The Circle of Time

To celebrate the circle of yearly renewal instead of the line of time and entropy, here's a video from Sweden that gives you a year of nature in 60 seconds.

Guerilla Girls Girlcott List

The Guerilla Girls have released a list of theaters in the US who are not producing a single play by a woman on their main stages for the 2010/11 season with the intention of organizing a "girlcott" against their lopsided artistic vision. Coming from the theater to movies, every playwrights group I ever belonged to was around 50% female. The stats are sad no matter where you go.

To view the list, go to the full post. And shame on them all.

The New Group, New York, NY**
American Folklore Theatre, Fish Creek, WI**
Full Circle Theatre Company, Jersey City, NJ**
Park Players, Birmingham, AL**
Profile Theater Project, Portland, OR**
New Stage Theatre, Jackson, MS**
Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Chicago, IL**
A Noise Within Glendale, CA**
Seattle Shakespeare Company, Seattle, WA**
Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Cleveland, OH**
Theater for a New Audience, New York, NY**
American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco, CA**
Delaware Theatre Company, Wilmington, DE
Florida Studio Theatre, Sarasota, FL
Ford’s Theatre, Washington, DC*
Hartford Stage Company, Hartford, CT
Laguna Playhouse, Laguna Beach, CA*
Lincoln Center Theater, New York, NY*
Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, NY
TheaterWorks, Hartford, CT
Ivoryton Playhouse, Ivoryton, CT
Trinity Repertory Company, Providence, RI
Signature Theatre Company, New York, NY
American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, MA
Connecticut Repertory Theater, Storrs, CT
The Repertory Theater of New Britain, New Britain, CT
Book-It Repertory Theater, Seattle, WA
Sierra Repertory Theater, Sonora, CA
Seaside Repertory Theater, Santa Rosa Beach, FL
Telluride Repertory Theater Company, Telluride, CO
Jewish Repertory Theater of Western New York, Buffalo, NY
Coastal Repertory Theater, Half Moon Bay, CA
Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater, Grand Lake, CO
Castaways Repertory Theater, Woodbridge, VA
Jonesborough Repertory Theater, Jonesborough, TN
Texas Repertory Theater, Houston, TX
Stageloft Theater, Sturbridge, MA
SecondStory Repertory, Redmond, WA
Third Rail Repertory Theater, Portland, OR
Repertory Theater of Iowa, Des Moines, IA
California Repertory Company, Long Beach, CA
McKinney Repertory Theater, McKinney, TX
Penguin Rep Theater, Stony Point, NY
Delaware Theatre Company, Wilmington, DE
City Theater Company, Wilmington, DE
University Theater of Georgia, Athens, GA
Diamond Head Theater, Honolulu, HI
Boise Contemporary Theater, Boise, ID
Boise Little Theater, Boise, ID
Illusion Theater, Minneapolis, MD
Theater in the Round Playhouse, Minneapolis, MD
Rosedale Community Players, Southfield, MI
11:11 Theatre Company, Boston, MA
Whistler in the Dark, Everett, MA
Lofte Community Theater, Manley, NE
The Attic Ensemble, Jersey City, NJ
Dreamcatcher Repertory Theater, South Orange, NJ
Theaterwork, Santa Fe, NM
Adobe Theater, Albuquerque, NM
North Carolina Theater, Raleigh, NC
The Clemson Little Theater, Pendleton, SC
Centre Stage, Greenville, SC
Mariemont Players, Cincinnati, OH
Showboat Majestic Theater, Cincinnati, OH
CATCO, Columbus, OH
Licking County Players, Newark, OH
Artist’s Cooperative Theater, Nashville, TN
Community Playhouse, Tullahoma, TN
American Heartland Theater, Kansas City, MO
Hangar Theater, Ithaca, NY
Lucille Ball Theatre, Jamestown, NY
San Angelo Civic Theatre, San Angelo, TX
Vortex Theater, Austin, TX
Beaumont Community Players, Beaumont, TX
Unity Theatre, Brenham, TX
Theatre Three, Dallas, TX
Ennis Public Theatre, Ennis, TX
Kaufman Civic County Theatre, Terrell, TX
Vermont Stage Company, Burlington, VT
Essex Community Players, Essex, VT
Northern Stage Company, White River Junction
Gala Hispanic Theater, Washington, DC*
Jackson County Community Theatre, Brownstown, IN
Sugar Creek Players, Crawford, IN
American Theatre Company, Chicago, IL
Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Chicago, IL
Oracle Productions, Chicago, IL **
Organic Theatre, Chicago, IL
Raven Theatre, Chicago, IL **
Remy Bumppo, Chicago, IL **
Signal Ensemble Theater, Chicago, IL
Steep Theatre Company, Chicago, IL
Strawdog Theater, Chicago, IL
The Gift Theater Company, Chicago, IL
The House Theatre, Chicago, IL
Hypocrites, Chicago, IL **
The Mammals, Chicago, IL
Timeline Theater, Chicago, IL
TUTA Theater, Chicago, IL **
Writers Theatre, Chicago, IL
Clinton County Civic Theatre, Frankfort, IN
Red Barn Theatre, Frankfort, IN
Fort Wayne Civic Theatre, Ft. Wayne, IN
Footlite Musicals, Indianapolis, IN
Mud Creek Players, Indianapolis, IN
Munster Theatre Company, Munster, IN
Richmond Civic Theatre, Richmond, IN
Community Theatre of Terra Haute, Terra Haute, IN
Colonial Playhouse, Aldan, PA
Act II Playhouse, Ambler, PA
The Actors’ Net, Bucks County, PA
Totem Pole Playhouse, Fayetteville, PA
Fulton Opera House, Lancaster, PA
Hedgerow Theatre, Media, PA

