I have developed an online 2-minute x 52 Flash episode series, and a sponsor seems interested in placing a short commercial before each film in exchange for funding. I am more of a writer/creator type, so I am not accustomed to working with budgets - how much do I charge for such a spot? My work has been featured on the front page of YouTube & MySpace several times, so I anticipate that each short will get a minimum of 250,000 views online, but I'm not sure what that comes out to "sponsor-wise". Truthfully, I would prefer to get a flat fee for producing the short and hiring some freelancers to work on it, rather than funding it upfront and getting paid backend CPM/CPC. Does anyone have a ballpark?
Short film commercial sponsorship costs?
By Shinygrape | Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 8:49am
#1
Short film commercial sponsorship costs?
If you come to know, let us know too.
Thanks
How did you got the sponsor ?
I wish someone answer this.
Oops, I never received an e-mail that noted that you replied to this, Karen.
To find a sponsor, you sort of just have to ask around - mass e-mailing never works because the market is flooded with shady people. I meet sponsors at networking events and such, but it's not easy. You really need to put yourself out there, and it's important to have some sort of "track record".
With this particular property, I ended up doing it as liveaction over animation because it was a bit cheaper. I did AdShare on YouTube on the backend to recoop some costs because I am a YouTube partner, and I worked out deals with the venues where I shot the short "Shoutouts" at the end of the film and guaranteed screenings at festivals in exchange for free space rental and modest sponsorship fees.
Honestly, you end up spending more time coordinating sponsorships in pre-production than actual time in production!! My advice is to work with a producer or person that is comfortable with sales and ONLY dedicated into getting your film funding.
If you try to write/animate/edit/fund the entire film yourself, you are going to drive yourself nuts and your end product will suffer for it.
youtube cpm is said to be under $1. use that as a figure.