Five tips on how to make the most of your networking experience at Slated.

1. Track films you like

If you track someone, they can get in touch with you. If you are an investor, you can always ‘Get An Intro’ to a filmmaker through their film profile. That is your privilege. However, if you track a film you’re interested in, the filmmaker can get in touch with you too.

By tracking a film, you will also be alerted to any updates the filmmaker adds to their profile. For instance, if they secure a high-profile actor or add financing to their project, you will get notified.

2. Click ‘Get An Intro’ 

If you’re visit film profile page that you like, clicking Get An Intro is the first step in investing in a film and starting a dialogue with the filmmaker. All filmmakers are at a stage where they are ready to talk to investors. They will have more material to send you...simply reach out to them and start the dialogue. 

3. Check investment range and 'I'm Interest In' criteria

Make sure that you’re investment range and ‘I’m interested in’ criteria are accurate. At Slated, we don’t want to send you anything you won’t be interested in, so we only alert you to deals that match your criteria. The more accurate your profile is, the smarter we can be.

4. List films you invested in or been involved with

Top-quality filmmakers are attracted to experienced film investors. We know that the better the filmmaker, the more likely they are to work with you on a film if you have invested in, or been involved with, the industry before. So list some of the films you’ve helped produce or finance.

If you are new to the film industry, be open and honest when you reach out to a filmmaker. Tell them about your interest in the film, it’s subject matter, or the team behind it. Build a rapport as you may soon be working with some of the smartest filmmakers and talented story-tellers the film industry has to offer.

5. Check back in regularly

We are adding the highest quality independent films every week, and adding award-winning filmmakers, sales agents and distributors every day. We are also constantly launching more features to help you find projects you like, quickly and easily. So keep checking in.

Reach the most investors, sales agents and distributors on Slated by following these ten tips.

1. Keep adding to your film profile

This is the number one way to get in front of the community. If you raise additional finance, sign a high-profile actor, add a trailer, or get press, click edit and add it to your profile. This way, everyone that is tracking you or your film get an alert.

We will be launching a new feature that allows the Slated community, including investors, to get digests of what is happening on Slated. Adding to your profile will help promote user activity and highlight the momentum behind your project in our digests and on the activity feed of those tracking you.

2. Add all of your principle cast and crew

At Slated we believe that promoting your film begins with the team you're building. Get them to sign up, fill out their profiles, add their networks, and connect with the community.

Everyone attached to your project becomes a marketable element to get your film financed, sold or distributed, so we are constantly adding tools to promote the team you're building.

The more people that are connected to other people, the more buzz you can generate. Investors, sales agents and distributors will want to know who is behind the project before they get in touch with you. For example, if you have an award-winning DP, add them to the film page. An investor may be a fan of a film they worked on.

3. Act on investors tracking you

When someone tracks you, you can contact them. It's that simple.

We've designed the site this way so that once an investor tracks you or your film we assume they are interested in what you're up to and you can message them. We let you know every time someone tracks you or your project so that you can reach out, and open up a dialogue.

Verified Slated investors don't need to track you before they can message you though. We ensure that investors can always contact you through your film profile. That's a feature for investors only.

4. Fill out all your financial information and add investors

List every investor you already have. The money that you’ve raised looks great to prospective investors.

We know that negotiations with film investors are sensitive, but our goal at Slated is to build a trusted and sustainable investment community. So we encourage you to be transparent with your fundraising efforts. Transparency builds trust.

If you want to add financing to your project and demonstrate momentum, we ask your investors to verify that they are atttached. This way, Slated investors can feel confident and trust that other investors are already involved.

But if you are still unsure, you can always make your investor confidential. This means that they will not show up on your film profile.

5. Make your high-profile actors visible

Your profile is a way to communicate to the Slated community that you are making progress and have talent interested in the project.

While the confidentiality feature is great for those not yet ready to be associated with your film, the more attachments you can name and share, the more exciting it will be to investors.

6. Add a trailer or promotional video

Film profiles with videos are far more likely to gain attention from the community at large. This is your opportunity to pitch your vision in a simple promo, giving sales agents, distributors and investors an idea of what the film is about.

More attention will generate more trackers which means climbing the rankings in our search feature. 

7. Update your personal and film status each week

This alerts everyone to the what’s happening with you and your film and acts as a log of all the progress you’re making. Use this to demonstrate momentum, and broadcast breaking news to those that are tracking you.

BE CAREFUL THOUGH. Please don't publish any sensitive financial info as it's against our User Agreement and SEC regulations. If you would like some guidance on updating your status, contact team@slated.com. 

8. Publish 3rd party sales estimates from top sales companies

Sales projections always help investors gather whether this is a good investment or not. But ensure a third party verifies the figures before adding them to the profile. If you have a sales agent attached to the project, add them to your profile, link to their website.  

9. Use the Share feature

To increase your reach and potential for fundraising, it is vital to share your film with your trackers and personal network by clicking the share button located on the profile page you wish to share. Share allows you to send your film profile to all of your trackers on Slated, plus anyone via email. On Slated, if someone tracks you, we assume that they are interested in what you are up to. So we built this feature with that in mind.