* indicates no women directors have been hired either
** indicates multiple years on the Girlcott List

South African Domestic Violence Video

Okay, so it's not exactly humor, though there's fodder for some bitter satire in this tale of two situations.  It is worth a look if you haven't yet seen this South African video gone viral.  POWA (People Opposing Women Abuse) set up a simple experiment and then filmed it.  First a guy played drums in a townhouse complex.  A camera outside recorded the noise levels escaping the townhouse and the neighborhood response - multiple visits to the door asking the drummer to tone it down. Then on another night, the same guy played a tape that sounded like a violent domestic fight complete with crashing and screaming.  From outside it was just as loud, just as constant, but nobody came to the door.  It takes a village alright.

Music and Movie Piracy Crackdown

The Department of Homeland Security is getting into the fight against free filesharing of copyright movies and music.  They have seized the domains and redirected them to a notice on the home page.  The New York Times reports that over 70 sites have been shut down.

Female Character Flowchart

A great post on female characters in the MSM from overthinking.com. (Hat tip to LJS for sending it to me.) I have been insisting that the problems of female happiness declining over the past thirty years has a lot to do with the lack of stories that help us think about ourselves and our lives. This is why we tell stories. But today's pop culture stories are so lacking in anything resembling a real woman that we might as well be as invisible as certain races and ethnic groups were in the heyday of Hollywood. Oh sure, there are lots of women on screen. I've been saying for a long time that all we get are anima projections instead of three-dimensional true females. This chart shows just how flat - like a projection - these women are.

Make Your Own Animation Movie

Here's a website where you input a script, choose your characters, add camera angles and end up with a rendered animation.  Oh, sure, they talk like robots.  But no actor is perfect. Here's a little snippet I just made. You can make you own here.
 

Play Reading Wrap-Up

The play readings yesterday were a lot of fun. The three pieces were very different, and had varying degrees of success. Menstruating Waitress from Hell was a great piece to start with, with a very accessible story and magnificent rule #13. Vote Her!! Vote Now!! was pure clownery and the audience roared at the relentless play on words and bawdy innuendo possible at a polling place full of ballot boxes. Freud had much to say about poles and boxes...but I digress. Baring Rapture had some laugh-out-loud scenes, but as one member of the audience remarked in the talkback, the humor is so dependent on the visuals that imagining them after the lines or before the lines when they were supposed to happen on the line... well, they do say comedy is timing. This is not a piece that lends itself to a simple staged reading.  Still, the audience was intrigued enough to want to see more of it, and so we are discussing the possibility of a full out production.

