12 days till shoot!

Hello friends,

Meet Loose Lemon and Jealous Avocado. They're my new fruity friends at Orange World, a cracker of a tourist destination let me assure you. The owners Maria and Mario have been a tremendous help to team Summer Coda. They're training our actors on the art of picking fast, and basically educating us on all things citrus. You haven't tried orange juice until you've drunk it at Orange World -- forget that supermarket junk, this stuff is a flavour sensation. A party in your mouth and everyone's invited -- just not Jealous Avocado... but his Lemon can come.

But enough funny stuff, or attempted funny anyway. I wanted to talk further regarding how you go about privately funding a feature film. It's bloody tricky, and it takes some time, but the rewards are obvious: You get to make your movie! 


I believe it starts with setting some major goals. Shoot date for example.  And then you need to work like you've never worked before. You must believe you're shooting, you must follow through, and you MUST have a story that lots of great people want to see get made. 


You need to set an accurate budget that reflects the commercial potential of your project -- that one's hard, but CRUCIAL, because you're working with private investors. You must respect that and start thinking like a business.  

The screenplay must be in amazing shape. You can't put off getting a quality script editor and making some hard calls. Then you gotta sell it. Sell it like Lady Lemon's selling it! But it will only sell if your TEAM is gold. You need respected and experienced cats behind you. You'll need lots of help, but the majority you'll need to do yourself. Most importantly, you need to believe you're going to do it. And then shake that tin baby! Find your first investor. Your key investor. If you can find one, you can find two. Believe me. And then you enter the circle of life. Not like the Lion King. Your project's alive and kicking, but you need to make it happen.

If you've been rejected for government funding, you can either whinge about it, start on a new project, or you can step up. The later options help evolve our little industry.

Ricky : )