Getting bankrolled for a screenplay worth even a few hundred thousand pesos isn't as easy as picking low-hanging fruit.
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| Photos taken at this year's Qcinema |
Following the money trail
Grants for short films can sum to Php30,000, and a full-length
up to a few millions. Cinemalaya 2017 finalists receive Php750,000 in
production grant. The QCinema International Film Festival hands over seed money
pegged at 1M. Meanwhile, the
CineFilipino Film Festival fetches in grants at1.5M. Cinema One Originals bags
in 2M. In some years, these grant-giving bodies have either lowered or upped
their funding a notch.
But what is it really like to get funding for a film?
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Paper talks
Convincing a panel of established individuals to fund your concept is daunting enough. For an independent filmmaker based in Visayas or Mindanao, it usually means paying—investing, really—for your airfare to Luzon where many central offices are located.
When you get that go signal, the effort that follows is where
the rubber meets the road.
Any freelance worker will know how it feels like to work and
operate on the basis of a promise or a written contract. Funding is almost
always by tranche, so there is often little you can do with delays in payment,
even after deliverables are up and looking good. Filming on that scheme is just
as familiar.
Time is never on your side, even with the best planning. Jumping
ahead even without the moolah can sometimes
be your only choice when you have a definite festival date to think about. For
full-length films, imagine paying a few hundred thousand pesos to fund
pre-production with money you do not have yet, which goes to pay tangibles for
constructing sets and paying for raw materials and props. Some of the money
goes to down payment for cast and crew, unless they are fine without it during
the early stages. In other words, all these are what will get the motor running
to a well-oiled production; it will take money to get things rolling.
Why not obtain financial support from other established sources?
Sure, extra producers mean more money. With more money and more people wanting
to get involved, you tend to be obliged to listen to more mouths, possibly
compromising your artistic vision in favor of personal opinion.
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Name game
Many film festival panelists will encourage you to hire actors whose
names will ring a bell to the paying audience. Recently, a film panelist sent a
team of filmmakers from Mindanao a photograph of a half-naked Moreno with a
full set of abs and gym-toned arms. They were told to consider the actor for
their lead role. His presence can fill up the screen even without doing much,
but could he have traversed a virgin forest to the location every day, speak
the native language perfectly, walk across a batang, and climb a tree full of fire ants?
Famous names and good-looking actors on your set can get you instant
following and hype, and if a star-studded cast matters more than the storytelling,
then by all means hire a Mercedes Cabral or a JM De Guzman. Ultimately, if the
peg does not fit the mold, why should creative integrity be sacrificed for the
idealized but detached wishes of panel members?
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| Photos taken at this year's Qcinema |
Give or take
Biting the hand that feeds you is beside the point. Film grants
are de facto collaborations between grantors and grantees. All grantors begin
with the vision to infiltrate hard-up and hard to reach independent minds
through available resources. The road to storytelling for a big production can
be a logistical nightmare without proper funding and here are opportunities up
for grabs every year.
If grantors leave you to your own creative flow, then
congratulations—you are able to make a film to the best of your own devices. If
you get stuck with funders that impose, suck it up and smile—or get through it
and warn others about their wicked ways. After all, grant-giving bodies with a
bad reputation will reap their own rewards soon enough.
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The author has recently
been part of a team of filmmakers trying to get funding from a local government
organization
Words by: Anna Miguel Cervantes