How Do Indie Films Get Financed?

[jaxshooter]

I'm a cinematographer,have no real desire to direct or produce but I've been so frustrated with people in my area who fancy themselves "filmmakers" because they all seem to be stuck in neutral as far as getting a project off the ground.

I've been checking out some of the outside of Hollywood,low budget indies and what's interesting is the range of quality I see being bought and distributed.They range from godfukkinawful to fairly decent.It's my understanding that many of these films are done in Canada,Bulgaria and Romania.Budgets are under 100G.

Anyone have a clue on how these things are financed?I rented two over the weekend,The Black Gate (Lion's Gate release,almost competent production,extremely poor acting and disjointed storyline) and Alien Abduction(better production and storyline,some competent acting,not great,very cheesy,distributed by Asylum).

Now these things are obviously making money for somebody or they wouldn't be on the shelf.Anyone have any knowledge of these films and how they got done?These two movies were both film originated so somebody shelled out some $$$ somewhere.