The Art of Film Funding
Discover the secrets to funding and creating successful indie films with The Art of Film Funding Podcast. Join Carole Dean, President of From the Heart Productions and author of The Art of Film Funding, and Heather Lenz, director of the award-winning documentary Kusama-Infinity, as they chat with top film industry pros. Get practical insider tips on crowdfunding, pitching, saving on budgets, marketing, hybrid distribution, and the latest in A.I. filmmaking. Whether you’re funding your first project or navigating new trends, this podcast has everything you need to succeed. Subscribe and let’s get your film funded!
The Art of Film Funding
Can Documentaries Change Belief Systems?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Blog Talk Radio.
SPEAKER_03Hi. Hi and welcome to the Art of Film Funding. I'm your co-host, Claire Papan, along with Carol Dean, author of the best-selling book, The Art of Film Funding. Carol is also the founder and president of From the Heart Productions and the host of this show. Good morning, Carol. It's so good to be back on the show with you today. And I just would uh love it if you could share with us about your intentional filmmaking class that's coming up soon.
SPEAKER_04Yes, thank you so much, Claire. We've just had so much success with this class. I started it after reading Lynn McTaggart's book, The Field, and I realized how important the mindset is in funding your film. The to-do list is imperative, but the mind is the greatest asset you have in funding your film. So I created my side of the teaching, which is we start with Stuart Wilde's book on miracles, and we give you this information to learn how to do a meditation, and we choose goals because that's what it's all about in your life as well as in your film funding. You have to set goals, give it a time period, and then start moving towards that goal on a daily basis. But it's better for you and for all of us, and we have somebody at the uh other end who says, All right, it's two weeks now. How have you done? You wanted to do A, B, and C, did you get it done? If so, share it with me. And if not, why? Let's figure out what's holding you back and keep you moving forward. So it's setting goals, achieving goals, learning about the rights out of your brain and how uh you can use your mind to fund your films. And all the things we teach you basically give make a better life for you, as well as uh make your days happier. I can honestly say that. Then Tom comes in, of course he's raised over 25 million for his various films. I think he's done ten films so far. And what started him was that he's an actor. And so he had a great success in a few films, and then nothing happened. So he said to himself, Okay, if I have to write myself a script, yeah, I'll do that. Now what? Oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to produce this film. So he did that and he brought himself apart in the film. Well, then he realized, wait a minute, you know, I can do this producing and directing. And he started writing, and he is a prolific script writer, he's written and sold and optioned. I'd say that he sold and optioned 70% of the film uh scripts he's written, and that's incredible in our f world. So Tom then gets in and he covers um what he's found as producers to be the single most important thing they can do to raise money. And he starts uh going over all of the basic foundational things. That's really what we work on first. Getting your foundation created and building a strong foundation with an outline of your documentary or a deck or business plan for your feature, and then we get into the pitching. And we talk about pitching, teach you how to do it, and then we have a whole pitch class. You pitch us, and then we tell you how you should pitch us. And so that's the beginning of it, Claire.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that's a great class, Carol. And you've been doing this for how long?
SPEAKER_04I think we're uh about five years now that we've been doing it, and the successes are incredible. Filmmakers that have gone on, finished their films, you know. Um Mon finished her elephant film, and Ma is now teaching uh in Thailand. She's teaching filmmaking and getting grants from the government and doing really well. She took our class and she just loved it. So uh and on and on. One of the one of the filmmakers came to us and she had an idea, it was her first film, and her budget was like five hundred thousand. So we were chatting one day and I said, Do you you know that's a lot to raise from the first film? Do you you think you can do this? And she said, uh, I don't know, I'm not sure. So I said, Well, wait a minute. Do you have another script? She said, Oh yes, I do. How much is that script? Oh, maybe under a hundred thousand. I said, For goodness sake, let's work on that script. She said, Okay, that feels I said, Could you do that? Oh yes, she said, I can raise that. Well, she not only raised that, she got Tom to help produce the film. She sold it. It's uh I think one of the major channels bought it. It had a theatrical distribution, it's on uh one of the channels now, and she is a full-fledged filmmaker from just that first film. Uh and so the the list goes on and on, but it's a lot of fun in the class because you are not alone anymore. You get to hear other filmmakers and what they're doing, because we give the first ten minutes, 15 minutes in the class to discuss where you are, what your updates are, because you get to share good and bad things happening and because we all want to hear what you're doing. And then uh we the classes are normally an hour and a half or maybe longer, because we have to get into the uh the physics of creating your future and how your mind w really works. So we study Lynn McTaggart, we do the little money bible with Stuart Wilde, uh, we get into Contagious, great book that helps you with marketing and distribution. And of course, Tom owns a uh part owner in a distribution company. So he teaches us a lot about distribution and how to plan that, uh, so and how to pitch it. And um I think the biggest thing that Tom uh teaches, well it's a lot, but one of the things that I love the most is when he teaches us how to find high net worth individuals, how to talk to them, and how to uh handle them, uh when when you get inside their office, what you say and how you uh act and how to always be closing. That's one of his mottos, A B C always be closing. And he does a good job at that. It's always uh he will talk about his film, but before he will leave any meeting, it's when are we going to meet the next time and what do you want from me? What can I bring you and how can I work with you? Because it it takes a lot of time to woo uh investors and donors. The we go back to the basics that you are investing in the person. When somebody gives you money it's because they trust you. So what do you have to do as a filmmaker to exude this feeling of trust and confidence? So when somebody walks up to you and you start talking about your film that they want to be part of it, Claire. That's the key.
