Hello, my friends and I are making a movie.
Just so you know, this article is not going to unlock the ultimate grant secrets. No, this article is intended to share my process and remove the veil of mystery that seems to hide any useful information on the Internet. It’s not a complete guide; I can only share what I am doing.
You should also know we are currently at the application stage, which means that we haven’t gotten the grant yet. This series will continue as we progress in our grant maturity. So, this may turn into a ‘how not to’ guide.
Who Is Applying For The Grant?
My friends and I (who run a production group called SPK Productions) are working to get a Canadian film and media grant to fund the project. We currently make youtube videos and short films. Our biggest project so far was a winner in the Crazy8s film competition, which is a big indie film contest on the Canadian west coast. The short film is called CRUMBS and it’s currently in its festival rotation.
So that’s our resume. We’ve been a group for just over two years, which means we qualify as ‘professionals’. Don’t worry if you’re newer than that, there are grants out there for you, but this is the profile that we’re working with.
In case you’re curious; Crumbs is a horror film about a boy who’s mental illness manifests as an imaginary friend that helps him cope with the real world.
Grant Step #1: Research Grants
It doesn’t take long to learn that there are a ton of grants. They all have deadlines at different times of the year and their qualifications are a tangled web of contradictions, but they exist.
In the world of film, there are a few different types of grants:
Writing Grants, Development Grants, and Production Grants. There are probably Post-Production Grants but I haven’t gotten that far in the process yet. Below is what I understand about the details of each grant. If I have a mistake somewhere, please comment so I can fix things and not lead everyone astray.
Writing Grants (or research grants) exist in order to get the script written. This often covers everything related to the writing, including residencies or classes, and maybe even research travel.
Development Grants are for everything you need to get the project ready for production. For this you need to already have a script, have a cast and crew interested and already have a preliminary budget made for the film. This helps you take all those building blocks and actually put them in place for the production.
Production Grants are for the actual production. This is the money that is used to pay for the cast and crew and everything else in the budget. This means you’re ready to film.
In Canada there exists a handy website that compiles a ton of grants together. This seems to be specifically for BC, but there are a lot of Canada-wide grants:
https://www.littledog.ca/grant-calender
It is a bit tough to navigate at first, but once you narrow down the filters it is easy enough to work through.
We also used this to find the big ones: https://reelshorts.ca/filmmaking/resources/funding-sources/
Our production company is in BC, so the creativeBC site got a lot of traffic from us as well: https://www.creativebc.com/programs/domestic-motion-picture
But after a ton of research and notes we decided to focus on one big grant… the Canadian Arts Council. Why? Because it had the closest deadline and offered the most money.
Grant Step #2: Determine What You Need
We specifically are applying for the Research and Creation grant on the Canada Arts Council page, which supports the “initial stages of the creative process”. We are hoping that this refers to writing the script of our movie.
The website is actually laid out very well. It wasn’t hard to download the guidelines and the application page, which told us exactly what we needed to submit.
The only problem is that deadline for this is less than a week away. However, we figure that even if we don’t qualify we will still have an application that we can use for other grants.
The details for what the grant requires are on the website, but in general you need a few things:
- The details of the project.
- An essay describing the inspirations for the project and why you want to undertake it at this time.
- An essay about how this project will contribute to your, or your groups artistic development and advance artistic practice.
Grant Step #3: Make a Profile
To apply for a Canadian Art Grant you need to create a profile. You are supposed to do this up to 30 days before you apply for the grant. Unfortunately, we discovered this only a week ago and so are hoping that the stars align and we are approved before the deadline.
Learn from us! Apply for a profile early!
The process is a bit confusing. You can apply as an individual, organization or group. After much discussion we applied as a group because that’s what we are. The application required resumes from the top people in the group, but otherwise it was a simple form.
There is also the option to apply as a “new or emerging artist”. This means that you have less than 2 years experience. I plan on coming back and applying for some grants with this profile in my capacity as a literary writer, but for now, this does not apply to us as an overall group. The production group has been active over two years, which means that we (hopefully) seem a bit more professional and worthy of money.
Grant Step #4: Put Together Your Application
This is the step we’re currently working on. It’s not difficult, but it needs to be the best it can be. The judges are other creatives (you can sign up to be a peer reviewer), which means that your strategy should include appealing to other people who are actually making stuff.
How will your project make the general Canadian creative scene better? Does this have a bigger purpose than ‘it’ll look cool’? After reading a ton of blogs, facebook threads, and reddit conversations, I feel that the most important thing is to convey how your project will lift up other creatives. There is no room for cutthroat competition in the indie film world; we need to work together to help each other and open up even more opportunities.
We have a ton of people who are willing to look over our application when it is finished. If I can convince my mom that this horror movie about mental health is a good idea, then hopefully I can convince a fellow creative.
Grant Step #5: Submit Your Application
We haven’t done this yet. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Bonus Question:
“The Council does not support work intended for the creative industries of film, television and video games.”
In my research I keep coming across the above statement, which is found on the Canada Arts Council website. I have emailed the grant board and received this initial reply:
“The CCA funds independent films through grants, not work for the industry of cinema or TV. The artist that applies for a grant should be a director, and not a producer.”
This is still a bit vague, but it seems like as long as you are not backed by Disney you probably have a chance.
I hope this has provided some inspiration and education. The grant process can seem very overwhelming (at least it seems that way to me) but by taking it one grant at a time it is possible to actually get somewhere. And who knows, maybe that money will come and soon you’ll all be watching Crumbs.
Have questions? Tips? Did I make some horrible error? Please comment or email so that we can all learn from each other!