Bankroll. Tom Malloy

the first impression you make on potential collaborators or investors?

      I’ll even go further and say I don’t even like cards that have been designed with template graphics on the Internet! I have a big problem with knowing that someone else might be out there with a business card that has the exact same design.

      The only alternative is to have a business card, and perhaps your company logo, custom designed. There are companies on the Net that do this for $99. It’s worth it. You are branding your company, and you are taking a step toward creating a unique image to match your unique voice.

      You can also get creative here. My latest business card design uses movie posters from classic films. The backs of the cards all have the same contact information, but the front may feature the poster from Double Indemnity, Casablanca, or The Third Man (and I have tons more).

      Don’t cheap out on business cards. It can make you look bad from the start.

       Website

      I used to design websites and can make some great looking flash sites. If you have those skills, fantastic. If not, don’t design your own site! The number of crappy websites I’ve seen rivals the amount of bad scripts I’ve read. Again, you may need to pay someone else to do this, but it is worth it. Check out some of my own websites:

      ‹› www.trickcandle.com (production company)

      ‹› www.tommalloy.com (acting)

      ‹› www.howtosucceed.net (motivational speaking)

      ‹› www.bankrollthebook.com (this book)

      They are all professionally designed and represent me extremely well.

      I’ll convey a story about what a good website can do:

      I designed the trickcandle.com site using some amazing template flash code from Blue Gel Media. I spent some money purchasing the code and graphics, and took about a week to design the site. I also optimized it for a Google search (a lot of web design companies will do this for you). Again, I used to do web design and I’ve been around computers my whole life, so I have an advantage. But let’s say I spent $3000 on the site.

      About a month after I went live with the site, I got a call from the production company of an actress who has won several Academy Awards. They saw my site and wanted to meet me. I went in and had a great discussion, and we’re still trying to find a script of mine that’s right for them to produce. Thanks to the inroads my website made for me, I now have this company as, at the very least, a contact.

      Do you think they would have contacted me based on a simple HTML site that listed my credits? Never. They saw my site, thought that it was topnotch, figured I was a professional (which I am), and called me in. That’s what a good website can do for you. Just like the business cards, you can’t cheap out on this.

      I’ve seen many people continue to design their own sites and think they look good. Maybe, like bad screenwriters, they just have no idea what works. Try attacking the website question the same way you would a script you’ve just written (I’ll go over this in Chapter 4: Selling Yourself on the Project). Send the link out to random people who won’t be afraid to be honest with you and get their opinions.

       Finally

      Welcome to Indiewood. Okay, so Indiewood is not the prettiest place in town, but, if you can become successful, you’re sure to get a lot of respect. You must have a burning drive and passion coupled with non-stop persistence and focus. You also need to be in it for the long haul. It’s going to be a roller-coaster ride. Hang on.

      WHY YOU NEED THIS BOOK

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       What Do You Have?

      You may know people. You may have friends who are actors. You may have friends who are storyboard artists, experienced DPs, ADs, or line producers. You may even have a connection with a prestigious film producer. You also may have a killer script (more on that in Chapter 4: Selling Yourself on the Project). You may have free location, free equipment… even free film.

      But you still need money.

      At the end of the day, all that matters is “getting the gold.” The golden rule of Hollywood is “He who has the gold makes the rules.” I heard that expression a few years ago and have come to realize that there’s nothing truer in the film business. To make your dream of a film a reality, you need money.

       The Other Books

      Over the course of my life, I’ve run into several books that promised to reveal the tricks and trades used to “finance your film.” The one thing these books had in common was that when it came to the nitty-gritty, they all failed me.

      Sure, the books would tell you how other people have done it, describing “negative pickup deals,” and “bank financing,” but I kept thinking, “How do I do that?” It’s not easy for a filmmaker to just walk into Sony and say, “Hey, can I get a negative pickup deal for my film?” The funny thing is, if you’re at all familiar with negative pickup deals, you’d know that you still need financing even if you have one!

      I kept searching, hoping one of these books would reveal the true secret as to where to get the money and whom to get it from. So many of the books, including one whose entire focus is to show the reader how to write a perfect business plan, consigned the most important elements — the how and the where — to the filmmaker. I was dumbfounded. I had my perfect business plan, so now what? I had stories of how Kevin Smith got his film made (by maxing out his credit cards), so now what? Is that what you want me to do? Is that the only way to make a film?

      I equate this lack of knowledge to two potential problems:

      ‹› Most of the people writing the other books have never funded a film. They were perhaps lawyers involved with drafting the documents for funding, or they schooled themselves in every aspect of how films are funded traditionally, but they themselves never went out and raised money for a film.

      Or…

      ‹› They didn’t want to truly give their secrets away. Let me explain: