By Tom Malloy
With more than a decade of experience as writer, actor and producer in the independent film industry and and personal experience of raising more than $15m for a number of independent feature films over the last four years, Tom Malloy easily suffuses these 200-odd pages with real truths from the filmmaking trenches.
He firmly believes that there is money all around us and gradually sets about walking the reader through every major area of finance from business plans to investor pitches to contracts, legal advice and distribution so that they have the tools necessary to go after it, and while he mostly talks about films in $300k to $8m region, the lessons he gives are just as usable for those looking to finance micro-budget projects.
While any conversation on the subject of finance is usually guaranteed to send me to sleep, Malloy’s conversational style makes the subject engaging and easy to read, breaking it down into simple, actionable steps, in order, that anyone can follow. There are more detailed examples and illustrations where appropriate and he enriches the whole narrative with anecdotes and personal experience that make the lessons easy to absorb, but while it may be a short book, it’s chock-full of rich information and will be one of those you return to time and again while developing and refining a finance strategy.
Financing a film isn’t easy and Tom Malloy doesn’t pretend that it is, but while it is difficult, it can be done, and by reading his book, learning from his experiences and applying his principles you will be much better placed to succeed in finding the money you need for your film.
Bankroll is published by Michael Wiese and is available from Play.com, Blackwell and all good book stores.
Tom Malloy most recently wrote, produced, and starred in Love N’ Dancing, opposite Amy Smart, Billy Zane and Betty White. Prior to that, he wrote, produced and starred in The Alphabet Killer, opposite Eliza Dushku, Tim Hutton, and Cary Elwes, and he wrote, produced and starred in The Attic, opposite Elisabeth Moss and John Savage.
Tom’s website is at www.tommalloy.com