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[somber music]

I just wanna apologize...

to Mike's mom, and Josh's mom,

and my mom.

I'm so sorry for everything that has happened

because, in spite of what Mike says now, it is my fault.

And it's all because of me that we're here now,

hungry, cold, and hunted.

I'm scared to close my eyes,

I'm scared to open them.

[gasping]

We're gonna die out here.

[Rick] At the point that you were hired,

what exactly did they hire you to do?

They hired me to write the business plan.

[Rick] What was the budget for the film

in your business plan?

The budget in the business plan was $300,000.

[Rick] So let me get this straight,

you're writing a business plan.

-There's no screenplay, -Right.

-there's no movie stars, -Right.

-there's no name director, -Right.

It's this weird genre, which is mockumentary,

how the heck do you go raise $300,000 on that idea?

Very carefully.

The business plan is the thing that gets people excited

that, why this film is gonna do well.

[Rick] So when you were sitting there,

writing this business plan,

did you think, oh my gosh, "The Blair Witch Project",

this is gonna be the highest grossing independent film,

ever made, the highest return on investment,

or did you think, well, it might work,

what's going through your mind

when you were putting together the business plan?

It might work [laughs].

One of the things the filmmakers were aiming for

from the beginning was for people to believe

that this was a real story.

And what I said to investors

was that the budget was low enough,

that there was a good chance that they would at least make

their money back because everybody who saw it believed it

was a true story.

Sometimes people will ask me if it was a true story

all these years later, and I will say no.

And they'll say, who are you protecting?

[Rick] What was your top projection

for "The Blair Witch Project"?

My projection for the revenue was $23 million worldwide.

[Rick] And what did it do?

$350 Million worldwide.

[Rick] So why would anyone ever hire you

for a business plan?

No. The whole point is that you wanted to make more.

I've always said if I was gonna forecast

they will earn $350 million off a $300,000 film,

they should never hire me.

That would have been insane.

My name is Louise Levison. I'm a film finance consultant,

and I write business plans for independent filmmakers.

[Rick] I don't wanna put words in your mouth,

but in many ways you were one of the architects

of the entire film since there was no script, no star,

and you sat down with a blank piece of paper

and created an entity called "The Blair Witch Project".

There's a lot, that's been written,

what we might call "fake news" or "misinformation"

about the film.

The truth is it was shot on 16 millimeter.

Well it's super eight and 16.

[Rick] Right. So they had like a $300,000 budget.

Yeah.

[Rick] There was something like 89,000 in there,

for the transfer from 16 to 35.

A lot of people thought they just went

and got a video camera, went out in the woods, made a movie,

-I know, yeah.

but that was sort of the big part of the marketing

and the joke.

Which was bumped because I'm over here on the side.

Yeah, I did that.

But over time, the numbers that they said the budget was

has even gotten lower.

So that right now, someone on the internet

is saying that bunch for "The Blair Witch" was $15,000.

I was like, wow.

[Rick] But the truth is,

as innovative as it was in concept,

it was a traditional business plan,

-Right. -a traditional budget,

shot the way films are done traditionally,

-Right -it just pretended not to be.

[Louise] The thing that filmmakers have to remember

is that you have to make something you really care about.

You can't say, well, now horror films make a lot of money

so I'm gonna make a horror film.

It's really hard work.

Even though it looks like, well, they didn't do much.

It's very, very hard work raising the money

and making the film itself.

You really don't wanna be doing that

unless it's something you really care about.

Because if you don't care,

you're gonna be making a lousy film anyway,

no matter what it is and no matter who's in it.

You can have stars in it,

they can't really overcome a really bad film.

[Rick] "The Blair Witch" was a cultural

and media and box office phenomenon.

It was on the cover of Newsweek and Time.

[Louise] Right.

[Rick] And it was made by

five unknown regional filmmakers.

Right.

[Rick] Do you believe, based on your experiences, that today,

the same situation could occur again?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

-[slate clapping] -[upbeat music]

My name is Scott du Pont.

I'm a professional actor and a film producer.

There's a lot of secrets to raising money for movies.

The first thing I think is you gotta have

the right psychology.

Everyone seems to think that people out there

you're talking to don't want to give you money

for a high risk investment.

I believe it's the opposite.

I believe every single person I talked to actually wants

to give me money.

Now, with that said, not everyone is in the position

to give you money.

There might be liquidity factors.

There might be a husband and wife that talk you back,

but I believe you have to talk to every single person

you run into.

I was working on a movie many, many years ago,

an Adam Sandler picture called "The Waterboy".

I'm sitting up in the stands with 5,000 other extras.

I ended up sitting right next to this guy.

He had kind of a grungy T-shirt,

he had some holes in his straw hat,

ended up talking to him 'cause I talk to everyone.

That gentleman, Jeff,

ended up giving me $780,000

for my first feature film.

So, you can never, ever pre-judge anybody.

[upbeat music]

My name is Maggie Phillips Pamplin.

I'm a producer, production designer and artist.

I think the advice that I would give

to a beginning filmmaker is to gather a team around you.

I think there's a misconception that there is one producer

and he or she brings in the money.

People think that they are not the ones to raise the money.

I just think anyone can.

Anyone can have a relation or a friend or acquaintance

or business acquaintance that can come in

and help bring money for an independent film.

And you can be part of a team.

You need more than just yourself.

You need to start gathering people around

and really have everyone pitch in

and have everyone have ownership in that film.

[Scott] This is extremely important.

I've done this in every single one of my 12 plus films

over the last 20 years.

The first thing I do in my production office

is I build what's called "The Wall".

I literally take up an entire wall.

Sometime it's 10, 20, 30 feet wide.

And I write different columns of people that I know.

I start with my family.

In magic marker, write a big column of family members.

I write St. Andrew's people,

I went to high school years ago, cousins.

So you have all these different categories of people.

You start writing down their names

and you never ever pre-judge anyone.

[upbeat music]

My name is Rick Pamplin.

I am a screenwriter and a motion picture director.

I was teaching seminars and I met a very interesting man

that was distributing movies direct on video

to places like Blockbuster and United Artists Pay-Per-View

and Showtime and so I was one of the pioneers.

My very first film "Provoked"

was made under that guaranteed distribution

and under that new methodology

of how to make a motion picture.

I just started telling every single person I knew,

every student, every faculty person, I said,

I'm making my first feature film as a director

and I would like you to invest in it.

And one thing led to another and eventually we raised

the entire budget.

So we made the picture for $115,000

and on the figures that I've seen,

the picture made about a 50 to one payback.

This small little independent film with virtually no names,

which was kind of a feminist diehard.

I love making motion pictures,

I love writing,

I love working with talented people,

but I hate the concept of raising money,

asking people for money.

You know, lots of very wealthy people have told me

that you have to get over that fear.

So when I needed to raise larger amounts of money,

I had gotten everybody I knew to invest

so I at times would bring in funders or finders

and pay them a percentage of the money

that they would raise and I've been very successful at that.

And I prefer to work through a producer

or an executive producer who has the skills to raise money.

I think the reason I'm probably successful

in raising money is persistence.

I never ever give up.

And one of the reasons why this producing team

we'd had a lot of trials and tribulations through the years

and a lot of it was totally unfair.

I see this movie as redeeming the partners of this movie.

So I just said, you know,

I'm gonna lock myself into my office.

If it takes two years,

I'm gonna sit there and make over a thousand phone calls,

do a thousand meetings and here we are,

we finally got it funded.

A lot of times when you raise money in a movie,

it gets a little bumpy like this ride

and people think they're going to give you the money.

They sign the contract, and then they aren't able.

You don't decide what order your films are made,

your investors decide in what order

you're going to make your films.

I think there's something really true:

if you get up in the morning

and you think you will just die,

if you can not get out and make your own film

and produce your own film.

If you don't think that every day,

then you might not be a producer.

But if you get up in the morning

and all you're thinking about is how to make a film

and how to get your film out there,

then you're probably a film producer.

I had the great fortune of directing a film

with Ernest Borgnine, Academy Award Winner, living legend,

over 200 motion pictures.

I had group of investors who came to the set,

saw me make the movie,

the movie opened in theaters.

The movie was nominated

on the Ballot for the Directors Guild,

the Academy Awards and people got very excited.

And one of those people was the great artist, Borgnine

who said, kid, you're done making little pictures.

Let's make bigger pictures.

We had all kinds of stars calling us,

knocking on my door at Universal Studios,

wanting to come in and be in my movies.

You know, we really try to communicate with investors.

I try to always be responsive,

but sometimes investors become, you know, abusive.

My son came up with an idea called "Crime Busters",

which was basically little meets the police academy.

So, we designed "Crime Busters" as the most commercial film

I could ever make that would be an instant slam dunk

and we would make the film

and then we would go on to making more artistic films,

more representative of what I wanted make here.

Here I am 10 years later, I've been smeared on the internet.

