On Expanding the Business Plan

I wanted to expand on some of the points made in the previous blog on business plans. As mentioned there is a lot of different information which needs to be included, so below  I have gone on to explain those various parts. I also left out a few things in the first post that will be addressed below as well.

Now the common question about this is do you need one if you're not looking for money?

Yes. There are a ton of reasons as to why you will need a business plan (the plan) not just to obtain financing. As a matter of fact, a plan is not put in place for the simple purpose of obtaining financing. A plan is exactly that, a plan that will help you as a producer keep the production train on the right track. Imagine if you were to travel from Buffalo to Los Angeles  by car and you didn't have a map. Sure you can drive in the general direction WEST and you might get there eventually but you probably won't take the most efficient way there. You might get lost, need help with directions, perhaps you get so lost you end up in Montana, and you're running out of financial resources because you're so far off track you might not EVER get to L.A. Get it? The plan also allows you to work toward an objective which might not otherwise be clear in the beginning. The objective not being to complete the film, but to sell it and hopefully earn back the budget. So by having this plan set in place you'll know what you should be doing before you do it in order to achieve that objective.

Side Note: Why in God's name would you want to make a feature length movie without the hope of making money on it? It's a MASSIVE waste of time and resources if you don't start out with that in mind.

Another reason you should be accustomed to drafting plans is to be accustomed to drafting plans. To paraphrase a quote by Greg Lamberson "unless you're content on swimming in the local pond forever" you should honestly know your complete and full objective and have the wherewithal to put it down on paper in a professional format. Be ready! Someone may want to entertain the thought of giving you money for another movie idea....be ready! And remember a film production is a shallow accomplishment without distribution and it's associated income. I'll say it again,if you're not making a film to earn some money in return, then why the F&*% are you? It's an expensive hobby.

So back to the finer points of the plan. It's important to know the difference between a GOOD plan and a BAD one, and that is your content. If it's not clear and easily understandable then it's probably bullshit. Don't allow your potential financiers to wonder and assume. Treat them like a 5 year old and tell them what you're planning on doing and how you're planning on doing it...then tell them again. Remember: SIMPLE.

Company & Mission - THE TEAM


As mentioned, this is going to outline the type  of company you're setting up and what it's all about, including your team. I didn't expand on the "TEAM" part because I just felt it was assumed. The more I read around the intrawebs I see there are a lot of Robert Rodriguez's out here. A LOT. Let me be straight and clear about this, you're not Robert Rodriguez so stop trying to be, unless you're content on swimming in the local pond for pretty much ever. If you can't delegate and trust people to work with you that are better than you are then don't bother trying to make a film...and certainly do not expect anyone to give you money to make that movie. So back to the team. You need to be clear on who you are, and who you're looking to hire and how. Your team isn't just the director, DP, etc. Remember this is a business so your team should be an attorney, an accountant, public relations, a distribution rep, a creative producer for production (unless that's you, but usually a UPM or Line), creative and marketing rep, and perhaps a business affairs rep. Now this doesn't mean you have to go out and hire these people right away or even that they'll be full time on your project; what that means is that you'll have them retained for counsel and refer to them when needed. It's also ok if you do not have the names of the people you're looking to hire to fill those rolls. Just mentioning that it is in your purview to bring them on is what's important. Now I get the fact that there are a lot of films being made that wont' need all of that but you must have what is important to your picture's success and go with it. It's also important to have someone on the team currently that has the experience to make your investors feel comfortable. If you've never produced a feature length film, get someone that has on your team STAT!

Now your creative team being the director, DP, etc. Most of you are probably thinking "well I'm the director too" which is fine but remember if you're not seasoned as a producer/director, those that you're approaching for money on a serious level are going to wonder how you're going to manage to balance both of those massive responsibilities. Get someone that 's going to help produce if you're going to be concentrating on directing when that comes around.

So get a team, one that makes you look good.

