Advice from an Indie Producer: Hiring the Crew
Preparation for an indie project is crucial for finishing on time and under budget. The budget is finite (in most cases) because you cannot go to the studio and ask for more money. You have to get it right the first time. In Robert Rodriquez’s Rebel Without a Crew, he credits detailed preparation as to how he shot...
READ MOREWeekly Roundup: Greek Weddings & Elevator Pitches
Re: #MyBigFatGreekWedding2, thank you for the love, yes the entire big fat family is invited back for the sequel. — Nia Vardalos (@NiaVardalos) May 28, 2014 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Her tweets confirm it, Nia Vardalos is bringing us more big, Greek wedding! Television’s top female actors discuss the perks and pitfalls of their careers. Actress Stacey Dash brings new...
READ MOREThe Bluestocking Film Series
Bluestocking volunteer Khaney Muyderman. Photo by Dovid Muyderman. Dedicated to the complex female protagonist, the Bluestocking Film Series in Portland, Maine showcases short films that pass the Bechdel Test. It is the only festival of its kind and the only one in the United States to earn an A from Sweden’s Bechdel Test Rating System. The Series...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: The Bad Blind Date
Photo via Go Into the Story. You have a blind date. Nothing to go on, just a name. You smile, you shake hands, and then without preamble, your date sits down and launches into a monologue of therapy-grade personal disclosure. They tell you what the weather was like and what they were wearing during an...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: OITNB, No Country for Young Women & Film Fatales
Graph via No Country for Young Women Looking Forward: to the June 6th release of Orange is the New Black with NYWIFT member Alysia Reiner appearing again as Assistant Warden Natalie “Fig” Figueroa. Suggesting: that you check out this excellent post on No Country for Young Women by Elena Rossini on a new technique she used to measure gender bias. Applauding: the work...
READ MORERoad to Designing Women: The Invite
New York Women in Film & Television is honoring costume, makeup and hair designers on June 18, 2014. Join us! Tickets now available.
READ MOREWeekly Roundup: Aging & Opportunities in Hollywood
//instagram.com/p/oNOrvtQihJ/embed/ 92-year-old Betty White enjoys being spoiled, and vodka. Cheers! (video) The Paley Center for Media names Maureen Reidy as its new CEO. Diane Keaton and Robin Wright are embracing aging. Jezebel founder Anna Holmes highlights unconventional ways to success. Sony’s new (LA-based) Diverse Director’s Program may be perfect for you! Niki Caro is set to write and direct the eagerly...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Unpackable Hooks
Photo via Go Into the Story. Writer and director Timothy Cooper, an enthusiastically pragmatic teacher of professional screenwriting and past WIFTI Summit panelist, talks about the value of unpackable story concepts, which he defines as “rife with potential to anyone who hears it.” Perfect example: Inception. A team illegally breaks into a sleeper’s dreams to...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Gideon’s Army and WGA Employment Study
Totally Agree: with this Slated article about the foolishness of Hollywood’s gender bias against women directors. Recommending: Gideon’s Army by NYWIFT member Dawn Porter about the U.S. public defender system. It is powerful, beautifully realized and focuses attention on an incredibly important issue. Check it out on HBO On Demand or Play Station, Google Play, Amazon, or iTunes. Not Surprised: but still disappointed to...
READ MORENew Member Spotlight: Erica Fae
Photo by Alexander Berg. A prolific and acclaimed artist, Erica Fae joins New York Women in Film & Television as an actor, director, writer, producer and teacher of movement at Yale School of Drama and The New School. She was encouraged to join NYWIFT by her producing partner Jane Applegate, whom she met while...
READ MOREWeekly Roundup: Gia Coppola, ‘Murphy Brown’ & a Media Internship
//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/488381047?et=2PeW3vM-R_1_VghSMDFcGA&sig=LZnMoBh1APTsZVOLw-lVbi9Nby6ktmJJfa3RgFZrY0c= Palo Alto director Gia Coppola is creating her own filmmaking buzz. A few theories behind NYT Executive Editor Jill Abramson’s firing. Portlandia star Carrie Brownstein has had success in three male-dominated areas of the entertainment industry…THREE! Kathryn Bigelow tackles another weighty post-9/11 theme. Women and Hollywood is looking for a summer intern. Deadline is May 23. Diane English tells...
READ MOREActing Up: Create the Space
“Acting is the ability to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances.” — Sanford Meisner Recently, I wrapped Melissa Rodwell’s upcoming film, and my “preparation” was the most abstract that I’ve ever worked with. I realized my job as an actor is to create the space for the work to show up. How did I do this? I took all...
READ MORERoad to Designing Women: Throwback 2012
Costume, Makeup and Hair design team of Boardwalk Empire We almost couldn’t fit everyone in the photograph! Designing Women 2012 was a fabulous year. We honored makeup artists Jenn Jorge Nelson (30 Rock, Baby Mama, Hope and Faith) and Julie Teel (30 Rock, Ugly Betty, In Treatment), hair stylist and wigmaker Amanda Miller (Inside Llewyn Davis, Smash,...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Boo
Photo via Go Into the Story. Does your conflict pass The Haunting Test? You’re a ghost. A traveler from another dimension who can be neither seen nor heard by the people around you, not even the person you seem to be glued to, whom you are compelled to shadow. Always. You have no choice but...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: ‘No Cannes Do’ and #readwomen2014
Love: the NO CANNES DO info graphic by Melissa Silverstein of Women and Hollywood showing the appalling lack of opportunities extended to women directors by the Cannes Film Festival—a reflection of the situation of the industry as a whole, but this does not excuse it. Checking Out: the report on women working in independent film by...
READ MORE7 Aha Moments from ‘Engaging the Feminine Heroic’
The magical lecture by author and script consultant Dara Marks began, appropriately enough, with a blustery downpour. A unique co-production between New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) and Writers Guild of America East, “Engaging the Feminine Heroic” was an invitation to honor our mythological heritage and explore the archetypal structures of our stories...
READ MORERoad to Designing Women 2014: Join Us on June 18 in NYC
Annie production still courtesy of Sony Pictures Publicity. When fashion meets film, the results are some of the silver screen’s most striking moments—the majestic dancers announcing Elizabeth Taylor’s arrival in Rome in Cleopatra, Ursula Andress rising from the ocean in Dr. No, Jimmy Stewart’s first glance of the mysterious Kim Novak in Vertigo. The costume...
READ MOREWeekly Roundup: Gabourey Sidibe, Director Kimberly Pierce & Oxygen Media
//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/487688169?et=cPqGSOaJQANxm9dho-6_lQ&sig=WUEG6AlUfgzcQ-dX4hK-lR36JRHm0BzXaCnDK0hh_5Y= Gabourey Sidibe says she’s “an a**hole!” It’s for a wonderful reason. Dawn Hudson will remain CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Director Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry, Carrie) gave a wonderful keynote speech at the AFI Directing Workshop for Women. (Video) Jovanka Vuckovic to direct Jacqueline Ess: Her Will & Testament. Clive Barker’s...
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