Grants are a wonderful way to start thinking about your film. Not only do they give you funding if you get it, but they also through the application process, get you thinking about what your story is and why it matters. If you can convince granters that you have a relevant important film that needs to be made, you'll be able to convince audiences to watch your film. Depending on your genre or when in the production process you're at, there are dozens of grants that you can apply for. You can look for them online. There are some excellent lists, such as the ones by PBS from The Heart, Film Daily, and No Film School. As you look through grants, figure out what would be good grants for you to play now and down the line. Different grants on different stages in the production process. You have development grants, which tend to fund things before you do any filming or when you've done very little filming. You have production grants, which are given to you when you're in the middle of filming. You have post-production grants, which are given to you when you're done with filming and you're in the editing process. Development grants are less competitive and they help you get production grants later. So it's a great idea to always apply for development. Think about who you are as a filmmaker or who you have on your team. There are a number of grants out there that are geared at helping on the represented people in the film industry, having more permanent role in it. If you're a woman, a person of color, a queer person, a disabled person, or a veteran, for example, there are some grants out there that are geared exactly at those populations that you could apply for. Depending on where you live, you can also apply for regional grants. These grants are geared to helping local artists or artists who were telling stories about that particular region. There are also a lot of grants dedicated to stories about particular topics or issues. If you're making a film, for example, about social justice, environment, animal welfare, or a particular country, there may be grants out there that are geared exactly at what you're doing and you should apply for them. Most grants will ask that you have a fiscal sponsor and many of them will offer to be your fiscal sponsor. Fiscal sponsorship is key because it separates your personal assets from your film's assets and you won't have to pay taxes on the funds you get to make your film. Fiscal sponsors helped with accounting for your finances and some of them provide mentorship. They all charge a percentage of your earnings. The percentages range between five and seven percent. Some of the most well-known sponsors are film-independent, the film-collaborative, and from the heart. As you look at sponsors to decide which one you want to apply to, you want to look at what percentages they charge, what kind of things they offer in return, and whether they're sponsoring films that are similar to your own. It's never too early to start thinking about grants. As soon as you get an idea for a film, you want to start browsing and looking for grants that it might be applicable to. Make a list. Set the deadlines and keep track of it. For some grants, you won't be able to know when the applications are open unless you sign up for their newsletter. So do so. One way to write a grant that meets the tastes and requirements of a particular grantor is to look at applications that have won in the past. However, grantors do not share that with you. They do tell you who won their grants in the past on their website. What you can do is contact those filmmakers, tell them you're in emerging filmmaker who is applying to the same grant they won, and that you would love to see whatever part of their winning materials they're willing to share with you. Filmmakers tend to be generous and they're often willing to share their materials with you. Once you get your hands on those materials, study them very carefully and see which parts you can imitate for your own application. Once you decide which grants you want to apply for, contact them with a question, not answered in the FAQs. If you feel more comfortable on the phone, call them. If you prefer email, email them. But make sure you contact them, so that when your application gets there, they have a small sense of who you are. Be extremely kind, and polite, and thankful. People always remember rudeness. In the next video, we'll give you a sense of the grant application requirements that are shared between documentary and narrative film.