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Your Film Is Finished. Now What? The Most Heartbreaking Place Filmmakers Get Stuck

July 01, 2026•2 min read

Your Film Is Finished. Now What? The Most Heartbreaking Place Filmmakers Get Stuck

I have a theory that filmmakers get stuck in several places that are the same for all of us. We think it’s us. We think it’s our own fault. But actually, these 5 or 6 places are where most filmmakers get stuck. IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT!!!!

As I discuss in my book “Getting Your FIlm Funded Produced and Distributed Globally,” there are 5 or 6 places that many filmmakers get stuck: trying to raise too much money to raise their first feature; spending their own money to make films and never learning to become a fundraiser; working on too many projects at the same time without getting that first feature finished, and the one I will be discussing in my upcoming workshop: finishing production of a feature film and not know what to do next. But today, I am going to talk about the most heartbreaking stuck place: after the film is finished.

First of all, what do we mean by finished? Is it finished when production wraps? One of my clients wrapped production a week ago, and after a good rest, post production begins. Is the film finished at picture lock, as one colleague just told me? Well the purpose of locking picture is simply to start working on the sound, and then the color. So, picture lock is not the end?

One of my clients just had the first screening of his second feature. He just completed sound and color, and so, is his film finished? For many filmmakers, having a screening says the film is finished. Perhaps the first screening at a film festival and the film is finished. But from my perspective, there is still a very long way to go.

In my way of seeing it, the film is finished only when it is distribution. In order to go from first screening to distribution is a long and perilous journey.

1. The producer needs to find a sales agent/distributor and negotiate a distribution deal
2. Once this contract is signed, the filmmaker receives a long list of items to submit to the sales within 30 days. Often filmmakers don’t know what this long list of items entail
3. The deliverables do not only include the film, they also include the legal documentation and marketing assets including a poster, a trailer, and stills from the film.
4. And one of the most important elements I insist my clients have is a marketing budget to market the film themselves whether or not the sales agent says they are marketing the film.

There are a surprising number of large, technical and high level tasks required to actually complete a feature film. I don’t mean for this to be frightening to my filmmaker readers, but instead to be prepared for what is a long process.

Join us on Monday, July 20 for our next workshop “Congrats! You Finished Your Film! Now What?

Joanne Butcher (joannefilm)

Joanne Butcher is a film business and fundraising coach whose clients collectively represent over 153 feature films in development, 25 feature films in distribution, and a PBS series. She has consulted on 50+ successful crowdfunding campaigns and brings decades of cross-sector fundraising experience to her company, Filmmaker Success. Through programs such as The Film Box Office S.U.C.C.E.S.S. Formula™ and The Virtual Fundraising Team, Joanne helps filmmakers and nonprofits rethink fundraising, raise money strategically, and achieve sustainable results.

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