Yes, Broad Humor for stage. You heard it first here. 

3 Farces by 3 Women - Staged Reading Sunday

We're having a play reading - yes, stage plays, not screenplays - on Sunday at the Electric Lodge in Venice @ 12:30. It's a trial balloon to see if we want Broad Humor to expand to theater.

There's a great bunch of actors reading 3 one-act farces. Actually, we start with a straight farce, Mara Lathrop's Menstruating Waitress from Hell.  The title speaks for itself.  From there we leave representational theater and head right over the cliff of reason. There's Baring Rapture about a Holy Roller movement in 1900's Oregon full of sex and sado-masochism all in the name of giving birth to the next baby Jesus. And then Jenny Hodges' Vote Her!! Vote Now!! which leaves the land of Reason altogether and takes up residence with Ubu and the Marx Brothers.

It's free, there'll be food and lots of fun.  Details below.  You can also email questions or reservations to info at broadhumor dot com.  Join us if you can.

"Taking Care" of your Characters

I've been wondering lately if maybe there wasn't a problem in women's writing that was different from men's,  namely too much empathy.  Whether Nature or Nurture, women tend to be caretakers.  I wonder if this doesn't get in the way putting our characters through hell in order to reach transformation.

I mean, we all love our main characters, even when they're terrible human beings.  And we have a lifetime of practice helping our beloveds feel less pain.  So would it be any surprise if we didn't want to hurt them too much?  That we'd give them just enough pain to set up their growth, and no more.  Maybe that's why so many of the screenplays I read have loooonnngg set ups.  Pain avoidance.  Maybe, instead of saying "cut to the chase" we should say "cut to the pain."  And then stay there.  Make it worse.  Your whole plot should push your characters to the cliff and they should fight it kicking and screaming.  Over the cliff is not death, but rebirth. Even if the character physically dies, the whole point is this catharsis. For the audience. 

After all, the suffering you must create isn't really for the character or for you. It's for the viewer, to give them a ride that's worth taking. Most people who pay for a roller-coaster ride want to go wayyy up and wayyy down, and they want to feel their heart race along the way.  If you make it easy on your characters, you give your readers and viewers a hobby-horse ride instead.  That's fine for the little kids who get scared.  But big time rides for grown-ups, that is what most writers are aiming for.

Even if women's stories are structured differently than the Aristotelian rise to a single climax and a cigarette that may be more male, I would argue that transformation through suffering is neither male nor female but human.  And if you're the writer, you have to be the "sadist" in that you have to devise a plot that really cuts to the bone of their flaw and enjoy it. What are your thoughts about this?  

Is There a Doc in the House?

For those of you with documentaries, you might want to check this out in the New York Times.

LOS ANGELES — The little business of documentary film just got bigger.

SnagFilms, until now an ad-supported online aggregator of documentary films with a journalistic adjunct in its IndieWIRE news service, is expected on Monday to announce a series of deals that will make it a significant distributor of documentaries through a half-dozen on-demand services.

Rest of the NYT article here. Hat tip to Donna Wheeler.

Wellywood Woman Blog

The Wellywood Woman blog has a great overview of women who support women making films. She names the women working in all these areas.  The posting is full of information and so it is not a quick, breezy read.  But I am grateful because I want to know who these women are who are advocating for all female filmmakers.  Check it out here.

Distribution leads and links

Donna Wheeler shares some great links if you're looking to distribute content. The first one to bookmark is a distributor rating site called Distripedia. Now, if you are interested in one of the distributors listed in the links below, you can find out what kind of reputation they have before contacting them.

The first link is to The Film Collaborative, the folks who run distripedia.

There's a site called Film Tiki that is currently offering a free tool for 2010 that I think they plan to charge for in the future that is supposed to help filmmakers plan and promote their films.  Post a comment if you try it out and let us know what your experience was.

Finally there's a site called GoScreening that lets you submit privately to distributors who list what they are looking for.

