What is a “Film Package”?
A film package is far more than just a script and a budget, though that is what many new filmmakers think it is. A film package is a set of documents that:
- Outlines, in detail, a plan for producing
- Proves, conclusively, that a producer and his team are ready, willing and able to execute this plan
- Demonstrates that the film is likely to make money
Film packages vary dramatically in form and substance. A $20K short film may require just enough documentation to win over a single angel investor. A $1M dollar documentary that will be funded by grants and donors and distributed on DVD may need documents that meet their sponsorship requirements. A $15M romantic comedy slated for theatrical release that will be funded by private investors and subsidized by state rebates will need a much more complex package.
In building your film package you must determine if and how it will make money (not all films have to), and who your funders are likely to be so you can design the right plan. One size does not fit all.
For maximum speed in funding, all film packages benefit from being clean, attractive, short, fact-filled, and illustrated with graphs and story art.
Several things can make funding much easier:
- Easy access to many people in a financial position to fund your film. If you routinely hang out with High Networth Individuals, a good film package film will result in your project being funded more quickly than most.
- Demonstrated ability to reach a very large target market for your project. If you are a wiz at social media and can draw hundreds of thousands to view your demo you have a film that is very likely to get made.
- Ability to get celebrities to appear in your film doing something interesting will help your film get funding. To be explicit, this works because it means your film will be very easy to market. A film that can use names like Johnny Depp or Robert Downey Jr. as part of its marketing will be carried by many newspapers and websites. This will draw traffic to your project.
- A very hot topic that is important to a large, easily-targeted, market. If you have a film about a cure for lung cancer that actually works, chances are good you’ll have a lot of lung cancer patients eager to watch it.
It is important to note that your film package is not a static document. It is a working plan that will change slightly for every funder. In most cases you will want to keep the document loose enough that the details of how funding will be provided can vary. Some funders will want to structure their funding as a loan. Some will want to be active investors, others will want you to set up a Project Placement Memorandum so they can buy stock in your business. Still others will want to own the project outright and pay you to produce it. Since all these options are possible, it makes sense to keep the details of the financial structure for financing out of the business plan.
