Filmmaking Like You’re 5

I grew up on a farm outside Toronto, in a strict Mennonite community. We were self-sufficient: we grew our food, fixed our own tractors, and made our own fun. Movies were considered the devil’s work, so I didn’t see one until I was 16.

That first trip to the cinema – sneaking away during harvest season to see Lassie Come Home (1943) – changed everything. I was transfixed. Not just by the dog, the drama, or the happy ending, but by the way the story made me feel. I didn’t know it then, but I’d just been handed my life’s blueprint.

Years later, after working as a screenwriter, producer and educator, I’ve learned that filmmaking, at its heart, isn’t complicated. Sure, the film industry likes to make it sound complicated – there’s jargon, technical wizardry, and endless job titles. But strip it down, and the fundamentals are so simple you could explain them to a five-year-old.

So that’s what I’m going to do. Whether you’re dreaming of directing the next indie masterpiece or you’ve just bought a camera and have no idea what to do with it, here are the core principles of filmmaking, explained like you’re five years old.

1. A Film Is Just a Story in Fancy Clothes

On the farm, a good story was currency. Winter evenings meant gathering around the kitchen table while someone told a tale — maybe about a fox in the chicken coop or the neighbour who swore he’d seen a UFO.

A film works the same way. It’s just a story you tell with pictures, sounds, and actors instead of words alone.

If the story doesn’t work, no amount of expensive cameras or Hollywood stars will save it. Start with the story. Before you shoot, tell it aloud like a bedtime tale. If people lean in, you’re onto something.

🎯 Core Principle: A good story is the seed. Without it, nothing grows.

2. The Holy Trinity: Writer, Director, Producer

If a film were a farm:

• Writer = The seed supplier, choosing what to plant (the story).
• Director = The farmer, deciding where and how to plant it (the vision).
• Producer = The farm manager, making sure there’s water, tools, and enough people to bring in the harvest (the money and logistics).

Even in the smallest of films, someone has to do each of these jobs. Sometimes it’s all you. But remember: each hat is different.

🎯 Core Principle: Know which hat you’re wearing at any moment.

3. The Three Houses of Filmmaking

Every film is built in three big stages:

• Pre-production – Planning the farm season: deciding what to plant, fixing the tractor, buying seeds. (In film terms: writing, budgeting, hiring, scheduling.)
• Production – Planting and tending the crops: doing the actual work. (In film: shooting your footage.)
• Post-production – Harvest time: sorting the wheat from the chaff. (In film: editing, adding music, sound, and colour.)

Skip one of these stages and you’re like a farmer trying to harvest without planting first.

🎯 Core Principle: You can’t skip a stage and expect a good crop — or a good film.

4. Your Budget = The Size of Your Sandbox

On the farm, some seasons we had shiny new equipment. Other seasons we had to mend the old stuff with bits of wire and hope for the best.

A bigger budget gives you more toys: crew, lights, locations. A smaller budget means you must be cleverer and more resourceful. Some of the best films in history were made on a shoestring.

🎯 Core Principle: Work with what you’ve got, not what you wish you had.

5. Film Is a Team Sport

Harvest time was all hands on deck. Kids, grandparents, neighbours – everyone had a role.
Film is the same:

• Camera department – Plants the seeds (captures the image).
• Sound department – Makes sure the birds are singing (records sound).
• Actors – Bring the field to life (make you feel something).
• Producer/Director – Coach and captain rolled into one.

🎯 Core Principle: Even if you’re solo, treat every job like it matters.

6. Show, Don’t Tell

If I told you, “The barn is old,” that’s fine. But if you see a barn with sagging beams, peeling paint, and a rusty weathervane spinning in the wind, you feel it.

Film is a visual language. Let the audience see and hear the truth instead of telling them.

🎯 Core Principle: Audiences believe what they see, not what they’re told.

7. Sound Matters More Than You Think

Here’s a dirty secret: People will forgive slightly shaky images, but not bad sound. On the farm, you could tell a storm was coming by the sound of the wind through the wheat. Sound carries mood, atmosphere, and meaning.

If you must choose between a better camera or better sound, choose better sound.

🎯 Core Principle: Bad sound makes good images feel cheap; good sound makes cheap images feel good.

8. Editing Is the Final Rewrite

After harvest, we’d sort everything: wheat here, straw there, stones in another pile. Editing is the same — you sift through your footage and keep only what’s nourishing.

Your script is Version #1. The footage is Version #2. The edit is Version #3.

🎯 Core Principle: Films are made as much in the edit as on set.

9. Festivals & Audiences Are the Playground

A story untold is like grain left to rot in the silo. You have to share it. Film festivals, streaming platforms, YouTube — these are the playgrounds where your film plays with an audience. This is what makes Raindance Film School unique: Cutting edge education PLUS co-founders of the Raindance Film Festival – considered one of the top 15 film festivals in the world!

🎯 Core Principle: Making the film is half the job. Getting it seen is the other half.

10. Your First Films Are Pancakes

The first pancake off the griddle is never perfect. That’s fine. Your first film will teach you things you can’t learn any other way. Finish it, learn from it, and make another.

🎯 Core Principle: Don’t chase perfect. Chase progress.

The Beginner’s Step-by-Step Map

• Start with a small story you can actually film.
• Write it simply — one page of script = one minute of screen time.
• Plan your shoot like a party (guests = crew, snacks = equipment, venue = location).
• Shoot with care: good sound, steady shots, capture more than you think you’ll need.
• Edit tightly — cut anything that doesn’t serve the story.
• Share it — festivals, online, friends’ living rooms.
• Repeat — each film is a teacher.

Why This Works – Even for a Farm Kid

When I left the farm and started making films, I thought I needed the fanciest cameras, the biggest crews, the most complicated setups. It took me years to realise that filmmaking isn’t about money or equipment — it’s about resourcefulness, clarity, and collaboration.

I learned those lessons not in a film school, but in the hayfields and barnyards of my childhood. You work with the tools you have, you rely on your team, you tell the story as clearly as you can. And you keep going, season after season, film after film.

That’s what I’ve taught at Raindance for over 30 years: filmmaking doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, it shouldn’t be. If you can explain it to a five-year-old — or a farm kid who’s never seen a movie — you’re on the right track.

🎬 Want to learn filmmaking from the ground up?

Come to the Raindance Saturday Film School — the same one that’s launched the careers of hundreds of indie filmmakers. I’ll walk you through everything from script to screen, just like I’m talking to my 5-year-old self.

Because filmmaking, like farming, is about planting an idea and tending it until it’s ready to share. And there’s nothing more satisfying than watching something you’ve grown take root in the hearts of others.

Come As You Are

Raindance has always been a place where passion trumps polish. Where we make room for the films that wouldn’t otherwise have a home. Whether you’re a first-time director with a 3-minute short, or a veteran working outside the system, we want to see your work.

Because sometimes, the film that doesn’t fit anywhere else… is the one that changes everything.

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