On-location filming is a staple in the movie industry. A local entrepreneur thinks the time has come for on-location film financing.
It would work like this: Advertisers from a neighborhood or region where a film would be shot think gas stations, convenience stories, retail outlets would put money up front to fund the production of the film. In return, they’d get the exposure provided by the movie and an associate producer credit.
John De Titta, founder of AdFilmTies Inc., has just launched Filmties.com, a networking site targeting the film community, with the goal of providing financing and staffing for independent film producers. For the filmmakers, it’s like a studio deal in many ways.
“We’d finance the film, oversee it and own it,” De Titta said. “The benefit is that once they sign with us, they go immediately into production and development, not like years down the line with a studio, and they get a lot of input.”
As part of the launch and to help drive membership the Web site will kick off a film-financing program this week in collaboration with the California Film Commission.
Called the Film Fund, the idea is relatively simple: money from ads placed on the film networking and financing site will go into a fund that will back about 200 selected short projects throughout California, called the “Stepping Stone” program. The projects would have to be filmed in California.
The filmmakers whose projects are selected will get a percentage of the budget and percentage of the back end, while Filmties retains all rights to the end product.
“It’s just as if they had sold it to a studio somewhere else,” De Titta said.
Incentive strategy
As the pilot state, California’s more than 50 regional film offices will help choose a handful of local projects to receive the funds. Others will be selected through contests and member voting. Each selected project will have a page of its own on the site, where local advertisers can post their banners, links, video clips or other.
“This is a no-risk incentive plan for states,” De Titta said. “Advertisers want to get into as many markets across the state as possible, and this is an easy way for them to do that.”
The budget for a filmmaker could range from $5,000 to $100,000, though a few standouts might be selected for feature film consideration and get more money, De Titta said.
National ads, which support the main site and operations, are placed through two companies: L.A. based Gorilla Nation Media LLC and Bay Area firm Tribal Fusion Inc.
The company has a patent pending for the film finance model and plans to launch the program in other states in three to four months, after the California program is up and running.
The Filmties.com site, which went up a few months prior to the official launch, already has about 6,000 members, according to De Titta. In return for Filmties’ efforts to push state film initiatives, the California Film Commission is promoting the network on its Web site and in other material.
“We don’t have to give any money, and if it provides a funding source for independent films that wasn’t there before, it’s fabulous,” said Amy Lemisch, executive director of the California Film Commission.