SPEAKER_03Yes, yes it is. I completely agree. And um I know that many of the filmmakers who have taken your class have uh accomplished a lot with making their films. You have a lot of stories about that, and um I think probably uh now is the best time to let people know how they can reach you, how they can join the class, and uh what are some of the details that will help them connect with you on that.
SPEAKER_04Sure, thank you. Uh well, first of all, you go to from theheartproductions.com and on the uh tabs you uh look for mentoring classes. Then the dropdown is intentional filmmaking, and that has a lot of information. And when you hold your cursor on intentional filmmaking, the syllabus comes up to your right, and you can see the full syllabus for the class. It's a four-month course because it takes that long to really change your mind, change your thinking, bring your uh paperwork, your pitch, and all these things up to par. You can't do that in a few weeks. We talk about things that you need, and you have to have the time to go do them comfortably, come back to the class, feel that you've achieved something and and then move forward. That's why I set it up this way, because it gives you time to integrate this into your life, and we realize that many filmmakers are working a full-time job while they're making the film. So um we also um have some discounts now for early uh enrollment. The class starts in September, at the end of September, so you still have a bit of time to join. We only take uh 12 people because that's easy for us to handle each one individually. One of the best things about the class is you not only have eight classes of about an hour and a half each, but you also have four free uh consultations with Tom and I, which are really valuable. Class starts on September 23rd and it will end in January of 2020. Uh and we have guest instructors that join us. Uh Jason Brew Baker sometimes is there. We have Sam Delugic, a colorist, we have someone on sound, we have Heather Linz, the producer that just did the Infinity Kusama film. So we bring in people to guide you as well as Tom and I. So it's a lot of information, a lot of learning. We just overwhelm you with everything we think you're going to need. And so if you uh want to know more, you can call our office. It's 805-984-0098. Or you can email me at info at from the heartproductions.com. Okay, great.
SPEAKER_03And of course the website once again is FromTheHeartProctions.com. They can also find information there. And it's all done over the phone, correct?
SPEAKER_04Over the phone. You can be anywhere. In fact, we have a gentleman from Africa. We've had a lot of people from Africa, from India, from all over who take the class and have been very successful. Raising money in any country uh has very similar structure to it. It's all in the it's in your paperwork, your budget, your pitch, and you personally, how you handle yourself. And all of those things are what we cover.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Well, Carol, we have a brilliant interview with Geraldyn Dreyfus.
SPEAKER_04Wonderful. So let's listen to Geraldyn. She likes to cover uh changing belief systems. She's brilliant at that, and she helps filmmakers make some of the best films, uh documentary films in the country. And she's also set up a new structure uh for helping uh uh women, filmmakers who are making their first feature film. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Well, here we go. Love Talk Radio. Hi and welcome to the Art of Film Funding. I'm your co-host, Claire Capan, along with Carol Dean, author of the best-selling book, The Art of Film Funding. Carol is also the founder and president of From the Heart Productions and the host of this show. Gerilyn Dreyfus has a wide, distinguished background in the arts, extensive experience in consulting in the philanthropic sector, and participates on numerous boards and initiatives. She is the founder and board chair of the Utah Film Center, a nonprofit that curates free screenings and outreach programs for communities throughout Utah. In 2007, she co-founded Impact Partners Film Fund with Dan Cogan, bringing together financiers and filmmakers so that they can create great films that entertain audiences, enrich lives, and ignite social change. Since its inception, IP has been involved in the financing of over 70 films. In 2013, Gerilyn became a founding member of Game Changer, the first for-profit film fund dedicated to exclusively financing narrative features directed by women. Gerilyn's independent executive producing and producing credits include the Academy Award-winning Born into Brothels, Academy Award nominated, and Emmy Award winning, The Square, Academy Award nominated and Peabody Award winning, The Invisible War, and multiple film festival winners such as Misrepresentation, Meet the Petals, Anita, In Football We Trust, The Hunting Ground, Dreamcatcher, Alive Inside, Bending the Ark, Step and The Judge. Variety recognized Gerolyn in their 2014 Women's Impact Report highlighting her work in the entertainment industry. And Carol, I know you are a major fan of Gerilyn's films.
SPEAKER_04Yes, I am. Thank you, Claire. And Geraldyn, I'm just so proud that you've joined us today to share your knowledge with us about documentary films and film funding. Thank you. You're so welcome. Well, let's get started because um this time goes really fast and everybody is interested in what you have to say. So we thought we'd start with the fact that you've been going to Sundance Film Festival since 2004. So what changes have you seen for documentary films and filmmakers over these years?
SPEAKER_02Well, it's just been huge. I mean, um I remember being there when Robert Redford said we're going to do for documentaries what we've done for independent film, and feeling like that was kind of a historic moment, and it and it really was because really before Sundance put the resources behind documentaries, they were kind of steps step cousins. You know, they were um afterthought, they were kind of not mainstreamed into programming in festivals um or in our culture. So to have documentaries sort of play uh alongside independent narratives and premieres, and really I think for people as festival goers right now, it's it's the categories are sort of insignificant in terms of like people don't just go to see documentaries or don't just go to see a particular genre, but they're they're really kind of um cross-pollinated. There's so there I think as from the consumer perspective, that's one big change. And then there's big there's become a market for documentaries. So, you know, before 2004 there wasn't a market for documentaries. Very few documentaries ever got ever got sold um and ever had theatrical life. So we've seen massive amounts of change um f you know, since then and now they stream and they sell to global platforms and um can be disseminated with all sorts of new technology. So it's just it feels like a couple lifetimes ago, 2004.
