The Reality of Film Financing

In the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher says and I paraphrase,

“Watch your thoughts as they become your words.

Watch your words as they become your actions.

Watch your actions as they become your character.

Watch your character as it becomes your reality.”

The nature of reality is so important that there are many books and conferences on it. 

I think we understand that each of us has our own reality based on our own

individual experiences.  Because of this, Bruce Lipton, author of the Biology of Belief, says if you put two people in the same situation they will react differently because of their past.

Some will see opportunities and others won’t have the same “fields” to see opportunities. Since I am concerned with filmmakers funding films, I think he means someone raised around money vs. someone who was not.  Those who never had to worry about money will see more opportunities in the same situation than those who were living on low incomes.

The way out of this Bruce explains is to find those “old tapes” playing in your psyche.  Those tapes

from childhood saying, “you’re not good enough” or “you don’t have the money.”  He suggests we put ourselves into a quiet place, visualize our goal and ask what is blocking us.  Then listen to the answers that our mind has stored.  He thinks we should take them one by one and remove them. and he fully explains how to do this in his YouTube films.

For film financing of either a documentary or a feature film, the most important issue is you.  Are you ready to receive; are you worthy of all this money?  It’s looking inside to see what may be blocking you and removing it so money can flow in, especially if your background was not financially comfortable.

My favorite American Indian prayer says, “Give me strength Great Spirit; not that I will use it against my enemies, but that I may overcome my greatest enemy, myself.”

Funding films requires total belief in self and total faith in you and your film.  This statement by Margaret Thatcher is important to all of us.  We need to watch our thoughts and words so we are always supporting ourselves and our film.

Carole Dean is the author of The Art of Film Funding: Alternative Financing Concepts.

8th time is a charm!

While researching the current information on Rupert Sheldrake I found an online test he offers. 

On this page: http://www.sheldrake.org/Onlineexp/portal is an audio anticipation test.  They want

You to “feel” what you will hear next.  You are to relax and choose from four choices.

It’s really a very simple test however, when I read they want you to intuit what you will hear next my stomach went into knots.  But, I thought I have 8 chances, I will get over this silly fear.  No one knows what the score is anyway and I am very intuitive, I will ace this test.

So, you get to choose which one you will hear next from this list:

President Bush - speech

Skylark Singing

The Beetles - Strawberry Fields

Cat purring

So of course I thought I don’t want to hear Bush and immediately and my mind said, it’s not what you want to hear it’s what’s coming up next! 

Ok, Ok.

The cat, I want to hear the cat purr….and the little voice said, no, that’s not it, try the Strawberry Fields.  But I clicked on the cat and of course I heard the Beetles singing.

Ok, I have 7 choices left, what’s next I asked my guides?  There was no answer so I said Ok it’s the cat purring that’s coming next, I am sure of it.

No, said the voice, that’s not next…..the Beetles are next.

What?  I just heard them, what are the odds it would be two times in a row?

So I punched the Cat purring and you won’t believe it but the little voice was right, I heard the Beetles again.

Ok, I can do this. So what’s next? 

Logically, the cat purring I thought.

No, said the voice it’s random, it can be anything…

Ok, then it has to be Bush.

Not waiting for any reply from the little voice, that’s what I chose and the next thing was….. a skylark singing.

I can do this; I know what’s coming next, now it has to be the cat purring.

But instead it was President Bush!

Ok, the little voice said, you’re the one that keeps telling people how naturally intuitive they are so show me something. 

Just watch me, how many choices are left?  I can do this.

I will hear the cat purring next.

Then I heard the skylark sing again.

Ok, that’s outrageous this must be rigged.

But honestly it has to be the cat purring now it’s the 8^th time; I know it’s the cat!

That’s when the Beatles sang Strawberry Field’s for the third time.

So, I had 8 wrong out of 8.  Great score for an intuitive.

I wonder if I am the only one who over rides the “little voice.”   I find it especially difficult to listen to this voice when it’s not logical and when the answers are so important.  It becomes easy to let my egotistical left brain run the show and totally override the intuitive right brain, which was the purpose of the test, to use your intuition over logic!

Is this what happens to us when we have to pitch a project to someone important?  The times we choke our natural intuitive insights and rely on the left brain then leave thinking we never pitched the heart of the project.

I have read several places that the more you honor the little voice and do what it says, the stronger it gets and the easier life becomes. 

If anyone else tries Sheldrake’s audio test, please tell me if you get to hear the cat purring.

