There is a hairdresser near the office and I have made friends with the owner – Maurice. This morning I stopped and chatted with him as he was opening up and he told me this little story:
He told me that yesterday the local greengrocer Benny come in for a haircut. “Don’t pay, Benny,” he said ‘you work hard every day and you deserve a break.” And now the box of apples showed up.
A few days ago he gave a haircut to the local policeman and didn’t charge him either. “You protect the public” Maurice said. Maurice told me that the next day a box of fresh donuts showed up by way of thanks.
Two days ago, a member of Raindance, a filmmaker by the name of Robert happened to come in and again Maurice didn’t charge him saying “Independent films are really important. Keep them coming and I won’t charge you. Your work is so important.”
The next day a dozen independent filmmakers showed up for a free haircut.
About Elliot Grove
Photo Credit Jay Brooks / BIFA 2015
Elliot Grove is the founder of Raindance Film Festival and the British Independent Film Awards. He has produced over 700 hundred short films and also five feature films, including the multi-award-winning The Living and the Dead in 2006, Deadly Virtues in 2013 and AMBER in 2017. He teaches screenwriting and producing in the UK, Europe, Asia and America.
Elliot has written three books which have become industry standards: Raindance Writers’ Lab: Write + Sell the Hot Screenplay, now in its second edition, Raindance Producers’ Lab: Lo-To-No Budget Filmmaking and Beginning Filmmaking: 100 Easy Steps from Script to Screen (Professional Media Practice).
In 2009 he was awarded a PhD for services to film education.