SPEAKER_04Yes, it does. Because I mean, if you go if you go back fifteen, twenty years and someone says, Oh, there's a documentary on the film on TV tonight, they'd say, Oh my gosh, that sounds terrible. I wouldn't give up my TV viewing for a doc, you know. But now they announce it with great enthusiasm and oh, everybody's so lucky it was a great documentary. You somehow the whole consciousness shifted.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean I think we still need to get um better at getting and at growing our audiences in the nonfiction. I I like to call documentaries nonfiction narratives, at least the ones that I like to make, because they're you know, they are nonfiction, but they are character driven. And really the the the genre has really been deeply influenced by um music videos and f and narrative dramatic features and um finding ways to tell really important stories but that can be done narratively, really through character versus linearly.
SPEAKER_04Yes. Well, in uh 2015, Variety quoted you saying that there's a huge interest around trauma and sexual violence right now, and that's a space that I'm dedicated to exploring. And then you said we felt sort of like the canary on the rim that there's something shifting gears in our culture, and I don't think we fully understand it yet. So with the intense focus now on sexual harassment and violence in the media uh and violence in our lives and workplaces, how much have the gear shifted in our culture?
SPEAKER_02Well, I think I think it's just um epically big and a shift, and I think people are still trying to um understand it and and and recalibrate, right? You know, so I think that um I think that the fact that as many women are telling the truth about their lives, there's this wonderful line in Terry Tempest Williams' book when we were When Women Were Birds, that said if women told the truth about their lives, the world would crack open. And I think the world is cracking open right now because the kind of um misogyny and uh shameful behavior, um violent behavior um that has gone on in behind closed doors and corridors of power across industries um is now being exposed. And it it it's not even that people aren't shocked by it anymore. I think people are unpacking it and trying to make sense of it at a at a very deep cultural level because I think this this imbalance in terms of power has been very um it's been very subtle at some levels um and then very secret. Uh yet um as we've learned from the Me Too movement, there hasn't been a woman that hasn't had an experience that couldn't raise her hand and say Me Too. So at least not one that I've met yet. So it's just it's just something shifting that I think is really um gonna get to the core of uh of really understanding what it means to be human and how what you know what what does equality mean and what do partnerships mean? I mean the the ground rules will definitely um be changing and they already are.
SPEAKER_04That's wonderful, wonderful. So now how much do you think uh your documentaries played in helping that shift in our understanding of sexual violence?
SPEAKER_02I think they've been huge. I think I mean you know the Invisible War in the Hunting Ground um, you know, just has set itself up for our next film, which will be about sexual assault in Hollywood. And they are they they they stand on each other's shoulders. But a lot of the um like the Lady Gaga song and video piece that we've done, they were all strategic. They were all meant to to be like a pod. So funding Audrey Daisy and um funding I am Jane Doe, all of these films, people you know, a lot of investors would say, Well, there's that's already been covered, and we're like, No, it hasn't been covered enough. Like you just have to keep hammering away, looking at the bias that police officers have about young American boys at a football. players if they've raped a girl, you know, parents, like we all had these biases that we didn't really even understand um until we were confronted with looking at what, you know we what we could discover that young men and w and women's roles were being discussed on the internet in cyberspace. I mean it just it's a whole other world now and and it's just kind of revealed to me anyways, just really how misogynistic it is. I mean the kinds of comments you see on social media platforms are so shocking and chilling but they're so deeply held. I mean the beliefs are deeply held or the the the instinct to want to hold on or shame or lash out is i i it's right there. So you know we're on the cusp of something when you start to see these kinds of reactions.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely um well we both know that it takes years for documentaries uh uh to from concept to completion to really reach an audience so um I was just thinking I I'm sure that you have to go through ups and downs like you were saying when people I've had that people say to me well they well you did that you you funded that same thing two years ago yes but it it's it's only a beginning we have to stay with this concept. So do you need to encourage your crews to get going? Do they get discouraged at times when it's an uphill battle for funding or getting the the interviews you want well I mean all documentary work is hard.
SPEAKER_02Whether you have the funding or not, it's still hard work like and like even though we have completely financed this series on sexual assault in Hollywood, you know, getting the interviews um building the r respect and the trust and the rapport with some of the actors um and uh directors that have been victims of sexual assault takes time. Um but I think it's getting easier because people are talking about these things. I mean you know the fact that uh you know like ten years ago I said that I was interested in trauma because I was sexually as molested when I was thirteen. I mean people were shocked and I was criticized for saying that publicly you know like why would you want to bring attention to your that way? You know and I'm like because it's the truth and this is what's happened and that is why I'm making these films. You know, I want to understand it and also make sure that it happens you know, another generation. So um so it's sort of that shame or or the fact that I would talk very openly about um not openly in a bad way but um about my divorce you know why why did you get divorced? Well my husband wasn't in another relationship it was no longer an appropriate for me to be married to him. That that to m I got so much ha you know backlash for that like you know why are you saying telling that part of the story? And like because it's the truth. And and you know we protect our children, we protect our families, we even protect our ex hous our husbands and our abusers by not saying what the truth is. But I think if there's been a perpetuation of this cultural idea that you don't talk about these things. They're unseemly in some way. But they actually they're very prevalent and so they have to be talked about. That's my opinion anyway.
SPEAKER_04Oh yes they do the more people who will speak up the more conscious then the the uh people in our country and around the world become of this uh and once you bring it into the consciousness then it can be healed but as long as it's hidden we're gonna deal with this for a long time. That's right. So you're making films to change belief patterns and I'd like you to talk about this about changing belief patterns.
