Funding Your Film Through the Quantum Field

The answers about how to raise money and create your project are all around you.  Tune in and trust your gut. 

by Carole Dean

Have you ever thought about film funding by using your intuition? It’s one of your greatest attributes and rarely used to its potential. Dean Raiden, in his book The Conscious Universe, concludes after the 300 pages where he explained the rigorous technical methods he used in his parapsychology experiments,  that everyone is psychic. “Get over it, just enjoy it,” he said.

 

 

Realizing How Powerful You Are

Because filmmaking is so complicated, being both a startup business with every production as well as an art form, there are many things you need to learn.

  • I think you must be a paralegal to handle the legal aspects.
  • You need to be able to write.
  • You must learn to pitch your film, that’s acting.
  • You want to memorize the pitch.
  • You need to be a good salesperson to bring in the money.
  • You must be a good writer to win grants.
  • And you have to be a good manager and producer to create the film.

These are a lot of skills for one person, but that is what is required of filmmakers.

So, I am suggesting that you realize that you are connected in some way to a higher source.

Dean Raiden would say that you have extra sensory perceptions that came with you at birth.  And by using this gift, you can enhance your life and create your film faster and better. Because the more you use this ESP, the stronger it becomes.

I know that most of you recognize that you have this inner knowledge.  It is now just a matter of trusting it.  Go along with it, no matter how silly it sounds.  Once you do, you will find that it has a purpose, that it is valid, and the next time that you get the little message you will see how helpful it can be.

We Are All Psychic!  Your ESP is Shared with All of Us

Dr. Deepak Chopra says that guidance and information comes to us through the gap between other thoughts.  That is how it happens to me.  I recently got a brilliant idea while writing the grocery list.  It just popped in between the bananas and the celery.

Sometimes you hear the little voice when you are driving.  That’s great because when you’re driving is a wonderful time to relax and that’s when you get some really good ideas, and you also get good ESP.

There are so many decisions that you need to make daily that have to do with you making and funding your film.  When you begin using this inner knowing, this ESP, it can help you make more reliable decisions.  And you will get “short cuts.”  Yes, you may quickly see how to go from A to Z much faster than you had planned.

We are all psychic.  Once you take this into your consciousness and say OK, I am psychic, you can use your instincts to improve your life and create your film.

Ask and You Shall Receive

Start asking questions of yourself and of the universe.  Give yourself time to listen for those answers. They sometimes come in very strange ways.

I’ve seen the answer to my question on a billboard.  I know that sometimes people start talking to you on another subject, but they answer what you needed to know!  That’s always amazing to me.

Don’t be surprised if the answer to your questions comes in unusual ways.  Normally, your answers come within a reasonable amount of time.

Here’s one funny example.

I decided to give up coffee so I was considering if I should drink hot tea to get off my coffee addiction.

I asked the universe; can I replace coffee with tea?

That very night I went to watch a TV show and within the first 5 minutes this woman had a shock and the detective said to her, “what you need is a nice cup of hot sweet tea! That’s exactly what I needed to hear. Believe me, this works, the universe is listening.

The Answers to Your Questions are All Around You

That’s what we’ve heard from Doctor Joe Dispenza.  He writes that the quantum field, the energy that’s all around us, is a recorder and that it has recorded all the information from the beginning of time.

That means the answers to your questions are all around you. It’s simply tuning into it. Trust your gut feelings, trust your inner voice.

That’s what I want you to please do to enhance your life and put your film on the fast track.

 

Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-The Art of Film Funding Podcastprofit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcastThe Art of Film Fundinginterviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film productionShe is also the author of  The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts.  See IMDB for producing credits

 

 

How to Escape Survival Mode and Release Your Creativity

“Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside, awakes”  Carl Jung

by Carole Dean

Every other Saturday we have a film funding class. We’ve learned that the power of your mind is a major asset in funding and making your film.  I read mind power books for the class and share my understanding of the book with our fiscally sponsored filmmakers.

We are currently working on Joe Dispenza’s book Becoming Supernatural: How Common People are Doing the Uncommon.  You will find that it’s as if he is talking to filmmakers.  There is so much similarity in what he says and what filmmakers deal with on a daily basis.

Release Your Creativity

How Living in Survival Mode Holds Us Back

In his brilliant book, Joe explained that the long-term effect of living in survival mode. 

In time, we begin to thrive on it and we become addicted to stress chemicals. The result is a frenzied state where we shift our attention from one person to one problem to one thing in our environment.  We live on constant high alert because we view our external environment as unsafe.

Because the outer world appears more real than our inner world, we’re addicted to someone or something in our external environment.  The longer we live in this state the more our brain waves move into high beta brain waves which causes us to feel pain, anxiety, anger, impatience, and aggression.  As a result, our brain waves can become incoherent.

Where You Place Your Attention Is Where Your Mind Goes

When the emotions of survival are controlling us, we focus on the external world on finances, terrorism, dislike for your job, and we’ve become preoccupied with what we think could be causing that problem.

When this happens, we’re living in a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Where you place your energy is where your attention goes so if it is on a problem in the external world, you’re giving your power away to someone or something else. And your energy is stuck in the material world, where you are constantly reaffirming your present reality.

What is happening is you are tied to the energy of the known trying to predict the future based on the past. For you to make a change in your life, you need to step into the unknown because that’s where things can change, says Dr. Joe.

The more you live in stress the more you’re trying to affect matter. Matter trying to fight and force and manipulate for an outcome. As a result, everything you want to change is going to take a lot of time because in this space-time reality you must move your physical body through space to create the outcome you want.

Finding Room for the Unknowns

The more you’re living in survival, that’s the first three chakras, the more you’re using your senses to define reality, the more you’re separating yourself from a new future.

Between where you are now and where you want to be is based on how you think and predict it should happen. 

But if you’re predicting then your thinking is based on knowns, there is no room for an unknown or a new possibility in your life.

Let’s say you want a new job so you might take the time to create a resume get online and start looking for positions and go on interviews. Now this requires time.  We all look at time as linear.  So you must project it’s going to take you maybe a week to get a good resume, two or three weeks of research, and then interviews.  After that,  you might have a job in so many months.

All of that takes time because you are matter trying to influence other matter.  There is a distinct separation in space and time between where you are and where you want to be.

Focusing Our Attention Outward

Because we don’t have those things we feel lack and separation, so we live in a state of duality. We want things we don’t have and that’s how we create things.

When we experience separation from our future desires, we think and dream of what we want and then we set about a series of actions to get them. Example, if we’re always under financial stress, we want money.  If we have a disease, we want health and if we’re lonely we want a relationship.

Because of this experience of duality, we are driven to create. And he reminds us we are matter focused on matter trying to influence matter to get money or health, so we’ve established it’s going to take quite a bit of time and energy.

While we’re doing these things like looking for the new job, we are waiting for something outside of us to change how we feel internally.  However, when something in the outside world doesn’t happen or it seems to be taking a long time then we have more lack. 

We feel even more separate from what we’re trying to create and our emotional state of lack, and frustration keeps the dream at a distance further increasing the time for the outcome.

Let’s Talk About Quantum Laws

Quantum inward expression of the laws of nature is an invisible field of information.  It is the energy that unites everything material.

Now this material field organizes and connects all the laws of nature.  It’s a dimension where there’s more time and space.  In other words, it’s a dimension where time is eternal.

We want to get beyond time. We want to get beyond this self and go from the consciousness we have of being somebody to nobody.  OK?

