The process
It's all just one film to me. Just different chapters.
- Robert Altman (1925-2006)
Our 8-day program is held on a pristine 160 acre property in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. You'll be engaged in a unique learning environment and provided with hearty meals, fresh air and a view to die for.
- Day 1 (pm): Arrival, welcome and dinner.
- Day 2: Orientation. Location shooting - shooting possibilities explored/discussed on a 160 acre property. The importance of location and how a good location can add huge production value to your film (just as a good DP does). Introduction to film grammar.
- Day 3: Demystifying previous low budget successes. Five historically important films that directly relate to independent filmmakers. Film as an art form, focusing on Kurosawa, Kubrick, Bergman, Lumet, David Lynch and P. Thomas Anderson. Films that awaken the social consciousness, specifically concentrating on director Ken Loach.
- Day 4: The story is everything: screenwriting, screenplays, collaborating with writers and script doctors, story editing, realistic dialogue, building characters, scene study. Raphael will include a critique of his last screenplay by Oscar Winner Bille August. The importance of research. Getting your script in the right hands.
- Day 5: Handling development issues with your film and the various stages of production. Students’ input into the remaking of Raph’s next movie – a remake of a successful Chinese film starring Chow Yun Fat.
- Day 6: How to find and build a successful team, including casting, hiring crew, dealing with producers you can trust and involving agents to help get you the talent. Raising cash.
- Day 7: Dealing with actors and getting those Oscar worthy performances. Raphael was trained at The Method Studio – London under Marianna Hill (The Godfather II, High Plaines Drifter). Early on, Raph was an actor on the stage, in commercials and in films.
- Day 8: Logistics of shooting a film. How to put it all together. The importance of sound. Editing. Problems to expect when not paying the going rate. Expensive mistakes to avoid. Networking possibilities.