SPEAKER_02Yeah it's very hard I mean I don't I don't know that we can actually say that we're done that but I do feel like we have um you know we there's some films that we make that we know we're making this film and it's gonna change a law, right? You know we we can we can go into it understanding like we did the movie Lioness and in the movie Lioness, women in combat i in in Iraq were not being paid as soldiers because they were nurses or they were working in kitchens, but they were taken out into military interrogations because culturally you had to have a woman with you if you were doing a military interrogation. So so the the the idea was that these women should be getting the same benefits as men in combat and we were able to show that they were in positions of combat and the law was changed. So that was very clear that it it might it it also it also addressed some of the cultural beliefs or um about whether women should be in c combat or not. But that wasn't the point of our movie. The movie was to change the law and the law did get changed. A lioness act was made and women were compensated ret retroactively and women get compensated differently um in the armed services. These other films that are really looking at a widely held belief like women ask for or women bring attention to themselves are asking to be raped. That is a belief that we don't really understand how deeply held it is within our culture. But we so we try to go at these ideas um through storytelling, through putting human faces to them, but also through data. So for example in every single crime whether it's assault and battery, whether it's arson um whether it's uh you know forgery or whether it's false accusations of spousal abuse or um rape. Two to six percent of the every single one of those crimes has people that are frauds, that are factually or that are falsely accusing, that are basically saying that their house was put on fire when in fact they they did it themselves, right? Two to six percent of women accusing a man of rape or harassment are falsely reporting. But we experience a story about a woman being sexually assaulted as if ninety-six percent of all women falsely report. And that disconnect is what's interesting to me. Why don't we believe women? You know no police officer would say with it with they showed up at your door and you'd been robbed, what were you wearing when your television was robbed? You drinking when your television was robbed? What what you mean you weren't even in your house when your television was robbed? I mean it just wouldn't happen, right? So how do you get something that's that pervasive that even young women and girls believe that somehow it's their fault, right? You know, so it it's such a deeply held belief. And so you know obviously there's literature written about it. There are very thoughtful people that have spent their life thinking about this. There are trauma therapists that can explain it. We try to bring all of those kinds of resources and insights into our storytelling um but at the core of what we're trying to do is try to get at these wildly widely held beliefs um because they hold us back and they don't look at the collateral damage uh and cost that happens to you know women that um are accused of being you know of of lying or or are people not believing them. Um so you know we're now trying to just really look at what what is it like when you know you get sexually assaulted by someone like Harvey Weinstein and you don't get your next role. What what loss was that to our culture um to not have that woman's voice fully expressed in the film world? Or if you're sexually harassed and raped by a Supreme Court justice and you and you got picked to be their clerk based on your talent, what's the loss to American society when that woman no longer practices law you know those those kinds of things, those hidden costs um you know not not to mention the s sort of trauma and somatic kind of costs of trauma and and and rape um just haven't been thought about and talked about. Um and now they are, you know I mean I read an article this morning I was there were two things I read that kind of shocked me this morning for different reasons. One was there was an article arguing that the US Olympics team should be banned from the Olympics just the way the Russians were for doping because they allowed a system of sexual abuse to happen and people knew about it. Like that the the the the the the US gymnastics Olympics committee should be banned because they looked the other way. Now that never would have happened. Two months ago it wouldn't have happened. Never mind two years ago right I'm not saying that it it's what should happen but the idea that is some people are writing about that was shocking. And s surprising in and you know just showing us how much we're we're we're kind of learning. And then the second one was that this year's um sports illustrated swimsuit edition is incorporating the Me Too movement, which I I I mean I can't even wrap my brain around that one. But if you look it up online there's all these pictures and they have their very you know kind of very suggestive beautiful photos of uh women but instead of the swimsuit edition it says things like Survivor or Me Too or you know like all these campaign and I don't know how I feel about that because I just watched that ten minutes before we got on the radio show. But you know it is influencing our culture. There's just no question that people are thinking about this and and talking about it. Now whether that example of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit is co-opting that question I I I haven't really kind of thought it through enough to have an opinion but it does show the impact of that we're having on the culture.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely right well um I found that the hunting ground changed my beliefs about the security of women on the college campuses. I think you did a great job um in bringing out an enormous amount of information um to all of us about the statistics that that happen of things that do happen on college campuses. So was that the intent of the film to let us know that Hunt that Huntingground explained that women were not safe and men too on the college campuses.
