We’ve worked with first-time Filmmakers and we still do at Cold Iron Pictures. With Film Arcade, the theatrical releasing company, it usually does have to have some kind of cast or documentary storyline draw that’s a little more commercial to invest in a wide movie. With Carousel, the whole point was to open it up to films that have zero cast (documentaries).
As long as it’s an executed film that could have quality control to it–meaning, it would pass tests if you wanted to put it on Amazon or iTunes, that kind of thing–as long as it’s a well-made film in that respect, we’re here to help all films.
We’re open to looking at anything. That’s why we’re transparent. It even has my email on the website for Film Arcade because the transparency is, “We’re here to have this conversation with anyone.” If you want to know how to budget for a film that you’re making for $10,000 or $100,000 and it’s of a specific genre, we can even tell you the numbers you should budget for.
If you want to have a plan early on, you want to commit to servicing, and your Executive Producers are interested in helping you finance in that way, (your Executive Producer can be your parents, doesn’t matter), we’re here to help you navigate that.
The goal of Cold Iron is to be the sister company to Film Arcade. The build of this will help other filmmakers get their film seen, because we’ll have it up on our website and people can go and that might provide them with some interest. We’re hoping what we’ve been working towards for our filmmakers can spread to other filmmakers. That’s the whole point.
Sometimes I think I’m insane because a lot of independent filmmakers have zero money. They come to you with their film in hand and they can’t afford to pay your operating fee or even the aggregation fee, which they could go and do with someone that didn’t want to help at all. They don’t have any money left for that.
Which is why I feel like even a year from now, I hope I’ll be busier because I’ll be trying to educate about the need to budget for that. It’s just as important as insurance.