Barbara Cole's One-Woman Show

Up Chick CreekWe gave a shout out to Barbara Cole, who starred in this year's winning No Budget Film, Casualties, whose one-woman show, Surviving Chrysalis, played at the Hollywood Fringe festival and will have one more encore performance in Santa Monica this Friday.  Theater is an alternate route for people who want to get their work out there and seen.  But theater ain't easy. Here's what Barbara has to say about self-producing.

WHAT an experience that was!  So many emotions and lessons - some good, some... bad. Can we tawk?   Self producing is HARD with no budget - lots of highs and lows, but performing this show in LA  was something I just  had to do, despite advice to the contrary.  Five years in development - and damn it  I f#@!ing did IT!.  I have SO much respect for producers.  And I'm glad its over... until I land a series regular and can do it with a real budget - or find a kick ass producer.

I felt lucky actually, because my small theatre was half full -- and with 175 other fringe shows going on in the same 10 day period, that was a pretty decent count...and the audiences were SO frickin' awesome!  The show went pretty awesome too with one great review on the fringe website.

She is performing it again Friday night with two other women in a show called Up Chick Creek.  It's at the Santa Monica Playhouse at 8 pm and is part of the Save the Playhouse campaign. Check it out if you can.

You Tube VidCon Partners Meeting

Donna Wheeler and I went to the LA Partner Meeting hosted by YouTube as part of the VidCon events happening in LA this weekend, and, oh my, did we learn A LOT.  Mainly, the presentations and panels gave the Partners teriffic insights on how to build an audience and make a living with video content.  But the biggest message is that you can't just put up a video or even a series of videos and expect to succeed.  Everybody who succeeds works long hours and participates in the online video community.  If you don't and are looking for a magic way to suddenly become a YouTube star,  your energy would be better spent where your heart really is.
 
That's not to say that you might not come up with some new way to use video content on the web to reach your goals.  I'm thinking of the guys who shot the mock movie trailer, "The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon" and used its success to leverage a movie deal.  But if you want to make your living from your videos on the web, you have to make it your job and treat is at least somewhat professionally. 

Nuts and Bolts Are Not the Machine

One of the things I do after the festival is follow up on my offer to talk to those who did not get in about their work. Some of what I talk to them about is stuff that all of us who create need to keep in mind. This is especially true in comedy where our favorite funny bits are more often the problem than the beloved centerpieces we imagine them to be. But they're soooo funny!!!!!

That's when I came up with the image of nuts and bolts. They are the essential connectors for building just about any machine: a romantic comedy vehicle; an action comedy rocket ship; a satire guillotine. It is essential, however, to keep the machine you are building in mind and resist adding more and more nuts and bolts just because you have them. Put them in your catch-all drawer - you know, the one in the kitchen with the batteries and the twist ties and the button you know belongs to something... You will be glad you have that particular comic bit of business one day when it turns out to be the ONLY way to get your machine off the ground. At that point you have my blessing to put it in. But for now, if taking it out doesn't hurt the machine, then it doesn't belong in this movie. Funny though it may be... Take. It. Out.

And the Winners Are...

...All of the Broads and the Broad-Minded who had a great weekend at the festival.    Laughter.  Community.  Inspiration. 

The films were super and the screenplays a blast.  The actors deserve kudos for their performances in the screenlab.  The Broads Brunch proposed web series is going to fly, with several attendees coming up to tell me they already have their idea. 

And the awards went to...

2010 Broad Humor Film Festival Awards

Best Feature
Trippin' by Devi Snively

Best Short
Thank You for Washing by Camille Brown

Best Short Short
Career Virgin by Angela Comer

Audience Award
Action! by Hillary J. Walker

Best No-Budget Film
Casualties by Julianna Eggold

Best Romantic Comedy Screenlplay
Frenching by Marie Rose

Best Character Comedy Screenlplay
Albert Carp by Robyn Jackson

Best Action Comedy
Spy Stuff by Kay Weibel

Best Ensemble Comedy Screenplay
Ratacholo by Teri Carson

Best Comic FantasyScreenplay
Faith's Healing by Valerie Scott

Best Short Screenlplay
Happly Ever After by Kimberly Smith

Best Teleplay
White Trash by Kelly Sarber

A One-Broad Show

Broad actress, Barbara Cole, (Broadsides screenlab and Casualties actress, '10 Best No Budget) performs her one woman show, Surviving Chrysalis, this Wednesday and Thursday night (6/23 & 24) in the 1st Hollywood Fringe Festival.  Surviving Chrysalis is semi- autobiographical:   soulful, funny, and steamy.  We expect nothing less from a Broad. And Barb is always a pleasure to watch. For details and tickets visit: http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/project/view/256

Awards Arrived

The awards have come in from the designer and they look FABULOUS.  I am so happy to have them and can't wait to give them away on June 13.