SPEAKER_02Yeah absolutely so we made Invisible war um so uh you know like when we when we try to figure out like what films we want to finance like we got uh had a meeting with Amy Zari and Kirby uh Dick who were directed and produced Invisible War and they said listen we're tracking this story it it turns out that right now if you're in the US military you are more likely to be sexually assaulted um than hurt in the line of duty and I'm like what and they said yeah and I'm like that so you take an idea like that and you say okay what is going on culturally in our US military and how can that be true? How can the place where you're supposed to be watching each other's back and a place that's always been prided itself for you know its brethren and its um its family like uh you know institutional values, its discipline how does that happen right? And so then we went to explore it and we found out that there there was a real chink in the armor that called the chain of command and that there was a conflict of interest. If a woman was sexually assaulted by her um by her superior oftentimes it was a direct report and if not the direct report had a conflict of interest because she was sexually assaulted by a good soldier or there was a conflict of interest because the superior didn't want an investigation on their record. So by changing the chain of command so that these so you could report a sexual assault outside of going to your immediate superior, the reduction and the um adjudication um and and the retribution of um of and I say retribution in the best sense of that word meaning the accountability has shifted in the military. So we showed that movie on college campuses absolutely after every single screening women would come up to us and say this happened to me the university did the same thing they swept it under the rug they told me not to talk about it they challenged whether they believed me. They weren't protecting me. They made it worse right and that's what women in the military said you know here I go in to to serve the US military which my father did and I'm a seventh generation soldier and instead of getting protection I get shamed and humiliated and my career is destroyed and the psychological damages of of all of that were very, very hard for women going into the military with such idealistic um you know motives for serving their country right? Same young woman 18 but here's the here's so we started looking into it. First Amy and Kirby said oh my god there's no way we want to make another film about sexual abuse. We're just like vomiting we've we're all suffering PSTD from invisible war. We're just we know somebody else can make that film. And then the letters kept coming and the bangings on the door and the stories and then here's the statistic okay right now in America you are more likely if you are female to be raped or sexually assaulted if you are 18 years old if you go to college versus not. So you're more likely you're more at risk for sexual assault if you go to college. Now how can that be when the American dream is to make education be a portal for growth and self-discovery I mean there's something very very twisted about that statistic. And so then what do you have to do? You have to look at well what is the environment that's happening on college campuses? Why is this happening? You know is it really just a question of frat boys and too much drinking? No. I mean there that there's that but it it there really is kind of um a perpetrator there is the same statistics, the same percentage of people that repeatedly groom and and take advantage and rape or sexually assault women um in in college age uh men is the same as in the military. So it's not all men doing this. It's a s it's a very s it's a smaller percentage of people doing it perpetually. I mean doing it you know not pandemically but you know consistently um and getting away with it. And so and getting away with we tried to show and we tried to show that the universities under Title IX, those that were not taking those claims seriously and providing measures um you know like not forcing a woman that's been sexually assaulted by a man to be in the same class. Like you know women would say well I don't want to stay in this biology class. I don't want to have to see this person at breakfast. Like like you know that that there was no protection um for for this once that once it was you know actually being reported. Those were the kinds of changes that began to be kind of implemented um and investigated and there were 175 schools universities that were out of compliance um with their safety they weren't equally protecting their f female students as they were men so under Title IX they you know they got um they got uh not punished but they were they there was uh they were fined and so and they had to build back um the confidence uh to be relicensed so you know one of the things that we did was that it it's part of them being reaccredited you know at universities that were out of compliance being reaccredited the hunting ground became mandatory um part of the freshman orientation for these universities so it's like giving kids an inoculation before they go off to college hey you know this happens be careful you know know your rights make sure you're reporting things don't be a bystander you know um and and see this behavior begin to understand the distinction of what does it mean to be predatory or grooming or um you know if somebody is i i intoxicated you know and you see m men grab dragging a group of men dragging a group of women off to a room that nothing good's gonna happen there. Like you know you don't look the other way. So these were all the kinds of things that we were trying to address in in uh in that movie and then took it down to the high school level with Audrey and Daisy and you know it's just it's it's um it's a long it's a long game and a long run and we have to come at it from about you know a hundred different directions in order to really get people to understand this is um a big a big cultural problem that we need to address. Absolutely that film um shocked me and I I was I loved one scene where they had a big sign that looked like it was an on um a sorority uh yard and it said thank you mothers for sending us your daughters and we I I I I mean i you were shocked at some of the things that you saw the the kind of um blatant um non-apologetic you know that kind of what I will call you know that the there's another sign we had in that movie when it was uh you know um SAO which is a big fraternity and it's sexual assault expected S O E I mean yes I remember that and you know so it's like and people think that's funny like you know it's sort of like what's funny about that? You know what's funny about the fact that a young girl freshman in high school goes to her first party gets drunk and four of her friends take off their clothes and write things on her body with magic markers like slut and whore what's funny about that? When did that get to be funny? And then take pictures of it and put it on the internet so that she's shamed the next day and commits suicide within a week. What in the world is funny about that? Absolutely and why how have young men, many of them who are probably good young men think that that's funny and to do as a group like what's happened?
SPEAKER_04Yes, how do we come to this? Well one out of every four college students will be raped or uh attempted sexual assault and at some colleges the athletes are above the law and the police are unable to talk to them. That one got me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah well that's why I was so proud of that police officer from Notre Dame which basically quit his job over it. He said this isn't right you know how can I do this? And and I don't think you're gonna see that kind of behavior. Um I think that movie made a huge difference that way. Um and athletes are under you know a huge amount of scrutiny I have two brothers that are Division I football coaches and he said we spend a lot of our time talking about consent, talking about um what's appropriate, what's not appropriate. It's a big part of our job now as coaches. Whereas before the attitude of the coach would be like oh she's just a you know a jersey grabber, watch out, she's just gonna try to get you to bed and get you pregnant and ruin your career. You know like there's there's actually coaches that would say things like that to their players as opposed to like what's the appropriate way to be in a relationship period. What are the ground rules around respect to be part of this team? You know, those are the kinds of things you want your coaches talking to your players about. Um because it's gonna take you know a a a lot of teach uh leadership and um and admira and you know kind of role modeling um across all sectors and it turns out coaches have huge impact on on the belief system of young men.
SPEAKER_04Yes, they have a huge impact and if they don't take the right path with those men they're going to just keep perpetuating the problem that's facing us now the where the women are speaking out about all this. But this is h has to continue in order for us to change, I believe. Absolutely well um so yeah that w that was a great film and I'm so happy to hear that they are playing that for when people come into college on the first year. So it's really getting seen a lot, right?