I've had my life threatened.

I've had people sue me simply because it's taking too long

to raise the production funds.

I had very dark, terrible thoughts, but faith

and a great wife saved my life

and my revenge is making this movie.

I'm not dead.

You haven't destroyed me.

You haven't bankrupted me.

I'm still gonna make "Crime Busters".

I'm still gonna make the other two films

and I'm gonna make this film.

The best people I've ever met at fundraising in my life

are in this motion picture and I'm so thrilled

so I'd rather let them talk about it.

[soft music]

Yeah. I think this is a great business, I mean.

It's full of heartache,

and all those cliche things.

You're gonna get beat up pretty good

but still, it's a wonderful business

because you're...

What are you giving? Joy.

Hopefully a few laughs or hopefully you scare somebody

or whatever the hell you're trying to do

in your picture.

It's a wonderful, wonderful thing.

[Rick] Did you ever try to raise money for films

or did you have to?

No, I never did.

I never liked that idea.

I wouldn't be good at it.

[Rick] What's the secret of getting a project funded?

Is there a secret either in Hollywood or as an independent?

Well, you got a script that is a commercial script.

Commercial in the sense that it's got the things in it

that people wanna go see.

[Rick] What advice would you give to a young director

starting out today?

Find something that's good,

that you believe in,

that you'll fight for.

Don't let them tell you how to make your movie,

you make your movie.

[Rick] Where does Hollywood get their money?

[Louise] Hollywood gets their money from banks.

[Rick] What's your take when people say

that Jews run Hollywood?

Does it offend you? Does it not offend you?

It offends me because if anything goes wrong,

it's like, let's blame the Jews,

which since I've grown up before, it was the original cry.

When anything was going wrong, it's let's blame the Jews.

But I don't think it's...

I think at one time it was true.

I don't think it's so true anymore.

If you look at who all the executives are.

[Rick] Conversely then, is it easier

for a Jewish filmmaker to make a film than--

No. No. It's a money driven thing.

[Rick] Is it easier for a liberal to make a film

than a non liberal?

No, that's another thing.

You know, oh yeah nobody likes my idea

because those people are liberal.

Now we're talking about Hollywood,

and we're talking about

see, independent's a whole 'nother place.

[Rick] Is it easier as a white male to get a film made?

Probably, yeah.

[Rickie] Harder as a female?

Yeah.

[Rick] Harder as a minority?

Yes, definitely.

[Rick] But I think that's changing.

Yeah. No, I know it is.

And again, it really changes more from people

starting with independent films

because they just need to,

they can start with small films.

They can just find people who believe in their film,

put it together and make a film

and once they're successful,

when you're telling about studios,

then again, they're right,

they don't care who you are

as long as they're gonna make money.

Yeah. I think I know what's commercial

and you may hate that word,

but you have to have a little bit of that sprinkled

around in the screenplay.

[Rick] What do you think of the movies today?

Not much.

[Rick] Why?

Well, I see them trying to be commercial,

trying to, what do we do to make this picture make money?

Well, let's see.

We can have some bare boobs.

We can have...a rape scene

or we could have

a comedian say wisecracks for the whole movie.

My name is Russell Cardinal.

I am a location manager.

Well, I think Los Angeles,

everybody wants to get something for nothing.

You know, when I first went out there,

I went to a lot of potential opportunities out there

and they all expect you to work for free when you're young

or you don't have a, you know, really strong IMDB.

Well, Los Angeles is an expensive place to live.

Very difficult to get around.

Everybody's always late,

very difficult to stay professional out there.

There is a lot of greed and a lot of cutthroat

and stealing of ideas I believe

but there's also the greatest people in the world.

The most talented people behind the scenes

and it's a really great place.

I want them to understand that when you go to New York,

whether it's for a year or two years.

Two years, better than one.

And then you go to LA, you're a New York actor.

[Rick] And is it because of the stage work

that they would maybe do off Broadway do stage?

They'll do off Broadway and they'll do...

Also, there's a network with New York actors.

That's very important.

If they don't have any other place,

certainly not in Hollywood.

In Hollywood they're out to, you know, find out

where the next party is or what whatever's going on

but then it's not about the work.

Whereas in New York, it's about the work.

But you still believe they need to go to New York?

I do.

And then from New York to Hollywood?

Yes, the last time I was on Broadway, I was in a play.

It was a good little play.

There were five of us and we were all newcomers.

And I remember Richard Watts said,

"we hope these young people

"don't go to Hollywood."

I left the next day for Hollywood.

[laughing]

[Rick] What is wrong with you?

What possesses you to do this?

You have to do it.

If you wanna be a legitimate film producer,

or if you're a writer and you want,

if you're frustrated with some big studio

picking up your script,

if you're a director and you want to direct something,

sooner or later if you or your team of people with you,

don't talk to every single person you run into

or if you don't ask for money,

you're not gonna have any money.

And whether you're a writer, whether you're a director,

whether you're a producer, any end of the business,

if you want your project to get out there,

it's very unlikely that some studio,

oh, we love that script out of the hundreds and hundreds

of scripts we're getting in Hollywood,

we'll just pick yours.

Or if you're a director and you're trying to break through,

the quickest, easiest way to make it,

especially in the independent world, is just talk to people

and get your own money.

I mean, the equipment's a lot smaller,

it's a lot cheaper.

There's all these new platforms.

It's never been easier to distribute,

but it all starts with the money.

If you don't have the money,

there is no movie so it's that simple.

[soft music]

[audience applauding]

So I wanna ask you guys a couple of questions.

How many people here wanna make motion pictures,

make movies?

Okay. How many people wanna write movies, be screenwriters?

Raise your hand.

Screenwriters.

How many people wanna be directors, direct a movie?

How many of you wanna act, be actors?

Okay. Let's talk to you guys about things

that you're interested in.

Hi, I'm Alex Hassig.

Do you think it's important to go to school for acting

or do you think it's easier just to go to school

for something else and then find opportunities

around cities and such?

Great question.

I think when you leave here, wherever you go, undergraduate,

if you wanna study theater acting, I think that's great.

I didn't.

I was actually an economics major.

I fell into my passion for acting later,

but I think whatever you do,

you also need to take some business classes

to take some marketing classes,

to be very, very well-rounded.

I became the busiest, most working actor

in the entire state of Florida.

And I'm not a great actor,

but I knew how to market myself and I knew how to network.

So I think all that stuff is really, really important.

What's your name?

Brendan Asaf.

I was wondering, for a junior director,

what you think might be the best place to start,

for example, would it be a good idea to try directing

in theater before directing and film or television

or are these mediums entirely different

from one another?

Theater and motion pictures

are two different mediums completely.

Number one, you've gotta have a sample of your work,

a student film.

Number two, it helps if you're a writer,

if you have a spec script

and number three, I think assistant directing

is a great way to learn, to get in,

to really learn your craft.

Grace Sodie.

Okay.

So as an aspiring screenwriter,

there's always this fear that you're just rewriting

as you reference the same one story

that's been done over and over again.

How do you overcome that?

I'll tell you one way to avoid it.

I've had people come to me with stories that are essentially

"The Blair Witch in a Submarine",

"The Blair Witch on Mars"

and I keep trying to tell them "The Blair Witch"

has already been made.

You don't wanna remake somebody else's film.

You can learn the format and the technique

in about an hour but you've got to open up your heart.

There's a great quote by an old sports writer

named Red Barber.

He said, writing is easy.

You just take a razor blade and cut open a vein

and bleed on the page.

And having faith is not having any fear.

And you need to be bold as a filmmaker,

you need to say things that other people aren't saying.

If you wanna make a film, almost always

there's some good that somebody wants to do.

Don't get corrupted by the money.

Don't get corrupted by Hollywood or the fake propaganda.

Make that film.

[soft music]

Angela Lodato.

I teach film studies and broadcasting

at Saint Andrew's School.

In film studies what I love to do is analyze film

in ways that students don't think to

in terms of screenwriting,

in terms of music cues,

in terms of what actually puts a film together

in ways that can make

an audience empathize with characters.

Not in terms of what's entertainment,

but in terms of what can actually reach an audience,

what can actually touch an audience?

[Rick] What kind of films to the students talk about

wanting to make?

We watch a lot of dialogue films

and we watch a lot of older films with a slower pace.

Prior to coming in,

all they can think about is action and something

that is pure entertainment.

After taking some of the courses that I teach and learning

how you can touch an audience through deep emotion,

they start talking about how to find their own inner voice

and start expressing it in that fashion

rather than just flesh.

Some of them really are appreciating independent films.

And what they like about them

is that they're more accessible.

Particularly if you look at all the female objectification

that has gone on since the beginning of print media

and now of course we're seeing so much of it now

with male objectification.

A lot of them are starting to rebel against it,

which I'm happy to see.

So they're starting to think more about independent films

and by which they can create films

that are using more real people, if you will,

and just reflecting more of human nature

the way it really is.

