Episode 187: Becky Morrison, Founder

The production process when it comes to film, television, and advertising has lately been seen as outdated and needs to be simplified to be able to adhere to society’s needs for more diverse creators and stories. When Becky Morrison founded The Light, a production studio in Brooklyn, NY, she did it with a simple mission: change the culture of production, overhauling an outdated model in favor of one founded on values of equality, transparency and inclusion. She aims to create a system that prioritizes people, profit and the environment, responding to the ever-evolving economic landscape of the advertising industry. With that set model, Becky and The Light team have been able to secure work for brands like Lexus, JCPenney, and A&E. We spoke in her Brooklyn studio on a snowy day in NY.

Episode 175: Marquette Jones, Filmmaker, Professor, Podcaster

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Marquette Jones began her filmmaking journey in her hometown, Youngstown, Ohio. Marquette is an alumna of New York University’s Film and Television Production graduate program. Before becoming a filmmaker, Marquette was a public interest attorney and social entrepreneur in Oakland, California.  

Her feature film screenplay, AFTER THE JUMP, http://www.afterthejumpmovie.com/, which is currently in development, was recently selected for the Athena Screenwriting Lab in Los Angeles and was a finalist in the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival, Broad Humor Film Festival as well as a semi-finalist in the Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition. It was also selected to participate in the Women in Film/ Sundance Institute’s Film Financing and Strategy Intensive.

Her directing work includes FORGIVING CHRIS BROWN, ROUND ON BOTH SIDES, TUNK, HEROES WANTED and STREETS 2 SUITES (lensed by Bradford Young).  Her films have been featured on Amazon Video, PBS, Showtime, KweliTV, Aspire TV, BET, IFC, StreamPlix and other broadcast & digital outlets. She has also directed several commercial spots, which led to both a Telly Award and Aurora Award for excellence in storytelling.

As a producer, Marquette’s credits include Andrea Williams’ SPOONFUL OF SUGAR, Alrick Brown’s ADVENTURES OF SUPERN*GGER, and Tamika Guishard’s JACKIE. Her past filmmaking-related awards include: New York University’s Warner Bros. Production Award, Panasonic‘s “P2 for a Cause” Grand Prize Winner, Fotokem Film Processing Grant, Woods Hole Film Festival, Best Short Screenplay Winner for “Free’s Rain”, ProMotion Pictures / Heineken Branded Entertainment Shorts Competition Winner, Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival Best Short Narrative, and First Run Festival’s Producing Award.

When she is not busy writing, producing or directing, Marquette hosts the Directing Magic podcast,http://www.directingmagic.com/, and teaches creative media at The University of Alabama.

Episode 174: Leslie Belzberg, Producer

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Leslie is a producer, most notably working with John Landis, on all of your favorite things, such as Three Amigos, Beverly Hills Cop III, Coming to America, Trading Places, Thriller, Sliders, Dream On, Blues Brothers 2000, Honey I Shrunk the Kids series, Crazy Heart and the list goes on and on and on, before she transitioned to being a production executive in house.

At the time of this recording, she was at Gaumont, but has since transitioned to the Head of Production for Imagine Entertainment.

Leslie has always worked toward diversity, even and especially when she was the only woman in the room. She has incredible perspective and experience and it was such an honor to get to have this conversation.

Episode 143: Lisa Ebersole, Talented Multi

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For today’s episode I sat down with creator Lisa Ebersole. Lisa created and stars in the webseries called “37 Problems,” which you can find on Amazon Prime and Who Ha Ha. The series is a comedy about a woman facing the end of her fertility and what she is going to do about it.

She is also a playwright, whose plays have been produced off-broadway and regionally, and a screenwriters coach. We talked about what it takes to raise the money and produce a webseries and get distribution. It’s a whole thing.

check out the BRIC Foundation Summit here: https://bricfoundation.org/2019summit/

Episode 93: Lily Mercer, Writer

Lily is a Writer. She started out as an actress in the theatre, is a fellow Violet (NYU) and runs a female writer’s group called Bechdel Babes Writing Partners.

Her group is putting on a FREE industry only showcase welcoming Producers, Directors, Showrunners, and Literary Managers/Agents on March 22nd and 23rd. I’m going, meet me there. Get your ticket here: http://www.bbwritingpartners.com/showcase.

We talk about Lily’s mid-career change (a familiar theme in my circle), a bit about ‘kids these days’ and the importance of keeping arts in schools, and the vital need for women to be front and center in telling the stories.

And this career changing moment: “How are the kids? Pass the salt.”

And I had a big sense memory while I was editing. Voices are distinct.

Episode 92: Lisa Cordileone and Amy Dellagiarino, Writers/Producers/Actor

Lisa is an Actor/Writer/Producer and Amy is a Writer/Producer/Actor and together they are creating a film and multimedia project called “Freelancers Anonymous.” These women are super smart and have their eye on the very big picture. Lisa was in the much-acclaimed web series called Easy Abby and is an accomplished voice over talent, among many other credits.  Amy’s credits include CollegeHumor.com, An Emo Bromance, Break In, and a children’s book series called Jenny Morgan: Certified Genius.

They tell us as much as they can about their project and their process.  Any more and they’d have to kill me. That’s fair, I guess.

Come listen and have a laugh with us. We cracked up a lot.

You can follow Freelancers Anonymous and find out more here:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FA_themovie (@FA_themovie)

IG: https://www.instagram.com/freelancersanonymous/ (@FA_themovie)

FB: https://www.facebook.com/freelancersanonymous/ (@freelancersanonymous)

https://www.freelancersanonymousmovie.com/

Episode 78: Jen McGowan, Director

Jen McGowan is a film Director who directed the shorts Confessions of a Late Bloomer and Touch, and the feature film Kelly and Cal, which is a delicious movie that you can see on the streaming platforms. This film won the Gamechanger award at SXSW. She is currently finishing her next film called Rust Creek.

Jen is also the founder of the amazing group for women in this business called Film Powered – which she tells us all about.

If you are in LA in the film community, you have seen Jen everywhere lately. She has a big online platform, she is speaking on panels, she is doing the work. A somewhat reluctant activist, she is paving the way forward for the women behind her.

And this: As long as women don’t get to tell the stories, we will have no control over our destiny.

You can find Jen here.

Episode 42: Baked Goodes

Five women, Erin Dooley, MacKenzie Horras, Molly Reynolds, Anna Mehle and Caryn Ruby got together to put on a show, and it became the webseries called Baked Goodes, which debuted on 4/20. Caryn was unable to join us this day, as she was out of town, but I had the rest “in studio.”

These women are go-getters.  They wanted to work, so they created it.  What struck me as so unusual about this bunch is that they worked by consensus. They really made the effort to reach consensus every step of the way.  Their process sounds unusually pleasant, collaborative, and efficient. They did a lot of work very quickly with very little budget.  It can be done.  They are badass.

Watch Baked Goodes here and tell all your friends.

Episode 28: Nadja Rutkowski, Distribution Executive

Nadja is Senior VP, Sales, Marketing & Operations at Terry Steiner International. As such, she places films on airplanes and with the military. A worthy endeavor indeed, and yet perhaps the least interesting thing about her. She grew up in a divided Berlin and is still dealing with her immigration issues after being in the US for more than 20 years. She has a valuable perspective on immigration and on our current political climate.

This was recorded a couple of weeks after the election, but I don’t think much has happened since to assuage her concerns. Let me know what you think.