Author: Chris Thomas

Chris Thomas has been teaching and developing film directing courses for film directing with Raindance since 2000, with a strong emphasis on storytelling and communications skills. Chris learnt his key skills from acting and directing in the theatre where the focus was always on using limited resources and engaging the audience’s imagination; it was a natural shift for him into filmmaking. As a teacher, Chris prioritises the clear communication and encourages his students to harness their individual talents through the methods he demonstrates. He first and foremost believes learning is a two-way process, and as a filmmaker, it never ends. Recently, Chris has shot the teaser trailer for the psychological thriller, Dead of Winter and also short film Emma’s Last Date. He is currently in development with his dark comedy feature script, The Devil You Don’t.

Script Mining For Directors – 5 Top Tips

A film director strives to be technically adept, to develop a great visual style and to solicit strong performance from our actors. Every director excels in certain areas over others. No matter where our key strengths lie, film directors need one thing first. Directors need to know their script inside out. Knowing your story will […]

Direct Films Like Sherlock

Here’s how film directors can learn to direct films from the world’s first consulting detective We film directors immerse ourselves in pre-production, and countless planning meetings. We are always re-working our approach to the story, the way we visualise it, with help from our collaborators. I, for one, often think I direct like Sherlock Holmes: […]

Script Analysis for Directors – Five Top Tips

As a film director, we may be very technically adept, have a great visual style or be skilled at soliciting a strong performance from our actors; we should aim to be all three. However, no matter where our key strengths lie, we need one thing first to be able to shine in those areas. We […]

Rehearsing Actors Do’s and Don’ts

There are many different ways of rehearsing actors for your movie. Chris Thomas believes are the key Do’s and Don’t of rehearsing actors: 1. DO Prepare in advance of casting and meeting the actors. Taking some acting classes yourself would help you understand and bond with your actors a bit better. As well as the visualization, […]

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