Golidilocks and the Three Screenplays

Goldilocks (no relation to the brat with the bears) had to read screenplays for a festival.   She opened the first one.  "FADE IN: First the earth cooled."  True, the earth needed to cool for the oceans to form and single-celled life to appear, and for the vertebrates, amphibians, mammals and apes to show up before man could have the meet-cute at the Burger King.  Goldi slogged through the history lesson and was most happy when, on page 18, the characters suddenly came to life in the thick of some hair-brained scheme.  The story slowed down a few times again because the writer decided Goldi et al. couldn't enjoy the whole evolution of the plot without understanding just where Darwin sailed on the Beagle or what kind of beans Mendel used.  Goldi just wanted to get back to the story. Maybe the writer needed all that background, but the reader certainly did not.  "Too soft!" she said, and tossed it aside.

She opened the next script and got a pierced eardrum from writing that screamed Character!, Action!, and Gotcha! at her non-stop.  Lots of things happened as the plot careened and the characters acted with absolute conviction, but Goldi was not convinced.  There was something flat, as if the excitement was caused by popping balloons and if you stepped back, you saw the flaccid, stretched-out rubbery remains littering the party. And once she had stepped back, Goldi didn't want to step back in.  There was nobody she cared about in the story, nothing she hoped would happen to anybody.   Every character was a 'type' with a 'flaw' that you were hit with repeatedly.  Plotwise, the writer popped every balloon as soon as she could and Goldi wanted to take that pin and stick it...but Goldi was a pro and she soldiered on to the end.  Halfway through, the story started making sense, a few of the characters genuinely surprised her, and some of it was belly-laugh funny, but overall it asked too much of stock characters in unlikely situations.  "Too hard," she said and reached for the next one.

Goldi opened the next script.  A perfectly ordinary person did something most ordinary people wouldn't do.  "Odd," Goldi thought.  "I wonder why...?" but the author didn't give her time to wonder once she'd planted the question.  Instead,  the character's life started unraveling, and Goldi had to figure out what the heck was going on at the same time as the character did - the author refrained from telling her - all the while trying to understand exactly what kind of person acted like that - again the author did not tell though she clearly knew.  Goldi cared about the main character, recognized the world and the others in it, and had her own hopes for an outcome.  There was room for her mind and heart in the unfolding story - the author was either generous or disciplined enough to share the story-making pleasure with her audience and not keep it all for herself.  Suddenly there was a turn in the story, and Goldi laughed with delight, "I never saw THAT coming! But yes, it makes perfect sense."  When she reached the end, she sighed, "That was just right." And it was.

Janice Kennedy One-Act Play NIght

Janice Kennedy, whose Legacy Screening, "Man, Woman, Blackbird," closed the '09 Broad Humor Festival, is seen here out on the town with fellow Broad, Annmarie Hehir, at the Lex Theater in Hollywood.  The evening consisted of 3 one-act plays penned by Kennedy, including the stage play, "The Dark," upon which the film was based.  One feature of Janice's writing is her use of multiple actors to portray multiple aspects of women's personality or the "ghost" of their experience that hovers around the lives of the characters.  Kudos to Janice and to the producer/director Jennifer Bushnell for getting more women's writing up where the world can see it.

More info at www.lafpi.com - click on "Women at Work Onstage."

Great Screenwriting Advice

Screenwriting is such a tough combination of writing from your heart and taking care of business.  Playwrights have the luxury of messing around with structure any old way they please so long as it works.  Movies, falling as they do on the business side of the art/craft divide, demand scripts that toe the structure line much more closely. 

