The Art of Film Funding

Our special guest today is Eleanor Church, a UK based award-winning filmmaker and photographer who has been making films and using photography to tell stories for the past 20 years. She has worked on a wide range of projects, both documentary and commercial, with a particular emphasis on stories that focus on society, environment, women, human rights, migration and supply chains. Among her accomplishments, Eleanor is pleased that her filmmaking work has led to policy change. Today we’ll discuss her first feature film, X Trillion. It’s a documentary about an all-female team including sailors and scientists led by environmental activist Emily Penn, as they sail across the North Pacific Ocean to carry out cutting edge microplastics research.

This program is for creators of color in documentary filmmaking or nonfiction new media who identify as living with a disability. We seek to bring visibility to creators who are oftentimes overlooked through our 10 yearly grants of $5000.00 each.   To learn more about Carole Dean and From the Heart Productions please visit www.FromtheHeartProductions.com.

Remi Kessler began documenting homelessness in Los Angeles in 2015. He produced and directed THE ADVOCATES, a full-length feature documentary providing a sweeping look at the history and causes of LA’s homeless crisis and an intimate view of the tireless work of advocates striving to create better lives for their homeless clients. The film premiered at the 2018 Los Angeles Film Festival, followed by a successful festival run, multiple community screenings frequently moderated by Remi, and worldwide distribution and streaming. Since THE ADVOCATES, Remi produced and directed a series of six films for UCLA and the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health which are utilized to educate social workers and graduate students on mental illness and homelessness. He is currently producing "Homele$$, Inc" on the high cost of housing and why is it so high?  For more information about Carole Dean and From the Heart Productions visit www.FromtheHeartProductions.com.

Our special guest today is John Onderdonk, the Co-Founder and CEO of Flume TV, an innovative ad-supported streaming service dedicated to independent content. Prior to founding Flume TV, John accumulated five years of media strategy experience at Comcast NBCUniversal. During this tenure, he held roles in Corporate Development, Corporate Strategy, Cable FP&A, and NBCU Corporate Strategy and Business Development, with a focus on forming the company's direct-to-consumer streaming strategy. Currently based in Palo Alto, California, John is originally from Dallas, Texas. John holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Highest Distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is currently pursuing an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he also serves as the Student Body Co-President, leading various initiatives to enhance the student experience and foster a vibrant community. Today we’ll discuss Flume TV.

Christie Marchese is the founder and CEO of Kinema. Kinema revolutionizes how films are distributed, opening new opportunities for filmmakers and studios to reach their audiences and maximizing revenue through screening tours, virtual events, and TVOD. Christie has won several industry recognitions, including being named one of Fortune’s Rising Female Founders in 2023 and Fast Company’s Most Creative People in 2021. Currently she is managing Kinema and has just released the Distribution Playbook for filmmakers.  https://thedistributionplaybook.notion.site To learn more about Carole Dean and From the Heart Productions visit www.FromtheHeartProductions.com.

Jonathon M. Smith, is an actor/writer/producer who has been involved in the film industry for over 15 years Recently he produced, starred, and wrote an independent feature that is part of the Amazon Prime catalog called "Broken City." At this time, Jonathon is currently producing and starring in a vertical series called "Collapse of America." He hopes to discover new trends with the series and show the industry a fresh way to deliver content and great stories to modern audiences. It will be released in all major social media platforms next month.  Free Class: Jonathon also has a special promotion for From The Heart members. It's an exclusive free film financing course that will teach you different ways to raise money for your short films and features.  Click the link, click I want this, and enter "FROMTHEHEART" as the discount code to receive it for free: https://malibucinema.gumroad.com/l/filmfunding

The information that Largo provides is an invaluable tool for pitching your film to investors and distributors, hiring crew, and making casting decisions. A recent case study found that having a Largo report can improve salability of a project by up to 300%. We believe that major streaming platforms are increasingly prioritizing projects that have strong analysis based financial forecasts and other key metrics the system provides.  The information in the report lets a potential distributor or investor know exactly what the project might be worth to them and how to most successfully package it. Largo can tell you how an audience will react to your film and characters emotionally, which is a strong indicator of audience engagement that all distributors want. It can show you if the emotion dips in a certain scene or if your characters are likable and relatable or not. It will show how your film compares to other similar films in many different metrics so that distributors can clearly see the market potential.  If you would like to contact Alex reach out through his email at info@largo.ai To learn more about Carole Dean and From the Heart Productions visit www.FromtheHeartProductions.com.

