What's the "new deal" (if any) to preparing a demo reel to pitch for a TV or film project; old school/old money vs. new school/new money?
Financing / Crowdfunding : Demo Reels: Pitching to Investors by Benjie Anderson
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Looking for money? Start thinking ROI for investors or a damn good collateral. The new deal is an old deal.
New deal is same as old deal - get signed contracts of guaranteed distribution.
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Guaranteed distribution comes with goodies on board (strong package), goodies on board come with development money, development funds come with someone writing that first check which is impossible to get without proven ROIs on past projects and IMDB recognizable titles with world wide distribution strong numbers. What's left? Angels? Well, now we are back to the source. I'm already praying... Heya, heya, heya... that's my type of praying to Mother earth.
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Just watch Shark Tank tv show. Whenever they have an Inventor with a signed purchase order from a vendor, the Sharks sit up and smile.
I would suggest to avoid demos / teasers . They seem like a requirement, but the fact is that unless they feature name talent and look and sound like a 100% real movie, they scare away people who cannot see through the fact your resources were limited. Instead focus on business plan, bios, you can do a video that has interviews and pitch but I personally wouldn't normally try to do a proof of concept or put part of the script in front of the lens. I have seen this approach tank a number of otherwise viable projects. Experienced backers don;t want to see a demo, they want your CV and plan. New backers have no clue what they are looking at and are scared off by a Rip-O-Matic reel, whereas Rip-O-Matic is all people inside the business use for many pitches; particularly reality or doc, because ir conveys the concept without calling attention directly to your lack of funding.
The new "deal" you may be speaking of is using a fund model. Here is an example :
http://lamf.la/
It's a slightly different structure of the development model but popular. But it seems the principles are often all very established. Cause from what I gather, it's a very hands off approach where the group of individual investors really have nothing to do or say about the I.P. or operations. And since the minimums are high, most investors will only partake based on your track record. It's new school but hardly a bootstrapped "startup" approach.
I just went to check on that ‘new’ way of financing from LAMF and didn’t get it what is even slightly new in their approach? Same principals and same spinning wheels when it comes to financing movies. And on top it’s next to impossible to break through that unsolicited barrier which they have. This fund is into big budget films with name talent on board and will be out of reach for most of filmmakers on this site. And I bet this fund comes into play not as a first money in but more like debt and gap financing partner.
The structure of the deal with a fund is different than opening up shop as a development / production company. That's all. The business plan looks a little different. I saw one for a TV development company that had 50 shows in the pipeline already. From major players. These are solid, good shows. All with major agents, writers and actors onboard already. Options to adapted I.P. secured.
Development companies will often have all that and more already lined up when they're approaching serious investors. That's also how they're rolling when they get in front of HBO or Netflix to pitch a show. That's your competition.