An essential guide to breaking into the film industry, and finding the funding you need to develop your movie.

In the last decade development funding in the film business has all but vanished. The polarization of visual storytelling into studio franchise blockbusters and highly individual stories for multiple platforms has given rise to the key role now played by Media Labs where visual storytellers can be mentored and develop their ideas.

Often located in tandem with film festivals, the number of Media Labs is growing exponentially. In the best Media Labs, you can find help and support to experiment and push the boundaries of storytelling. Participation in such prestigious Labs as Sundance, Berlinale and Hong Kong Film Financing Forum is often the difference between making or not making a film or media project.

This book tells you where the Media Labs are, how to apply, what they really offer and most importantly, how to get into them. It also includes a history and discussion of the development of Media Labs, and an exploraton of how they will play a key part in the fast-changing digital world, now affecting all independent film-makers, both big and small.

Finally, no film guide would be complete without information about accessing investment funding for films. Like gold-dust, film-funding can be the hardest money to find – and successfully raising development funding is a primary skill which all budding film-makers need to master.

Gabrielle Kelly, a screenwriter and producer, is also a media educator and story expert. She has worked in Hollywood on both studio and indie films and on productions from Russia, Brazil, China and Europe. Her films include: All the Queen’s Men, Stag, D.A.R.Y.L. for Paramount / Columbia, and her script of indie feature All Ages Night, set in the music scene of LA. She developed and edited the industry bible, The Movie Business; a Legal Guide with entertainment lawyer, Kelly Crabb and was awarded the Female Maverick Award by the Female Eye Film Festival 2014 in the USA for her book Celluloid Ceiling: women directors breaking through.