Brynn Lucas is an award-winning producer with extensive expertise in post-production supervision, delivery, electronic press kit (EPK), and feature film development and production. She has led numerous successful projects to completion, leveraging her deep knowledge in music videos, film production, and documentaries. Her client list includes Independent Filmmakers, Studios such as WB, Universal, and Paramount, Major Streamers like Hulu, Netflix, and Apple, and Sales Teams/Distributors such as Studio Canal, S&R Films, Saban Films, and Lionsgate. (blucas@frbpictures.com) To learn more about Carole Dean and From the Heart Productions please visit www.FromtheHeartProductions.com.

Our special guest today is Sarah Moshman, an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and TEDx speaker whose work has been featured on Netflix, PBS, Upworthy, Marie Claire, CNN, and Good Morning America. Sarah has directed and produced 3 feature-length documentaries: The Empowerment Project: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things, Losing Sight of Shore, and Nevertheless. She has also directed several narrative shorts including Unbound and A Mother is Born. Sarah is dedicated to telling stories that uplift, inform and inspire as well as showcase strong and complex female role models on screen. Sarah is honored to be the Artistic Director of the non-profit arts and filmmaking organization Look what SHE Did! and the leader of their newest filmmaking program for women over 30: Look what SHE’s Doing! Today we’ll discuss her career and focus on her documentary, Losing Sight of Shore.

Meet filmmaker Gillian Greenfeld who holds a BA in anthropology from the University of British Columbia and an MFA in documentary from Ryerson University.  Currently, she is just finishing up co-directing "Phoolan," a feature documentary on the life of Phoolan Devi, India’s celebrated feminist “Bandit Queen.” The film is now in post-production and set to be released in the new year (https://phoolandevimovie.com/). Gillian is also the president of Cielo Films, a newly-launched independent film company aiming to produce thought-provoking films on women’s rights. To learn more about Carole Dean and From the Heart Productions please visit www.FromtheHeartProductions.com.

Fred Siegel is an indie film, tax, and business consultant and founder of Fred Siegel, CPA (1997, NYC), a premium, boutique consulting/CPA firm specializing in key tax and business issues for producers and dealing with the business of film, from development through distribution.  Primary practice areas are Consulting, Financing, Deal Structures, Film Tax Credits, Taxation, Accounting.  Working almost entirely with indie filmmakers and their production and development companies, and with a focus on consulting, the firm provides a range of "niche" film tax, tax credit, accounting, and business services for indie filmmakers throughout the U.S.. Fred has worked with indie filmmakers for over 30 years, including highly acclaimed filmmakers such as Christine Vachon ("Past Lives;" "Still Alice;" "Boys Don't Cry"); Chris Smith ("Branson;" "Sr.;" "Tiger King;" "100 Foot Wave;" "Fyre;" "American Movie");  Debra Granik ("Winters Bone,") and many others, as well as filmmakers in the earlier stages of their careers.  Fred is a graduate of Columbia University and began his public accounting career at a "Big 4" firm. Earlier in his professional life, Fred was a jazz musician and an entrepreneur, those experiences infusing his professional work today with an independent spirit, conceptual approach, and artistic bent and an understanding of the life of an artist/producer and the world of business and the interplay between the two.  To learn more about Fred Siegel visit www.fredsiegelcpa.com For more info about Carole Dean and From the Heart Productions please visit www.FromtheHeartProductions.com

In his nearly 35 years in the media, Tony has repped luminaries such as Stan Lee and William Shatner, written speeches for Bill Gates and various CEOs/public figures and worked on high profile national PR campaigns. He has produced documentaries, such as Marvel Then and Now: An Evening with Stan Lee and worked on numerous not-for-profit campaigns for The Hero Initiative and Consent Florida. He is a former award-winning journalist and currently a columnist on various pop culture and political news outlets. In recent years, he has developed various properties for film and television, and acted as a publicist for several feature film productions. Today Tony supports and works with independent filmmakers to create Marketing and public relations plans to attract your audience during production. For more info abou Carole Dean and From the Heart Productions please visit www.FromtheHeartProductions.com.

