ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author sets out on his own research, with the guidance of the UCLA film studies faculty to interview 100+ working industry professionals to learn how to reliably make a financially successful film on a budget of less than $1M. The author's research steers clear from the “no-budget” films with less than $50K budgets because we are trying to find films that cost some money, which is the only way to figure out if they recouped an investment. Sales agents, distribution experts, film accountants, film financiers, film lawyers, producers, and what the author accumulated was – it seems to him – the largest research project to date about what makes an indie film financially successful. Commercially viable films are as hard to make as critically acclaimed films. They involve all aspects of the filmmaking process from casting, producing, writing, budgeting and picking the right genre.