I'm Ty Hammer.

Does all of your advice and more extreme ideas

also apply to television and all of its respective jobs?

You wanna work in television?

Maybe.

Aim high.

I went to prep school.

I went to this school called Cranbrook.

They always pounded in our heads, aim high aim, high.

Shoot for movies and if you fail,

you can always work in television.

All right.

-Never start in television. -[Louise laughing]

If you start in television,

you're gonna end up I don't know,

selling oranges in the freeway or something.

My name is Nikita.

You mentioned few times writing business plans

for motion pictures and it's an interesting path for me

that I would like to consider.

Is there any advice that you could give me,

what majors to take along with finance or business

that would help me start up?

Finance and business is good.

I worked in other businesses for 20 years

before I got into film and I've been doing this for 30.

So I like to say that I graduated from college

when I was six in case everybody can add.

Yes. Ma'am, what's your name?

I'm Avery Stark.

How do you come up with the ideas for films, characters,

and ideas for issues inside the movie

to make it long enough?

I was hiking up the Hollywood Hills,

with one of my business partners,

a place called Runyon Canyon.

This was, God, probably 10 or 12 years ago.

And we came back down the hill,

in the parking lot there was this brand new Tesla Roadster

and a bunch of us had seen this documentary

a couple of years prior called

"Who Killed the Electric Car?"

which is a really provocative, interesting edgy film.

So we're sitting there, within 10 minutes this guy,

the owner showed up,

he had 30 people crowded around his car asking questions.

"You mean it runs on no gas?"

"How do you plug it in?"

"How far does it go?"

So we got back in our fossil fuel car

and we looked at each other and said,

someone's gotta make a movie about these new cars

that we thought at that point were coming out.

We took a big gamble with our investors

but we had a pretty good inkling that in the next two years,

the market was going to be flooded with electric cars

and thank God every single car company

now has different plugin models.

So that's how that whole documentary came about.

It's just a story that had to be told.

Hi, I'm Jenny Hemmer.

Personally, I want to get into like costuming

and makeup stuff for film and theater.

And do you have any advice on getting my work out there

as a costumer?

Yes. Work on everybody's student films, build your reel,

learn your craft and you'll be very in demand

and I expect to hire you in a couple years.

-Alright. -Thank you.

-My name is Tim Lerr. -Yes, sir.

So in a short summary,

what would you advise on how to make

your potential investor care about your project?

You put together a business plan that shows him

what a wonderful project it is.

Like what would you put in your business plan?

The most important things that are gonna make him care

are gonna be the story, the audience,

and then all those numbers I was talking about

that are at the end.

You have other things you have to put in there

that are just business things.

But basically the story has...

He has to care, or she has to care, about the story.

If they don't care about the story,

then they're not gonna care about the money.

After that then they worry about the money.

You've gotta start with a story

that you're passionate about like Rick said.

And then after that, I really think it's a numbers game.

So getting back to what is the electric car,

I called up hundreds and hundreds of people.

A lot of people said no.

And then I made a phone call to an old fraternity brother.

I went to Rollins College and he said,

wow, you're making a documentary about electric cars?

Next thing you know, he came on board

as the executive producer.

So sometimes it's about just reaching enough people,

it's gonna spark with one person

who puts up most of the money.

[soft music]

I've been teaching here for 26 years

and what I find fascinating is that something happens

to a student when they have a camera in their hand.

They find that they're able to speak in a way

that they never did before.

I had a student once, I'm going back maybe 12 years ago.

Great guy, but he was just always sort of on the wrong side

of the administration, if you will,

in terms of discipline issues.

And we used to talk after school,

and I remember one time I asked him,

can you describe yourself to me?

He couldn't do it.

But I gave him a camera and I said,

could you do it with a camera?

The next day he came back to me with an image

that I still remember.

It was his shadow on the ground.

And he put as half smoke cigarette on it.

He just threw it down.

He stepped on it and he walked away.

Go put that into words.

Do you, tell your students that they can incorporate

-their faith into film? -Yes.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Nothing is off limits if it's deep in your soul

and you want to express it, even just for yourself,

as a catharsis, go right ahead and do it.

Nothing's off limits.

It seems like this would be a really tough time

to be a kid, to be growing up.

And this is kind of a loaded question,

but are the kids all right?

They're facing challenges and situations

that I never experienced in my life.

In terms of whether they're all right,

it's hard to say.

If you take, for example, just even coming to school

and feeling safe in terms of the violence in schools,

the school shootings.

When they talk to me I always just try to be quiet

and still and listen.

And they're expressing anxieties that I never experienced.

So when I hear their choices of music, books, entertainment,

I understand why they're gravitating towards

the harder edgier things.

I think it's expressing what they're feeling inside.

Are they okay?

I think they can be, they just need guidance.

They just need to learn how

and it's finding that still inner voice,

that deep character within them,

whether it be faith in themselves,

faith in a higher power, whatever it is,

they just need guidance.

Hi, I'm Samantha.

And I was just wondering if there were any times

when you felt like giving up and like how you overcame that?

Yes. I've been very depressed at times.

I've lived in my car.

I've been broke.

I've had people slander me on the internet

because when I cast a movie and I audition

a hundred actors and 99, don't get it,

they like to write bad things about me.

I have anonymous people that are jealous of me,

it's very hurtful but I have bigger fish to fry.

I have bigger stories to tell.

And I think that if you look at what happened to Jesus

or what happened to the Gandhi

or what happens to anybody who advocates something

in our society, in our world,

sometimes, you know, they're vilified.

And I just think you have to be strong.

I go through a lot of periods

where just no one wants to do it

and you just really learn to get through it.

A lot of people have mentioned going to Hollywood.

You do not have to go to Hollywood.

There's films being made all over this country

besides other parts of the world

and you can be an actor, you can be a director,

you can be a producer,

you can be in the business I'm in, whatever,

without ever going to Hollywood.

Hi, my name is Colin Vinny

and I am an actor at Saint Andrew's

and I was just wondering where I could go or what I could do

to start transitioning from the high school stage

into more films and more professional things.

I heard that Tom Cruise, when he first started out,

worked on 50 student and short films.

So when I first started I wanted to transition away

from commercials.

Up in Orlando, where I was living

there was eight full-time film schools,

including Full Sail, UCF, Valencia.

I did over 50 student films.

Mostly on the weekends.

So I really wasn't giving up a lot of income

and that's really how I polished my craft.

I had a reel and I got the respect and I was networking

and then from there, that's kind of spring-boarded

my whole film career out of those short films.

Yes, sir, what's your name?

Tristan Moss.

What's your favorite film?

That's too hard to decide.

"Napoleon Dynamite", isn't it?

[audience applauding]

I like that film.

So my question is, I was just wondering like,

if you have a short film what would be the very first thing

that you would do to make your work more well known?

If you can, if it's not too far go to a film festival.

I've gone to Sundance for 30 years

and I keep telling people

now that's a more expensive track to take,

but I learned so much early on.

I was already trying to do what I did,

but nobody knew who I was.

I didn't have a book out and I started going to Sundance

and talking to people.

That's the biggest thing,

is send your film into film festivals

and get the experience of knowing how to do it.

-Ok, thank you. -[Rick] All right.

Thanks so much.

There's somebody else. Yes, sir?

And your name is?

Hi, I'm Will Hagan.

Hi, Will.

I just really wanna know what is yourfavorite movie?

-My favorite movie? -And why?

Well, when I'm really depressed "Citizen Kane",

and when I'm depressed and don't wanna be depressed,

"It's a Wonderful Life".

Those are probably my two favorites.

In the old days there were great role models,

men and women of character

and today it seems more exploitative

and it seems harder to find role models.

Do you see a yearning at all for the kids for that?

Interestingly enough, I do see it when I show them

some of the older films.

They identify with the older films

in a way in which I never thought they would.

And when we have the class discussions,

I hear them identify with the role models,

to which you're referring.

So, yeah, I do.

They may be absent in the present films,

but they now know where to find them

in some of the older films.

Are you hopeful enough and optimistic

that this new generation will create movies

that will provide moral leadership, role models?

I think I'm optimistic in the sense that there is starting to,

I think, be a backlash of all the violence

that they're seeing.

I mean, look today on campus,

we just had a demonstration against the gun violence

that just took place and the school shooting

that happened a little while ago

only 30 minutes away from here.

I think what the kids need to do is not just deal

with the externals networking so on and so forth.

That's wonderful.

I think they need to learn how to develop an inner strength.

They need to learn how to identify with who they are

and that's something that's truly missing in our society

and I think that needs to go hand in hand with the external.

While we're rolling I just wanna say that,

this is an extraordinary experience today.

This school, you really, really went to bat for us.

This might've been the most important interview

we've done in the movie.

I love you, I salute you,

you are a courageous person.

You're a leader.

You're a person of faith and you gave us

a great blessing today.