Funding & Fiscal Sponsorship information is on www.fromtheheartproductions.com

Carole Dean is the author of The Art of Film Funding

Tesla and the Art of Film Funding

Though free to think and to act - we are held together like the stars - in firmament with ties inseparable - these ties cannot be seen but we can feel them - each of us is only part of a whole - Nikola Tesla

What if Tesla was right and all the area around us that stretches to the stars is full of energy.  He called it “the ethers or the wheelwork of nature.”  I believe you can see these ethers when you see the northern lights, its energy we see when the light is just right.  If these ethers are everywhere and they are energy, perhaps they carry our thoughts.  Something surely does because each of us has experienced some kind of phenomena in our lives that is not explainable.

How many times have you “thought about someone” and quickly had contact with them?  It happens all the time.  In Bali they say, “I called you on-the-wind.”  They think of a person and that person connects with them.  How do we explain the communication of nomadic people like Africans on the Serengeti or Aboriginals when they know their people have food waiting for them?  They know where to go.  I find this fascinating and so does biologist, Rupert Sheldrake.

Sheldrake is now acclaimed as a brilliant thinker.  Part of his work is about people who know when they are being stared at.  His book, The Sense of Being Stared At, is about the “intricacies of the mind and discovers that our perceptive abilities are stronger than many of us could have imagined.”

Sheldrake argues reasonably in this book that our abilities of telepathy and premonitions are real.

If so, then can we enhance this ability to communicate with each other?  Can we really send out invitations on-the-wind and hear from people across the globe?  If we are all connected then think of how important it is to treat each other as we want to be treated.  It becomes important to believe in each other and to be more concerned with our fellow man.  What if and this is a big what if, we really came into the world to nurture and support our fellow man and we got so caught up in cars and houses that we forgot?

Sheldrake believes that morphic fields are the clockwork of nature and I believe that the ethers carry information and knowledge and Sheldrake thinks that morphic fields carry information for nature, what if it is all the same?  What if that “morphic field” of Sheldrake’s is the “wheelwork of nature” of Tesla?

Ok, let’s come back to planet earth, where we just want to finance our films.  So, what if we send our intentions out on-the-wind and contact that billionaire before he gets our package.  We could explain why we are making this film and assure him of our ability to deliver an excellent product under budget.

 

We could talk from the privacy of our bedroom to that woman reading our grant and tell her the urgency behind our application and let her see our pure heart and understand our need to record this time in history.   Stranger things have happened; I think it’s worth a try.

Carole Dean is the author of The Art of Film Funding

Funding & Fiscal Sponsorship

Pretend you are a walking WiFi

The Field is an excellent book by Lynne McTaggart.  She has stories of physics where many have come to the same conclusion.  They believe that our brain is more than a storage mechanism; it’s a sending and receiving mechanism.  Yes, they say that knowledge is stored in “the field” or the zero point field, or as Chopra has said for 30 years, the field of infinite possibilities. 

“Some scientists went as far as to suggest that all of our higher cognitive processes result from an interaction with the Zero Point Field.”  This might explain how sometimes ideas come to us as a total concept or a “burst of insight” says Lynne.

So, if this is true then the difference between a normal person and a genius may simply be a better connection to the “field.”  I think that we need to know that this field exists and learn how to tune in.  Just as you have your favorite radio stations and you know the numbers, you need to know the field of infinite possibilities exists and learn how to tune into it for answers, information and guidance.

To me, this is the small voice that speaks to you through the chatter of the mind.  It normally is not a rational thought, and it can be something you may not believe until it happens!  Or you may experience ideas that come so quickly you have to stop the mind and write them down.  Usually they are profound.  You may need to find that quiet place that allows you to still the mind to receive.

Some people connect to this field while driving.  I know I have overshot my freeway exit by miles once I get into the field. It’s as if I am really living a situation and it is actually happening.  Some people go to the quiet of their bedroom in the daytime, some connect while walking.  Find a place where you can tune in for answers.  We need to receive more.  We seem to always be sending.

The question is do you want to manifest what you are sending?   Do you want to have trouble finding a good job or paying your rent?  Or do you imagine that you will be given the money you need?

You are much better off when you send positive images to the field so they can open doors and make things happen for you.  I know this may be hard if you are looking at an empty check book, but it can happen.  The secret is to pretend you are living your dream, that the money in the account has 2 more digits or that you are working at your new job and love every minute of it.

Once you send things up, expect doors to open where there were no doors before.  People will tell you to go to a networking meeting, or suggest you call someone, so, please follow every lead.  Your information is now in the field and things will change around you to create your vision.

Besides sending images to manifest, I ask for guidance.  I believe when you send up questions, you get answers.  Normally I will take situations I need to solve to a quiet place.  I outline what the situation is, give several suggestions and ask for better ideas.  Then, I let it go.  Within hours the new option pops into my head.  It is always better than my ideas and I thank them and use it.  Am I talking to the field?  I don’t know.  The results pay off for me so I just keep sending thanks and keep on asking for guidance.

