Getting corporate sponsorship

[Brooks Productions]

I know a few of you have managed to get corporate sponsorship and managed to raise money yourself so i come to you for help.

For my film i need a minimum of ?2.5K and im in no finical situation to pay for it myself. I work but i have finical commitments that i cannot get out off.

How can i go about raising this kind of money? What do i need to show or present? Who should i speak to?

I really don't no anything about this but im willing to sell out totally to make the film. Its my baby!

Im not afraid of hard work.

Thanks in advance

[peter_g]

No company is going to give you ?2.5k - it's not enough. Any prospective corporate sponsor is going to immediately assume, rightly or wrongly, that a ?2.5k short will be unwatchable, and that sponsoring such an endeavour would reflect badly on them and would not come to any good.

So, you can either:

1. Find a company that is owned by, or under the influence of a relative. Emotional blackmail works best here. (Why didn?t you hug me when I was a child, etcetera)
2. Let the tax payer foot the bill. Find a state body (Whatever the British equivalent of the arts council is, or one of it?s subsidiary bodies). If your film is a clich? ridden cesspool of mediocrity, you?re sure to get funding.

Good luck!

[Matty2phatty]

I was recently dealing with the australian film commission, with a short film with a $10k budget. They told me a film for that amount is considered a 'no budget' film. They work in the vicinity of $100k for a short. NOT a feature, just a 10 minute short.

the amount your asking for would look like a joke to anybody.

Unless the amount you're asking for is only a small portion of what your budget actually is... but that amount is small enough that you should know people who might want to invest, but too small to get any big time investors. Unless you have a 1000% return ofcourse [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 04, 2005 09:50 PM: Message edited by: Matty2phatty ]</font>

[assyrix]

- Remortage your property if you can
- Sell each and every stuff you don't absolutely need (your car/motorbike/furniture etc.) - including your film gear. Rent whatever you need instead for the days you are actually filming.
- Take Peter_G's advice about emotional blackmail.
- Incorporate yourself so you can claim back VAT against your earmings. Then take out a bank loan to finance your films and use the repayments against your other incomes to reduce your overall tax bill. Get an acountant to advise and do all this for you.
- Max out your credit cards (apply for new ones if you have to).

[miker]

IMO, it's all about the business plan and presentation.

If you can show ROI on ?2.5K then that's the first step. If you can't then why would anyone invest?

You can get sponsorship in other ways. I've heard stories of shoots being supplied with crates of Cola in return for some product placement. Not the same as hard cash though ...

I don't know of any short, ever, that's brought ROI. Not to say it can't be done ...

Why not roll the short into a presentation piece for a future feature? Promise investors a cut of the feature project, but you need to make this short to attract further investment for the feature ....

[Generic Skinhead]

In Ireland, the arts council won't help you. It's the film board or nothing. They wont help you either unless you are part of a limited company. I'd imagine it's much the same anywhere.

Since shorts don't make money, you're not going to generate much interest in the corp. sector. You'd be much better off fund raising.

Me and my classmates raised a grand between us after bag-packing for 3 days at a supermarket. Be creative.

For 2.500 I hope you're shooting film!

[MatJimMood]

Look out for intituitives from your local film council (whoever delegates who gets lottery money). I think London's is just called 'Film London'. They should have annual competitions that encourage local talent.

Up in the north east we have Northern Film and Media. They are quite good for this sort of thing. I just recently managed to get ?3K funding for a 5min film.

[Brooks Productions]

im actually quite surprised by your comments about people not being interested because its only 2.5K i did my best to cut the budget down to a real low because i didn't think i would be able to get much money. Do you think i should ask for more money then?

Fact of the matter is i know i can keep high production values on 2.5k - its only five minutes long.

The UK film board have finished all there short film founding schemes for the year and i want this in production be the end of september.

As for the Austrian board using $100k i dont no how much that is in pounds but that seems a silly amount me to. Given a full budget all the trimmings for a short film of my choice i couldn't see needing more then ?20k for 5-10min short.

I no for a fact the short wont make money but i was hoping companies might be interested from the angle of having a tax right off or something, maybe even just supporting the local film scene or having there product seen.


Is this not the case?

[Generic Skinhead]

Not to be snide, but their product seen by who exactly?

Even very successful shorts have a small audience.

[Brooks Productions]

i am aware of this and trust me i dont have illusions of grandure for this film but i do intend to pimp it to as many places as possible. Online festivals, forums ect. I mean even 200-300 people might be an instentive?