SPEAKER_02And with Invisible War, you know, s 70% of all new members of the military going through basic training watch invisible war as part of their basic training. The military has embraced this film as a tool to help them do a better job. Because they understand that yes, sexual assault is a problem, but it's not a problem that the military created. It's a problem of our society at large. And one of the other reasons why we were very interested in working on a film about the military is the military has been, you know, remarkably um effective in in accelerating social change. So around race, certainly it did. And and around uh gender, you know, it's it's it's it's it's helped to normalize. Like with the military when the military takes a stand and integrates based on the Constitution and and the laws, it has a reverberation throughout all of society. So if I'm like boy if the military can get this sexual assault problem right and have there be consequences and fairness when it happens and like go after it systemically understanding that there are you know perpetrators that re are that are repeat offenders, then we'll we'll see that you know shadowed and and and not shadowed, mirrored in in civilian life because that has been the case when the military decided to do daycare, you know, and in and in institute daycare and standards around daycare because there had been abuses in daycare, it changed the way the rest of government daycare programs were done. So that was also a real reason why we looked at the military as like if they if they if they actually own this problem versus trying to cover it up, we'll really see social change. And I'm happy to report that the military is owning the problem. There's still a lot of work to be done but they are embracing it and they're acknowledging it and it is a big part of you know what they're held accountable for by by their own institution but also by Congress which is you know another lever.
SPEAKER_04Yes oh and and all your work is really paying off. You are changing bully systems. Well I'll tell you something uh I was so impressed with all of the statistics and the information the in the hunting ground that I just wondered and you must have uh spent uh one or two years in your research and development in order to get all these um people lined up and the information how long did that take you?
SPEAKER_02Well you know Amy um Zeering and Kirby Dick are probably two of the best investigative reporters um and journalists that are in the business right now and they hired they hired journalists to check out these facts to look within the Title IX to work within the Department of Education so that we could really understand it. So a big piece of the funding of that film was the research what they call the research and development stage where you're really just sort of saying is this the problem at the scale that we think it is you know what kind of data do we have to back it up? What kinds of questions do we have to ask what you know what is missing and you know what what part of this research will be groundbreaking and we will bring it to the film what part of this research needs to be in the film um as a way of you know persuading and and convincing um audiences that this actually is factually correct. You know that this is the problem. Like if you if you talk to presidents of universities when we first came out and we said we had the statistic one in five ninety percent of the university presidents would say that's not happening on my campus. But then when they would do their own surveys they found it was even worse. At Harvard it was one in four. At Dartmouth it was one in three there was a huge disconnect around how much of this was going on that might have been underreported, not reported, when it was reported it was you know nothing really happened as a result of it. So that has definitely changed. Um I mean university presidents understand they have a a huge problem on their hands. It's not just one isolated university. It's not just Notre Dame football or University of Florida football or you know you know some Ivy League school that's uh about powerful elites. It's in every single college and university.
SPEAKER_04That's shocking. That is shocking. Well let's get uh into some things that uh that producers and independent filmmakers r uh would could use uh from what you're saying you have meetings you discuss the direction of the film is this a film to make or not make and then you make decisions as a group so usually do you do you know who you want for your team and you put that together first and then you start talking should we make this film or how does this work?
SPEAKER_02So so ninety percent of all films I've been involved with have been somebody else's idea. So someone a filmmaking team like take the example of Amy and Kirby who have their own production company come to us at Impact Partners and pitch us an idea. They're like we want to make a film on sexual assault on college campuses and then they explain why they think it's fertile ground, why it's important, what the you know the impact of it could be on the standing on the shoulders of the invisible war. And then we as the financiers um in this particular case we were you know executive producing partners then help them build the team bring the resources that they need you know use our contacts collectively um to reach journalists or university presidents that might go on record or follow stories that you know we get leads to you know I mean it's like it then becomes very collaborative. But um there's only been a couple of films that we've said we want to make a film about this and gone out and commissioned and and like financed it and found the filmmaker to do. Ninety percent of it comes from comes the exact opposite way where a creative filmmaker comes with an idea that has to be told and we agree and we're like okay let's roll up our sleeves and get you the financing and then you know give you the protection and creative freedom to do your job well done because you're the artist and then we'll help it you know kind of make sure that it gets to a market, gets sold, it gets distributed and gets seen, right? 'Cause there's so many different That's it so many different parts of making a film. It's just making one a film is not alone enough. It then s has to be distributed and marketed and you know people have to write about it and think about it and it has to be out in the culture as a conversation piece in order for it to have its fully expressed um impact.
SPEAKER_04Exactly and getting it out to the communities is the key. But uh before we go to that I really wanted to talk about uh Erica uh for her film The Judge and did she come and pitch you that film? Is that how you got involved with her?
