though we only had access to the location during closing hours (which was great for sound), we were able to give the film a very modern look and feel without having to pay for the cost of building an actual location. On the Bren Allison directed feature "6 Degrees of Desperation" we got the use of several high schools in Rome, Georgia, which was instrumental since a majority of the film takes place in a high school.

4. Get Restaurants to Donate Food for Catering.

I cannot stress this enough - Feed Your Cast & Crew. This is the one area on an indie film that you cannot dismiss or dust under the rug. Many a cast and crew will work for free (or deferred payment) but they will not do so if they are not well feed. A well fed cast and crew is a happy cast and crew and if you can't afford to spend a lot of your production budget on catering then you need to find an alternative. On several short films the way the production was able to keep the production costs down was to go around to all the restaurants in the neighborhood we were filming in and talk the restaurant owners into donating their unsold food from the night before to our production. Each night when the restaurant closed we would go to the restaurant and they would give us all their unsold food and food items. One local café even provided us with fresh coffee every morning for the film shoot. All of this was at no cost to the production and we had some of the best food that a film shoot could ask for. On my production of "History of the Vampire" the caterer donated her time preparing and setting up the food for the production each day at only the cost of the food itself. This was a great benefit for the production and saved us a lot of money.

5. Raise Funds Online Through IndieGoGo, Kick Started, and Other Online Sources.

Today's indie film world is being opened to so many possibilities and alternate routes of funding that buck the traditional ways. There are even online resources that will help indie productions raise the money they need to produce their films. Some of the most popular are IndieGoGo and KickStarter but there are more and new ones are popping up every week to help the indie filmmaker get their films made. These sites generally take you through a step by step process to create an account and a "campaign" to allow individuals to donate money to produce your film. It may take you a few tries but the process has been made fairly simple and can yield some surprising results. I originally set up a small account through IndieGoGo for my feature "House of Secrets" and found the experience quite rewarding so now I am doing the same thing for my current feature with Infectious Films "The Cleavers." You may not be able to raise the millions of dollars to produce a studio-type film but the money you do raise will help you get a start and will at least make the road a lot easier.

These are just some of the ways in which you can help fund your indie film. There is no one right way but maybe with several ways it will at least make the road for your production easier and more manageable.