We want to go from the consciousness of something to nothing.  We want to move from the world of the senses to the worlds beyond the senses, stepping into the quantum to create the future we want.

Joe Dispenza’s Walking Meditation

That’s why Joe Dispenza created his walking meditation.  In it, you must constantly give up who you are, where you are, and what you are.  You go into the nothing, into the  world of nothing, feeling nothing. 

It is through this that you can reach the quantum field and move through time and space because in the quantum field everything is unified you are one with the field.  Things can happen quickly.

As we begin to surrender all aspects of self and remove from the external world of people and things and places, we move to the inner world of energy, vibration, frequency, and consciousness. This is where magic happens.

Joe says that when we take our attention off objects and matter and open our focus to energy and information then different parts of the brain work together in harmony.  This unification of the brain is what makes us feel more whole.

Connecting to the Quantum Field

When we do this properly, our hearts begin to open and become more coherent.  As our heart moves into coherence, so too does our brain. Meaning we’ve gotten beyond our body and we are eliminating things that allows us to move to the alpha and theta brain waves patterns.  There we connect with our autonomic nervous system.

When this becomes activated, its job is to restore order and balance causing coherence and wholeness. It is in this state where we begin to connect to the quantum unified field.

The Wye Cottage

Back in the 80s, I had a friend who owned a large 10,000-acre sheep farm in New Zealand. On a visit to see him we were driving down a country road and we slowed down to go over a one-way bridge. On the left side of the bridge was a cottage sitting on a river with the name “the Wye cottage.”

I jumped out of my seat and said oh what a lovely place. I could go there and write a book.  He paid no attention.  He just kept driving we crossed the bridge, went to his sheep farm, and I started daydreaming about that house. I saw myself living in the house.

It had a veranda on three sides with a huge wisteria plant covering most of the porch with gorgeous pink blossoms. I got into the energy of the area.  I felt the peace and serenity.  New Zealand has this feeling you pick up of independence. It gives you a feeling that you can do your own thing.

I went back to the United States thinking I could buy that house and have a wonderful life.  In fact, I thought, I could live there forever. Then I got into the real world and forgot the dream.  But I put it in the quantum field and it stayed and began manifesting.

Making My Move

Fast forward to 2001. I sold my New York & Chicago & LA companies and was looking for what to do with the rest of my life.  In my quiet daily meditations, I started seeing the house in New Zealand as if it was waiting for me. Then 9/11 happened and I decided I needed to have a safe place outside of the United States and the white cottage was no longer a dream but a strong possibility.

I called my friend in New Zealand and said I’m really interested in purchasing the Wye cottage. No, he said there is a sweet couple living in the house. They’re very happy they don’t want to sell but come on over anyway, so I did.

This couple were interested in selling all I had to do was ask. I bought the house I went back to The United States, and I had to wait six months to come back.

What Was I Thinking?

When I got back to New Zealand and looked at the house I was in shock. The inside and outside had not been painted in 30 years. The gutters were falling off the house. It needed a better roof.  It was in a terrible state. There was just so much that had to be done and why didn’t I see that before?

Because I was feeling into the energy and the joy that the house could give me.  I saw the house in the state it became while I lived there.  I loved every minute I spent in that house. It was an early 1900’s Craftsman house that was moved from the city into the country.

I will always believe that my Intentions of living there, my visions of happiness in that house and my vision of growing a garden and becoming part of the community we’re all instrumental in bringing the house to me.

Yes, it took years from the time I saw the Wye cottage until I bought it but that’s because I put imitations on when I could buy it.  Once I sold my business, the time was right for me, and the house was waiting.

Seeing and Acting on All the Eternal Possibilities 

In the world of the quantum, where time is eternal, everything is happening in the eternal present moment. As you move through time, you experience other space, other dimensions, other planes, other realities, and infinite possibilities.

It’s like you are standing between two mirrors and looking both ways at yourself into indefinite dimensions and the mirrored images represent an infinite number of possibilities that you’re living now.

Your future could be any number of possibilities. It’s up to you to choose what you want.

I believe that one way to get into a lower state of brain waves is meditation.  When you sit in a quiet place with no phone or interruptions you lower brain waves and allow yourself to connect your vision to the quantum field.  This is where you can attract what you want.

I attracted The Wye cottage. When I moved into the house, I promised to restore it to its former glory, and I did.  I put a lot of attention and love in it. I painted the house myself I took great joy in owning and restoring it. I gave a grant for a writer’s retreat and sent writers to the Wye cottage for a month.   I think the cottage loved to house these creatives.  We all enjoy it.

Using Meditation to Realize Your Dreams

Meditation is a quiet place where you can imagine feeling into and become the person you want to become. Perhaps becoming the award-winning filmmaker, you truly are.

Think back in your life and see if you’ve created things you envisioned. Where  you wanted something, or some person and you focused on a vision, and it happened?

Perhaps you can use that energy and that memory to empower you to spend time daily to move yourself into this quantum field through walking meditation or sitting meditation.  Whatever it takes to allow you the quiet time with lower brain waves to get into the quantum field and plant your dream.

To me this information about going inside to create your future is exactly how to do it. Many people use meditation to lower brain waves and visualize.

I’ve been meditating since 1974 normally twice a day, this is most important to me.  I think this has given me better health an easier life and has allowed me to achieve my goals.

See the Future You Want

To bring them fast, outside of our time-based reality, we must get in a quiet place and live like the goal already exists. This is how you can compress time and bring it to you quicker.  Be in the no one, no place, nothing space to create and attract.

We did this as children. We had no past to limit us.  We saw something we wanted, and we asked someone in our family for it. We went to bed visualizing we had it and we got it.  Life was that simple for most of us. 

To get back to this immediate request and immediate fulfillment, we need to drop the past and see the future we want, not be influenced by the outside information, go inside, and create your own reality, live it, feel it, breath it and achieve it.

 

Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-The Art of Film Funding Podcastprofit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcastThe Art of Film Fundinginterviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film productionShe is also the author of  The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts.  See IMDB for producing credits

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creating and Achieving Intentions – Part 2

Focus Your Mind and Thoughts on Creating Something Believable and Achievable

By Carole Dean

I am a firm believer in meditation. I have been meditating for more than half my life and I love it. It allows me to relax and connect to my higher self.  It’s helped me with solving problems in business and life.  It lowers my stress benefiting my health and my brain power.

Intention is similar.  But instead of focusing on your current situation, you are mainly focusing intently on what you want.

Focus Attention on Your Intention.

Intention requires a high degree of focus. It’s more like relaxation. It’s a calm hyperawareness that you can get into through practice. You want to turn the self off and feel like you’re in a state of total oneness.  This is where the miracles happen.  You want a quiet place where you can put your “attention on your intention.”

You can use intention as a group and intend things for your film.  I’ve covered that my blog Unleashing the Power of the Film Crew.  I highly recommend it as it is powerful.  Rhonda Burns had weekly meetings with her film crew when she made The Secret.  She used a weekly mastermind intention group with her crew and look how well she did.  She is extremely wealthy from that single film.  You can do the same thing.

For your personal intentions, remember to use of all your senses to focus.  You want to feel GRATITUDE for your success. You want to feel the emotion of completion. You want to see yourself with the intention completed.

You are creating what Joe Dispenza, author of Becoming Supernatural: How Common People are Doing the Uncommon, would call “mind.” You are creating new pathways in the brain and something that is believable and achievable. 

