Ben Tan is an exciting new director marked by Bresson and Haneke; he discusses his powerful short Dog, inventive video for Sophie Thatcher and the artistic solutions he came upon. As a young filmmaker, I’ve seen my fair share of recent short films; none have equalled Ben Tan’s Dog. It tells the story of 19-year-old […]
Film finance is rarely defeated by one missing cheque. It collapses because several unanswered questions pile up behind the screenplay. These seven questions have been asked of me countess times. The answers will help you identify the gaps in your project. You need to understand what investors need. Then you build a film that has […]
Every New Year’s Eve millions of people design their future film career. They set themselves ambitious goals: Write my screenplay. Direct my short film. Produce my debut feature. Get into a festival. Find an agent. Build a career in film. By February, many of those ambitions have quietly slipped away. Not because people aren’t talented. […]
Perspective. That’s what filmmakers are really after when they put a scene on a rooftop. Because a rooftop doesn’t just change the view, it changes the viewer. Just think about what happens the moment the characters reach the top. They push open the heavy door, step into the open air, and suddenly the world feels […]
When Maxin Jago of the Creativity Conference asked me to do a keynote speech on why I am creative I thought long and hard. Here is the text of the speech I gave at Raindance on June 26,2026 Good morning everyone. When I was invited to speak today, I was asked a deceptively simple question: […]
It started, as many independent films do, with a room full of ideas and no guarantees. The BFI-supported pitching session wasn’t just about finding a strong concept — it was about finding people. People willing to bet on themselves. Among dozens of hopefuls, what emerged wasn’t just a project, but a team: directors, writers, editors […]
Film investors operate on a whole new way today. For decades, filmmakers have been taught that the most important thing is the film itself. Write the best screenplay. Cast the right actors. Shoot beautifully Edit tightly. Finish the film. Supposedly, then the audience, festivals, distributors and investors will arrive. That model is collapsing. Not because […]
Nobody is coming. Stop pretending you can be discovered. There is no exhausted studio executive wandering the streets of London praying to find your unread screenplay in a coffee shop. Nor a bleary-eyed film buyer from a distribution company wondering what gem is sitting on your hard drive. The film industry is full of talented […]
Independent cinema has always been obsessed with the wrong question. People ask how to become successful. How to get representation. How to get into festivals. Or how to get financing. But beneath all of those questions is another one the industry rarely says out loud: How does a filmmaker become hot? Because once heat exists, […]
A Raindance Reality Check What Kind of Filmmaker Are You? Our founder claims to have fumbled and bumbled around for yesrs. stopping, starting, and never finishing anything. Does this hit a not4e with you? We were tidying up the office on Friday ahead of the Spring Bank Holiday and found this Raindance Reality Check: Seven […]
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