Found Money
Found money is great. It’s that sudden influx of cash that you didn’t expect which suddenly makes it possible for you to get your movie off the ground. Found money was a great asset on all of our feature projects. The trick with found money, however, is to quickly invest it in your movie before you realize that you have some actual need for it — like home repairs, car repairs, or a new pair of sneakers and socks.
Found money comes in many shapes and sizes. Here are some situations that could best be described as found money.
- An ailing, distant aunt dies, leaving you exactly $8,000 (after probate and taxes, bless her heart).
- You win the lottery with a ticket you found on the sidewalk while picking up a nickel because you’ve been scrimping lately to get a movie project off the ground.
- The hours you spent diligently preparing and mailing in all those Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes entries finally pay off when your mail carrier proposes to you, and you discover that your new fiancé is really an eccentric millionaire with a penchant for independent moviemakers.
Of course, there are moments during the money-raising process that may cause you to feel panic or even desperation. During these moments, you may feel as though you would do anything for money. Anything. There are a few situations that do not qualify in the strictest sense as found money, and we recommend that you don’t succumb to these temptations when money gets tight:
- Your distant, ailing aunt asks for a second opinion, and you arrange an appointment for her with Dr. Kevorkian.
- You accidentally place your younger brother’s kidney up for auction on eBay.
- You enter a convenience store wearing a ski mask and carrying a prop pistol, and the goofy night clerk inadvertently gives you all the money in the safe.
No matter how you slice it, getting the money is one of the hardest parts of the moviemaking process — whether your budget is $8,000 or $80 million.
The mere size of your tiny budget provides you with a slight advantage, but on those dark days when no one is returning your calls and your friends and relatives turn icy when you enter the room, it is little solace. And no longer mere.
Along with distribution hell, the money-raising phase of the moviemaking process is one where you feel the least in control. It follows, then, that this is a time when you are the most vulnerable — to compromise, to inertia and entropy, to complete and total surrender. Resist these feelings with the full force of your psyche because giving in to any of them spells death for your project — and for a bit of your soul.
As Winston Churchill so stoically put it, “Never give up. Never give up. Never give up.” If his Prime Minister gig hadn’t panned out for him, he had what it takes to be a digital moviemaker.
So hang in there. You never know when you’re going to find that lottery ticket, persuade that investor, or receive a knowing wink and a smile from your mail carrier.