You can get back to that intention area of the brain quicker each time you want to intend.  With practice, it becomes easier and easier. This has been researched.  Lynn McTaggart, author of The Intention Experiment, talks about seeing studies of brain waves that show when people have certain thoughts this part of the brain gets larger.

Your Brain Works Like an Antenna.

Because the brain is essentially an antenna which is receiving and sending, thoughts are not locked inside the head.  That ability to receive and transmit gets larger depending upon the thoughts we have. What you are doing is building a larger channel in your brain which is your intention channel. This is how you create your future.

Studies have shown that people who are focusing on a particular object or a particular vision create cortical fitness in the brain quickly. If what you are intending is something that you feel will bring benefit to the world, then you should do it with a feeling of gratitude for universal support to enable your success. 

Then that gratitude energy will be reflected in the mind area where you’re creating this intention. You need to believe this focus of intending works because the more you believe it the faster it works. 

A wonderful side effect of strong intentions is that your intuitive abilities also increase.

Your intuition is your most important asset in filmmaking.  Many filmmakers, including Sidney Lumet, have stated that they always used their intuition. I recommend that you always consider your intuition over logic.  Using my Intuition has proved to be 90% correct.

Focus Brings Results.

Focusing on your intention is important. To get to the place where you are focusing intently, you might try little activities. Perhaps in the morning, when you’re having your first cup of coffee, you intently focus just on the coffee. How does it taste? How do you feel? How does it smell? What emotion does it bring up? Is it joy or happiness or clarity?

You should see it, feel it, taste it, focus on all your senses. This gives you an idea of what intention is. It is total focus. Being in the moment with a visualization of your intention and no other thoughts.

Focus on swallowing your coffee and how it feels as it goes down your throat. How does it feel when it gets in your body? Tune into your senses and tune out any other thinking you have at that time. If a thought comes across your brain like, what you need to do today, forget about it. Simply go back to your five senses and focus on that.

Stay in the moment learn how to intently focus even on the smallest thing. It could be eating your breakfast croissant or your oatmeal. Just focus on this action and learn how to experience your 5 senses in a focused moment. This is the same place you take your intentions.

Mentally Rehearse Using Your Intentions to Achieve Your Future.

Another key essential in creating intentions is to rehearse each stage. Mental rehearsal is used by athletes.  Muhammad Ali, taught us all about intentions.  He began saying in his early days in the ring, “I am the greatest!”  And that’s just what he became.

He also created rhymes to tell us his intentions.  He did that about his fight with Archie Moore. He said, “Archie Moore must fall in four.”  He knocked Archie Moore out in the 4th round.  Ali was intending on a daily basis and he had us intending for him!

Athletes practice what they want to achieve in their head.  They do this while eating breakfast, driving, exercising, etc.  When you get to the level of an Olympic athlete, you know that a hundredth of a second is all you need.  Olympians use their minds to intend their outcome.  You can too.

The same neurons responsible for executing a movement are activated when we think about doing that movement. They have found that mental rehearsal works just as well as physical action in preparing the body for an event. It stimulates those same neural pathways that are used when you’re performing. The more you intend with great focus the easier it is for you to reach that pathway.

From your own perspective it’s as if you’re really doing it. To achieve this, you want to imagine yourself having and being what you are intending. You are rehearsing an intention you also want to imagine yourself succeeding. It’s important to approach your intentions with a positive outlook and block out all feelings or images of doubt. You want to engage all your senses especially the KINESTHETIC sense.

Use your Imagination.

You must be able to imagine in detail with all your senses. Now you are really using your power to intend. Begin with the image of yourself when you achieve your intention. Surely you will be in joy and thrilled with success. Once you learn this vision and can feel the emotions and be in that moment, then you can imagine scenes that will take to you to that final achievement.

You might use this intentional focus to intend an outcome of a meeting where you are pitching your project. See yourself pitching your film perfectly and your potential donor is nodding and smiling and see yourself getting a fat check.  How much? You can intend whatever you want, $10,000 or $20,000.  The purpose is to intend yourself successful in making an ask. You can intend your funding.

You can also intend yourself to receive a grant. Keep focusing on the fact that you are notified that you have been chosen as a finalist and then intend that you have won the grant.

Now, to achieve winning the grant, you write a superb proposal, or you hire someone to write a superb proposal. You still have the work to do but it the intention on the outcome is your focus.  You are using intention to bring your vision to life.

Be Very Clear on What You Want.

I keep my intention to one sentence and that works for me. I have it on my Mirror and I have it on my computer and I look at it daily.  I’m intending my vision and I feel the completion.

When I’m focusing on that one simple intention, I am sending my request to the universe. I am being very clear about what I want. I am following what Stuart Wilde, author of Infinite Self, said, I am ordering a dress size 10 in red, and I want it delivered by and I give day, month, and year because the universe is time sensitive.

If you’re intending to raise $20,000 and you intend for over $20,000, give the universe the chance to send you even more money. Be sure to set a day, a month, and a year for the completion of the intention. And it must be reasonable, you have to know you can do it.

The biggest problem people have with intentions is they are not specific. The universe is like an online shopping service.  You need to be very clear and concise with what you want.  Start this intention with one thing, something you want the most. Once you achieve the first thing, it will be much easier to do the second and the third.

Remember You are the Magic!

You ARE the creator you were put here with all this talent for writing directing, producing, editing, it’s amazing the talent you have. Really, in all honesty, why wouldn’t the universe fund you? They gave you all this talent so of course you can get funded.

Creating and manifesting your intention is a great way for you to achieve.

 

Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-The Art of Film Funding Podcastprofit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcastThe Art of Film Fundinginterviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film productionShe is also the author of  The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts.  See IMDB for producing credits

Creating and Achieving Intentions – Part 1

Turning your thoughts and words into daily intentions can help with your film’s financing, production and enhance your life

by Carole Dean

As filmmakers, your mind is occupied around the clock thinking about how to fund, produce, and complete your next project.  You talk about it at coffee with friends, lunch with co-workers, and over drinks with investors. 

Intentions

Those thoughts and the words that sprout from them that you use to express your desires form the basis of powerful intentions. I will show you how create and use those intentions to realize those dreams and reach your goals.

Let’s begin with the word intention

It is the act of putting your focus, attention, and thoughts on a specific desired result.  Something that you believe you can achieve. I suggest you start with something that is reasonable, something you know you can achieve. 

Dr. Deepak Chopra taught that we can create our future by putting our attention on our intentions.

Stewart Wilde, author of Miracles, The Force, and Affirmations, taught us intending is a simple process. The universe, he says, is like a department store. You place your order for exactly what you want, and they deliver it. You see a picture of a dress, you ask for a size 12 in red, and that’s what you get.

You want to visualize what you intend to create. Being able to see and feel exactly what you want will bring it to you much faster.

Our thoughts are intending for us daily.  Each thought by each person is an intention. The key is to make your intentions clear and to intend 24/7.

What you think is what you can create.

Your thoughts are powerful things. In the film, The Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, daughter of an English grocer, intended herself into the position of Prime Minister of England by using the power of her mind. This is her advice:

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become your character.

And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

What we think, we become.

How using intentions can help produce and fund your film.

Intending is all about your thoughts. I want you to think of thoughts as things about to manifest.

What if everything you thought could potentially manifest? Would that make your life a better place? This is the most important aspect.  Learning how powerful your thoughts are.

Each thought is energy waiting to manifest.  Once you become aware of this you realize how important it is to think only of the things you want, not what you don’t want. 

