“Produce Smarter – Financing Low Budgets”

Screenwriter/producer/attorney Steve Edmiston will share two decades of lessons learned about finding money for low budgets in the rapidly evolving indie filmmaking ecosystem, including fiscal sponsorships; winning the grant-getting game; the good, bad, and ugly of crowdsourcing; government and NGO subsidies; the state of state incentives; finding friends, family, and angels; and good old fashioned capitalism.

Steve is an independent film writer and producer; he is also a business and entertainment attorney. His feature films (as writer/producer) include Crimes of the Past, A Relative Thing, Farewell to Harry, and 2015 release The Periphery Project. His award-winning shorts and web series include most recently The Maury Island Incident (BIFF 2014 Opening Night Gala). He serves on the Port Townsend Film Festival Board of Directors, and teaches screenwriting at the University of Washington and film producing at the Seattle Film Institute.