Live Ammunition! Filmmakers Pitching Competition

Mon Jun 05 2023 at 06:30 pm to 09:00 pm

Raindance Film Training Centre | London

Raindance
Publisher/HostRaindance
Live Ammunition! Filmmakers Pitching Competition
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Pitch your idea to our panel of film industry executives and the toughest critics of all - a live audience!
About this Event
Have you got a great idea for a movie?This is it! The Live!Ammunition! pitching competition returns to Raindance.

This is your chance to pitch your movie idea directly to a panel of film industry executives and the toughest critics of all, a Live Audience.

The people on our Panel are the people who matter. They decide what gets made.

Pitching skills are the one skill often overlooked by writers, directors and producers. Learn how it’s done by watching the rest and hone your pitching skills by getting instant feedback. Who knows, your pitch could be taken up by one of our panel. Past Pitches that have gone into production include Meet The Parents (1994), 51st State (1995), Siamese Cop (1996) and White Bhaji (2001).

The panel can, and will, gong you off if they get bored. But they have to give two good reasons why.

The Prizes!

All winners get a year’s complimentary and the overall winner will get a £100 Raindance Voucher to use on any Raindance course or event.

How to Pitch

Registrations to pitch will be taken on a first come, first served basis in reply to an email which will be sent at a predetermined time on the day of the event. There are twenty places guaranteed to pitch. Once the first 20 places have been filled we will keep a waiting list.

Please note, the demand to pitch is high and admission does not guarantee you a slot to pitch. However, we will accommodate as many pitches as possible and if you’re on the waiting list this does not necessarily mean you won’t get the opportunity.

Not ready to pitch? Then just come, watch, learn and network.

Discover Be Discovered

*Panelists subject to change

The Panel for 24th January was:

Sonita Gale is a British Asian writer, producer and director. Elevating the stories of migrants and marginalised communities is at the forefront of her work.

Sonita’s debut feature documentary as director, HOSTILE, is an award-winning and BAFTA and BIFA-longlisted film exposing the ‘hostile environment’ for migrants in the UK. Hostile has screened across the country at Picturehouse and independent cinemas, and has been selected for a number of international film festivals. In 2021, the film debuted at Raindance Film Festival.

Since then, Hostile was a finalist in the 2022 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival (in the ‘Supreme Award’ and ‘Best Director – International’ categories) and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2022 British Urban Film Festival, and. The film won Best Documentary Feature at the 2021 South London Film Festival, at Filmocracy Fest 2022 and the Roxbury International Film Festival 2022

Social media/where to see film:

Instagram and Twitter: @hostiledoc

Tickets available for upcoming screenings and Q&As at

James Clarke has a background in writing and producing short film projects, across drama and documentary. He has been a BAFTA longlisted producer (a while ago now) and has seen his work screened at various film festivals. James has worked as a Script Reader for the BFI and he currently supervises long-form screenplay projects for the University of Gloucestershire’s online MA in Screenwriting. James is currently developing a feature film screenplay. James has written for Little White Lies online and 3D World and Imagine FX magazines. His books about movies include The Virgin Film Guide: Animated Films and Bodies in Heroic Motion: The Cinema of James Cameron. Follow James twitter here: @jasclarkewriter

Deborah Sheppard is a highly experienced senior film and distribution marketing executive, who started her career in advertising.

Iheartcinema was set up in 2012, to consult on a bespoke basis for independent filmmakers and distributors in the UK and overseas advising on scripts, audiences, casting, distribution and marketing/awards campaigns. She has also been building a development arm, and has come on board as producer or EP for a number of varied projects, covering several genres, from period and contemporary adventure, animation and comedy, and thriller/dramas.

From 2007-2012, she was Marketing Director for the UK and Ireland for Paramount Pictures, and presided over a multitude of releases from festival films and local acquisitions, such as Babel, Into the Wild, Revolutionary Road, True Grit, Made In Dagenham, Killing Bono to animated favourites, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Madagascar, Rango, and Tintin, to major franchise blockbusters, including Transformers, Star Trek, Mission Impossible among others.

Prior to that, she was Marketing Director for 10 years at United International Pictures (international distribution network set up by Universal, Paramount and MGM) which included such diverse films as Tomorrow Never Dies, The Thomas Crown Affair, Inside Man, Shrek, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Love Actually, The Ring, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit, Jarhead, United 93, The Bourne Identity, Nanny McPhee, The Rugrats Movie and many more.

She has worked extensively with many UK production companies, including Working Title, Number 9 Films, and Aardman Animation.

In total, she has released more than 420 titles, achieving a box office of over $4bn. She presents Film Sales and Marketing at Raindance.

Dean Cross is the Film Content Manager for Vue entertainment with 20 years experience in the business. Dean has an appreciation for films across the whole spectrum, from the smallest art house and independent films to the biggest of Hollywood’s blockbusters, he can usually spot a hit.

Tom Keenan is a freelance scriptwriter, editor, playwright and producer, with multiple projects at different stages of development. He is the co-creator of The Rosy Cross, an epic TV series based on the life of Shakespeare with A-List attachments and significant interest from Amazon Prime, Sky Showtime and Lionsgate, amongst others. He is the writer of Infinite Riches, a feature film in development with London Film Café Co-Op about the gay Tudor poet/spy Christopher Marlowe. Tom is currently adapting a bold version of the classic text Antigone for the stage and his short dystopian film Midnight Travels, produced by 289 Productions in New York, was released at the end of November 2022. Tom has films in development in Colombia and New York. Tom also teaches screenwriting to emerging BFI writers.

Follow Tom on


The Panel on 24th `January 2022 was:

Dean Cross is the Film Content Manager for Vue entertainment with 20 years experience in the business, Dean has an appreciation for films across the whole spectrum, from the smallest art house and independent films to the biggest of Hollywood’s blockbusters, he can usually spot a hit.