SPEAKER_02Yeah so Erica and I have a unique story because I've known her since she was 14 years old and um been um someone that I've taken a just a deep personal interest in her career because she was very gifted and very driven um in high school, right? And so you know you y she stood out as someone that was um very ambitious and smart and um hungry to learn. And so um we were actually working on the film I actually recruited her to co-direct the film in Football We Trust because it was a s a local story about how Polynesian immigrants had changed American football and Utah was like at the epicenter of that 'cause the Polynesians were re recruited from the the Mormon church and you know it was like all started here and now the secret sauce of like who are the great athletes are is out and yet it's sort of another immigrant story um that hasn't really been told or understood. So we saw this as a way to sort of tell a story um about Polynesian culture and um and American football and how it was changing and I asked Erica to co-direct it because sh she was from here and I thought you know I knew she could do it. So she was on on break um while that film was being finished on a on a a scholarshi on a fellowship in Israel and Palestine and that's where she met the the judge and um Khal Halud and she you know wrote to me immediately saying I've just met the most amazing woman. She's the first female judge that adjudicates Sharia law, I want to follow her, I think there's a film here. So you know we helped her get some early development money because I thought it was a great story and she was so passionate about it and I knew I you know she she's just someone that you can take to the bank. She's not gonna not finish something, right? So that's right and she access to a unique part of the world and I thought it was very interesting that they're the first country that had female judges to adjudicate Sharia law was Palestine, not Israel. I mean Israel Israel now has female judges that adjudicate Sharia law but they don't have any female judges that adjudicate um uh rabbinical law you know so it's it's just a fascinating little uh window into the world and the fact that um these judges there were three of them initially were allowed um to be judges that the the cleric that allowed that to happen then lost his job so we knew that there were going to be political ramifications to follow so it was sort of like let's watch her through her first couple of years being judge and what she's able to do and what she's not able to do and why. So that was the storyline and um because Erica speaks Arabic and because she's so respectful with her subject she you know established a beautiful re rapport with Khalud and made a beautifully intimate um film uh that you know opened at Toronto and um will have a a wonderful life and it will be the first time a Palestinian film will be on American public television. So she's brought bringing a voice part of the world that we Americans don't usually hear from. So she knows she had a lot of ingredients in in this in the character that she wanted to follow that made sense to us. Like yes like we don't hear from that part of the world and most people are going to think you know they're gonna they're not gonna believe that women are going to be allowed to be judges and then when you see the how wildly held the beliefs are of Palestinian women that women are too emotional to adjudicate their divorce cases, you know, and and it these are these are women saying this about other women. So you just see it goes back to that whole question of where do our beliefs come from um that have been so paternalistic for so long centuries in you know and globally.
SPEAKER_04Right. Well how did she get the judge to wear a camera and how did she get that approved? I think that's the most incredible achievement in documentary filmmaking.
SPEAKER_02Uh in a country like that where things are there's so many laws that was an achievement well it was and you know the the fact of the matter is that because there was never a woman judge and because there was never anybody that wanted to follow Sharia law, I mean you have to think about this. I mean Sharia law is really like it you they're really adjudicating domestic violence and um family disputes and family law and divorce law. So nobody had ever asked to make a film about that. So it was it was sort of like they didn't really know to say no. So it wasn't like we were like smuggling in cameras and doing something without permits, right? They didn't know to say no because it was like it was like the novelty, well we want to follow this woman she's the first woman judge. We want to see if she makes a difference and they're like okay well we're not really happy about her being the first woman judge but I guess we'll let you do it. And it was it was sort of like uh I don't know. It was I think part of it was just um the fact that she was gonna allow this to happen and understood that this was going to help make other women feel like they could go out and do things. You know, it was it was her determination um that allowed the film to happen. And and because she trusted Erica you know, that was the first and foremost thing.
SPEAKER_04That's the key to most good documentaries is the trust and respect between the filmmaker or filmmakers and the key people for the film, isn't it? That close relationship. Absolutely right well I noticed that Regina Scully with Artemis was executive producer of Huntingground and I think she's a godsend to filmmakers you must you must also agree that she's so good about helping with documentaries.
SPEAKER_02Well there's actually nobody quite like Regina um she she is the one that actually said we're gonna keep telling the story over and over and over until it cracks. She wasn't worried about what the place was going to say. She was she was just like no we got to go deeper no we've got to go again like right now we're doing the sexual assault in Hollywood film and she's like I don't care what we have to do we if we have to hire private investigators we have to crack the the the child pedophilia ring that happens to young boys. You know it's a s it's an open secret in Hollywood we've got to go after it. Shine the light shine the light she's fearless and and and and she uh and she doesn't w expect an immediate return but she knows that the culture has shift. I mean literally over the ten years that she's been doing this she's she's financed over a hundred films. Oh my goodness g that is so incredible. I mean there's no there's not another person in the philanthropic landscape that's done more or as much in the most targeted way is Regina Scully.
SPEAKER_04She's extraordinary she she certainly is I've seen some of the films that she's promoted through From the Heart and it's just uh incredible her commitment to um to documentary filmmaking is wonderful. Well let me just ask you about getting this um getting your project developed. You know I know how many people come to From the Heart Productions and they apply for our grant and their and their project is underdeveloped. And when you say to them you need to develop it more, they say what does that mean specifically what am I supposed to do? So can you give us a few tips on that part?