I wanna thank you.

-[crew applauding] -Thank you.

You're awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

It's a difficult time to be growing up.

It is, you know it is.

You can see what's going on around you in this community.

You can change a lot of that.

You can do things better.

Do not squander the opportunity you have here.

Soak in every bit of knowledge you can get

from this institution, from your faculty,

from your classmates and realize the power that you have.

Every one of you is significant.

Every one of you is here for some purpose,

a purpose greater than what you may think.

As a kid I went out to Hollywood

and I let Hollywood convince me otherwise

and I learned to play their games.

You don't have to do that.

Make a better world.

God bless you, thank you for coming.

[audience applauding]

[upbeat music]

My name is Nichole Weaver Hanson,

and my occupation is Entertainment Attorney.

First of all, it's a good idea to hire

an entertainment attorney because entertainment attorneys

know the ins and outs of the financial aspects

that are involved with investors.

You have SEC complications to look into,

you have various states with different regulations

to look into.

So it's important to note, to have somebody

who knows the ins and outs and the possible pitfalls

that you can fall into as an investor and as a producer.

Best advice I could give a producer

from an entertainment attorney standpoint

would be to make sure that they have

their contracts written correctly for their investors

to make sure that they have all the state regulations

and the federal regulations taken care of

because there's not just the civil aspect

of somebody's money being taken.

In other words, that you could sue me if I was a producer,

it's also that there are federal issues involved

and you can also have federal charges and state charges

brought against you

if you don't handle film investors money correctly.

My name is Richard Troutman and I go by Rick.

I'm an attorney here in Winter Park, Florida.

And I think so long as the person raising the money

finds people who can understand that language,

that they're probably gonna lose all their money,

they are aware of the high risk

and they signed that document knowing what they're signing,

I can't imagine how the producers of the movie

or the people that raised the money for the movie,

could have any legal liability.

I don't think people that are giving money to a film

really think of it as a business.

I don't think a business plan is that helpful

because I think they realize that it's it's high risk

hopefully with the chance that if it hits,

if it gets popular and people watch it,

then they're gonna make, you know, a lot of money

and they probably shouldn't put more money in it

than they could easily lose and not lose any sleep over it.

My name is Kevin Dinneen

and after graduating from the Wharton School

I spent the majority of my career

as a real estate investor and attorney.

I think a business plan is very important

but I do think it's much more difficult

in the movie business than in others

because I don't think anybody candidly knows

what's gonna catch on and what your gross is gonna be.

You know, I think it's the same as in any investment,

a previous track record and a person who really

has a little consciousness of budget

to keep the costs out of control,

because even a great movie,

if the budget's three times what it's supposed to be,

isn't gonna do much return for the investor.

I think you better have a little fun in it too.

And I think you better sort of believe in the project

and that even if the movie doesn't make a fortunate,

at least you're proud that you were part of it.

[soft, exciting music]

[Rick] Let's talk about Salma Hayek.

How did that come about in "The Prophet"?

Kahlil Gibran was considered one of the most popular poets,

in a sense, behind Shakespeare.

He lived in the Middle East

and then he moved here and taught

and he wrote this book, "The Prophet",

which were essays on life.

And they took this book and decided to make it

into an animated film and had a different animator

animate each chapter in the book

the way they saw that chapter.

It's a terrific film.

It was a fascinating way to do it.

I wrote the business plan and it was a gentleman

who'd been in my UCLA extension class,

who was the executive producer on the film, Will Nex,

who then called me and hired me to do the business plan.

[Rick] And how did Salma Hayek become involved?

She became another executive producer.

She was a fan of Kahlil Gibran's writings

and she helped raise the money for the movie.

You can not even begin to imagine how difficult it was

to try to...

It's a film that breaks all the rules.

[Salma] Yes, there were many times where I said,

what, am I crazy?

What was I thinking?

But whatever happens with the film, every headache,

it's been worth it because I am very proud of the film

and for the people who have seen it.

There's been people who tell me

it is the most inspiring film I've ever seen in my life.

Maybe not for everyone.

Not everybody wants to seek for the best silent side of them

and not everybody wants to remember to be a child.

Not everybody wants to have a moment with themselves

as they have a good time but for the people who do,

there's nothing out there like it.

And this is for them.

[Upbeat, vocal music]

You're gonna be all right.

[Man] My crime, poetry.

As a Lebanese woman, as a Mexican woman.

What's misunderstood in general

is that we have to look at

individuals as individuals.

We have to create art pieces

that make people remind themselves of how precious

we all are and give them the courage to explore

their uniqueness so we can find new ways of thinking,

so we can change the world.

I hope the film makes people curious about their perception

about the Middle Eastern people.

Yeah. And particularly when it comes from you,

because everybody knows you.

You're well known around the world.

And so when you come, and I loved it in Cannes,

you stood up and you said,

I'm also an Arabic Lebanese actress,

not only Mexican.

It's true.

That means a lot to people to understand

that even sometimes...

I'm proud.

Proud of me.

[upbeat music]

Greg Hopner, I'm the founder and CEO

of the G-Star School of the Arts and G-Star studios.

[Rick] Let's go back to when you were a producer,

did you ever invest in a motion picture?

Yeah, that's how I got into the business.

I was actually working with Burt Reynolds

up at the Burt Reynolds Theater

and I was around a lot of movie stars and I was doing hair.

I was a hairdresser back then

and a bunch of people in the movie industry

were there obviously all the time.

And they came up to me one day and said,

do you wanna be a producer on a movie?

And I said "yeah, great, what do I do?"

And they said, "well, the producer comes up

with all the money."

I said, "oh really?"

"So you want me to put up money?"

"Yeah, sure." So I did.

And I found out later that wasn't true.

My name is Alistair Hunt.

I have almost 10 years of film

and television production experience

from on-set production assistant

and a assisting with two or three production companies

in all aspects of production.

I am trying to be a independent filmmaker

and I can tell you that as I have tried to raise funds

for my projects and colleagues' projects,

it has been by far the biggest challenge and undertaking

I've ever considered.

[Rick] And why is that?

Rejection [laughs nervously].

[Rick] Do you ever regret pursuing

the motion picture business as a vocation?

I absolutely don't regret pursuing

the motion picture industry, the ups and downs,

the good times, the bad times have been fabulous.

[upbeat music]

I'm Jon Zietz, I'm a producer director

and president of Think Visual Group.

Almost every project I did in middle school and high school

was a film, some kind of short.

So I loved it.

I knew that's what I wanted to do with my life,

but, at the same time it needed to be practical

and I went to the University of Florida

where I majored in finance.

I took every film, media studies,

every film course they had,

my parents always encouraged me to follow my dreams

but also have something to fall back on.

And so, while I was going to school,

while I was getting that degree,

I would come home on the weekends, summer breaks

and work on first a short film

and eventually a feature length film.

We created a feature length independent film

on a $3,000 budget.

I wrote, produced and directed the movie with a friend

and fellow filmmaker and that experience ended up

being the film school that we both never had.

I like to call it a psychological drama.

A kid who's in college finds out that his twin brother

who he always thought was dead and had died

when he was younger, he's actually still alive.

There's a lot of twists and turns in there,

but essentially that's what it is.

A feature length psychological drama, very independent.

[Rick] And what happened

to this $3,000 feature film?

So we had a big premiere for the film locally

at Cinema Paradiso.

It was part of a couple of small film festivals.

And eventually we actually secured a distribution deal.

Went through the entire process of packaging it

and getting it ready for distribution

only to have about a year later the distribution company

actually go out of business.

My name is Sadie Cabrera.

I'm a co-founder of Think Visual Group and I serve as DP.

Well, I can trace it back to high school.

I was in a school where they had a magnet program

and they had the largest broadcasting studio,

back in 1996.

And so my, my background,

you could say that it was broadcasting.

And immediately after that one of my teachers hooked me up

with a company that was...

They would shoot events, social events.

I started with that and built basically a business

or a little bit over 10 years, like 13 years.

And it was something that, it taught me a lot.

Eddie and I first met each other in 2001

and actually the funny thing about it

is the night that we met,

we made an award-winning short film.

And so we worked together on a number of other projects

through the years but we didn't fully join forces

until after 2007.

And ultimately what prompted that was a trip

that we took to the Grand Canyon.

What? Wow. if we fall, we die.

And we just decided that let's take this trip

and let's try to formulate something

and come up with the start of what it's gonna take for us

to fulfill our dreams.

[upbeat music]

We, at the time, had very troublesome relationships

and I think it was almost like a spiritual thing

that we wanted to go all the way down

and I guess bury those relationships--

[both] Leave them at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

December 29th, '07,

we're inside the Grand Canyon, it's very cold.

We still have like four and a half miles to go.

I gotta go back to try to sleep.

Peace.

[upbeat music]

Well, we have that energy, nature,

-getting spirit accomplished. -Spiritual adventure.

