How to Start Your Own Business in Film



Film production is one of the few nationally subsidized media businesses in the United States.  Many states offer incentives in the form of large cash rebates for production money spent in that state.  

If you are seriously interested in how to start your own business in film, it’s probably best to approach it from the angle of a small business.  Approaching your film production company as a small business means coming up with a business plan.  This means devising long term and short-term goals as well as a strategy for achieving those goals.  

Film production companies tend to be small businesses in every sense of the term.  They may consist of only three or four people working together, with or without an office for subsistence income with no benefits.  However once a film actually goes into production, those small businesses suddenly become much bigger.  

A film in production means hundreds of employees, union contracts and millions of dollars.  As a film production company, your goal is to go from small business to big business.  

To start a production company you will need to incorporate or become a LLC.  This takes about two hours to do and requires that you fill out some forms.  Once you have incorporated you will need to come up with a script, either by writing it or finding one you want to produce.  

Once you have a script you need to construct a business plan around it.  Among other things this involves creating a budget, identifying key casting choices, hiring a line producer and devising a shooting schedule.

After you have formulated your business plan you then need to present it to people who would be willing to fund your picture.  The amount of funding you need depends largely on the picture you hope to make.  This is why if you’re just starting out it may be a good idea to put the special effects-laden science fiction epic on the backburner and start with a character driven piece that will rely more on acting and dialogue.

Make no mistake starting a film production company is a challenge.  However the rewards are potentially great and if you can actually succeed in getting your first film made it’s usually much easier to do the next one.

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