About Raindance Film Festival

Since its inception in 1993, Raindance has been committed to fostering independent cinema worldwide by uniting the Raindance Film Festival⁠(opens in a new tab or window), year-round degree programs, and the British Independent Film Awards all under one umbrella.

The annual 12-day festival features a diverse selection of feature films, shorts, seminars, networking events and the Raindance VFX programme for virtual reality, drawing in over 16,000 visitors and 500 industry professionals.

In addition to the film school and festival, Raindance cultivates a thriving community through membership programs and events, such as the Live Ammunition pitching competition, where industry executives provide real-time feedback to aspiring filmmakers.

Founder Elliot Grove and his team have produced over 700 short films since the first Raindance festival and proudly celebrated their 30th year in November 2022.

The Challenge

Before Canva Teams, the Raindance Film Festival organizers were unable to collaborate easily with sponsors and team members stationed across London, Dubai, Mexico, Toronto, Montreal, Los Angeles, Vancouver, New York and Berlin.

On average, the festival team would develop two to three presentations a day for various initiatives, such as acquiring sponsorships, posting on social media, producing YouTube Shorts and guiding junior students on what to expect from their courses. Raindance sports three distinct brands: their Community, School and Festival, and for years they supported each across several disconnected platforms.

The absence of a consistent workflow and the varied nature of their work complicated the collaboration process and made sharing large file formats difficult.

Upon discovering Canva as an effective collaboration tool, Elliot and his team were enthusiastic and ready to adopt the change.

“In the old days, we would write out a plan for the deck, send it to a designer, wait 3-10 days for it to come back, and there would be corrections,” Elliot says. “But by using Canva, we can literally do one or two presentations in what previously took days upon days because of the ability to work remotely together.”

The Solution

Raindance started implementing Canva into their workflow in 2019 and haven’t looked back since then.

At first, Elliot and his team utilized Canva’s free subscription for printwork and movie posters, and have since evolved to using Canva Teams to design 120-page festival booklets, brochures, presentations, and just about everything else they need in their business.

Canva’s simplicity has revolutionized the way Elliot and the Raindance team operate. Not only does Canva offer a creative platform for making professional designs with a customizable Brand Kit and premade layouts, it allows Raindance to effectively convey the vibrant narratives of independent filmmakers.

By using Canva, Raindance can efficiently promote their events and educational initiatives. Consequently, this impacts the students and creatives they support by fostering growth and development within the independent filmmaking community.

Empowering teams for increased productivity

By transitioning to Canva Teams, Raindance has managed to reduce the time spent on creating presentations by a staggering 95%.

With their previous workflow, Raindance designers would spend up to 40 hours creating a single presentation. Now, they can craft a fully polished product in one to two hours.

On average, the festival team creates 44 presentations a month and the educational team creates 66 presentations a month, so having the ability to utilize designer-made templates, graphics, illustrations, stock images and footage has been a game changer.

Elliot and his team have successfully eliminated the need to depend on external vendors or post-production teams for acquiring source material and building their brand identity. This newfound self-reliance streamlines their entire creative process, and allows for greater control over the quality of their outputs.

Innovative tools, like Resize & Magic Switch and Background Remover, have enhanced their efficiency.

“We use Resize & Magic Switch all the time,” says Elliot. “We can readjust all our colors and logos - it’s so quick. We often use it ten times a day, as each time we create an asset, we resize it for all social platforms.”

The team has also expedited the production of YouTube Shorts by leveraging Canva's stock footage and uploading original clips directly into Canva. Utilizing Canva's user-friendly editor, they can easily trim video clips and incorporate additional elements, like music.

Fostering a culture of collaboration

Canva Teams has also improved real-time remote collaboration at Raindance tenfold.

By leaning on Canva’s diverse library of professionally crafted media, Raindance can design much faster than before.

Previously, Elliot and his teammates collaborated on presentations over Zoom, write a pitch out in another software, then send the documents over to a third-party designer and wait days before receiving corrections. Now, thanks to Canva, they can collaborate remotely and keep everything in house.

Digital collaboration and working visually allows the Raindance team to establish a seamless connection between their designs and the stories they produce, resulting in more coherent and engaging marketing materials.

Their ability to collaborate across different timezones not only saves them hours, it also fosters an inclusive work environment. This new, more efficient type of collaboration ensures that all creative ideas are heard, shared and developed. Canva has allowed Elliot to transcend geographical limitations and promote a more unified team.


“I’ve often done a meeting with David in London, and someone in Toronto or New York on the same presentation, at the same time. We get everyone’s feedback all at once.”

Effective time management translates to financial success

According to Elliot, the Raindance team has seen substantial benefits since adopting Canva Teams.

The integration of Canva into the Raindance team’s workflow has led to considerable cost savings, equivalent to one or two employee salaries. This accounts for an impressive 25% reduction in expenses.

As a result, the team's efficiency in handling daily tasks has increased by 75%, allowing them to optimize their operations and focus on expanding their production company, Raindance Raw Talent.

Raindance's in-house designer was initially hesitant to transition to Canva, having spent years working with other design softwares. However, after testing out the platform and experiencing its capabilities firsthand, the designer has become a dedicated Canva user for all their design needs. This includes print work, such as movie posters, which they now create in Canva and export directly from the platform.

This example demonstrates how implementing a single, strategic change in your workflow can significantly transform your organization and enable you to maximize the capabilities of your team.

Content sponsored by Canva. Raindance Film Festival has not received any financial compensation in exchange for its endorsement.