-It's very spiritual. -Spiritual.

Very much a rejuvenating trip.

Exactly what it needs to end the year right.

[Eddie] End the year, right.

Look at this scenery.

Once we were there, we realized it was like,

look, we both wanna get to the entertainment industry.

We wanna make films.

We had a realization there.

We said, we're gonna leave our past lives behind

and we are going to concentrate full force

on how we're going to make it

into the entertainment industry,

how we're going to realize our dreams.

But we also realized we're not going to do it quickly.

We'd already learned when you try to do something too quick,

that's typically when you fail.

We both agreed that it would take us at least a decade

to transition our company from corporate to entertainment.

In fact, it has been,

-10 years now. -10 years, yeah.

Almost exactly 10 years right now

and we're finally producing this feature

which is 15 years after we produced that last one.

Right.

My name is Kujaatele Kweli.

Most of the people in the industry called me Kooge.

I'm an empowerment educator.

I'm a producer, I'm a director and I'm a writer.

Filmmaking is both an art, a science,

and it's also a business.

And if you're not prepared to excel in all three areas,

this isn't the business for you.

What are they interested in?

There are people that are interested in

not eating animals, [chuckles]

not killing animals and wearing them for clothes.

There are people that are interested

in this whole immigration struggle that's taking place.

There are a lot of people interested in

various political issues.

So what you want to do is put together

a community of interests.

Number one, I teach that you have to have

a compelling story.

Content is king.

So if you don't have that, it doesn't make any difference

what you're pitching.

It's got to be good.

Then you've got to be able to tell that story well

or you can have a compelling topic,

but you don't know how to tell it well.

And telling it well means telling it visually.

I had hair salons and I got divorced and it was a mess

and I had to sell them all off in one thing or another

and pennies on the dollar

and I wound up being absolutely broke.

All I owned, and at that point I had a,

I don't know if anybody remembers a Geo,

but it was a little car.

It was this big.

Everything I owned fit in the Geo,

including my clothes, a computer

and I had a two drawer file cabinet in it also.

You know, I was just broke and I was cutting hair

and I thought, well, this is the end of my life.

I, you know, I'm not making any money, hardly gotten here,

I don't have any skills.

What do I do?

And I, in the middle of the night,

I woke up and I thought about my son whom I love dearly

and he's here now with me,

but he was six years old at the time

and I wanna do something for him.

And he loves when we were doing movies,

he was always on set and he loved running around

and doing all that kind of stuff.

So I said, I'll start a small little video program

for him at least make him happy and I'll call it G-Star

'cause his name is Gregory.

So it would be Gregory and then the star

that would stand for students in the arts.

I went and started a summer camp

for middle school students and we turned out

a little half-hour video cassette format show,

we finished it and darn if PBS didn't pick it up.

And that show lasted four years on PBS.

[Rick] What advice would you give young filmmakers,

just getting started looking to raise funds for movies?

I was taught to, don't ask for money.

If you ask for money you'll get advice,

you ask for advice, you'll get some money.

[upbeat music]

Somebody came up to me and said,

you should start a school, a charter school literally.

And I said, what do I want to school for?

And what's a charter school.

So anyway, I went down to the school district

to sign up for this thing

and they wound up giving me a school.

And I walked out the door and I had a piece of paper

and I went, oh, I think I really made a mistake here.

And six months later, we opened.

We opened with 156 kids.

So I knew I was in profit.

So each year we added more kids and more kids

and now we have over a thousand here

and we built our soundstage.

We started doing other things and it just grew

into a full regular motion picture studio.

We wanna change certain things that we see

that are wrong or not being done right

and put them in the most beautiful form of art

that I believe the world has ever seen, which is filmmaking.

You get to play with all the spectrum of things that,

you know, from sound, lighting, camera work,

through all of the different arts that have existed

and we get to play with them.

So it it's phenomenal.

I think there is no end because ultimately I'm hoping that

the films I make will live on forever

and that is ultimately my legacy.

I believe that the power is there in filmmaking

and in film to do that.

You can change the world with what we do.

[upbeat music]

[upbeat music continues]

My name is Kim Karel Zink

and I'm a Senior Account Manager here at Production Hub.

Production Hub is an online directory at its core.

We're a global network of local crew and vendors.

Production Hub is a resource for kind of both sides

of the supply and demand chain.

We work with people that are looking for crew,

vendors, freelancers facilities for any of their production,

post production live event needs

and then we work with the people

that provide those services.

My tips for people that are trying to finance and get money

for their own film is to ask.

If you don't ask you, don't get.

I think a lot of people passively ask these days.

I think there are great tools for that with social media

and Kickstarter and it's wonderful,

but focus in on specific people and ask them.

It's just like sales.

You're trying to sell your product.

You're trying to sell yourself

and have people believe in you and invest in you

and your film and your project.

So ask them directly.

If they say, no, that's only going to help you move on

to the next person.

So just ask them, just come right out up, you know,

everyone, call them.

Pick up a phone and call them.

If they say no, they say no,

but it's gonna be very hard for someone to say, no,

if they've been asked directly.

People will have no problem ignoring, you know,

a social post or an email

but if you pick up the phone and call someone,

I bet you'll get a yes, I bet you get something.

My name is Jenelle Jordan.

I'm a Production Manager at Production Hub.

We work with folks that call in or, you know,

fill out our web form and find out their needs,

their budgets and then help in any part of the process.

You know, whether it's just finding the cameraman

and handing off the information or, you know,

helping out with call sheets or scheduling,

visits to studios, site visits, event logistics,

anything like that.

For filmmakers trying to raise money

my first go-to, you know, resource

is always your local government.

So whether it's a film office or film commissioner

or your local representatives, you know,

see if there is any incentives locally.

If not, you know, start researching grants.

You'd be surprised by the amount of,

even small couple thousand dollars grants.

But that adds up quickly,

every little bit helps.

And then, you have great things like GoFundMe,

philanthropic, different opportunities

for documentaries and stuff like that.

So there are a lot of different resources.

Use your local resources and network

and build relationships with people.

Don't try and do everything online.

Even though we are, a very internet focused world,

meet people face to face, go to trade shows.

You never know who you're gonna meet,

what you're gonna win.

I've met so many people that win cameras and equipment

at trade shows because they go in

and they put their name in and they come back

and there's a drawing and there you go.

And support those local organizations.

They need your support too.

You don't know how you can help them

later on down the road.

There might be people that are looking to do the same thing

that you're trying to do and meeting up with them,

collaborating, joining forces that might

be the secret ingredient to getting you where you want to go

with your project, with your career as a whole.

My name is Ken Hickman.

I have raised millions of dollars for the movies.

After 20 years in California,

I knew a lot of the movie people and a lot of the actors

and a lot of the producers I ran with them.

I would never invest in a movie.

Last thing I would ever do.

I moved to Orlando to expand our insurance company

and I met some fellows from Universal.

They kept after me for about a year to invest in a movie

and I just wouldn't have anything to do with that.

But we became good friends and after about a year,

I went home one night and I told my wife, I said,

these guys are different.

They have a passion I've never seen before

for the movie business.

And I said, I'm gonna take a small plunge.

And I did during a premier.

I was so impressed, again,

with the drive and the passion

and the professionalism.

And they asked me to help them out to raise some money

and I got involved.

We had some successes and 20 years later, still involved.

Well, basically I've raised a lot of money.

Primarily I've raised money from either the federal

or the local government.

I've raised money, for example,

from the Department of Justice,

for anti-drug prevention campaigns,

from their Orlando Tech Health department,

for teenage pregnancy prevention.

I raised money from foundations for a documentary series

on resident ownership of public housing.

Most students and people want to go get money from, is the

actual worst place to get money from.

And that is people in the industry,

people in Hollywood, they don't have money.

They may have contacts but they're not gonna put money

into your project.

Oddly enough, the place to get money

is from people that don't have luxury jobs

in the entertainment business.

Most investors honestly come from your friends

and associates.

Essentially, this is the key to raising money.

First, you establish relationships,

and then you ask people that you have relationships

for money.

See, opportunities are plentiful.

Money is plentiful.

Relationships are rare.

I'm Jeanette Bliss, and I'm a realtor.

I'm Tom bliss and I am also a realtor.

[Rick] How would you characterize

the whole business of fundraising for movies?

I would look at it as more of an opportunity

to invest money and be sure that they understand

the rules of the game.

[Rick] Is different selling a piece of real estate

versus selling someone an interest in a movie?

I don't think so.

Everybody's got a hot button and you need to find it,

whether it's real estate or a investment into a movie.

Different things, turn different people on

and you need to read the people and find that out.

This film industry, as you well know,

is extremely different and could be difficult.

Raising money for a film is not easy.

It's one thing to find the money,

it's another thing to get the check.

They think, movie stars and the industry itself

being wild and unpredictable and some success

and they know big names that are going to be successful

so I think if you had somebody very successful

that would walk in and be in a movie

you'd probably have more response

but yeah, in general, they roll their eyes.