Believe me, it’s worth a try.  Play a game with yourself and imagine that when you “think” you are sending  requests to the field and to get answers, you only have to listen.

Mind Over Matter

Robert Jahn and Brenda Dunne created a Random Event generator (REG) under their Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research program (PEAR).  Their intent was to continue Dr. J.P. Rhine’s work on extra sensory perception using the latest computers to increase the number of studies and manage the outcome through carefully conceived and monitored REG machines.

Jahn and Dunne set their machines to come up with a normal 50/50 average of binary 1’s and 0’s from their computer-driven base.  The rational model held that any deviation from a 50/50 average would be abnormal.  Then they put average people at the machines and told them to visualize and “intend” the machines to achieve more 1’s for 20 minutes then visualize more 0’s for 20 minutes and then nothing for 20 minutes.  The researchers were stunned to find a 52/48 average as the result of the trails conducted over 12 years!  This is incredible research I like to think proves just how powerful our intent is.

And if you think the PEAR research was unusual, another scientist, Renee Peoc’h decided to conduct an experiment to see if this ability to control computer driven machines also applies to other living creatures.  He set up a trial using baby chicks and a robot that he created and programmed to be the chicks’ mother.  It was set to move randomly outside their cage. When the results were tallied, the chicks were actually able to attract the robotic mother toward them.  In other words the robot was not moving randomly, it was moving towards the chicks more often than it was programmed!   Their minds overrode the computer programming.

A similar experiment was created for the opposite result.  Peoc’h put a movable REG with an obnoxiously bright light that aggravated his baby rabbits.  It was programmed to move outside their cage.  The rabbits were successful in overcoming the programming and made it move away from them more than it was programmed to.

Understanding the power of the mind is important for all of us.  It may allow you to consider that you really can use your mind to achieve the things you want.  If chicks and rabbits can do it so can we! 

 

Just know you are a powerful being.

Every Action has an Equal & Opposite Reaction

You were born under a lucky star. It’s great to be a filmmaker now over other times in history because we are living in the time of the third greatest revolution in the history of mankind, the digital revolution.  You don’t have to rent expensive 35mm cameras, shoot on film, pay developing costs and pray your cameraman filmed the bridge when it blew up. 

You can buy a digital camera and editing equipment for under $10,000.00 and shoot a feature for under $50,000.00. Plus you are now able to raise money online from people you don’t even know and may never meet! 

Crowdfunding is excellent for startup financing. However, there are a few tricks that you should know to be successful.

Let’s start with Sir Isaac Newton’s basic law: Every Action has an Equal and Opposite Reaction. This is the third of Sir Isaac Newton's laws of physics. Here's how it works. If you push on anything, it pushes back on you. That's why if you lean against the wall, you don't fall through it. The wall pushes back on you as hard as you push on it, and you and the wall stay in place.

It’s also a basic law of successful crowdfunding.

People who crowdfund by sending out scores of emails to friends, creating brilliantly written newsletters, tweeting and posting on Facebook sites with similar concepts are sending out energy. That energy comes back to them in money, which is another form of energy.

Those who use this concept, “every action has an equal and opposite reaction” are successful, those who don’t are not. Indiegogo gives you a platform to raise money; you still do the work.

You set a time limit and a dollar goal that you bet you can create. It’s up to you to push on the energies available to get the requested amount of energy (money) to return to you. Your list of names in your data base is your ace in the hole. How good is it? If it’s 300 names of friends and family, you should create a better list before you launch. This is your source of energy to attract your money.

The statistics say that by the 7th newsletter you collect your peak dollar amount. Advertising always pays off through repetition; each contact draws your list closer to the film. I tell my fiscally sponsored filmmakers to create 3 to 5 before they launch so they can use their campaign time chatting on social media to drive people to the Indiegogo platform to donate. Your newsletters need to tell me about the film, give me heart-touching stories on the need for the film, and in-depth studies of your characters.

The biggest mistake is to think that people watch the entire trailer. Online statistics confirm our fears that 90% don’t see the end. You must put your “ask” at the beginning of the trailer. People make decisions quickly based on your beginning information.

The Art of Film Funding states that “people give money to people, not to films.” How you present yourself and your film is paramount to the donation. In your online trailer, you need to tell us who you are, why you are making the film and touch our hearts. You can be fiscally sponsored and give your donors a write off, they like to have this extra benefit.

Be heart-felt in your “ask.”  People communicate from their heart chakra.