Director So Yun Um, discusses her Sundance supported documentary, Liquor Store Dreams. The film is about two Korean American children of liquor store owners reconciling their dreams with those of their immigrant parents, against the backdrop of struggles for racial equity in Los Angeles.

Helen Hall’s music has been performed and broadcast internationally, in festivals such as New York’s Bang on a Can, the Subtropic Music Festival in Florida, and in prestigious venues such as Merkin Concert Hall in New York. Her writing and research has been published by Leonardo Magazine (MIT Press), and her music is published by Da Vinci Edition (Japan). She is currently in production with Pictures of Infinity. The film is based on more than 20 years of her original research and received the Roy W. Dean award in 2013 for this important historical film. To learn more about Carole Dean and From the Heart Productions please visit www.FromtheHeartProductions.com.

Our special guest today is director and producer Nancy Svendsen. A passionate storyteller since her childhood in rural Iowa, Nancy recently turned from the healthcare field to filmmaking. Her first feature documentary, "Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest," tells the story of the indigenous trailblazer Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, who battled racism, gender discrimination, and political opposition in her quest to become the first Nepali woman to summit Mt. Everest. Nancy is related to Pasang by marriage. Her film played at numerous festivals worldwide and received many accolades including winning the Charlie Fowler Best Adventure Film at Mountainfilm and the Clio Visualizing History Prize for the Advancement of Women in Film at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival. The film also won best documentary and best mountaineering film awards in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia, the UK, and South Korea and India. Today we’ll learn more about Nancy's journey telling Pasang's story.

Filmmaker and Author Rona Edwards, shares tips from her book, The Complete Filmmaker’s Guide to Film Festivals: Your All Access Pass to Launching Your Film on the Festival Circuit, soon to be in its 2nd edition.

Breaking Boundaries: Diversity and Humor in Television with Hollis Rich. To contact Hollis send your email to hollisrichwrite@gmail.com.  To learn more about Carole Dean and From the Heart Productions please visit www.FromtheHeartProductions.com.

Our guest, Rachel Elizabeth Seed, is a DIRECTOR/PRODUCERoriginally from London, and is a Los Angeles and Brooklyn-based nonfiction storyteller working in film, photography and writing. Join us as Rachel talks about her feature documentary Photographic Memory. She says this about the film ... "After a decade+ of shooting, editing, and producing, my debut feature documentary A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY, was launched this month at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri to standing ovations and with RogerEbert.com calling it one of the best docs they’ve seen this year! A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY is an intimate, genre-bending portrait of my attempt to piece together a portrait of my mother, Sheila Turner Seed, an avant-garde journalist I never knew. Uncovering the vast archive she produced, including lost interviews with photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gordon Parks, Cecil Beaton, Lisette Model, and others, the film explores memory, legacy, and stories left untold. It feels amazing to finally share this passion project with the world and to see people connecting with it in meaningful ways. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was witnessing audience members see new possibilities for connecting with departed loved ones, as I do myself in the film."   To learn more about Carole Dean and From the Heart Productions please visit www.FromtheHeartProductions.com.

For years, Steve Kaplan has been one of the industry's most respected and sought-after experts on comedy. His first book, The Hidden Tools of Comedy is a best-seller in its field, and his second book, The Comic Hero's Journey: Serious Story Structure for Fabulously Funny Films was recently released in an audio version. In addition to having taught at UCLA, NYU, Yale and other universities, Steve Kaplan created the HBO Workspace, the HBO New Writers Program and was co-founder and Artistic Director of Manhattan Punch Line Theatre. In addition to development projects for HBO, he has taught workshops at companies such as DreamWorks, Disney Animation, Aardman Animation, NBC's Writers on the Verge, and others. For more info about Carole Dean and From the Heart Productions please visit www.FromtheHeartProductions.com.

Join us as Christie Marchese shares about how Kinema helps audiences discover & watch great films in creative places, and in community with others. Kinema provides an operating system for filmmakers to manage their screening tours, and developing partnerships with mixed-use spaces in real life and community leaders & influencers online - all to reach audiences everywhere.  To learn more about Carole Dean and From the Heart Productions please visit www.FromtheHeartProductions.com.