MFJF map · UK
Financing a feature film: the people, the process and the pieces
A modest UK independent feature is paid for by stacking several sources, each with its own conditions, arriving at different times and repaid in a strict order. That stack is the finance plan. Read left to right: what the producer brings, where the money comes from, who holds it together, how it closes, and how it comes back. A map, not advice.
The packageWhat the producer brings
A script, a director, perhaps an actor who has said yes in principle, and no money. Before the market the producer assembles the documents a financier will check with cold eyes.
The building blocksWhere the money comes from
No two films are financed the same way, but the blocks are standard. Learn them and you can read any finance plan.
Holding it togetherThe people every plan needs
Lenders will not put money into a film that might never be finished, and no producer is ever suspected of paying themselves first.
The closingThe week the money moves
The finance company fits the blocks into a plan that adds up to the budget, then closes: every contract signed, every CP satisfied, the money in a production bank account so that pre-production can start.
RecoupmentHow the money comes back
Revenue flows into the collection account and out again according to the recoupment schedule, called the waterfall. Every conversation in a finance office is really about where someone sits in it.
The finance officeWho you would work with
Forget the trading floor: a small office in Soho or Fitzrovia, three to fifteen people, rarely departments. Berlin in February and Cannes in May are two weeks a year each; the rest is spreadsheets, scripts and a filing system.
