Kaleidoscope Man Business Plans Doing The Rounds

Ken and I have been busy getting the business plan into new potential funding areas.

I am in touch with a local group of Business Angels who I’m hoping may be interested in the tax breaks and the opportunity to be involved with our movie. To register with this group we do have to pay a fee, so I will be doing some serious research into the real feasibility of getting funded before we part with any cash.

From the research I've already done it does seem that Business Angel Networks do require cash up from as well as a percentage of the sum raised.

I’m still busy on the Charles Dickens Documentary. I delivered a rough cut just before Christmas and start on the fine cut with Julian (the Director) on Tuesday. We should have the fine cut by the end of the month.

New Draft Coming Along Nicely

Well, after the hell of working in the corporate video world for the last 4 months I am now a free man again. The thing about corporates is that they pay well, but in return they are all consuming. I'm now editing a superb documentary about Charles Dickens directed by an old friend, Julian Richards (Summer Scars & The Last Horror Movie) and a Producer/distributor friend, David Wilkinson. Next week I'll be shooting some 2nd unit shots on my Varicam camera. So if you live in Portsmouth or Rochester and see a film crew it could well be us!

The other good news is that I have made really good headway on the Kaleidoscope Man script re-draft and aim to have it finished by the end of the month. Ken (the K-Man Producer) wants to take it to the American Film Market (AFM) in November in the continued search for funding.

Talking of which, its been pretty quiet here on that front, but we're still forging ahead. Some news soon, I hope...

Finding Funding, My Plans and the Law...

Well great news, the Business Plan is now complete which means we now have the legal tool to go out and raise money to get Kaleidoscope Man in production.

As I mentioned in my last blog video, when I made my first film, Written in Blood, it was a case of finding the funding within the UK Film Industry. This time around I need to find private Investors to fund the film which is a totally different ball game. The law is very heavily structured to protect Investors, so we have to be very careful as to how we approach potential backers. And not being able to advertise publicly makes the process very complicated.

But I've got this far and I will find a way. We only need to raise £1.8 million and this will release a further £500K from Screen WM, which will mean we can get the cameras rolling.

One of the things I do want to do though is to be honest about the entire process. I know a lot of film makers are now looking at my blog, and we all find funding the hardest part of the process, so I''ll be straight with you about where I get it right and where I get it wrong, and hopefully, we can all learn from my mistakes.

By the way, if anyone has any ideas or experiences about raising funds, do please contact me, or comment on the blog. I really have never done this before and I'm certainly willing to learn from others myself.

Many thanks.

Raising Funds. A Difficult Road Ahead?

The wording on the Kaleidoscope Man business plan is now finished. Its full of very detailed information about tax breaks and the various rules and implications of investing in films. The Accountants have worked on in for weeks and have brought in tax specialists to help.

All we have to do now is get the Lawyers to vet it and we can send it out.

It dawned on me yesterday that we now have to find wealthy individuals to send it to and all of a sudden I'm nervous. Where are we going to find these people? Because of the type of business plan we have, we can only send it out to around 100 people, so we have to be very targeted.

I'm going to start listing everyone I've ever known who may be in a position to help. I'm not sure the list will be that long though. I just hope we don't send out loads of copies and get no responses.

I must stay positive.