A LA ‘producer’ colleague of mine has a easy supply: for $5,000 she’s going to educate you the way to fund your movie in two afternoon classes. Let’s get one factor straight. She is just not a producer. She is a extremely paid marketing consultant. That distinction issues: as a result of consultants don’t get movies made.

They receives a commission to speak about getting movies made.

And recently, the trade has developed a harmful behavior of complicated the 2.
Sure, she “hits the nail on the pinnacle.”
Sure, a lot of what she says is technically true.
However charging $5,000 for 2 conferences to inform filmmakers what each working producer already is aware of is just not mentorship.
It’s rent-seeking.

The Advisor Trick: Say the Brutal Reality, Then Monetise the Worry

Right here’s the method:

1. Inform filmmakers the chances are horrible (they’re)
2. Clarify that expertise alone doesn’t matter (it doesn’t)
3. Emphasise how naïve most filmmakers are (many are)
4. Suggest that you simply perceive the system
5. Cost a fortune to elucidate it privately

This isn’t new.

I’ve been watching this racket for the reason that early Nineties.
Again then it was script docs. Then pitch coaches.
Now it’s “funding strategists” and “finance whisperers”.
Identical hustle. New label.

The Reality She’s Promoting Isn’t Unsuitable — It’s Simply Not Price $5,000

Let’s take away the incense and communicate plainly.
Movies don’t get funded as a result of they’re good. They get funded as a result of the danger feels managed.
That’s not knowledge.
That’s Movie Finance 101.

Traders need:

• A coherent price range
• A plausible schedule
• An outlined viewers
• Comparable titles
• A path to recoupment
• Producers who perceive supply and legal responsibility

This isn’t insider data.
It’s the minimal customary of professionalism.
If this data feels revelatory, the issue isn’t entry, it’s schooling.

Why Consultants Thrive The place Schooling Is Weak

Consultants flourish in ecosystems the place:

• Movie faculties keep away from cash speak
• Festivals promote desires as an alternative of expertise
• “Rising filmmaker” is handled as a everlasting identification
• Failure is romanticised as an alternative of analysed

In that vacuum, concern turns into foreign money.
And concern could be very simple to monetise.
“Don’t fear,” the marketing consultant says. “I’ll clarify why nobody is funding you privately.” For $5k.

Producers Carry Danger. Consultants Carry Opinions.

Right here’s the road no person likes crossing:
Producers put their reputations, authorized publicity, and futures on the road.
Consultants don’t.

An actual producer:

• Indicators contracts
• Ensures supply
• Solutions to traders
• Faces lawsuits when issues go improper
• Loses years of their life to at least one challenge

A marketing consultant:

• Leaves after the assembly
• Retains the charge
• Suffers no penalties

Cease complicated proximity to energy with accountability.

The Most Poisonous Fable: “If You Don’t Pay, You Don’t Care Sufficient”

This one enrages me.
The concept seriousness is measured by how a lot cash you burn upfront is classist nonsense dressed up as professionalism.

A number of the finest producers I’ve ever met:

• Discovered by doing
• Requested silly questions early
• Made small movies first
• Failed cheaply
• Constructed belief slowly

They didn’t purchase entry.
They constructed competence.

The Actual Funding Downside No one Needs to Repair

Right here’s the uncomfortable reality: Most filmmakers aren’t underfunded. They’re underprepared.
Not creatively.Structurally.

They don’t perceive:

• Finance plans
• Gross sales brokers
• Minimal ensures
• Supply schedules
• Waterfalls
• Why “curiosity” is just not dedication

So when somebody lastly explains this clearly, it seems like revelation.
However revelation is just not the identical as worth.

Why Raindance Exists (And Why This Rant Issues)

Raindance was based as a response to this precise behaviour.
Within the early 90s, the trade was:

• Elitist
• Opaque
• Gatekept by individuals who bought recommendation as an alternative of outcomes

So we constructed schooling as an alternative of mystique.
Not “pay me and I’ll whisper the reality.”
However: right here’s the way it really works. Now go do the work.

If You’re Critical About Producing, Do This As a substitute

Be taught the basics correctly.

Last Warning (Learn This Slowly)

Anybody who tells you:
“That is brutal reality — and solely I can clarify it correctly”
…is promoting concern, not perception.

The movie trade is tough sufficient with out including a marketing consultant tax on readability.
You don’t want whispered knowledge.
You want expertise, construction, and repetition.
That’s how movies get made.
That’s how they’ve all the time been made.

And no — it doesn’t price $5,000 for 2 afternoons to study that.

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