SPEAKER_02Well I I can only tell you from our own experience when you know we look at eight hundred films a year and we fund ten to twelve of them, right? So Impact Partners has become a funnel for our investors and so we we have a pretty good sense of like what's out in the space, right? What's what's in the field, what's being developed. Not not an infinite, you know, not a definitive um look but a pretty good representation of films that are being made. So when we when a filmmaker comes to us with an idea and it and and it looks like it has a lot of promise but they haven't yet been able to develop you know or really know who their character is that they're gonna follow. They they're sort of just like just kind of surveying the landscape. We will often say you know come back to us when you know who your character is or who your three characters are or who how you're gonna tell this story. Because obviously we agree this is an issue that um is important but how you're gonna tell that story is really important to whether you're gonna be successful in making a film that other people are going to watch. Right. So we're always interested in in how they're gonna tell the story. You know, um what's the through line? Who's where are you dropping me into? Like what what universe am I being dropped into that I then have to begin to understand and how are you going to explain it to me? So it's n it's it's less linear and factual and statistic based and it's much more like you can have those statistics. You can totally get my attention by saying you're more likely to be raped if you go to college than not. That has my attention I can't sleep at night like okay how are we going to tell that story? Then the filmmaker has to come back and say this is how we're gonna tell it. We found these five activists that are organizing on college campuses. They're talking to each other they're taking on the universities um they're they're suing universities they are they're you know they're being brave and they're finding um encouragement by working together. And now I can understand how the story the the heartbeat of the story is going to be these college women that were sexually assaulted that are going to take on their alma maters. Okay, got it. So it's sort of like you break it down that way. Um and then you know then you'll Amy and Kirby will say and then we're gonna do the investigation piece on the cover ups of these universities. We're gonna do the investigation piece on you know what the Department of Education is or isn't doing and that will fill out the story. So then it's believable it's not just these five women that are crackpots that are you know trying to rabble rouse on college campuses um you know but uh are making a mountain out of a molehill right you know you can address all of those stereotypes based on how the filmmaker comes in and says here are our characters, here's our strategy, here's what we needed you know money for in the development stage, here's what we need money for in the re in the research and investigation stage. And if somebody can map out some of those things for you you have a lot more confidence in their ability to finish and execute a a story. And if if you're if you're working with a filmmaker and they don't have the answers to some pretty basic questions that doesn't mean they're not going to make a good film or that they're not good people or that they're not smart. You say come back to us when you have the following questions answered because we right now we we we don't have enough um to be able to assess the risk of this project, um the efficacy of it or the impact of it. And you know, we want to help you make a better film but we're not gonna invest in it until we know you what you're you know, until you can answer these following questions. And and hopefully we do it in a way that doesn't make people feel like they're jumping through hoops you know just because that we're gonna give them money. That's not at all. I mean there's some basic things that you need to know and you need to know that a filmmaker knows that they need to know them in order to have confidence that they're the right person to direct the film.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely that's exactly right. They need to know what they don't know they have to have the idea of or the stronger ideas and it has to go deeper than just the beginning concept. Yes I tr truly agree with that.
SPEAKER_02Well tell us how people can reach Impact Partners please so we have a website Impact Partners Film um where people can submit projects but we can see you know the over 80 films that we've funded and we have little case studies about them so you can kind of go on, see where they are now you know it links you to where you can download them or stream them or see them or license them. So it's a pretty comprehensive website. And then we also have a um a film fund that's we're just finished um our last investment of Game Changer, which is a film for women directors in the narrative space and we'll be you know looking at raising another fund to start supporting um could continue supporting uh female directors in the narrative space and there's a website for that too gamechangers.com.
SPEAKER_04Oh that's brilliant. I'm so excited about that. Thank you so much. You know I really wanted to get into distribution but perhaps in a in the future you'd come back and go get into community screenings and distribution how to get the most out of your film by getting it to your right audience.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah and there's so many filmmakers that have been successful at that you could also talk to Jennifer Siebelnewsome at the representation project who did misrepresentation and Vicki Ableys who did Beyond Measure and Race to Nowhere I mean she's now had 10,000 community screenings. She's like the queen of like outreach and community screenings. So there are filmmakers that are particularly gifted in that area we don't do that distribution But we find filmmakers that have it in their plans and we know who some of the best people are that do it. Um, but it you know, I could give you some ideas of like case studies of like who's done it best and you could talk to them.
SPEAKER_04That's uh perfect. That's exactly what we'd like to do. Well, thank you very much for all your knowledge and for all the work you're doing to change the late patterns.
SPEAKER_02Well, let's hope that it's actually gonna really, really resonate um in ways that will just make us all be better and more respectful and kinder and more loving towards one another, because that's ultimately what's at stake here with this disparity or this you know gender imbalance. It it it it gets in the way of of us fully realizing our human potential. And um for that reason alone it's worth examining. And then fighting um when when necessary if something's unfair.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. You're uh you're a field builder too, so thanks for disseminating all these ideas.
SPEAKER_04Oh you're crap.
SPEAKER_03Well, that's great. All right. Thanks, Carolyn. Great show, Carol. Thanks. Be well, everyone. Now, in its second edition, Carol Dean's popular book, The Art of Film Funding, has 12 new chapters to cover all areas of film financing and how to avoid expensive pitfalls. Learn how to start with an idea and end with a trailer, how to make an ask for money. Create your story structure and your trailer, legal advice, fair use, successful crowdfunding, how to ask for music rights, and what insurance you can't shoot without. Available on Amazon under Carol Dean and at FromTheHeartProductions.com. I want to remind our listeners that David Rakelin is a brilliant and talented award-winning musician who scores films and can compose music for a trio or for a full orchestra. David is a very good friend to the independent filmmaker and comes highly recommended by From the Heart Productions. If you need music to help tell your story, please contact him at Davidrakeland.com. That's david r-a-i-k-l-s.com. And Carol and I want to thank you for tuning in to the Art of Film Funding. Please visit our website at FromTheHeartproductions.com. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. Good luck with your films, everyone.
SPEAKER_01Pack, research the new base, get the kids in school because family supports family. At American Public University, we support military families with flexible, affordable online education that lives with people. As a military spouse, your to a state of$250 per credit hours. American Public University that lives with people.
SPEAKER_00Everybody needs a variety of life. That's a lot of 15 things, 55 games are 45, 105, 30, 15, 15, 50, 15, 15, 10, 30, 40, 30, 10, 10, 30, 50, 40, 50, 10, 10, 10, 15, 15, 50, 40, 40, 15, 50, 50, 15, 15, 15, 50, 15, 10, 15, 15, 10, 40, 60, 15, 15, 20, 40, 40, 50, 50, 15, 50, 10, 45.
%20Heather%20Lenz%20(Photo%20by%20Amanda%20Majors).jpg)
