![]() ![]() The producer needs to identify what specific demographics the film is going to appeal to, and why the film will compel those audiences to spend their money and attention to watch. This is not to say passion has no place in producing films, but a successful producer pairs passion with an acute awareness of what's going on in the world and what's going on inside the entertainment industry. Artistic vision and technical mastery are important, as long as you have an infinite pool of resources to just make art. Many film schools unfortunately fail to teach the commerce side of the business and only teach the art. Passion projects without any market assessment are the opposite of how a producer makes money. Once a producer has failed to generate return on the initial investment, nobody will want to risk investing in that producer's projects. ![]() A first-time film producer who fails probably won't have the chance to make another movie again. Making a movie just because it's a good story or because the producer is passionate about the idea is fine, as long as the producer is also prepared to self-fund the project or spend years repaying the investor for a film that made no money. Films are long-form advertising to get consumers to buy products. Disney is in the game to sell merchandise all year long, to sell the idea in video games and sell tickets to amusement parks. There's an ever-increasing number of ways for people to spend their time and attention with still only 24 hours in each day.ĭisney, for example, is not in the game to just make princess movies. Or against Ted Lasso or The Office on streaming services, or whatever notification is pinging on someone's phone. Once the movie is made, it's going to be competing with Spider-Man, which is playing in the theater just across the hall. Whatever story is going to be told needs to be compelling enough to fit somewhere within a very competitive landscape. Knowing the Marketīefore the cameras, before scripts or pre-production or even investors, the movie producer needs an idea for what this film is going to be. We'll discuss points in more detail later. Once the investor has recouped his or her investment in having the film made, the revenue the film generates goes into this profit participation pool and is split according to any back end deals that have been made with actors, investors or other parties Here again, the movie producer has total control over negotiating the back end points. We talk more about the details of how this works in the section “ Negotiating a Good Distribution Deal” later in this article.īack end: “Back end points” is film industry terminology for percentage of ownership or profit participation. There isn't an accepted rule for what percentage of the budget a producer might take as salary.ĭistributor deal: When the producer sells the movie to a distributor (a movie studio or a streamer), the producer negotiates the split of revenue that the film generates when it’s released into the market. ![]() Some producers opt to pay themselves last. An inexperienced film producer can end up using his salary to ensure the movie gets made and take home nothing. This is a razor that cuts both ways: an independent producer can choose her own salary, but if something goes sideways during production and there's no budget left to cover it, the producer's salary is likely to become a contingency fund. The producer takes a salary from the budget like other people working on the movie (actors, director, etc.). When a film is referred to as high or low budget, it's the production budget that's being discussed. The compensation structure looks very different for both stages:įront end: This refers to before, during and after the film's production, or pre production, production and post production. Easy, right?įilm producers earn money in several different ways while the film is being made and after it's been sold. If you can execute on each of those, you'll make money as an independent film producer. Knowing and avoiding expensive pitfalls. ![]() Getting their films sold to distributors.Being smart about the budget on the front end of production.Building and maintaining trusted relationships with investors.Independent film producers make money by: Building and Maintaining Trusted Relationships ![]()
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