Breaking The $100,000 A Year Barrier

Breaking The $100,000 A Year Barrier

How many filmmakers do you know who are making $100,000 a year? Do you know of any? Any at all? Is that you? Sadly, probably not.

Several of my clients have reached this level of income from their filmmaking work. They work with me to raise the money they need to make their films AND they increase the amount of income they produce from their filmmaking work. Just this year, I’ve had clients raising $150,000, to over $300,000 to make their films, as well as some raising over $1M. They raise money from investors, from donors, from grants, from crowdfunding campaigns and from sales.

Many of the guests I interview on my bi-weekly podcast, The Filmmaker’s Life, have also reached this point and beyond. Pretty much everything we do here at Filmmaker Success is designed to teach you how to raise money, earn money as a filmmaker, and generally raise your standard of living so you can make more and more movies.

And yet, I also meet many filmmakers who have zero, or almost zero income, and particularly no income from their filmmaking work. Perhaps even worse, I have met many, many filmmakers who have decided to quit their jobs to pursue their filmmaking careers but that are not, as yet, bringing them any income at all. I cannot advise filmmakers to quit their jobs before they begin making filmmaking income. I once had a client who revealed to me that he had quit his job after he started working with me. I suggested he go and get it back - which he did.

Being without income is not a healthy way to sustain creativity.

When I work with filmmakers, we make sure that our conversations are focused on generating income. We raise money to make our movies instead of spending our savings. We include an income for ourselves from the money we raise. We plan and strategize to earn income from the distribution of our films. And we earn money as writers and filmmakers, because all our filmmaking skills are highly prized and highly paid in the marketplace.