[Rick] Most people think Hollywood or filmmaking

is a big con game and they're like,

"ah, I don't want anything to do with it."

Why is that?

There's a lot of evidence out there that, uh...

they're right,

in a lot of cases.

How many movies, uh,

big movies have been made,

where the investor didn't get one dime back?

I've never brought an investor in, to my knowledge

that I don't say, look,

if you can't afford to lose $10,000 on a card game

in Las Vegas in a night's time, don't invest in a movie.

And there was no sense of trying to sell somebody

a black suit if came in to buy a white suit.

So you've got to really evaluate who you're talking to.

And you're right, the international buyer

is totally different.

Their motives, their goals, the way they communicate,

their aggressiveness, they're totally different

than your domestic investor.

One reason why we've been so successful

is that we have come across honest and we are honest.

That's very important.

Just don't tell the investor what he wants to hear.

Tell him the facts.

And I have found out something over the years,

nothing happens overnight.

If you don't have patience you're probably gonna be

in a lot of trouble and it's never gonna happen.

Some of the greatest movies ever made take 10, 20, 30 years

to get on the big screen.

And you can have, uh,

13 signed contracts for all the money,

13 different times

and all of a sudden there's a real estate crunch.

All of a sudden there's a stock market crash.

All of a sudden, one of your key investors

or two or three of them pass away.

You've just got to stick to it and make sure it happens.

And you can't ever give up.

[soft music]

I'm Chuck Elderd, Film Commissioner,

Palm Beach, County, Florida.

Well, the first thing we do is attract filmmakers

to an area.

So it's an invitation for filmmakers to come and shoot

in that jurisdiction.

We also make it extremely easy for filmmakers to shoot

because we tell them where they can shoot,

most of all, where they can't shoot

because they may fall in love with a location

and all of a sudden they find out

they can't use that location.

And then we are responsible for helping them do two things,

stay on time and stay on budget.

We are part of the production crew

and that's the first thing we look at.

And when we take that responsibility,

it's not just when you come here and shoot,

it's when we talk to you on the telephone and we say,

we have your location or we don't.

We have wonderful shorelines.

We have wonderful other locations.

And we have 2,000 square miles of gorgeous locations.

All of this is the kind of location you wanna shoot in

if it matches your script

because then you have to have the cooperation

and that is what the film commission is here to do.

All of the services that you're looking for

we can help you provide on your budget.

Hi, I'm Christy Andreoni

and I'm the Production Director

with the Palm Beach County Film and Television Commission.

First starting out in the industry,

I had no idea that film commissions existed

and I didn't know that government

got involved in the industry.

But the more I was exposed to it,

the more I saw how beneficial it can be

when you're an independent filmmaker or otherwise

because you have a place to go

in no matter what community you visit

where you can get all expert information on locations,

on what kind of regulations there are,

on what kind of permits might be needed

and what kind of crew is there,

on what kind of catering companies

might be best to work with.

How do you talk to filmmakers

as a state that currently doesn't have incentives?

The message back to filmmakers,

especially young filmmakers is,

sometimes those incentives that you hear about

the motion pictures getting are more difficult

to handle on your budget because the incentives

comes with responsibilities.

They call them deliverables.

So if you're gonna get an incentive,

you wanna know what is the criteria for using that?

And maybe it doesn't fit into your script or your budget.

There is no free money.

The money comes with responsibilities.

The money comes with red tape

that you may not want to be involved in

and only experience will tell you that.

What we have to do in the absence of the incentive

is make everything else better than anything else

they're gonna find.

With Florida, that kind of comes naturally

because there's such a diversity of locations,

sunny year round weather.

What we have to do beyond that is really offer

the best service we possibly can.

So that's having a staff available 24/7

to address their concerns,

that's being actively involved

with location scouting process to make sure

that they come here and film.

And all we can do is make sure that every other aspect

of production here is the most ideal it can possibly be.

When you're filming in these major production hubs

in LA or New York you're not gonna have

some of the barriers here that you have there.

We wouldn't be a film commission without Burt Reynolds.

I'm very fond of Burt and I'm always impressed

with how much he cares about the young people

in our community.

Once a year we have him in the student showcase for films.

He gives a grant to young students here

that meet with him and interview with him

and he's still teaching well into his 80s

as well as still acting.

So we're proud to call Burt Reynolds our favorite son.

[Rick] What advice would you give a filmmaker

looking for funding?

Have a really good story.

There are a lot of projects that may sound

like they're really good to you.

They may even look good on paper

but we are in the entertainment business, and storytelling

is first and foremost.

So know that you can tell that story.

When you start throwing in the locations

and the attachments know that you can get the money to pay

for that story to be told to where it is entertaining.

The rest of it is do your homework, research.

A potential film investor wants to know

you have your ducks in a row.

That you know that your film is gone to shoot from A to Z.

Not only is the permit important,

your investor's gonna wanna know you're gonna have insurance

and you're gonna get permits

and under what circumstances

you're going to do those things.

You cannot take a shortcut in making a film

and think you can do it without permits and insurance.

And that's the bottom line to getting the confidence

of a financier.

My name is P.J Marks and I'm an investor.

I actually have worked on several movies.

One of the ones I worked on was called "Meatballs 4"

and it was a water ski movie

and I was the water ski coordinator.

[Rick] And how did you get that job?

I was actually working at SeaWorld at the time

and I intercepted a phone call and kind of stole it.

And then I've also worked on one that I produced.

It was a wakeboarding instructional DVD

called "The Book DVD".

They owned a Wakeboard Camp at the time and all my students

were asking for a wakeboarding instructional DVD

and there really wasn't a good one at the time

so I got together with a couple of friends of mine

and we put it together and I put up the money

and it did really well.

I think we got about a 38 times return on my investment.

My name is John English

and I'm a retired government worker.

[Rick] Have you ever invested in a motion picture?

Oh yes.

I started out small and when I learned

what I was doing somewhat,

then I started moving on to bigger projects.

I was very reluctant at first.

What type of financial return do you expect

to see on a movie you invest in?

Well, I hope to see my initial investment

or at least two and a half times the investment

then royalty checks every 90 days.

[Rick] Oh, excuse me.

Scott has walking in on the set.

Scott, what's going on?

John, I wanna thank you

for being one of my most loyal investors

over the past 10 years

and instead of mailing the checks, here's a few checks.

So open them up if you want.

Okay, sure will.

Okay. I love it every 90 days when this happens.

There's approximately three checks there.

Well, there's one I'm very happy with.

There's another one I'm very happy with.

So out of the three, I'm really happy.

One's a smaller one but I've expected that over the years

for it to diminish.

I have never actually invested in a movie before.

This is my first chance.

I knew some of the people involved who were great people

and I thought it was an interesting diversification

of investments.

What turns you on about investing in a movie?

The fact that a there can be potentially

a very high return in a short period of time

but I think it's counter cyclical to real estate

and the stock market and other investments.

My name is Carl Blesione.

My occupation is I'm a dentist.

[Rick] Have you ever invested in a motion picture?

Never.

[Rick] What turns you on about investing

in a movie?

Well, first of all, you wanna make money,

that's number one.

Number two, turning you on,

listen, I like getting in front of the camera

so if I could be part of something like that

to exude the passion and the excitement of it,

that turns me on too.

My name is David Mackey and I'm an actor.

The phone call that Scott made to me regarding this film

just came out of the blue

and I listened to his remarks, his pitch,

and after just chatting with him

for a good 10 minutes or so,

I felt very strongly that I needed to be a part of the film.

The way I got involved in this was,

I think you saw a post that I made,

that I was looking for something to invest in

and you sent me some things and I was kind of interested,

but it never really clicked until I talked to you

on the phone because when I started asking you questions

about this, you had all the answers.

There was no stumbling.

There was no I'll get back to you.

There was no BS.

Every time I asked a question,

the answer was right there right away.

I have a natural tendency to like to help my friends

and to help pretty much all people.

I do that in my law practice and in my life.

So when I received the call

that there was just a certain amount of money needed

to break escrow, it was a really easy decision for me

because the film sounded like a great idea.

So between the friendship and the need that was apparent

at that particular time,

it was an easy decision for me.

[Scott] All right. I got one more question for you.

I'll just preface by saying we're gonna be friends

no matter what.

Okay.

So I'm just gonna throw this out there.

We need like three or four more $5,000 shares

for our marketing budget.

Would you like to put in another one or two shares?

I'll put in one more share.

We get that on camera?

[Mark laughs]

Casey Tennyson, I'm a writer, I'm an author,

I'm a book publisher and I own an ad agency.

Invest in something you're going to have fun with

and something that you like,

in a topic that you're interested in

because then you become a better investor

because then you're gonna be excited about it,

you're gonna help promote it

and really word of mouth and networking

is all part of a marketing mix.

