It’s easy to get carried away with the prospects of a movie and how successful people become off of them. But films are just like…
actually they are and should be treated just like a business.
When you treat a film like a business you are not only making sure that it is a good, well-planned investment of your time, resources, and possibly other peoples’ funds – but most importantly you can also mitigate your risks of failing.
To start off, you need an effective business plan.
In general, a business plan will help to flesh out the film idea and ensure you have a well-informed perspective before moving forward.
The next step is to make sure you are set up to run and operate both correctly and to cover your butt. Like making sure you have a great attorney who is well versed in the film industry in your corner.
Speaking for attorneys, since a majority, if not all of your assets will be intangible assets (if you don’t know what intellectual property or IP is, it’s good to get familiar), you will want to take proactive steps to protect them from innovation till you’re out on the market. This protection can be achieved through both OPSEC (operations security) as well as properly drafted and applied legal agreements. From Non-disclosure Agreements to work for hire, to employment, to distribution, to licensing agreements, the film business requires a lot of contracts. The right application and understanding are essential to ensure that you are doing them right the first time. Again, if you don’t already have one, find a good attorney.
Nothing is worse than spending millions of dollars and years of your life to find out that you failed to cover your basics and because of this snafu you lose it all. If you think it is far fetched, just do a little Googling, and it will change your religion.
Wow, all this and we haven’t even begun on the production of the film. Obviously, there is a complexity to succeeding in this hyper-competitive market. But that being said, now that you have your basics in place, you are ready to start on the next steps.
If you are going to be pitching the idea, then be sure you have both an effective business plan and a compelling pitch deck. While you might get lucky throwing shit against the wall, it is worth keeping in mind that whoever you plan to ask for funding is likely getting pitched regularly. And the better job you do at pitching, the better chance of getting funded. Most importantly, showing how your film is not only a great investment but that you are looking at and proactively mitigating risks – then like any other small business, you will have an exponentially higher probability of successfully getting funded.
Once the funding is in place, and even before you start production, you should get started on PR. Publicists, of all people, would know who, what, and when things are trending and have an understanding of what will help you win over your target audience, so why wouldn’t you want to include them in the pre-production process? They certainly know how to build up momentum and keep it going, as you already know, one of the best ways to succeed is to capture people’s interest and get them talking about your film. The more attention you get, the better your chances are for success. So the earlier you begin this process, the better you can do.
In our next blog post, we will dive further into when and how PR fits into a film’s success. In the meantime, if you have any questions relating to any stage of the process, we leverage an agency of experts that can help empower your success.