By paying attention to your thoughts, you can control your future. 

Having a Eureka moment.

As described in the book The Field by Lynne McTaggart, a German physicist, Fritz Albert Popp, was looking for a cure for cancer.  He accidentally found light coming out of the body; just a tiny current, but it is light. Popp called this light biophoton emissions.

He said we are all lighted candles. Meaning that we are constantly sending out light. This is not ordinary light it is well-ordered light that scientists call coherent.  This means all the waves are moving in sync with each other.

Popp says we are sending this coherent light out of our body to other human beings and they’re responding to us.

In other words, if you and I were having a verbal conversation, we’re also sharing our light with each other.  

Thoughts are light and they are energy about to manifest.

Thoughts are light and every cell in our body is part of this light. Every thought we have affects every part of our body. That means good thoughts are healing to our bodies and bad thoughts could be detrimental to our bodies and bad for our health.

Now here comes the interesting part, research indicates thoughts are not inside your brain. In the 1960s, Karl Lashley and Karl Pribram were looking for a location where memory is stored in the brain.

After much research, they came to believe that the brain is not a storage unit but a sending and receiving unit.  We are sending and receiving all the time.  Your thoughts are alive, they are energy and light.

Another interesting fact about the brain, is the placebo effect. Research shows that sometimes people who take placebo pills made of sugar and water, have the intended results they are told they can have from the medicine that they did not get. 

Their belief that they would be healed overrode the fact that what they took was sugar and water. 

Let’s Recap

I want you to realize how powerful you are and use this power to make and fund your film.

Remember:

Your thoughts are energy waiting to manifest.

Your thoughts are electric.

Your thoughts are light.

Your thoughts are manifesting what you think.

Your brain is constantly sending and receiving light-filled thoughts.

 

Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-The Art of Film Funding Podcastprofit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcastThe Art of Film Fundinginterviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film productionShe is also the author of  The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts.  See IMDB for producing credits

Your Beliefs Are Your Greatest Asset

If you believe you can or if you believe you can’t, your right! – Henry Ford

by Carole Dean

If you think you can’t fund your film or that you will have a hard time funding your film, then your right.

If you think you can fund your film, then you can.

Beliefs

It is that simple and it all starts with our beliefs. It’s the beliefs that we carry in our mind. We have been creating beliefs since we were children, and we constantly defend these decisions.

Most of us don’t know we have these belief systems running inside us.  Most do not know why we created these beliefs but we’re still hanging on to them and our subconsciousness is daily defending these outworn concepts.

If you have carried some things that have caused you to lose self-confidence, then it’s important you recognize this because you can be your own worst enemy.

Review Your Beliefs About Money

If you’re having problems raising money for your film perhaps you should consider, “what are your beliefs about money?”

It is very important for you to believe that you can raise the funding for your project. If you don’t feel it’s possible then no one can help you.  It’s up to you to change how you think.

Bruce Lipton is one of my favorite biologists/authors. He says that we have acquired many restrictions on ourselves during our youth that are based on the structure of our lives at that time.

Using Bruce Lipton’s concepts if you put two people raised in different income homes, in the same room, they would see their potential in totally different ways.

For example, if you had a funding party and in the room is a young filmmaker who grew up wealthy in Beverly Hills along with a young filmmaker who grew up disadvantaged in East Los Angeles, the Beverly Hills filmmaker will see money everywhere while the other filmmaker will feel he/she doesn’t belong.

These are based on negative beliefs acquired while young so you may have some of these beliefs and not even know it.  The question is what do you do?  How do you change these negative or limiting beliefs?

Take an Inventory of Beliefs

You might make a list of your beliefs about money and success.  By doing this you, might pull up some stored beliefs that no longer suit you or that are totally inappropriate for you.

We know that the contents of the subconscious mind are very important to us. If the subconscious has acquired beliefs like “it’s hard to make money,” or “it’s hard to raise money,” or “it’s hard to find the budget for the film,” then you can expect those things to come true because that is your belief system.

Bruce Lipton claims that beliefs control human biology rather than DNA and inheritance.  That is a powerful statement.

Realizing You Need a New Mindset

While I was touring the world with my book The Art of Film Funding, I found people who had their mind set about funding. They seem to fall into two categories, totally opposite each other.

There were those people who said, “Oh I know I can fund this film.  Or those that were totally negative with statements like, “it’s very hard to raise money for films.”  This is why I wrote the book, The Art of Manifesting: Creating your future.  It’s your beliefs that create your future.

And I often hear: “They have cut the grants and now it’s really hard to win a grant.”  They have been cutting grants for 30 years that I know of! However, we still have thousands of grants in the United States available and believe me we have a tremendous amount of people winning grants so why shouldn’t that be you?

When you look at it from this point of view it seems that it should be easy to change your belief system. However, once your subconscious mind has accepted an idea, whether true or not, it will continually feed your thoughts to support that belief.

Changing the Way You Think

Often, we are not encountering resistance from outside sources but from ourselves. If we can accept new beliefs and support them to the extent that our subconscious mind accepts them, then we can create a new reality for ourselves.

The secret to overcoming our belief system, seems to be the ability to recognize that it exists and that we are the one that needs to change the way we think.

Let’s take one of the most our most important things in filmmaking, film funding.

What if you start saying, “people love my film?” Perhaps you talk to some people about your film and get feedback so that you can honestly say to yourself, “people love my film.” Funding my film is easy.  Say this in the present tense not future tense. 

Going to Bed with Thoughts of Success

The next thing is to believe that it will be easy to fund your film. 

To get to that confidence in your ability to raise funds for your film, I suggest the information given by Neville Goddard about the way to reach the subconscious mind and change beliefs.

What he taught us was the fact that the conscious mind is the only way to reach the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind believes everything the conscious mind says.

Knowing this, then consider going to bed at night with a vision of you pitching your film to someone. 

This can be an over the shoulder shot where you can see the person you are pitching, and they are listening and nodding and smiling. You feel very confident, in fact it is fun to pitch your film, you are full of passion about your film. 

You’re watching this person intently listening to you and then they hand you a check.  What’s the amount? You pick the amount.  Make it something that is an extraordinary donation for you.

Experience the joy of this moment.  Feel the confidence you have from pitching and being rewarded.

Filling Your Subconscious with Confidence

This will instill confidence in the subconscious that you can raise money and your thought at that time that is, “raising money for my film is easy.”

By doing this you’re allowing new information to go into the subconscious mind; you are reprogramming the subconscious mind with the concept that you can raise money and that, “it is easy to raise money.”

Please keep doing this up at night before you go to sleep.  Keep creating short films for the conscious mind to play for the unconscious mind to rebuild your belief system.

 

Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-The Art of Film Funding Podcastprofit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcastThe Art of Film Fundinginterviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film productionShe is also the author of  The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts.  See IMDB for producing credits

Creating Your Future With Your Thoughts

After reading many books on the power of the mind, it is clear that we are much more powerful than we believe

By Carole Dean

We’ve never been taught how to use the power of our minds.  It is our most valuable tool in guiding us through life, but did you ever see a class on it in high school?  Or a college course on creating your future? Or learning how to use the power of thought?  No, they just don’t teach this in schools.

Believe that you are creating your future with your thoughts.

When you look at filmmakers like Spike Lee, Scorsese and Spielberg you wonder what is the common thread.  What did they do to become so famous?  We know they’re highly talented, but what did they do to propel themselves to their destiny?

