Sunshine after the Raindance Saturday Film School: Wonderful!

I made plenty of notes during the day..

Yesterday I attended the Raindance Saturday Film School in central London at the Old Lumiere Cinema, University of Westminster. The cinema has exceptional historic value having been the home to the Pepper’s Ghost stage illusion, the world’s first photography school, and the first venue on British soil for the Lumiere Brother’s Cinematographe.

That day, however, the cinema was turned into a venue for a  one-day course on getting to grips with the fundamentals of film making.  Elliot Grove, head and founder of Raindance, began the course by taking us on a whirlwind tour of the ins and outs of screenplay writing, the do’s and don’ts, and giving us plenty of tips on producing a screenplay that’s got commercial viability.  I knew none of this stuff at all before I came and it’s making me appreciate all the more the craft of screenplay writing.  I’m determined to give it a go myself.

After a short break (free Pepsi and mineral water were on hand), Elliot went on to explain the art of producing, what it entails, the complexity and importance of obtaining music rights, etc.  At one point I asked if one was to shoot in an art gallery, or where an art installation was on display if you had obtain permission from the artist or gallery owner for reproducing their artwork within your film, and Elliot wasn’t sure – hope to hear from him about this as he said that he was soon to do something himself that would involve this.  I have a feeling that you do need to get the artist’s permission.  IP rights are horrendously complex – but at the same time I think it’s probably a matter of courtesy you ask anyway.

We broke for lunch at 1pm and having made a few new contacts we wondered off to a small deli around the corner of the University and sat and discussed why we were there, what we were doing, etc.  I think we each have skills that would be useful to each other and we exchanged contact details.

In the afternoon session Patrick Tucker gave an absolutely stonking, wonderfully entertaining introduction to film directing and the differences between reality and what the film camera sees.  The man is an absolute riot and is so, so good at what he does.  With wondrous enthusiasm he explains everything clearly and backs everything up with real world examples from existing movies.

After the final short break, Elliot took the stage to explain the various roles within a film production.  My only beef was that he describe special effects as digital effects in post and visual effects as physical effects.  I only spent 7 years working in the visual effects field involved with big blockbuster productions one way or another.  But other than that I felt the advice was good and indeed true – my hobbies got me into the film industry in the first place (i.e. computing) and paid off wonderfully well.  Now that I want to get my hands dirty with production proper – screenwriting, producing and possibly directing, I’m not so sure.  But I think over the years the contacts I made may still prove useful.

All in all, the Raindance Saturday School was a wonderful day out.  Loved it to bits, and I am almost certainly going to (a) sign up to the Pro membership and (b) take on one or more of their in-depth courses – as and when finances permit.  I will say that the course prices are exceptionally reasonable – so it shouldn’t be too hard to go on them sooner rather than later.

Thank you Elliot and the team at Raindance for teaching more about the industry that I used to work in.  A real eye opener and no mistake!  It’s been a real confidence booster too.