Was one of the reasons that you invested in this film

that you could promote your own writing and your own books?

Yes, of course.

So, my books, my novels, again,

were always written with the intent

of making them into films

and so this film just ties in perfectly

with what I'm already doing in the world

and I can't wait to write an article about it.

Thanks for including me.

I'm excited to be a part of it.

[Rick] What the hell are you doing here?

Man, I am excited, Barb we're investing in a movie.

It's exciting.

[Rick] Is this the first movie

you've ever invested in?

Yes, absolutely.

[Rick] Why did you invest in thismovie?

We were approached by a friend

who we have a lot of faith in,

I was intrigued by the magic of movie making

and wanted to see the set and what it was all about.

For me as a business person and a practical person

it was a win-win.

Here's an opportunity to help move another friend

along in his career and have a potential to capitalize on

their experiences and also to help promote

what we care about.

It's helping other people with their health

and eventually a lifestyle of a retirement residual income.

[upbeat music]

Oh, it's so great to be here.

My name is Bob Bell and this is my beautiful wife--

[Barbara] Barbara Bell.

And you know the feeling you have just before Christmas,

just that excitement and anticipation of, you know,

there's something really special right behind the door.

That's the way Barbara and I feel about

what we're sharing here today.

I was introduced to Valentus by a friend

that I knew 30 years ago.

They told me about a product.

Jenny Craig meets Starbucks, oh my gosh,

a weight loss coffee, my energy level's great

and so we just had to share it.

And by sharing it, we're helping other people.

The latest part we came out with was the hot chocolate,

which is really exciting

because who doesn't wanna lose weight

while drinking hot chocolate?

We have these beverages that you just add to powder to it

all natural, no GMOs and it helps your body function better.

So if you wanna learn more about this, go to our website,

www.youseeresults.com.

Barbara and I look forward to meeting you

and helping you meet all your health and wellness needs.

Thank you so much.

[applause]

Well, to be honest, being the biggest investor

is a little nerve wracking.

I mean, this is my first big project

and I'm really rolling the dice,

but now that I'm here and I'm meeting everybody

and I'm seeing what's going on every day,

I'm starting to feel more comfortable with it.

Well, one thing I realized about this project

is the enormous amount of pre-production.

I think that's something that's really overlooked.

The planning that goes into it is probably more important

than the actual production itself

because that's not gonna happen

if everything's not laid out right.

And I was really blown away by the amount of work

that everyone's put into it beforehand.

There's a track record, there's a history.

and all of these things make you feel more comfortable

as an investor.

[Rick] Valentas, we took money to put them

in the movie and to promote their product, you know,

and I loved them, they're great.

But do you think we in any way hurt

the integrity of this film by taking money from them

even though we'll disclose it in the credits?

I think any other movie, yes it could be compromising.

I think in this particular movie,

'cause the whole movie is about film financing.

The whole point of this movie is to show and empower people

how they can raise money for their movie.

Well, Bob Bell, I've known for 35, 40 years.

One of my best friends.

I called him up, there's no secret that every single person

that we talked to, if they had any interest,

they could possibly be in the movie.

And we got a lot of the investors in the movie.

So in Bob's case, we knew he had this great product

that he's passionate about.

I said, Bob, if you put in a little extra money,

we can actually put your product,

not only mention that you're a Valentus representative,

but we can actually put your products, show your products

in the movie.

[Rick] I just think it will be criticized

by some people that we lost the integrity of the movie

by doing it.

And you know, as a filmmaker, you'll always want purity.

I always want integrity.

They're wonderful people.

I know nothing about the product,

but it's just odd that we did it.

But I do think it's an interesting example

and you should have got a hell of a lot more money

than we got from him.

He got a hell of a deal. [laughs]

[upbeat piano music]

[audience applauding]

My name is Donovan Parker.

Welcome.

Thank you.

I wrote a script based on Christopher Dudus Coke.

It's an interesting story.

Everyone love it.

I want to know about the financing of that project.

I love writing and I want a connection to make it happen.

My suggestion is when they're trying to raise money

and they need to put together a business plan,

they first perhaps find a producer to work with.

If you're lucky, also a director to work with.

I think it's really all about networking.

You never know if you learn that skill

of just meeting people and talking people,

you never know who you could meet,

that can take your screenplay, get excited about it,

and help you finance it or help you take it to a studio.

Palmer Edward, and I'm a screenwriter.

I've written a script.

I'm an award winning screenwriter.

I've won awards and you know, just film festivals

and things like that. It's small stuff,

but I'm trying to write

between one and $5 million low budget.

Any advice in what I could do to keep it that angle

and make sure I don't go past.

I'm gonna say if you've written eight screenplays,

you haven't sold one,

you're doing something wrong.

So what you need to do is go back and figure out

what's the flaw in the material.

When I taught screenwriting,

I used to teach an introductory class and a workshop class.

We sold about 65 movie scripts out of my classes

in the years that I taught, which was unbelievable.

Some of those movies got made like "Closet Land".

The Steven Seagal movie, "Hard to Kill" got made.

What happened in my classes was the first 10 ideas

that every screenwriter had never sold.

So I used to tell them you have to come up

with a hundred ideas.

So I made all of my writers come up

with a hundred movie ideas.

Almost every one of the 65 or so scripts that sold

was above number 75.

It was the last 25 that you finally figure out

what you wanna say.

You wanna figure out what your story is.

And what I think you need to do is come up

with a hundred great ideas.

When I used to go to the studios to pitch ideas,

and I went to most of the major studios,

the studio executives would say to me,

"tell me a story I've never heard."

-[Louise] Yeah. -[Rick] "Dazzle me."

And one studio executive said to me one time,

I hear dozens of pitches every day.

And he said, when I go to bed at night

and I put my head on the pillow,

it's the idea that I think of I call the next day and I buy.

You've got to create an idea that's so unique,

so original, so compelling

that someone is willing to go raise money for it

or write you a check for it or make that film.

And you're competing against everybody.

You're competing against me, Steven Spielberg,

you're competing with "The Blair Witch" guys.

You're competing with the smartest,

most creative people in the world

and you've got to come up with something better, unique

and original

That's interesting, but you're the second person

that gave me the advice about the a hundred concept.

Who's that other person?

A guy out in Hollywood.

That's a genius.

If you don't have a fire in your belly to tell those stories

and to cram those stories down someone's throat,

to make money people look at them

and to pay attention to them,

they're not gonna get paid.

So my thing is, get in touch with your passion.

And I think the people that make great films

have a sense of outrage, a sense of anger

and that drives them to create great art.

And we live in a society today, in my opinion,

where it's getting harder and harder

to be an original person.

You're penalized.

You know, my favorite filmmaker is Stanley Kubrick

and Stanley Kubrick went out, made all these great movies

and warned us about letting everybody become a number

and losing our humanity and machines taking over

and everything that Kubrick projected in those movies

is coming true.

Look at what's happening in our society and in the world.

And so art will save us.

Politics will not save us.

Media will not save us.

And art has the capability because it opens people's minds,

it changes opinions, and it influences people.

-Thank you. -[Rick] That's my answer.

[soft music]

Hi. My name is Laura Faye.

I'm a writer and I wrote a book about Muslims in America

based on my own experience as a teacher.

I have a couple of questions.

One would be how to get it made into a screenplay.

You made a point earlier about there are other people

who create and then there are the people who have control.

I wanted to know if you could speak to that a little more

and how do you have both?

Because one of my fears about making this into a film

is obviously losing control.

First thing I would recommend is make it a published book.

Even if you go on and do it through Amazon,

just to control a copyright and to have content control.

It is treacherous when you have original literary material

and you don't want someone to steal it or dilute it

or rip it off.

I would get the book published

because then you're in control.

Almost every book published in the world is read by somebody

who wants to make a movie of it.

In other words, they're looking for that product.

You'd be shocked.

One thing that appeals to me and what you just said,

and there's a shortcut.

You go to a star to play the character in the memoir

and let's just pick, you know, who would be a good example?

Reese Witherspoon.

Reese Witherspoon, perfect example.

Reese Witherspoon has her own company

and she makes great movies and she might wanna play

that character or she might wanna call one of her friends

and now you're kind of on a fast track.

Whenever you can get a movie star attached

to your literary property, you're now in the fast track.

You're like in the turbo lane

and it always makes everything go faster.

It's harder to maintain control,

but if you publish the book,

they're gonna respect you a lot more

and you're gonna be able to remain part of

the creative process.

What happens is, when you write a screenplay

and you're just trying to sell it,

you have no creative control.

Like in your case, they're just gonna throw money at you

and they're gonna tell you to get lost, right?

And so, you know, that's fun for awhile,

but then it's like selling your children.

You really don't like doing it.

You know, when I first sold scripts...

You're right, I don't know your children.

You are correct.

Thank you.

Thank you for asking. I appreciate it.