They used the power of their mind.

Each knew they were talented and believed in themselves. They studied their craft daily.  They put their attention on creating the future they want.

There are some great techniques using the power of the mind that filmmakers can use to achieve success.

Watch Your Thoughts

Believe that you are creating your future with your thoughts. Watch your thoughts so that they’re full of the future you want, not what you don’t want.  Believe that thoughts are energy bundles waiting to manifest.

Edit what you think.  Stay positive.  Watch your thoughts and believe they are manifestors.  That each thought is waiting to manifest.

Give more attention to your thoughts, in fact get in control and even “edit” your thoughts.  Use your creativity to carve out that future just like you would write a script.  Why not?

Take Spike Lee.  His grandmother told him from an early age that he would go to college.  As he was growing up, he saw her each month put aside money for his education.  She assured him that he could do anything he wanted.  Spike chose film.  Don’t you think he was daydreaming about making films?  Sure, he was.

Don’t Dismiss Your Daydreams

Daydreaming is a form of creating your future.  Remember how you daydreamed what you wanted for your birthday and you got it?  Well, that’s something you can continue to do.  You can see your future and daydream about it.  Pretend you have the future you want. See yourself living it.  Feel yourself on the set directing, producing, loving every minute. 

Do not succumb to “where will the money come from?  How can I do this?” 

You didn’t let the “Where” or the “How” get into your wish for the bicycle you wanted.  That was not important.  You just saw yourself riding the bike.  That’s the same thing you want to do now. 

Just cut to the chase.  See yourself on the set, see yourself at the premier and most important see yourself getting a coveted award for your film!  Yes, create the vision of the future you want then feel it, believe it, and know in your heart this is your future.

Now you have renewed vigor to get up each day and keep developing your project.  It can become part of you.  It is not a dream; it is a reality.

Let the Child in You Be Your Advisor

This very moment is the time to sit down and book 15 minutes a day for daydreaming time. Yes! Let Google remind you that it is time to turn off your cell, get into a nice quiet place, sit up straight, quiet your mind then start living the future you want by daydreaming.

You are a filmmaker so create stories of how you find the world’s greatest director of photography who can do incredible shots for you.  Stories of how you attached the best actors and what joy that brought to you and your crew.

Use your daydreaming time to bring your film to life.  Find that child within and let it loose.  Let the child in you become your advisor, your advocate. 

The best filmmakers on the planet let their little child create their future.  It has an unencumbered belief system that all things are possible and believe me, they are!

 

Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-The Art of Film Funding Podcastprofit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcastThe Art of Film Fundinginterviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film productionShe is also the author of  The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts.  See IMDB for producing credits

Using Dreams to Help Fund and Finish Your Film!

Dreams will tell you when you are stuck, what you’re missing, and where you need to go

By Carole Dean

Carl Jung said, “Dreams will show you where you are and where you are going. They reveal your destiny.”

Using Dreams to Help Fund

In our bi-monthly Film Funding Guidance class for our fiscally sponsored filmmakers, we are now discussing John Kehoe’s best-selling book, Mind Power: In To The 21st Century.  John explains how empowering our dreams can be.

Did you know that the oldest written record of dream interpretation is found in the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh recorded on clay tablets in 3000 BC?

“What makes dreams so interesting,” John writes, “is that dreams are where the conscious and the subconscious meet, where the images of day-to-day living encounter the hidden wisdom of the subconscious.”

Dreams Can Help You Find Solutions.

Nobel Prize winner doctor James Watson discovered the properties of the DNA molecule from a dream. He saw two snakes intertwining by wrapping around one another. Upon awakening, he realized that this might be what is happening in the DNA.  Perhaps, he thought, it was a double Helix twisting around itself and he was right.

John Kehoe has been analyzing and studying his dreams for years. He believes that his dreams are like a personal wisdom which speaks to him.

Studies show that we dream an average of five to seven times a night. Whether you remember them or not, you are dreaming.

John suggests that we program our mind to say before we go to sleep, “tonight I will dream, and I will remember my dream.” If you repeat this to yourself 20 times before you go to sleep, he says there would be very good chance that you will remember your dream.

Next, he recommends you place a pad of paper and a pen by your night table so that you are demonstrating that you are waiting for your dreams, and you are prepared to acknowledge them and write them down.

You might also use an old handheld tape recorder that you could just turn on and punch a button and start talking without having to get up. This is the most important part, to remember what you dreamt.  Be right there in the dream so you can get every nuance, any colors, any faces, any symbols, as these matter.

Learn to Interpret What Your Subconscious is Saying in the Dream.

When you wake up from your dream, don’t jump out of bed, stay still and as your consciousness returns.  This is in between time and it is very valuable.  It’s the crack between the two worlds, your consciousness and dream state, so stay there and observe it carefully.

Try to bring as much back as possible piece by piece.  When you get a part of the dream, rerun the dream in your mind several times adding detail each time.  Then, write it down or record it.  Now you can start interpreting it.

When you’re start interpreting your dreams you want to think of yourself as an archaeologist digging up clues. You are researching and want to know what’s going on inside you. You want to find these relics and interpret what they mean to you because most of your dreams are not going to make a lot of sense. They may seem like nonsense or some foreign language.

When you persist in thinking about your dreams and try to relate them to your own life, you will have a breakthrough and find what the dream really means to you.  John says to remember that the dream used the vocabulary of symbols and allegory to convey the message. He says symbols are to intuition what words are to thoughts.

The language of dreams is more like art and poetry than linguistics. The reason for this that is that this part of your conscious mind predates language.

Once you realize that the dreams are messages from your subconscious and start thinking about how your subconscious wants to show you something about yourself, then this can become a lot of fun.

Dream Analysists Say Dreams are Always About You and Your Circumstances.

Dreams will tell you when you are stuck and what you are avoiding.  They can tell you what you’re missing, what you’re ignoring, and they can tell you where you need to go.

95% of the time all the characters, creatures, monsters, and stuff in your dreams represents aspects of yourself. For dream interpretation, please realize that all the people in your dream are you.

An actress friend of mine who studied with a dream therapist for years taught me that. The only exceptions would be if you recognize children or parents or coworkers in your dream.  Then, they could be real or they could be another part of you.

John says that a nightmare could be your subconscious trying to shock you into looking at some aspect of your life. Saying to you, “look at this, it’s urgent!”

Dreams that repeat are messages trying to break through. Once you interpret them, they will stop. You keep having them because your subconscious is trying to get its message through.

Here are Some Techniques to Interpret Your Dreams.

Give the dream a name. Or a title. Let your intuition come up with something to name the dream because then that title might give you some clues.

Go back to the dream.  Find a quiet spot to think and be sure there are no phones or interruptions.  Sit quietly, close your eyes, recreate the dream in your mind now put yourself in the dream and see how you would react.

Example, if you had a dream that you were driving a car recklessly on a curved road, you might put yourself back in that dream behind the wheel and begin to ask yourself questions like, why are you driving so fast?  Are you getting away from something? Are you rushing to get someone? Is this good? See what answers you can get from yourself.  And you can react any way you want in the dream now that you’re in it. You could slow the car down and feel into this situation. You could decide if you were running away from something or recklessly driving to save someone.

Break your dream down into acts.  What is act one?  What is the situation and who are you?  What is act 2? What is the trouble? What is act 3, the resolution?  Ask yourself how you feel in each act in the dream. Feelings are a major information source in dreams.  Example, do you feel relieved, confident, terrified, threatened?

