Last night I went to a Raindance class on film financing. Other than an open evening a couple of years back, most of which I seemed to spend listening to the woes of an increasingly drunk Irishman, this is the first time I’ve dipped my toes in the Rainwater.
The lecture’s chief effect was to teach me why no-one has picked up Dark Side yet. Explanations of things like completion bonds shed light on certain concerns that were brought up by the financing company I dealt with last summer.
When I give lectures myself, I always advise people to go to the pub after any course they attend, because that’s where the important networking is done. So despite wanting to get home in time for Family Guy, I practiced what I preached and followed half a dozen or so other attendees and the lecturer to the bar around the corner. (I felt strangely as if I’d just been to a Rural Media workshop in Hereford and it was 1998 all over again.)
Stories of fundraising woe were shared – this time without drunkness, Irishness or bitterness over a financially and emotionally crippling divorce. After hearing about how I made Soul Searcher, including The Guardian’s article and the DVD release, one of my fellow attendees said, “You must have no trouble getting money for your new film.” If only.