This is more of a query than an anecdotal reference. I'm wondering if the folks that produced Four Eyed Monsters would have been able to collateralize their project by having an institutional investor lend against a percentage of the people who said they would see the film by pledging online.
If for example 10,000 people in say 10 cities agreed to see the film, could you not discount the producers take to say 4 bucks an admission and multiply it 40% to come to a number of that would enable the producers to finance their film? I mean 16K is not a lot of money but what if the numbers grew and you started to see box office commitments of 10,000,000 people on a film with a 2 million dollar budget?
Look for this method to come alive on the new site we will be launching soon!
My blog that examines and explores new methods of incubating, funding, marketing and distributing BIG ideas by using crowdsourcing, crowdfunding and audience building tools.
About Me
- David Geertz
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Founder of SoKap, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding go to guy, indie filmmaker, father, mustard maker, meat lover, pseudo vegetarian, devout humanist and overall good moralist.
1 comment:
Interesting idea, but it wouldn't have worked as a loan. We had a hard enough time just getting theaters to book the film based on those fan commitments. It's just too risky as a loan. Even though we eventually saw about a 1-to-1 ratio of requests to attendance, there was no reasonable guarantee at the time that it would happen that way. If we had actually sold those tickets in advance, we'd have been able to do a lot more - theatrical booking, loans, etc. But then, we wouldn't really need the loan 'cause we'd just have that money. I know some companies out there have claimed that they're working on selling movie tickets before the screenings have been booked, but I'm skeptical. People's time and social commitments are too valuable for them to want to put down cash for an event that may not end up in a convenient time and place for them, if it happens at all.
On the other hand it probably would work as an investment. Investors or distributors who purchase rights to a film take on well more risk than that to begin with. Usually, the best information they have is a list of name actors and a P&A expenditure commitment. After that, it's all just wild speculation. Detailed knowledge of who your fans are and where they're located ought to significantly strengthen a business plan.
Brian Chirls
Distribution and Marketing Manager, Four Eyed Monsters
Post a Comment