Any creative ideas for raising money for a movie production?

Here we go:

1)pick up every freakin piece of change you find on the ground.

2)Get a job.

3)Bum your parents for chump change.

4)Hold back a bit of lunch money during school.

5)or save the lunch money and make PBJ's at home.

6)go out less.

7)Know anyone rich? See if they are generous.

8)Not really about raising money, but: Keep expenses to the bare minimum.

9)Explain to your girlfriend/boyfriend this is important and you need to save money. That means, less going out.

10) Become a eunuch and don't have a girlfriend/boyfriend. (I don't reccomend this one).

11)Sell your body to science like Robert Rodriguez.

12)Sell stuff you don't want anymore.

Getting a part-time job is the most reliable source of income for students. I would also add that since you have an interest in film/video, try to get a job in that, even if it's something really low-level. It will be a great experience and it will pay more.

If you want to get really serious, though, you could try getting investors.

i raised over $500 from cast donations. don't know WHY they agreed to it

I mentioned this in the chat room the other day. I usually want to keep it on the down low but since we all go to different schools..

If yours has a very active sports program, theres a chance the coaches or one of the managers films the games for review purposes. At the begining of the year, find out which one of the coaches does this. It helps alot if your already in that sport or if your a manager for the team. Tell the coach about putting together a highlight video from the whole season that you could have on a dvd for a low price. You have to mention the money up front or you might get cut short later. Say that youll have it done by the sports banquit and make sure you agree on a price. The coach himself should take very little if any profit himself, but undrstand that the sport will require a portion of. When I did it they got 40%, and they filmed the games. My soccer dvd had 40 minutes of highlights split up nicely, and 30 minutes of interviews. I got at least one word from everyone on the team, and most of them bought the dvd. Everyone knew me and was very comfortable and supportive of the video. I didn't have time to film the games but it still turned out good. They might stick to hi-8 or vhs cameras, but that seems to be good enough quality for them. If you can film the games with your better equipment, the coach will likely give you even more percentage.

If you do the above, I bet 75% of the people will buy it. So don't make the price $35, thats just disrespectfull. I showed a preview at the banquit, put a $15 price, and got 33 signatures out of a 40 person team.

Dont try to start of with a relatively larger or more expensive production, that way if you screw up you didnt throw as much money out the window. If you work with smaller, less expensive ones you still learn some skills and gain experience, and it doesnt matter as much if you mess up. Then when you feel confident that you can manage a larger one, do it.

Find people that would want you to film them that way you gain experience and money. Bands, weddings, concerts, etc.

you just gotta scrape up the cash any way you can. every little bit saved counts. its tough but its the only way.

im gunna trya nd change the subject a bit and say the best way to make a film that is real low budget: write a screenplay that uses all that u have and nothing that u need to keep prices down. kinda like robert rodriguez using his guitar and turtle becasue, well, thats what he had. my first film cost me very little. only the tapes to film on and so forth. i wrote a screenplay that could be filmed for the most part in one spot, had actor that worked for free (except i gave them all the junk food in my house i won't eat) and borrowed a couple things. i had a toy cap gun so i used it. i had an NES wuth Duck Hunt so i used it. i had a couple flannel jackshirts so i used them. all i had to buy was 2 white industrial bodysuits for like 15 bucks. all in all it cost me more to put this film on this site than it did for me to make my film. and i think we all know how innexpensive this site is for hosting. just my 2 cents and suggestions.

Here is is some more advice from me:

Start on a small scale, lets say film a wedding video for free. After you film, you then show it to the family and see. If it is really good they will obviously want a copy (You could give it for free, or you might charge). You then add that to your resume/ your projects database. Having just that wedding video in your database most likely will not automatically make you into a world-famous filmmaker. But what it does is allows you to take another step up. Lets say the family of the bride is so impressed, they show the video to all their friends. (Conveniently located at the end of the video is your name and phone number, email, etc.) So all their friends that are getting married call you up. Now all of a sudden you arent working for free anymore, you are getting $500+ per wedding video. You then proceed to add that you have made X amount of profits on your wedding videos to your resume. Even this obviously wont make you millions, but perhaps now some independant filmmaker will realize that you have a good knowledge of cinematography and ask you to help him for a relatively small salary. You work really hard on the project and proceed to win a few film festival awards. You add it to your resume.

At this point you have gained experience and a little cash. The film festival win has gotten a small fraction of the public to know who you are. You keep working your way up, step by step, and you open door after door after door. It all depends on you (how much you have and how much you are willing to give) to determine how far you can go.

But then again, probably 999 out of 1000 aspiring "filmmakers" will ever really get somewhere...