Hi, my name is Gabrielle A. Paris.

I'm an actress and a student of Mr. Burt Reynolds.

So the thing that you're talking about

with the whole producing and the actresses

and they want the good parts,

I've had a really hard time with that in terms of quality

and just, you know, I had to really learn like,

who's the sound guy?

Who's this guy?

Who's the AD you know, what type of camera

we're using, is it 4k?

All the good stuff, is it a good editor?

So I had to learn the back end of it.

So I just recently had somebody write just a short film

and I played the lead in it.

I produced this, I co-produced it

but I didn't put my name down as a producer on it.

You didn't put your name on it?

Not as a producer

because I was talking to another producer

and I was like, I'm producing my first short film.

He's like, well, that kind of makes you look bad.

If you produce your own films.

I don't think it hurts at all.

No.

It says that you're motivated.

It says that you're willing to put yourself out there.

I think you're to be commended for it.

I a hundred percent agree with Louise.

Yeah, I totally.

You're a actor and a producer.

Yeah. So I totally agree,

you should have your name on as a producer as well.

So go back and fix those credits if you want.

One of the first short films I did,

very, very little money, $5,000.

It was a pretty beefy short.

Ended up being 29, 30 minutes

and we got a lot of local press with different people

that were attached to the film.

Just little pieces of press however we could

then we started taking it to festivals.

We got really lucky, won first place

at the New York International Film Festival

and because of this buzz that we started developing

from these festivals,

that's what ended us getting a million dollars

to make the feature version of that short.

That was where I was--

So if it starts playing well in festivals,

promote it as much as you can, you know,

it might be expandable into a feature.

Lot of feature films you've seen over the years started out

as a short film.

It's very strange.

Sometimes it just takes one person for you to connect with.

You're gonna be successful

just because you're doing that.

See, 99% of the people never do anything.

They just talk about it.

Right.

[ominous music]

[soft music]

I'm passionate about self-expression art.

I write and I was making a movie when I was in Michigan.

It was about the struggles of...

It was about a couple cool cats going through a rough breeze

at a hard time, really.

But it--

Wait a minute. Say it again, couple of what?

Cool cats going through a rough breeze at a hard time.

And I was making this movie and the idea

was to make it sort of a musical and add the poetry into it

but it was about two people who I met through my job

and Lansing up there.

They're a homeless couple trying to get back on their feet,

who had their six kids taken away.

And I thought their story needed to be told

and I got really into, very passionate about it.

It was a no budget movie, not a low budget.

It was, I love it, but it's okay.

It's not 4k, It's more like "no K"

but it's way too long right now

it's like, I don't know, three hours

and I don't even know what to cut out,

but I definitely know it needs more but I'm not there

so I can't really finish it,

but I'm kind of trying to cut it together still

when I have time.

What else do I have to say?

I have a question for you.

Oh yeah, will you fund my movie?

I will potentially invest in it but I won't fund it.

And the key is to finish it.

No matter how good or bad it is, finish it.

Like this guy right here with the eight screenplays,

no, I give a lot of respect to this guy.

He's finished a screenplay.

He will be a motion picture screenwriter

in this lifetime.

You've already started and committed,

but you got to have stick to it-ness.

You've gotta get obsessed with one project,

get a project that you can't sleep at night

'cause you're thinking about and finish it no matter what.

I don't care if it's bad,

sometimes it's okay to make a bad film

to figure out what you did wrong to go make a good film.

I applaud you for asking that question.

Will you fund my movie?

Because a lot of people just are afraid

to ask that question.

So really get focused, really figure out a game plan

to finish this movie and just have that persistence.

A quote by one of my favorite indie directors,

John Salzi, said,

"Raising money for a movie is like hitchhiking.

It could be the first ride.

It could be the thousandth,

but you have to stay out there with your thumb out

and be patient and you also have to know

when not to get into the car."

I wanna leave you just with one little secret

that I've never shared with any group before in my life.

I firmly believe you have to pick up the phone

and call somebody.

Whether it's an idea, whether you're looking for money,

I believe that's the truly the best way

to further your career.

So here's the secret and you're kind of breaking

the rules a little bit.

Here's exactly what a friend of mine did.

If you go on some of these social media sites,

if you do not mask the phone number,

sometimes you can click and find the phone number,

but more often than not, you can't find the phone number.

Sometimes you can Google.

It's a little bit easier to us

but it's still pretty tough to find people's phone numbers.

So this individual, who's a producer in Hollywood,

he posted an all his social media sites.

Oh, I just lost my phone and all my contact information.

Will you please DM me your cell phone number.

Within two or three days, he got about 400 phone numbers.

By the end of the year, he had his next feature film funded.

So a little trick.

If you happen to lose your phone,

there's a way to get a lot of phone numbers

and just reach out whatever you're trying to do.

I wish you all the best.

I thank you deeply for coming tonight.

I hope you learned something from this

and I appreciate you all being in my movie.

Thank you very much.

[audience applauding]

[soft music]

So here's the thing, Ken, as we're wrapping up this film.

we wanna pitch you to come on as executive producer

on our next film.

Scott, Maggie, and I wanna talk to you tonight

about you coming on board.

This is the last night of filming

and we want to do another film in this budget range.

And we've got a very creative idea

that's never been done before that we believe can be done

for the same exact budget we just did this documentary.

And I wanna know what it's gonna take

to get you to commit to being

the executive producer on that.

[Scott] I think if we can shoot for June 1st as a target,

never promise any investor anything,

but that would be the targeted delivery date

for all the funds.

And if that went well, we could shoot this summer

and still catch a late Sundance entry.

Now, if we miss that target by a month

or two or three months,

we can still shoot at the end of the year, either way.

-[inspiring music] -[dialogue fading out]

[Rick] Y ou have the power to make the movie you wanna make,

the way you wanna make it.

Don't squander the great opportunity you have.

Empower yourself,

make the things that you want in your life

and make a better world.

Make a better world.

God bless you, thank you for coming.

-[audience applauding] -[soft music]

[upbeat music]

[Rick] What question should I have asked you

that I didn't?

[Burt laughs]

I can't think of a single one.

[Rick laughs]

[Rick] You're too nice.

[upbeat music]

[Rick] There were lots of actors

when I was in Hollywood imitating you,

but your personality,

and your range,

I think you're one of the most underrated actors ever

in the history of cinema.

To go and do "Deliverance",

then go do "Smokey and the Bandit",

to do the films and the prolific number of films you made,

you directed, you produced.

I mean, it's an extraordinary achievement.

What was the secret?

Was there a secret?

Was it hard work?

Was it you learned your craft?

Was it the force of your personality?

Is this question too long?

Thank you, first of all.

I never had a problem...

going into the darkest place to go,

the hardest place to go.

You know, you can't try to be anybody, just be yourself.

[upbeat music]

[Rick] But you also produced, how did you get the money?

Because when I was in Hollywood, people said,

"Burt Reynolds can film the yellow pages and we'll fund it."

In other words, if you wanted to read the yellow pages,

the studios would have backed you.

Is that true or did you just pick up the phone and say,

hey, I wanna do this or somebody brought you a project?

I haven't tried the yellow pages yet.

[upbeat music]

So many films, so much diversity,

so many great pictures.

I just think my gosh, you've been part of America,

you and John Wayne.

It's like, if there was a Mount Rushmore of actors,

if you will look at the box office and the popularity,

it's you and John Wayne, those are the numbers.

I mean, that's an extraordinary accomplishment.

I hope you like John Wayne.

[crew clapping]

Yeah. I love Duke and I love this work.

[upbeat music]

[Rick] Did you ever have,

when you were directing people,

try to tell you how to make a movie?

Oh yeah.

And I tell them how to make a couple of other things.

[Rick] Might've been a knuckle sandwich

in some of those.

It was something like that, yeah.

[upbeat music]

[Rick] What's the secret of getting

a project funded?

Is there a secret either in Hollywood or as an independent?

Well, you got a script that is a commercial script.

Commercial in the sense that it's got the things in it

that people wanna go see.

I mean, I don't know, what's the hottest movie today,

you know?

[Man] "Black Panther"

"Black Panther", yeah.

[Rick] "Black Panther's"

what you just said earlier

but it's something people haven't seen before.

-It's overdue, it's overdue. -[Rick] Exactly.

That an African-American has not had the lead in a movie

playing an action-adventure hero,

is ludicrous. And this is what?

2000 and what?

[Rick] Let's say 19 by the time this film,

this film comes out. No, I'm just teasing.

No. In "Wonder Woman", same story.

Same thing.

[upbeat music]

[Rick] One of the highlights of my life,

to do this interview with you.

You are an absolute national treasure

for this country, Mr. Reynolds.

Thank you, sir.

-God bless you. -[crew clapping]

-Thank you. Thank You. -[crew clapping]

You're very kind, very, very kind.

Easy to to talk to.

God bless you.

[ominous music]