Financing / Crowdfunding : How do you find investors? by Christopher McDonell

Many years ago I shot a 10-minute promo trailer which helped launched my first feature-film. The trailer cost $40,000. The feature: $1.5m. We shot the trailer on 35mm over 4 days with a volunteer cast & crew of over 150 people. This was in 1996, long before the digital age changed everything! In trying to raise the 40 grande, I ran two fundraisers. Both very ambitious. I rented a yacht for a 3 hr dinner cruise, enlisted live music and a comedian, sold tickets... and made about a thousand bucks. I later rented a nightclub, acquired tons of free raffle gifts through local sponsors, even a limo and dinner package, sold tickets... and barely broke even... Then when I had a rough-cut, I did the most least ambitious thing of all. I got a group of businessmen together, showed them the trailer in a friend’s living room, and proposed an investment plan. The pens and cheques came out and I went home with about $10,000... So my question is... how do you find investors? With all this technology at our fingertips, there must be an easier way than just ringing up our friends!