10. Check back in regularly

Slated only succeeds if we build the sales, distribution and investment community. We are adding people every day and launching more features to help you raise awareness, increase buzz and connect to the community. So check back in regularly.  

Slated, a next generation marketplace which aims to increase efficiency, transparency and capital flow for the independent film industry, just successfully completed a two month private beta period with its first customers, signing on some of today’s most prolific film producers such as Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte (The Kids Are All Right, Thirteen, Laurel Canyon), Lesley Chilcott (Waiting For Superman, An Inconvenient Truth), MaryJane Skalski (Win Win, The Visitor, The Station Agent) and Rene Bastian (Transamerica, A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints).

Chilcott said of Slated: “Every once in awhile an idea comes along that when you first hear about it, you find it hard to believe that it hasn't been done before, it just makes that much sense. Slated brings crowd funding to a new level.  By actively trying to connect established filmmakers with serious investors that would normally not meet one another, entire new financing models are going to emerge. When I joined Slated last month, I immediately received emails from individuals tracking my next documentary film, "Privacy.””

Kusama-Hinte said of Slated: "Slated is the most inspired innovation in independent film financing that I have seen in years.  It is clearly built upon a profound knowledge of finance, filmmaking, and social networking and provides investors and filmmakers the perfect marketplace in which to bring capital to film production.  It is more than a website or a company, it is the first shot of a coming independent film revolution!”

Already listed on the site, are notable new projects such as TRUST ME (William H Macy, Felicity Huffman), THE WAY, WAY BACK (Sam Rockwell, AnnaSophia Robb), THE MOURNING PORTRAIT (Melissa Leo, Wenthworth Miller), Sally Potter’s BOMB (Elle Fanning, Alessandro Nivola), Marina Zenovich’s ROMAN POLANSKI: ODD MAN OUT and Amy Redford’s PHOENIX (Liv Tyler, Benedict Cumberbatch).

Slated, which exclusively caters to seasoned filmmakers, and award-winning break-out directors, received over 2000 feature film submissions for the private beta, of which 30 were approved, and has signed on accredited investors, including some well known executive producers, production companies, sales companies and distributor, with a combined capital interest of over $100,000,000.

Conceptualized and built to facilitate exclusive access and interactivity between top filmmakers who are looking to introduce their film projects to sophisticated investors, Slated has begun to prove its ability to create a trusted community of industry veterans where producers and production companies can benefit from an exclusive and organized private investment network. Investors and distributors can find the films by tracking those they’re interested in uploaded from validated sources, and a vetted marketplace allows newer investors to begin building relationships with trusted industry leaders and filmmakers.

To maintain strict controls over the quality of the community Slated incorporates a “social proof” mechanism that requires any new applicant to be approved by two existing members they already know. This ensures that the community has a sense of control and responsibility for maintaining a high standard of quality.

Slated’s co-founder and Chairman Stephan Paternot said: “The acute economic downturn has resulted in a severe shortage of investment capital across all industry sectors, including film, making financing independent films increasingly challenging. To a limited extent online “crowd-funding” has begun filling the void for micro budget projects, using donations from fans, however, we decided from the get go to be an equity investment platform only, catering to established filmmakers and financiers looking to raise tens of millions for their films. As such all our investors are accredited investors, about 50% of our investor community represent institutions, distributors and sales companies.”

Slated’s co-founder and CEO Duncan Cork said: “Through Slated’s range of initiatives being developed in its first years of operations and in partnership with the industry, we know that we can strengthen the chances for high-end film material to be more efficiently financed and produced. Slated is about building a sustainable community of trusted film financiers and filmmakers by being the ideal blend of community, commerce and convenience. We supplement existing fundraising efforts by aggregating and educating a ‘new’ investor, and increase fundraising efficiencies through standardization and transparency. This will expand reach beyond what any individual is capable of doing by being on the phone, attending festivals and knocking on the same doors.”

Developed over the course of the last year, Slated has been privately financed by a number of notable technology investors including Barry Silbert, Founder and CEO of SecondMarket, Daniel Borel, Founder of Logitech, and by Stephan Paternot, General Partner of the Actarus Funds (and co-founder of theglobe.com).

Functions available for filmmakers and investors

• List projects for a growing network of high net worth investors interested in financing film.
• Facilitate introductions in order to raise capital from accredited investors, film funds and distributors.
• Maintain the buzz and promote momentum for a growing community of distributors, sales agents, talent agents and other industry professionals.
• Track members of the community to get alerts on cast and crew attachments and to be the first to know when they’re raising funds for their next films.
• Use a tagging system to get films in front of the right investors allowing investors to manage their own deal flow. 
• Update existing investors on your project's progress to demonstrate momentum and generate more interest from the investment community. 

Read The Hollywood Reporter's exclusive article.

As an addition to this fantastic piece by THR, I'd like to add that this would not have been possible without the collaboration of co-founders William Mapother, Gavan Gravesen and Stephan Paternot, or all the hard work and dedication of Jennifer Anderson, Mark Chackerian, Matt Semanyshyn, Susan Wrubel, Christin Roman and the guys at Type/Code. 

We will continue to strive to increase efficiency and capital in independent film. See you online.

Duncan Cork, CEO