What are the symbols in each act that can help you decipher the reason you are driving recklessly?

Perhaps you felt relieved when you took the wheel in the dream and slowed the car down to a reasonable speed. Perhaps you have lost control of some situation in your life. That could be the meaning of the dream. Or it could be that you were trying to get away from something that bothered you.  And now your job is to find out what is bothering you that you want to get away from.

Analyzing Your Dreams Can Greatly Benefit You.

You may be able to figure this out quickly if you are open to receiving shocking or sometimes unpleasant news from yourself about your life.  Dream interpretation takes focus and so don’t be surprised if you can only decipher 30% of your dreams. You are doing quite well if you can interpret this much of your dreams. Your success will increase as you work on dream interpretation, it is something you can learn.

Don’t be afraid to give time to the analysis of your dream because it is a wonderful way for you to give you important advice. It’s a wonderful way for you to face what you’re not facing in your day-to-day reality.

Going back to the dream of driving recklessly, perhaps you find that you are trying to get away from something. With questions you may find that perhaps you hired a cinematographer that is not the right person and rather than face replacing him/her you’re running away from it.

If you take control of the car in your dream and decide to turn around and go back to where you came from you may be able to find answers. Perhaps by going back you find that you were running away from a decision that you made that was wrong and you need to face it and resolve the situation.

Dreams can be this beneficial. This is a wonderful way to talk to your subconscious. The subconscious is trying to talk to you. 

When you stop and listen, magnificent things can happen

 

Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-The Art of Film Funding Podcastprofit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcastThe Art of Film Fundinginterviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film productionShe is also the author of  The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts.  See IMDB for producing credits

You Need to “Feel It” to Achieve It

It’s not enough to visualize yourself succeeding, you need to seed those visualizations with emotions

by Carole Dean

In our Film Funding Guidance Class for our fiscally sponsored filmmakers, we’re currently reviewing the book, Mind Power by John Kehoe.  The book teaches us about the power of visualizations in achieving success and how to apply them in your life.

visualize success

John believes that one of the secrets to achieving success is to visualize everything that would or could happen to you and live as if it really is happening.  You should see yourself in situations that normally give you difficulty. 

In this visualization, you should see yourself at ease confident and performing well.  You might picture your friends and associates complimenting you, congratulating you on your newfound confidence.

“Seeding” Your Visualizations

“Seeding” is adding feelings. Feelings with visuals are like movies with soundtracks.  They are more passionate, more emotional and contain lots of good energy. 

You should visualize your success using emotions like completion, pride, confidence, enthusiasm, and most importantly, faith.  Faith that this will happen, faith that your future belongs to you, and faith that you will successfully manifest your vision.

Remember the film, Bruce Almighty, when Jim Carrey was God and prayers were yellow post its?  He would find his room full of those yellow post it’s each morning.  Then he would go to work answering prayers. I think that seeding them with emotions would turn the post its from yellow into hot pink so they would stand out. 

Emotions are powerful.  Please be sure to use emotions when you are visualizing.  Send your visions to the universe with tons of “feeling.”

Shakespeare said “My words fly up; my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”  Shakespeare knew that you had to have “feelings” with thoughts to bring you the future you want.

Visualize Your Pitch Presentation Before You Pitch.

A few days before you go to pitch your film, you should take the time to start visualizing your meeting. See yourself in an over the shoulder shot.  You are pitching your film.  Your potential donor is smiling and nodding their head like they’re enjoying and receiving the information you’re sending.

See yourself with pride, enthusiasm, and confidence. You should take this into your meditation and visualize the outcome you want with emotions.  Please remember how powerful emotions are and put a lot of emotion in this visualization.

You should be prepared for them to ask you questions. I want you to feel very proud of yourself because you have the answers.  To do this, you want to know what your budget is and be able to defend it. You want to know where this film will be distributed. You want to explain where this donor or investor will see your film.

See Your Future and Claim It.

Be fully prepared for all kinds of questions and be totally confident that you will get funded.  Live with that belief; that you have what you want.

You need to “feel” successful, to “feel confident.” Let these feelings be part of your vision.

Remember, all we have is the present.  Do not say, “I will have,” that puts it in the future. Please pretend it is real this very moment. You are living your dream. You are living with the life you want to live in your mind. Keep that thought as present not future.

In Mind Power, the author tells us how important affirmations are. He is reminding us that our statements and our constant belief in our achievements are important to us.

“Affirmations,” he says, “are simple statements repeated to yourself silently or aloud. You can do them anywhere, like, in your car, waiting in the doctor’s office, while you are walking, when you are lying in bed before you go to sleep.”

Affirmation’s Work!

With affirmations, you are influencing the thoughts in your mind and filling your mind with thoughts that support your goal.

John suggests when you’re doing your affirmations that you have to be consistent.  You want to keep your affirmations going until you have achieved what you are affirming.

I suggest that you use the powerful two words “I am” and start with things like:

  • I am an award-winning filmmaker.
  • I am fully funded.
  • I am having a lot of fun making my film.
  • I am getting weekly donations.
  • I am receiving surprise donations.
  • All the mental work that I am sending to the universe brings me money from sources I never expected.
  • I am fully funded.

He suggests you keep your affirmation short, and I fully agree.  Use things like:

  • I am healthy
  • I am wealthy
  • I am happy

I love these affirmations because they will get you through any day with lots of joy. 

“I Am the Greatest” Worked for Muhammad Ali.  It Will Work for You Too!

This is where we need to remember and not to make statements against ourselves like oh, I never do that right.

I’m so sorry I always get it wrong.

I’m a disaster.

These are things you should remove totally out of your vocabulary.

“I am” are the two most powerful words in the dictionary. Especially when used to create your future because they will bring you what you want.

Love Yourself.

We are very quick to see our failures and not our success. John says that when we get successes, we are happy for a few days and then we go back into forgetting our successes.

Let’s make a point of remembering our successes. Let’s reuse that success energy from past achievements again and again and expect very positive results.

For example, let’s suppose you wanted to get into a Film Festival and succeeded.  Even if it was three years ago, think about that energy that you felt when you received the notification you had been accepted. That’s the energy you want around you. You want to keep bringing that up that wonderful memory of acceptance and support.

When you get great compliments or when people give you wonderful feedback, please live on that for a weeks.  Take it inside you and feel it.  Enjoy it.

Let All the Positive Stuff You Hear Stay with You.

You need to be in the place where you feel that you deserve the donation. Be in the place where you know that you have a brilliant project.  Where you know that you will complete the project. 

By feeling these things and having them as part of your DNA you become the perfect person to give a donation.  That’s what people are looking for.  They want to support a winner, a creative, they want to support you. 

It’s your job to show them you are that creative, that brilliant artist and you deserve to be funded.

When You Are in My Aura; You are Reading My Mind!

People start picking up your thoughts when they get inside your aura and your aura stands 6 feet from your body.  When you sit next to someone to talk to them even if you had a table between you, it would probably still be within six feet.  You would be in a place where they can read you and they will know how confident you are.

That’s where they start making decisions.  They make decisions from their “inner feelings” about you. UCLA Professor Mehrabian, analyzing what makes a successful pitch, said in his research: that only 7% of what you say affects their decision making. 55% of the decision-making process is based on how you walk, how you talk, how you carry yourself, how much confidence you have. 

Did you look them in the eye?  Are you positive in your statements?  Do you sit up straight? Are you a happy person?  Are you excited and enthused about your project? Answer “no” to any of those questions and you probably failed on your pitch.