Comparables and Projections


Breaking down the market and listing your projections. Projections are what you can assume you'll make in revenues. I said in the first post that you should breakdown your script by emotional beats and then find 40 movies that best match your script for the comparison. I will expand on that. However, just be prepared that this is the most time consuming and most difficult aspect of your plan. This is why companies charge thousands of dollars for information like this.

A beat is something that happens that directly relates to your specific target audience. In a movie trailer for instance, they are filled with these beats because they want to get the most amount of people in their target audience to the theatre. These beats are every little image, sound and emotion that tells us what the story is all about under a specific list of categories and those are: children, adolescent, men, women, horror, supernatural, sexual, and the standard genre's action, comedy, romance and drama. So read through your script and every time one of those occur mark a "1" in that category. Remember, actors and directors are beats too....that is if you're attracting name talent.

Now for the hard part, after you have gone through your script and marked all those beats out, write a script for a 30 second trailer. You will write it to the second, meaning you should include what is shown and spoken on the trailer according to time. Don't forget to include a good VO narrative like "In a world (0:04)...where one man...(0:06)", title sequences, etc. My guess is that most of your trailer will come from pages in your script between 25-55. Remember to pose a conflict for your lead character and don't answer that conflict. Now count the beats again that appear in your trailer. If you've got 48 beats (more than 1 beat can occur at the same time) break those down into percentages of category. For example, if you have 12 beats in children that is 25% of your total number of beats. So chances are it's a children's film or family film.  Now the fun part, go to IMDB and do a search for those films, choose 40 films made in the last 5-7 years that closely resemble your picture in terms of budget, storyline and genre...and start watching those trailers and counting beats. Once you have all 40 broken down you can determine the top 5 films which closely relates to your script according to the beats. Then find out how those pictures did, their release dates, star power, etc. throughout all release windows. Get all revenue stream amounts, domestic, foreign, ancillary, what the P&A was and break those down against the budget and figure your averages. Don't take the highest grossing films to "pad" your stats...those aren't realistic. Take the median of the outcome and you can safely project your outcome if it were to be picked up for distribution. When listing your projections, give 3 outcomes, poor, moderate and excellent. Don't ever use the word "expected"...you never expect anything in this business. That takes me to your "assumptions". Everything in this stage is assumed. Since no one can accurately predict the future you are only assuming these outcomes. You should list accurate assumptions, such as "assuming we raise the full amount..." "assuming we complete the picture",  "assuming we are released for distribution through a major, minor, independent, etc." ...then the following outcomes are assumed.

Use that information for your comparable chart.

The Industry


None of the above information means anything to any non-film investor unless they have a basic understanding of how the industry functions. I'd recommend inserting a couple pages about the current status of the business, how it's doing in terms of box office, attendance, independents, grosses, trends, future outlook...this would be a good place to insert the ridiculous discussion about the future of digital filmmaking. Sure box office is down overall but how are independents doing in this field? Remember Sundance had 40 films sell in January 2012, and over 50 sold in 2011. Give figures too, investors wont' take your word for it. Also list where you're finding your information. Do research. Search the trades, scan the top festival sites and find out who's doing what and why, find out how some publicly traded companies are doing via the SEC search page (they will list their financials on those pages and you can see how they're doing).

You will also want to show how money is tracked, from the top to the individual unit. Why? Because no investor is going to read your entire plan from top to bottom. They will scan your summary then jump to the financials to see how much you need and how much they'll make and when. So give them an idea of how money flows and more importantly the time frame. Some may think that the movie will take 2 days to shoot and will be released that Friday and by Monday they'll see millions. No, try 3 years or more until any money is returned, so show them why it's 3 years rather than 3 days. In addition, track it to the unit so they'll know how much they'll see if they buy 1 or 100 units.


So anyone looking to put a plan together will have their work cut out for them so that's all for now. Next blog I'll share some information about selling those units and why they might be considered "securities" you'll need to register with the SEC. Yikes!

Also, if anyone needs any clarity on what's been posted I'll gladly address it individually.