Funding Eternal Media: Marcus Fair

Marcus points out that Eternal Media is not a ‘pink fluffy charity’ to whom people are likely to donate. The public are unlikely to fund addicts, alcoholics and prison leavers, although you would think that society would want people coming back into their community, crime-free, drug-free, and helping other people. 

Whilst Eternal gets a little charitable funding from time to time, they survive on the funding from commissions they undertake to make films or run training courses. Marcus says: ’We had a BBC producer here a couple of months ago and he was looking through some of our films and he goes, how much do you charge for that? And I told him, and he goes, you need to quadruple your rate.’ Marcus knows they wouldn’t get that amount of money in the field they operate.

The National Lottery has been fantastic, funding two ‘Recovery in Focus’ for £10,000 each. Now they are providing funding for five others. Marcus would ‘love a fairy godmother or father to come along and just wave a wand, give us a few million, allow us to give projects to people.’ There are lots of charities and social enterprises out there doing amazing work. Marcus would love to be able to approach some of them and say ‘we want to make a film highlighting the wonderful work you do’. Instead, he spends 85-90% of his time either pitching for work, writing proposals, or putting a bid together, rather than actually doing work that helps people turn their lives around. 

Despite the funding issues, Marcus says: ‘… it all seems worth it when you're just working with someone and they've got long dead eyes and you just see that spark of creativity come in their eyes and they get it and something changes.’ Marcus Fair is Founder of Eternal Media. 16 January 2024.