When Preston Stutzman and Blue Yonder pitched Hoodwinked! (right) to an investor, a Wobots clip turned a lackluster meeting around. © 2005, The Weinstein Co. All rights reserved (right) and © Live Bait Prods.

You have this phenomenal idea. An idea the likes of which Hollywood, or anyone else for that matter, has never seen, never even considered how life could be changed by this bit of animation that's churning around in your brain.

There's only one problem. Hollywood has already said "no." Or, more likely, "It's a good idea. We have one just like it in development." Or maybe the stars aligned and you managed a meeting that resulted in a "Yes! Yes, that's a wonderful idea. Of course we'll have to turn the main character of the Wise Snail into a Spike Dragon of Death, but otherwise it's fine."

But you like your Wise Snail and this is a story that must be told. Does that mean you have to cash out your 401k, mortgage your house, max out your credit cards and eat beans for the next 18 months?

The answer: maybe.

But before you go that route, you might want to consider finding an outside investor.

Preston Stutzman notes that Blue Yonder became independent by default, not by choice. The company produced the live-action short, Chillicothe, after trying to make it a feature film. Credit: Dale Berman (left) & Bill Welch Photography (right)

A Fairytale Come True
Preston Stutzman, producer at Blue Yonder Films of Hoodwinked! fame says, "We often said that we were independent by default, not by choice." The company, which was formed in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1995, wasn't exactly unproven talent, either. Their live-action film, Chillicothe, made it to Sundance in 1999. Even so, Preston says, "Everyone always seemed to have the same response which was, yeah that's great. Let us know how it goes."

Blue Yonder started with a simple goal, "We were writers, directors and producers coming together to create our own original project." Soon after forming, they showed up in Los Angeles with a completed trailer for the film they hoped to make. While the trailer got them their first agent, they weren't able to take it any further. "We realized that we were trying to make too big of a movie so we stopped trying to push that big ball up the hill and made Chillicothe, a much smaller indie film.

The financing for Chillicothe took 10 months and was the classic combination of contributions from friends and family coupled with a tight budget. "We started filming without all the funding and then raised some more money during filming. And then once we got into Sundance we had to raise an additional $50,000. So we were raising money as we went on that project."

Sundance did reward them with an investor to fund their next film... until the investor pulled out three days before production. "We spent the next two years just in development."

Development and day jobs, until they got the opportunity to make the straight to video animated project called Wobots, which was funded by a friend of theirs. After Wobots, they partnered with another producer to pitch a live action project to an investor in San Francisco. During the pitch, they showed him a clip from Wobots, which was the ingredient that turned a lackluster meeting into a tremendous opportunity. As it turned out, that investor was a gigantic fan of animation. He sent the team back to L.A. to come up with an animated feature. They returned one month later and pitched Hoodwinked!. "He loved it and we got started."

Got started and got started quickly. Within two weeks, the deal was made and they were writing the screenplay.