The Independent Filmmaker's Guide to Writing a Business Plan for Investors by Gabriel Campisi practices what it preaches. When preparing a proper business plan it's important to present only the necessary amount of content for the investor, not too much and not too little. The first half of the book is devoted to the plan specifics and the second half contains interviews with industry filmmakers. As supplementary material, these interviews are crucial in that they show the many paths and obstacles to financing a film.

The part on crafting your business plan is heavily detailed with multiple examples, and the author makes it clear that each plan will be different based on the project's budget, genre and the specific investor you're pitching to. I also got the sense that learning-by-doing is the best way to understand the process.

There's a passage near the middle that challenged one of my long-held beliefs. The quote begins "Investing in motion pictures is not the high-risk venture everyone would like you to believe." I graduated from film school and the conventional wisdom was that statements like these are downright naive. However, Campisi gives a simple counter argument: The industry, and specifically the independent film industry, would collapse if investors weren't making money most of the time. It's just a matter of understanding the business-side of filmmaking. That and having the resolve to dream big. ( )

Gabriel Campisi's book is an easy to comprehend explanation of how to seek financing for your independent film. He discusses various sources (i.e. investors, banks, self-financing, etc...), gives examples of what a business plan should look like, and has interviews with several filmmakers and behind the scenes people (i.e. producers) that are very informative.

So here's my basic review:

Pros:
A lot of information is packed into this book.
The explanations are quite understandable.
There's a nice blend of humor in the narration so it's definitely not a dry read.
Interviews with industry people about financing films and production of films
Lots of nice photos

Cons:
Formatting was a little difficult to follow. Sometimes when I wanted to flip back to something I had trouble locating it because the index in the front wasn't really broken down enough. For example, in the "Interviews" section I would have liked each interviewee's name listed individually in the index. This way I would have an idea of who's in this chapter, whether or not I want to actually read what these specific people have to say, and I would also be able to easily find their interview if I wished to flip back to it.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book if you're an independent filmmaker, or if you're just a person interested in a behind the scenes look at the industry. It really does have a wealth of information in it. I'm glad I received it as an Early Review Copy, and I really enjoyed reading it! ( )

this book was put together pretty well. it was easy to read and i believe a laman wouldn't have any problem following it, the information or the knowledge it contains. the reason he did a updated version and the way he did it was a great idea. i am huge into movies and i learned somethings just in general i was wrong about or didn't know. one point i'm not sure how i feel a bout is the fact that asylum pictures seems to rule the first half of the book. i understand why he did that (not neccissarily why asylum) but if it hadn't referenced anyone to pole with them it would have left a black mark with me. if you're into this career wise or are thinking or interested in this field i would recommend reading this book before you go to far. ( )

This is a very interesting and informative book on how to obtain financing for an independent motion picture. The book includes interviews with a number of people who have worked in independent films: Donald Kushner, Zaheer Goodman-Bhyat, Kevin Teeney, Gregorio Gonzalez, David Michael Latt. David Rimawi, Judd Payne, Morris Ruskin, Gerald R. Molen, Jordan Walker-Pearlman, Jeffrey Hardy, Mark Holdom, andPen Densham who relate their personal experiences. Their are also business plan charts and advice on making films from idea stage to film release. The book is illustrated mostly with movie poster art to various independent films as well as photos of the interview subjects. ( )

The second edition of this title, THE INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER'S GUIDE TO WRITING A BUSINESS PLAN FOR INVESTORS by Gabriel Campisi, easily gets five out of five stars from me for overall excellence and practical utility. This second edition consists of 270 pages compared to the first edition's 216 pages.

It is divided into two parts with the second part, "Expert Advice," probably being worth the price of the entire book. The 54 page sample plan (Appendix A) is a detailed and most excellent example of a business plan period. Throw in over 70 pages of interviews of "experts" in film production and financing, and you have pretty good real world insight into the nuts and bolts of film financing.

Part I of this book, "Funding the Film," is every bit as good. Its narrative style gives more of a conceptual background. The author gives a great deal of practical advice based on his extensive personal experience in finance and film making. Chapter 6 has an entire subsection entitled "Show, Don't Tell" which is simple, but mandatory advice for pursuing funding for a film, in my opinion.

This is quality work. The major exception (not enough to bump my rating down) is that the index is rather sparse at less than one and a quarter pages. This isn't a reference work so that deficiency isn't a deal breaker for me.

HUGE CAVEAT: This isn't the fault of the author, but at the time of this review President Obama has just signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act which, among other things, removes a lot of regulatory barriers to crowdfunding of entrepreneurial projects, such as independent films. This book can't be expected to cover the impact of such recent law, but one hopes that Mr. Campisi will spend less than eight years before releasing his next (3rd) edition of his title which would include this legislation and the nuts and bolts of online crowdfunding. Without coverage of the new legislation, or any mention of the Kickstarter website and its growing role in financing independent films, this book can only go so far. But for what it DOES do, it's still a worthwhile purchase for both individual independent filmmakers, as well as libraries with general business programs. It's a DEFINITE purchase for any institution with a film program.

DISCLAIMER:I have invested in an independent film on the Kickstarter web site; the project I helped fund was pursuing $75,000 in 30 days and successfully raised over $270,000. ( )