Oscar Vs Oscar

There has been a lot of debate as to whether or not this year's Oscar films are better (or worse) than last year's batch.

Wer thought we would assign this interesting question to one of our fabulous interns - the American John Leahey, and he has come up with some scientific evidence that might just make you think.

Read Oscar vs Oscar

So You Want To Be An Actor?

Lianne Silano is one of our fabulous interns and is also an actress-in-waiting. She has really impressed the Raindance team with her hard work and willingness to accept some of the most boring tasks imaginable at Raindance - like emailing each and every inquiry for our popular Saturday Film School - 30 - 60 different emails a day.

Imagine my delight when she put together an article of the 10 main acting schools and built a new article on the Raindance Film Festival website. And all this from a passing comment that I couldn't really remember a few of the main acting schools.

Read her: So You Want To Be An Actor and get informed yourself.

7 Film Effects I Bet You Thought Were CGI

Believe it or not, ladies and germs, I am actually prepping my first feature in 6 years and one of the things I was worried about was whether to do practical effects or rely on CGI

I managed to convince Kelsey, one of our amazing interns to reesearch practical effects shots that everyone might assume were CGI and she has come up with some zingers - effects scenes that I didnt realise were real. And what is more, many of these smazing shots were conceived and directed by Raindance alumnus Christopher Nolan.

Have I got your attention now?

Read  7 Practical Effects In Movies You Probably Thought Were CGI

Don't thank me, thank Kelsey

Preparing For A Film Market

The European Film Market gets into full swing today. It's a great place to meet filmmakers, producers and financiers. It's also where you go to finance or sell your film.

How do you pay for all those coffees, to say nothing of the hotel and travel bills? And how do you prepare for a film market?

Read more here:
Preparing for A Film Market

3 Mistakes When Trying To Motivate a Micro Budget Film Crew

Sometimes the criticism that I only teach filmmaking and don't actually do anything really stings. It's as if sifting through 4,000 festival submissions counts for naught. Or having 40% of the films we choose get snapped up for distribution. Anyway - enough of the moaning.

For the first time since 1997 I am about to embark on a micro-budget feature. I have made about 150 shorts since the last feature I produced in 2006 – but for this new one is really a back to basics 'home invasion movie'. I resisted another 'one room movie' for a long time because they are a dime a dozen. Having read and considered about 50 of these I have finally found one that will live up to the word "Raindance". More on that later - we are in the delicate casting process.

I was looking past my old notes and came up with some new ideas. Filmmakers trying to boost morale on no-budget shoots can easily destroy it altogether unless they avoid these 3 morale building mistakes:

Read: 3 Mistakes When Trying To Motivate a Micro Budget Film Crew

Steal My Movie Idea

I have been pretty silent the past fortnight - unusual for me. I was in Rome of the launch of Raindance Roma and on the 8th I am going to Berlin for their terrific festival and another Raindance party. It sounds glamourous but in fact it is very tiring - but fun!

My good friend in NYC Ronni Thomas has an interesting idea:

Since we are all pretty lazy and always bitch and complain how we thought of ideas first but were too lazy to execute them, why not just do what Steve Jobs, Bill GAtes and many other entrepreneurs do: just blatantly steal.

He then lists several hilarious movie ideas he would like you to stel - and I am serious:

Read: Steal My Movie Idea