38% of the decision-making process is your voice, how enthusiastic your voice is, and this is most important because people are reading these signals.  If you show any depression and uncertainty or lack of knowledge, if your voice quavers, you are creating a feeling of uncertainty.  

Watch how you talk.  You do not want to say “you know” you do not want to use eeerrr  or ahhhhs.  These are the things that work against you. The voice and the things you say are 38% of the decision-making process.

You Can See that the Most Important Thing to Work on is You.

You are the film.  Shore up your belief in you. You need full self-confidence to close a donation, to get that discount or to hire that person you want.

Ok, you may be thinking, wow, Carole, this is a lot to do. Yes, I know it is but let’s look at the benefits.

Joseph Campbell says: “When you are on the right path, invisible hands will come to your aid.”  That’s the prize you get.  Don’t try to figure it out.  Don’t ask how, just know it will happen. 

This is the most important part of creating your future, faith.  Your faith must be relentless.

 

Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-The Art of Film Funding Podcastprofit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcastThe Art of Film Fundinginterviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film productionShe is also the author of  The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts.  See IMDB for producing credits

Recipe for Film Funding Success

As shown in the new HBO Max Julia Child Series, the ingredients to achieving your goals include a burning desire and belief in yourself

by Carole Dean

I love the film reviews in the New Yorker magazine. Recently they had a review on a new series on HBO Max on Julia Child. It told of her extraordinary rise from a humble housewife who had written a cookbook to the crown jewel of PBS programming slate.

film funding success

Every night my daughter Carole Joyce and our friend Tommy Adams and I watch a movie. I thought this film would be something they wouldn’t like so I started watching it by myself.  I found it to be lots of fun and now all of us are watching it.

What is clear from this series is that Julia Child created her future.  She wanted that television show. She made it happen.

And the tools she used are available to you to achieve film funding success and get your film made.

Cook Something Up.

It all started when she was invited to go on the PBS station WGBH in Boston to be interviewed for her cookbook.   At the interview, Julia walked on to the set with a shopping bag full of stuff and plopped it down next to her chair.  When the well-known book intellectual, who was appalled at having to interview her asked the first question, Julia started unpacking her bag. 

She promptly crawled on the floor with her rear facing us while she plugged in a hot plate.  Then, she began to make an omelet for everyone to see how simple it was.

By doing this, she stole the show.

Ask For What You Want.

This interview happened because a WGBH associate producer at the bottom of the production ladder somehow found Julia and invited her on the show.  After this interview, Julia took the initiative and wrote this producer and proposed a cooking show.  

That associate producer knew she could have a hit show with Julia.  After all, Julia’s impressive creation of a three-egg omelet on camera had generated 13 letters to WGBH from people saying they loved Julia. The associate producer took the letters into a meeting and began pitching a Julia Childs show.  She said that the mandate for WGBH was education, and a cooking show would be perfect for them. 

The head of WGBH liked Julia and asked the head producer to run the numbers for what it would cost to do a show with her.  The head producer did, invited Julia back, and told her it was too expensive for them.

“No, sorry,” she told Julia, “We can’t do the show.”

Julia replied, “Looking like I do, has taught me to never take no for an answer.” 

That “no” was the beginning of a negotiation for Julia!  What determination that shows us, right? 

That’s a good lesson for all of us.  Had she not sat there and talked this out with the top producer she would never have gotten that show.

Be Bold and Go for It!

When the producer explained that he said no because of the enormous cost of building a set with a working kitchen, Julia Child said, “I’ll pay for that set if you will do the show.  In fact, I’ll pay for the whole show.”

This changed WGBH’s mind.  She was set for one show.  Now, the problem was that when she agreed to pay for the kitchen set, she did not even look at the budget for the amount. 

Once out of the meeting, she saw the cost.  She realized that she did not have enough money.

Get Creative Finding Funding.

Even though her father was very rich, she had to do cooking classes on the side.  She had to use her cookbook income and still she was in the hole for money. 

She told her female friends how much she wanted to cook on TV, and they rallied around and helped her.

To achieve this show, Julia, like all of you found creative ways to get the money.  You do the same thing.  You find people who love you and love your film and they give you their heart and minds.  Right?

The astonishing thing is that Julia didn’t own a TV set.  When she went to buy one, the HBO Max series showed Julia standing in front of 20 television sets in a store.  Each TV had a different program on them. 

As Julia stood there, she began to see herself on TV.  Soon, every TV in the store had Julia Child on it.

Send Your Visions to the Universe.

This is the visualization that I discuss with our fiscally sponsored filmmakers in our Film Funding Guidance Class.  Our job is to teach you how to visualize to create your future. This is exactly what it takes to create your future.

Julia took the initiative.  She wrote the letter she saying she wanted to do a TV show to teach Americans how to cook like the French.  She did not take no for an answer.  This was her vision; and she was relentless in getting that first show made so much so that WGBH came on board.

Remember, she had to learn how to cook for the camera.  She had to learn how to stand in front of hot lights, be original, humorous, and keep our attention while she beat eggs or stirred her cakes.  Although she made mistakes, that was the best part of the show.  She was human! 

She captured us with her honesty.  Everyone quotes her for saying, “You are all alone in the kitchen. No one but you knows what goes on.”

We saw chicken parts flying across the room and flambés light up like a three-alarm fire.  We saw her cut herself and keep on going while she was bleeding all over the WGBH kitchen.

That’s when Dan Ackroyd began to mimic her on Saturday Night Live.  Her career took off like a NASA rocket to the moon. 

I found this HBO film, Julia, to be empowering.  It is a true representative of what it takes to be an independent filmmaker.

It takes talent and tons of guts.  Never give up is a good mantra for all indie filmmakers!

 

Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-The Art of Film Funding Podcastprofit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcastThe Art of Film Fundinginterviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film productionShe is also the author of  The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts.  See IMDB for producing credits

Using Your Subconscious to Create Your Future

If you can imagine and believe that you are already a successful filmmaker, you have taken the first step of being a successful filmmaker

by Carole Dean

One thing that nearly every filmmaker has is an abundance of creative imagination.   If you are seeking to prosper as a director, producer, or screenwriter, this is the resource which you need to tap.  And I don’t mean just using it to create a great story for a great film, but using it to create the reality in your mind that you are in the midst of a great career as a filmmaker.

 

 

As my fiscally sponsored filmmakers and readers know, Napoleon Hill is one my favorite authors.  I teach lessons from his monumental best-selling book Think and Grow Rich in our Film Funding Guidance Class every two weeks.

Through his work and others, we’ve learned that by using your imagination, you can create your desired reality in your subconscious.  By making it real to yourself there, it will become real in your life as well.

Using auto suggestion from the conscious to the subconscious

In Napoleon Hill’s chapter on auto suggestion, he goes into detail to explain that material cannot get into the subconscious mind without coming through the conscious mind. The reason you want to get information into the subconscious is because this is how you create your future.

Nature, he writes, has so built man that he has absolute control over the material which reaches his subconscious mind through his five senses. But the fact he does not exercise it explains why so many people go through life in poverty.

I impress upon our filmmakers the importance of writing out your desire and to read it aloud twice daily.

By following these instructions, you communicate the object of your desire directly to your subconscious mind in a spirit of absolute faith. Through repetition of this procedure you voluntarily create thought habits which are favorable to your efforts to transmute desire into its monetary equivalent.

