In my history at Raindance Film Festival, which began in 1992, I’ve witnessed multiple revolutions in how films are made, shown, and valued.
Back then, everything was celluloid.
If you wanted to screen a film, you needed reels, projectors, trained projectionists, and physical infrastructure. Filmmaking was expensive, slow, and tightly controlled. Access was limited. Gatekeepers ruled. Festivals were temples to scarcity.
That was the first era, then something radical happened.
In 1997, we screened a feature shot entirely on video: Mary Jane is Not a Virgin Anymore. There was no established workflow for this. No accepted protocol. I literally ran a cable from the projection booth to a video projector inside the cinema. It was clumsy, improvised, and completely outside industry norms.
But it worked. To my knowledge, it was the first time a video feature had been shown at a film festival anywhere.
People forget how shocking that moment was.
Video wasn’t “cinema.” It wasn’t respectable. It wasn’t professional. But it was cheaper, faster, and more accessible — and that made it dangerous to the old order.
That single screening signalled something much bigger: the beginning of democratised filmmaking.
Over the following years, digital cameras improved. Editing software became affordable. Distribution slowly followed. By around 2010, cinemas themselves had gone fully digital. Film prints disappeared. DCPs replaced reels. Projection booths became server rooms.
Another era ended quietly.
And now, in 2026, we are standing at the edge of the next transformation.
Artificial intelligence.
I don’t use that phrase lightly.
AI isn’t just another tool upgrade. It isn’t simply faster editing or better VFX. It represents a structural shift in how creative work is produced, scaled, monetised, and owned.
Just like video challenged celluloid.
Just like digital challenged labs and projectionists.
AI is challenging everything at once.
Scripts. Performances. Design. Marketing. Distribution. Even the idea of authorship.
Some people are excited. Some are terrified.
Most are confused.
What I see, having lived through multiple transitions, is both a threat and an opportunity. And as always, they arrive together.
The threat is obvious: automation, consolidation, platform dominance, and shrinking creative middle classes. We’re already watching major tech players pour billions into infrastructure while quietly redesigning the economics of culture.
But the opportunity is less talked about.
AI lowers barriers again.
It allows small teams to do what once required studios. It enables rapid prototyping of ideas. It rewards experimentation. It shifts power away from slow institutions and toward agile creators who understand systems, not just projects.
Sound familiar?
It’s the same pattern we saw with video. And with digital.
The tools change.
The underlying dynamic doesn’t.
Creators who adapt early build leverage.
Creators who wait for permission get left behind.
Over the past year, I’ve been studying this shift intensely. Not from a tech-utopian perspective, and not from a fear-based one either, but from the practical viewpoint of creative survival.
What does a filmmaker’s career look like when production becomes abundant?
What happens when distribution is algorithmic?
How do you build something durable when platforms consolidate and automate?
These questions led me to write a four-part series exploring the real economics underneath the AI hype cycle
- Why The AI Bubble Isn’t Where You Think It Is
- What Survives After The AI Capex Crash
- How Creators Survive the AI Consolidation
- Designing a Creator Career That Can’t Be Automated
They aren’t speculative futurism. They’re pattern recognition.
They’re based on decades of watching technologies rise, mature, centralise, and then leave creators scrambling unless they’ve built independent systems.
But whether you read it or not, here’s the core message:
Every major shift in filmmaking has followed the same arc.
New tools appear.
Gatekeepers resist.
Early adopters experiment.
Institutions adapt too slowly.
Power recentralises.
A new generation builds careers differently.
We are now at the “early adopters experiment” phase of AI.
This is the moment when independent creators still have room to manoeuvre.
In 1992, Raindance existed to help filmmakers navigate change.
In 1997, we proved video belonged in cinemas.
In 2010, we adapted to digital.
In 2026, the mission remains the same:
Help creators stop waiting for permission.
And start building futures.
If you’re a Raindance member, you can log in and read this E-book compilation of those articles.
Photo Credit: Bertie Watson
I founded Raindance Film Festival in 1993 because the British film industry was closed, polite, and congratulating itself while shutting new filmmakers out.
I co-founded the British Independent Film Awards in 1998 because British indie film deserved more than a shrug, a pat on the head, and a Tuesday night screening.
Raindance didn’t start as a brand.It started as a rebellion — film training without gatekeepers, a festival without permission, and a community built by filmmakers who weren’t waiting to be invited in.
Later, we took it global — Toronto, Vancouver, New York, LA, Berlin, Brussels — because independent film doesn’t belong to one city, one class, or one accent.
I’ve produced 700+ short films and seven features, including Deadly Virtues (2014) and ALICE, which won the SXSW Grand Jury Prize (2019) — not because someone “discovered” us, but because the work earned its place.
I’ve written three books used by filmmakers worldwide because too many courses taught compliance instead of survival.
In 2009, I was awarded a PhD for services to film education — ironic, given that most of my career has been about tearing down the rules that education insisted you follow.
I don’t believe in waiting for permission.I believe in making work, building systems, and forcing the industry to catch up.
Specialties:Independent Film (the real kind) · Producing · Writing · Film Education · Festivals · Breaking Broken Systems
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