IIFF Demystifying Film Financing Workshop

Last Friday, Sept. 23rd, I met Thomas Trenker in San Francisco to go over PHP coding I’m doing on his website, the Institute for International Film Financing. But first we headed over to the E&O Trading Co. where he and an associate are talking to Scott Rosenfelt.

Scott Rosenfelt is known for independently producing “Teen Wolf“, “Mystic Pizza” (Julia Roberts initial recognizeable role), “Home Alone” and “Smoke Signals“. He currently has “Valley of the Heart’s Delight” in post-production and “Mustang Sally” in development.

Thomas presented the Institute for International Film Financing (IIFF) rationale and work for presenting independent films to Silicon Valley investors and venture capitalists through the Film Angels meetings. Scott listened attentively. It appeared that Mr. Rosenfelt has had decades of experience with the uncertainty of film financing and would not take a potential funding source as definitely certain either way.

Afterwards Thomas and I went to Lori’s Diner on Powell Street. There I had a hamburger and showed where I was at in coding features into the website. Thomas invited me to go the next day to the IIFF’s Demystifying Film Financing Workshop at the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking. The school opened about a year ago on Third Street below Potrero Hill.

That night I went to the Webzine2005 Kick-Off Party and the next day I had a choice between Webzine2005 and the IIFF Workshop. Since Webzine2005 continued to Sunday, I spent most of my time in the Workshop.

The focus of the workshop was understanding the information investors looked for, needed and appreciated. This was combined with practical advise. For example, the role of a lawyer is as an advisor, not the generators of the business plan. A business plan is a considered action by the principals (producer(s), writer(s), director(s), etc.) Not a generalized product the lawyer constructs.

In his work at Film Profit, Jeffrey Hardy studies in detail the specific markets for each film as a unique product — the sushi cutter approach. So the emphasis was on a deep and detailed research and comprehension of the markets your film goes into. So when the business plan is presented to investors, their questions can be answered clearly rather than indistinct and deferred.

The audience was mostly mostly writers, directors and producers with focus on expressing a personal voice whether individual or community. So there were a good number of questions raised to clarify confusion on business plans, research, investment options and such. Jeffrey, since he focuses on detailed work, answered many of the questions specifically reaching for clarity.

Jeffrey asked two attendees to pitch their projects in the morning and a second set in the afternoon. The other audience members were asked to consider themselves investors and critique their performance. Ending with Jeffrey pointing out corrections and lessons from their presentations

At the end of the day there was a much information, tips, methods, plans and structure imparted. Two packets were handed out at the beginning of the day: 1) a copy of the slides and 2) sample business plans and market analysis for factious films. I don’t think I was alone in feeling a somewhat overwhelmed with the new and varied information. There was much to put into practice for researching and planning one’s project for financing.

The one complaint I have is that there were no breaks from 10 am to 5 pm outside of lunch. This was due to the amount of information to cover, the number of questions to answer and the detail Jeffrey went into responding. But this is minor complaint considering the value of the material and since filmmaking by it’s nature is demanding at any point in the process.