Deborah Sheppard is a highly experienced senior film and distribution marketing executive, who started her career in advertising.

Iheartcinema was set up in 2012, to consult on a bespoke basis for independent filmmakers and distributors in the UK and overseas advising on scripts, audiences, casting, distribution and marketing/awards campaigns. She has also been building a development arm, and has come on board as producer or EP for a number of varied projects, covering several genres, from period and contemporary adventure, animation and comedy, and thriller/dramas.

From 2007-2012, she was Marketing Director for the UK and Ireland for Paramount Pictures, and presided over a multitude of releases from festival films and local acquisitions, such as Babel, Into the Wild, Revolutionary Road, True Grit, Made In Dagenham, Killing Bono to animated favourites, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Madagascar, Rango, and Tintin, to major franchise blockbusters, including Transformers, Star Trek, Mission Impossible among others.

Prior to that, she was Marketing Director for 10 years at United International Pictures (international distribution network set up by Universal, Paramount and MGM) which included such diverse films as Tomorrow Never Dies, The Thomas Crown Affair, Inside Man, Shrek, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Love Actually, The Ring, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit, Jarhead, United 93, The Bourne Identity, Nanny McPhee, The Rugrats Movie and many more.

She has worked extensively with many UK production companies, including Working Title, Number 9 Films, and Aardman Animation.

In total, she has released more than 420 titles, achieving a box office of over $4bn. She presents Film Sales and Marketing at Raindance.

Jurgen Wolff is a writer, teacher, and creativity consultant. In the United States, he wrote for sitcoms including Benson and Family Ties. He wrote the feature film, The Real Howard Spitz, starring Kelsey Grammer and directed by Vadim Jean. He was a script doctor on the hit film, Mannequin and others starring Michael Caine, Walter Matthau, and Eddie Murphy. For Germany, he co-created the comedy series, Lukas, which ran for 65 episodes, and an original comedy series called Krista. He also wrote nine episodes of the series, Relic Hunter. He wrote two TV movies for the Olsen Twins, and several the German TV movies including, On Top of the Volcano, starring Maria Schrader and Sebastian Koch (2007). His play, Killing Mother, was produced at the Gorky Theatre in Berlin, and he’s also had plays produced in New York, Los Angeles, and London.

As a writing and creativity teacher, his courses include Beyond Brainstorming, Create Your Future, The Creative Breakthrough Workshop and the ground-breaking Script Coach Series developed exclusively for Raindance. He has presented his courses at the University of Southern California, the University of Barcelona, the Skyros Institute, many films schools, and groups and organisations including The Academy for Chief Executives, Egmont, Grundy-UFA, and Columbia-Tri-Star. For eight years he was a visiting lecturer for the Pilots Program in Sitges.

His books include Your Writing Coach and Your Creative Writing Masterclass (Nicholas Brealey Publishing), Creativity Now (Pearson), Do Something Different (Virgin Business Books), Successful Scriptwriting (Writers Digest Press), Top Secrets: Screenwriting (Lone Eagle Press), and Successful Sitcom Writing (St. Martin’s Press).

He has written for many publications including the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Broadcast Magazine, and he is the editor of Brainstorm, the creativity ebulletin.

Robyn Larkin has worked in the creative design side of the film industry for over 25 years in both London and LA. He is Co-founder and Creative Director of design agency Bobo, who specialise in creating theatrical campaigns, poster artwork, and marketing for film and television.

He has worked on a host of independent and studio films with clients including Netflix, 20th Century Fox, MGM, Curzon Artificial Eye, Lionsgate, Protagonist Pictures, Dogwoof, Britbox, Modern Films, and the BBC as well as his work with Raindance.

Through Bobo, Robyn has worked on several film festivals including The London Indian Film Festival, UK Jewish Film Festival, and the Terracotta Far East Film Festival. Robyn has been the brand custodian and Head of Design for the Raindance Film Festival since 2016.

He is a sought after speaker on industry panels, events, and film school courses including Raindance, Met Film School, London Screenwriters Festival, and the NFTS.

Tania Sarra has worked as an executive in the film industry for over a decade. As a Director at MGM Studios, Tania spearheaded and oversaw all the buying and distribution for MGM’s acquisitions across Europe, Middle East and Africa. Prior to, she held leading roles on sales teams for UK based indies where she ran the operations of global sales divisions and oversaw the development of original projects for production. In 2015 the Business of Film named her a top Upcoming Executive, and in 2014 she was named a Future Leader by Screen International. She is the Founder of Hot Sauce – a boutique consulting firm specialising in Producing, Executive Production and Creative Direction for major film and television projects.


Additional resources for the pitching competition


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Since 1993 Raindance makes filmmakers

The History of Live!Ammunition! Pitching Competition

The first Live!Ammunition! was held in Leicester Square in what is now the VUE West End Cinema in Leicester Square in October 1994 at the 2nd Raindance Film Festival. I invited the comic Emo Phillips to pitch his new film screening two days later during the festival. it was my attempt to rustle up interest in his quirky and amusing low budget comedy. I didn’t realise an acquisitions executive from Universal Studios was in the room who saw and bought world rights for the movie two days later. The film languished in the vaults for five long years when it was remade:

The original Meet The Parents has .

There’s been dozens of fascinating stories over the years. Many films have started their route to completion at this event including Stel Pavlov’s .

The Live!Ammunition! pitching competition has been staged over 150 times in New York, Toronto, Berlin and at the Cannes Film Festival and of course in London.

Hope to see you there!


Elliot Grove, founder
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Raindance Film Training Centre, 10a Craven Street, London, United Kingdom

Tickets

GBP 0.00 to GBP 15.00

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