There are a lot of posts here asking "Where can I get funding?" "How do I fund X?"
The best way to get funding is to already have it (ha, ha!). But it's true. If you have early seed money or early successes you're more likely to get funding from traditional financial channels.
So how do you get that seed money to start growing your budget?
I have had personal success with applying for grants for filmmakers. It's not glamorous and it's a lot of work to break down your idea or request into their formats, but once you can say "I already have 10k put towards this project," other investors are more willing to put in something into the pot too.
Here is a list below of some of the sites I trolled looking for grants I could apply for. There are WAY more grant sites out there for various types of people to apply to that I'm not eligible for or did not find in my own search so -please- do your own research as well.
I just hope this is a good starting point for some young filmmaker out there trying to figure out how to fund their first 30-minute short. Luck is when opportunity meets preparation. Good luck. :)
http://www.filmdaily.tv/grants
https://blog.kitsplit.com/the-ultimate-film-grant-list%E2%80%8A-%E2%80%8...
https://www.filmindependent.org/programs/grants-and-awards/
https://www.horizonsfoundation.org/apply/how-to-apply/find-funding-progr...
https://fromtheheartproductions.com/list-of-film-grants/
Not a grant, but also good for keeping budget costs down, you can choose to film in certain places that have incentive programs in place. Georgia offers almost 50% of your total budget to film there. So if you raise $10k, now you have $20k. I filmed in Colorado so I took advantage of this program at 20%: https://choosecolorado.com/programs-initiatives/film/
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Folks might also want to check out Foundation Center which lists thousands of grant sources for all kinds of things https://foundationcenter.org/ and Documentary.org which has grants for non-fiction films https://www.documentary.org/funding
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Thanks for the thoughts and resources. Am currently in this process and it's an encouragement!
Hi Amber, it has been a long time, thank you for posting this funding info. I have been looking for this for several years. By the way, I'm looking for a producer for my film. rjmmtv123@gmail.com