In a previous installment, I wrote how we completed a screenplay for PLUTOMAR, a monster thriller, and how we determined the film's proposed $90,000 budget. We are now taking the next steps, which include preparing the funding process.

TALENT

I always cast my films early, even before we seek funding. The main reason is that we can show potential investors who is cast in the film. This makes the project more real in their eyes.

The best way to find hopeful talent for your film is to place an ad in Backstage Magazine (www.backstage.com) This well respected weekly publication is read by almost all professional and student actors nationwide.

Your ad should have a brief character description for the parts you are looking for. We were looking for Desidera, a wall-flowerish young girl who harbors dark, deadly secrets, Carl Roitz, a flamboyant young archeologist, a leader of a Manhattan Street Gang, and Dr. Takarada, a Japanese scientist.

We got nearly 1000 headshots and resumes. I like confusing the mailman by saying they are my credit card bills. For Desidera, we got headshots from what must have been every young New York actress. The resumes range in talent and ability, and strangeness. Actors usually list their special talents. Some of my favorites "special talents" were "I have an identical twin sister","I can descend staircases by bouncing on my head" and "I won on The Dating Game." We saw about thirty actresses at our audition.

Anybody who is scheduled for an audition is mailed sides two weeks in advance. Sides are the two pages of dialog actors have to read at auditions. Some came in, flatly reading sides the way the class pothead was made in 10th grade English to read "Hamlet." Many came in memorizing the part, giving terrific "reads." For Desidera, we narrowed our choices down to four actresses, then picked from there.

We finally chose New York based Erin Cummiskey. Erin, who has the perfect look for the part is also a comedic playwright, furniture repairperson, and working actress (She has no twin sister, and she can't bounce down the stairs on her head!)

What helped us decide on casting Jeff Pucillo as Carl Roitz was the fact we could log onto his website, www.jeffpucillo.com. We were able to find a film reel there.

Sometimes, an auditioning actor can add to the material you present them. This happened with John Roberts, a 24 year old New Jersey newcomer who I chose for the Street Gang Leader. John auditioned by using the street-kid habit of adding sound effects to his dialog. "One shot, and BAP! I'll kill whatever monster you want!"

Stephanie Wang, who won the part of Dr. Takarada came to the audition dressed in a lab coat and holding medical props. The rest of the cast were made up of talent from my last film, SHARP AND SUDDEN.

In order for a film like PLUTOMAR to make money, you need a name in the film. We found a whole list of Celebrity names by referring to Alan Gottlieb's Celebrity Address Book.

The book lists the mailing address of celebrities from all walks of life. We sent requests to Sandra Bernhardt, director John Waters, Bob "Gilligan" Denver, and Mayflower Madam Sidney Biddle Barrows. We got replies from Sergei Khrushchev (son of the ex-Russian premier), fighter Leon Spinks and Bryant Gumble's secretary!

For the part of a corrupt jewelry fence who buys cursed Plutomar jewelry, we called upon actress/model Kelly Kole. Kelly has appeared as one of the Bada-Bing club dancers in THE SOPRANOS, appeared in Playboy, and maintains a very popular website.

GET INCORPORATED

Once we get $ 90,000. Where do we put it? Who does it really belong to? Paul Kanter, CPA, the co-producer of PLUTOMAR, answers this question:

"If you are working with outside investors and with significant amounts of money, you will want to form some sort of formal corporation. The IRS has made Limited Liability Corporations (LLC's) much more advantageous.

If you put in $ 10,000 into an LLC, and the LLC is successfully sued for $1,000,000, your liability is limited to $10,000. In an LLC, an owner can have 50% of your film's profits without having 50% ownership of the film.

Contributions to the LLC can be made in form of cash, donations, services or a promissory note."

THE BUSINESS PLAN

A successful producer, who just raised money for a small feature helped me write the PLUTOMAR business plan. " In a business plan, the hopeful investor wants to see the numbers." is what he told me. The key things to have in a business plan are your film's budget (a simple budget summary is fine), a schedule of when you believe the film will make money, and how the film will be marketed. It's best to refer to films that are similar to yours in genre, budget and star power. We are not going to compare the film to big budget monster films and say "GODZILLA made millions, why can't we??!!" We looked up on how "Grade B" monster film are doing.

Most importantly, you need a Risk Awareness page, a page that lets the hopeful investor know what happens in the worst case scenario (The film is not finished, the film does not make a dime)

LOCATIONS

In the plan you may also want to show potential investors intended locations. One of the best locations we found was an old abandoned, decaying Chinese restaurant from the 1930s. It's on the second floor of a local store. We went to location owners.

Another location we found was a Beach House on Long Island's North shore. This is perfect for a scene in PLUTOMAR set in the 1932. A location photo of the Beach House is available by going to the following link: http://hometown.aol.com/gandreiev/myhomepage/photo.html

In two weeks: How we got donations, and coming across our first obstacles. I can be e-mailed at Gandreiev@aol.com, for any more questions, comments, suggestions.