It’s Memorial Day and my wife and producer, Stephanie, and I have been discussing our upcoming schedule for the next three months. This will be the most critical period in our filmmaking on Elvis of Cambodia, to date. Not only will be filming some important interviews as well as heading down to Los Angeles and Long Beach for the Cambodian Music Festival, but it is during this time that we will be raising major awareness and funding that will allow us to re-locate to #Cambodia in the Fall (for 3 – 6 months) for completion of principal photography and hopefully getting headlong into post production.
Film Funding Headquarters for Elvis of Cambodia
This can be a tricky, mind bending, and sometimes in worst case scenarios, film-ending time. We’ve drawn upon past positive experiences (and sometimes failures!) from years of working in the film industry, which has often including financing our documentary projects, and tried to put together a strategy for ‘Elvis’. This has included books, online research, practical experience with our own projects, and practical experiences from other filmmakers. It is our hopes that this series will help you as you embark upon the sometimes scary, but often times quite rewarding journey that is film self financing.
Just last night we took large poster-sized sheets and filled them out with topic headings like Fundraiser, Cambodian Music Festival, #Kickstarter, and Cambodia. Below these headings was everything that we’d need to know regarding the area. Where did we hang these big sheets of manifestations? Right in the damn living room. I’d suggest doing the same. It gets it out and into a place where you simply can’t avoid it. Every time you walk by or are in the living room you are seeing in front of you all of the various tasks that need to be done. And friends and family will also be seeing them. Not only will they think you’re serious about your project, but subconsciously (or better yet consciously!) they’ll be devising ways to help you on your journey. We’ll be checking off our list over the next few months. And you know, it doesn’t look all that bad. Really.
Heading on Poster-Sized Sheet for Film Financing
Author, Carole Dean, has written a super helpful guide to alternative ways to finance your film, whether it be a short, feature, or a documentary. The book has recently had it’s 2nd edition released and it is called The Art of Film Funding. I’ve used this book a number of times over the years, in particular with the last doc, Journey to Kathmandu. We are now picking it up again for Elvis of Cambodia.
Now, keep in mind, I am not endorsing this book so that you’ll help these people make some money (they’ve made plenty, believe me!). I know better than anybody that it’s easy to get caught up in the game of buying up all of the how-to film financing books to the point that before you know it, you’ve spend all of your dough on books instead of your film. So to save even a little money check your local library for titles before heading over to Amazon (or wherever). Now I know what you’re thinking. Yeah, sure, my local library is going to have specialised books such as these. Well, you’d be surprised. I just ran an online search on the Multnomah County Library (Portland, OR area) website and they had a sh*t ton of great film books. Heck, I wish I’d checked my local library before purchasing some of these books!
There are also some great podcasts out there worth checking out. For a nice overview on alternative film financing listen to the BlogTalkRadio podcast on this very subject. Mind you, it may be a bit new-agey and woo woo early on in the podcast, but keep listening as there are some solid points made within.
As we venture down this leg of our filmmaking journey we’ll be publishing more posts on the subject. So keep coming back to the Barang Films blog.. only by sharing this information can any of us be truly successful in the zany world self film financing!
BARANG FILMS 