How to Finance Your Film Between $1MM-$3MM

Learn from a veteran producer and financier who has overseen 50+ projects totaling over $250 million in production!

Get a template Rights Agreement, Finance Plan, and Waterfall you can apply to your own film — plus a live Q&A with Jeanette!

You can make a $1M–$3M film that gets financed, finds distribution, and pays everyone back. It takes the right decisions, made long before cameras roll. This budget range is one of the most exciting places for independent filmmakers to build a career, and it is also where the financial risk is highest. In today's competitive marketplace, making a great film isn't enough. You need a smart plan for your project, budget, financing, distribution, and investor structure, and this exclusive Stage 32 webinar shows you how to build one.

Too many creatives fall in love with the script and treat the money as something to figure out later. You may be evaluating your film only as an artist, when investors, sales agents, and distributors will be evaluating it as a business. You may not know how your budget lines up with your film's real marketplace value, or what a financier needs to see before writing a check. Even after the money is raised, unfavorable deal terms and a poor understanding of how revenue flows can quietly destroy profits. Producers who never see the waterfall coming rarely see a return.

That's why you'll be learning from Jeanette B. Milio, a veteran producer and entertainment finance expert with more than 25 years of experience across film and television. She has overseen more than 50 projects with a combined production volume exceeding $250 million. As CEO of Alliance Cinema, she structures equity investments, debt financing, and content library strategies for productions totaling over $60 million to date. Her credits span Paramount, Lionsgate, Sony, HBO, Netflix, Amazon, and Apple TV+, and she is the author of Entertainment Finance Today. She also consults for Netflix and Amazon Studios and has earned UCLA Extension's Distinguished Instructor Award, so you're getting insight from someone who sits on both sides of the deal.

In this session, Jeanette will walk you through building a film the market can support, evaluating your distribution potential, structuring your finance plan and capital stack, and understanding investor economics. She'll also show you how to follow the money through the revenue waterfall and avoid the pitfalls that erode profits. You'll receive a template Rights Agreement, Finance Plan, and Waterfall to put to work right away, and you can bring your questions to the live Q&A for direct answers from an experienced producer and financier. You'll walk away knowing how to see your project through an investor's eyes, structure a finance plan that reduces risk, and protect your film's profits from development through distribution.

PLUS! You will receive the following handouts to help you:

• Template Rights Agreement
• Template Finance Plan
• Template Waterfall

PRAISE FOR JEANETTE'S PREVIOUS STAGE 32 EDUCATION:

"Jeanette's experience really comes through in her mentorship. She has seen it all and is so helpful in guiding you through the complex world of film and tv." -- Letty L.

"Jeanette has invaluable knowledge and made me feel like seeing my movie on the big screen was possible."  --Phillip F.

"I learned so much from Jeanette and highly recommend you work with her!" -- Kaitlin L.