I first came to know Raindance when I took the 2 day film production course over my birthday weekend in the mid-90s, much to the annoyance of my then girlfriend. The blistering 2 day lecture taught me the basics of filmmaking, skills that I have used ever since.
Do Elephants Pray?
My first film to screen at Raindance was a semi-autobiographical feature called “Do Elephants Pray?” I had trained as an actor not a filmmaker, but I stumbled into producing this when in 2007 the director Paul Hills read the spec screenplay I had written in Cannes, he proposed that we produce it between us. We set up a company called Elephant Features to make the film. Drawing on what I had learnt from the 2 day course, and under Paul’s guidance, we raised a small cash budget, and shot the film over 6 weeks in the UK and France, and actually shot it on film (S16mm).
The finished film premiered at Raindance in 2010. It went on to screen at festivals around the world, winning many awards. It was finally released on a limited theatrical run in the UK followed by a DVD release. The DVD is still available,
Paul Hills, myself, and actor Marc Warren were interviewed on Raindance TV.
Monk3ys
A year later I was back at Raindance as one of the producers of the microbudget film a confinement thriller called “Monk3ys”, written and directed by Drew Cullingham. The film, produced through Elephant Features, was well received, and won the award for Best Microbudget Film. Not bad for a feature film that cost just £500 to make – genuinely. We sold it to Croatian TV and made a profit!
Black Smoke Rising
Another year on, 2012, and I was back at Raindance with a third premier, this time as producer of the film “Black Smoke Rising”, a deeply personal tale of love, loss and blues music, again written and directed by Drew Cullingham.
Three feature film premiers in three successive years. As far as I am aware I am the only producer to be able to make this claim.
But, the best was yet to come…
In Circles
In 2014 I wrote, produced and directed a feature called “In Circles” with a long-term collaborator Ian Manson who had worked with me on the previous 2 films. It centres around the phenomenon of crop circles, the vast bulk of which appear in the Wiltshire countryside just a few miles from where I grew up. We kept the crew as small as possible in order to be as mobile as possible (something inspired from Shane Meadow’s experiences on “One Upon a Time in the Midlands.”) and shot it across 3 weeks in the summer, going wherever the new crops circles appeared, and working the story around the locations, and improvising a lot of it.
There was a long post production on that film (a world away from the 6 months Monk3ys took from first day of filming to premier) but in 2016 we submitted it to Raindance.
That same year two other films I had worked on were selected for the festival (one “The Power” as an actor, and the other “Servants’ Quarters” as an associate producer) so when “In Circles” was chosen at the last minute due to a drop out from another film I was delighted, three films in the same year, and a fourth premier in 7 years!
As a direct result of the screening at Raindance we signed it with 108 Media in Canada who released the film in North America. We also signed with the LA based sales agent Adler & Associates, who then went on sign “Black Smoke Rising” as well, plus a short I had made with Ian in 2014.
“In Circles” and “Black Smoke Rising” are now available on Amazon Prime around the world in something like 80+ countries. “In Circles” is also available on PPV and cable TV in the USA.
Not bad for two feature films that cost £10,000 each to make.
For more details check out my site or facebook page.
In conclusion, Raindance has been a part of my filmmaking journey, I have attended many seminars and events, even had the privilege of being on a couple of panels.
Thank you Raindance, long may you “reign”…..
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Jonnie is a multi award-winning producer, actor, screenwriter and production manager, working on numerous features and shorts with budgets ranging from £500 to £5m.