Here is how Napoleon Hill suggests that you create your future:

FIRST: Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. You do not want to say I want plenty of money, you must be definite. Pick a number and state that number. Personally, I like to say a number, but I say over that number so I’m not putting any limits on what I can receive.  You must have a number; it is very important.

SECOND: Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. This might be you want to raise over $20,000 for your film. Next you have to promise that you’re going to work on your film so many hours a week in order to achieve that goal so promise 15 or 20 hours a week as a minimum promise because you need to put the work in to create the funds.

THIRD: Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire. Believe me, the universe is time sensitive so you need a month and a year when you want your return.

FOURTH: Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once whether you’re ready or not to put this plan into action.  I call this the “To Do” list.  Write down what you need to do to get that funding.  Like: expand your data base, create emails to “ask for money”, etc.

FIFTH: Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.

SIXTH: Read your written statement aloud twice daily once before retiring at night, and once after arising in the morning. As you read it, see, feel, and believe yourself already in possession of the money.

You need to believe what you want so much that it happens

Napoleon explains that you must believe it when you say it. You must feel that it already exists and know this in your body and in your mind. This is a fact of such importance as to warrant repetition in every chapter of his book. And here he is absolutely right.   Repetition is important as this is a key to achieving your goal.

Author Neville Goddard, teaches us that you have to pretend like you have it.  I tell our filmmakers to go to bed at night with a “movie” of you in a new life and send that from the conscious to the unconscious. This is how we reach the unconscious which is a very important aspect of creating your future.

Napoleon says that man may be the master of his own earthly status and especially his financial status when he becomes able to influence his own subconscious. That is the most important thing we have to get across to ourselves today that the subconscious is running the show. Our job is to get the subconscious to believe we have what we want.

Creative imagination is a talent filmmakers have

Imagination is a key to your success. 

Napoleon says there are two forms of imagination.  One is synthetic imagination. This is arranging old concepts, ideas, or plans into a new combination. This creates nothing, it works with the material of experience, education and observation. It is most used by the inventor with the exception of the genius who draws upon the creative imagination when he cannot solve his problem through synthetic imagination.

The other is creative imagination This is the faculty through which hunches and inspiration are received. It is by this faculty that all basic and new ideas are handed over to man.  It is through this that thought vibrations from the minds of others are received. It is through this that one individual may “tune in” or communicate with the subconscious minds of other men.

Wow, that’s quite a statement from 100 years ago.   

Your brain is not just for storage 

In Lynne McTaggart’s The Field, we learned that the brain may be considered a sending and receiving unit rather than a storage facility. The brain receives information and sends it back out. From what we understand information comes from the quantum field.  Meaning that the quantum field has stored the knowledge since the beginning of time.  And, when we are using our true imagination, we can ask for guidance, or for a solution from this massive database.

This information will eventually come to you.  I’ll say it has been my experience that this comes to me in various ways.  Sometimes I get the though in my head, sometimes I hear the answer in a movie, or someone tells me the answer in a nonrelated conversation.  Just know when you ask, you will receive.               

What you want to look for is a strong desire that comes over you. It may be stimulated by what someone said or through a series of events, but it is so powerful that it has overtaken you.

The overwhelming desire is your creative imagination at work

This overwhelming desire is what you want to pay attention to. When I started my business of buying and selling motion picture raw film stock in the 1970’s, I just was overwhelmed with the knowledge that I could make a living buying short ends leftover from the studios and selling it to emerging independent filmmakers. No one could talk me out of it. And the fact that I didn’t have any money didn’t stop me because I was so determined that I knew in every bone in my body that I would be successful. 

People said you’ll never sell any film that doesn’t come direct from Kodak. And I had to totally ignore them. They said, “You don’t know raw stock, you don’t understand ASAs.”  They were right. I began researching and   I found a book from Kodak with the film stocks and just used that book.  It was simple.  The most important thing I learned from this is that your inner knowing is right.  Follow that “feeling.”

When you get an overwhelming feeling, you may want to put your mind to it and say OK this is what I want to do.  Say this is what I intend to do, so, now how do I do it?  And those are the questions that you take to the quantum field in your meditations, on your daily walks, when you are swimming, whatever you do where you can be completely open to ask and receive. 

Give yourself meditation or thinking time during the day.  Time you are all alone with no interruptions because sometimes the information comes like a flash out of the blue. This quiet time lets you receive. Through this you can get the guidance that you need to turn those strong desires into reality.

Use your creative imagination that you use for the film into your creation of your future

Napoleon Hill says the great leaders of business industry, finance, the great artists, musicians, and writers became great because they developed the faculty of creative imagination.

I think independent film makers were born with a creative imagination that tops the charts. You all are the most creative people that I have ever met in my life.  All of you just explode with creativity when you open yourself and receive it. You were born with this great gift of imagination.

Ideas are the beginning point of all fortunes. Ideas are products of the imagination.  

The story of Frank Gunsaulus                       

Napoleon Hill shares a story of a doctor, Frank Gunsaulus. This man was a preacher in the stockyard region of Chicago.  While he was going through school, he observed many defects in our educational system which he believed he could correct.

At this time his deepest desire was to become the directing head of an educational institution in which young men and women would be taught to learn by doing. He made up his mind to organize a new college in which he could carry out his ideas. He realized he needed $1,000,000 to put the project together.

Every time he thought about where he could find $1,000,000 he stopped right there.  And every night he took that thought to bed with him, that he needed $1,000,000, and he got up in the morning and he thought about it all day.  But then he recognized the only limitation is that which one sets up in one’s mind.

The only way to make something happen is to take an action on your dream!

He said finally I have a great idea, but I can’t do anything with it because I can never procure the necessary millions.

But one Saturday afternoon in his room, thinking of ways and means of raising the money, he said to himself “I’ve been thinking about this for two years, but I have done nothing. The time for action has come!”

He made up his mind that he would get the $1,000,000 within a week.  After he made this decision, he called the newspaper.  He announced that he would preach a sermon the following Monday morning entitled, “what I would do if I had $1,000,000.”

He wrote and rewrote his sermon and had it in perfect shape for the church. Next morning, he got up, he prayed, and he felt assured that the money would be forthcoming.  In his excitement, he didn’t recognize that he’d forgotten the sermon at home until he got to the church.  He couldn’t go back home for it was too late.  He had to just talk from the top of his head and from his heart.

“Reverend I liked your sermon.”

He delivered a wonderful sermon and quietly went to sit down on the front row.  At that time a man from the back of the church came down towards the pulpit an extended his hand and said, “Reverend I liked your sermon. I believe you can do everything you said if you had $1,000,000 to prove that I do believe in you, if you come to my office tomorrow morning I’ll give you the $1,000,000. My name is Phillip D Armor.” 

The pastor went to the office, got the check, and he founded the Armor Institute of Technology.  Mr Gunsaulus stopped dreaming about it and he finally took an action on his dream. That’s when it happens.  When you do something to make your dreams a reality.

So, what action do you have to take to get your film moving? Are you worried about crowd funding because you don’t have a large enough database?

My How to Fund Your Film class has nearly 3 hours of lessons, advice, and tips that I’ve used to help filmmakers raise over $30 million for their films.  If you have watched this class and have any questions, please email me at caroleleedean@gmail.com.

 

Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-The Art of Film Funding Podcastprofit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcastThe Art of Film Fundinginterviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film productionHer new class “How to Fund Your Film” is available on Vimeo on Demand.  She is also the author of  The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts.  See IMDB for producing credits