In that vein, I would like to suggest that all you writers out there check out the tips on Julie Gray's Silver Screenwriting site here.  Julie writes the fabulous screenwriting blog, Just Effing Entertain Me and runs The Script Department script consulting service. She's also giving a workshop at Broad Humor, so you'll get a chance to hear her and meet her there.

Bag Ladies?

Here are the first bags hot off the sewing machine. These are not for sale and cannot be had for love nor money.  Got to get a film or script in the festival if you want one.

Festival Bags

Many of the broads from Year 1 have told me how much they liked their one-of-a-kind festival bags that they got in our inaugural event.  As Sarah Schenck ('06, winner for Best Feature '07) said, "I loved it so much I used it till it fell apart!"

Well, for year 5, I'm doing it again.  I've gathered bits of fabric samples and am re-cycling them by making bags for all the participants this year.  So if you want another bag, you have to send us a film or script! And remember, if you make a short for our Legacy program, you pay no fee and are guaranteed a showing.  And a bag!

What Is in the Public Domain:

I was trying to figure out if some of the very old 78 records I have can be used legally in soundtracks, and my friend Laura, a great broad, sent me to the Cornell Law School website where there's a great chart explaining how and when copyright works pass into the public domain here.  Figured I'd share it.

The Godmother comes to Santa Monica!

Well, actually, she also lives there! Georja Umano, one of our favorite Broads! In the past few years, Georja has been part of the Broad Humor Film Festival, as a filmmaker and screenwriter. Wonderful work she has showcased at the festival!

Georja now stars in The Godmother, a short comedy action film by Lior Chefetz.

The hilarious romantic film is on a very successful roller coaster. It won Best Short Film at the Soho International Film Festival in New York City and also won Best Short Film at the Festivus Festival in Denver.

Now The Godmother is coming to Santa Monica !!!

It will be screened at the Edgemar Film Festival at the beautiful Edgemar Center on Main Street in Santa Monica, on Saturday March 27. It will be with three other short films, in "Block 3" (from 1 pm to 2pm).

If you can't make it to the Edgemar, there are a few more Los Angeles screenings coming up. On Sunday evening, March 28, there is a screening at the Method Fest in Calabases.

There will also be three more screenings in Hollywood in April and May.

Congratulations, Georja!

Stay tuned on The Godmother’s adventures via its website: http://thegodmothermovie.com/support.html

More details on the screenings and ticket information here.

http://www.edgemarcenter.org/events/filmfestival

The admission ticket is $10.

http://www.methodfest.com/10pages/films.htm

Lionsgate Seeks Comedy Film Projects

Massify and Lionsgate Films have partnered to create an original, high-concept comedy developed entirely through Massify's production network. A writer, director, cast, and crew will be attached through Massify - with Lionsgate's feature film development team providing input throughout the process. This is an opportunity to work with the leading next generation studio on a breakthrough project.

Program Details:

- You will be attached as the writer if your concept is greenlit

- Credit, Compensation, and Backend Participation in the produced film.

- Work closely with the Lionsgate team to develop your script.

NOTE: DEADLINE to submit your concept is March 8, 2010.

Learn more about the program, including Director's and Cast & Crew Phases, or pitch your concept:

http://massify. com/partnerships /lionsgate/ makingcomedy/ overview

Screening of Never Odd or Even and free tickets to the opening night party of the NY Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Hey Broads,

Remember Julia Camara’s invitational short film Never Odd or Even at the 2009 Broad Humor Film Festival?

The free invitationals are a way to encourage the Broads to keep producing new work and develop their craft with a guarantee that the finished film would get at least one festival screening. That many of the films have gone on to have a life after Broad Humor is now a proven testament. Julia Camara’s Never Odd or Even can count as one. To quote Julia: “I´m very excited to see the film has gone to more festivals than Broad Humor and I´m still very thankful I got off my butt and made this little film.”

Her film will have its third festival screening this coming Saturday at the NY International Film Festival in Culver City!

And in April the film is also going to be screening at the Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival.

Julia still has some complimentary tickets to the NYIFF opening night networking party this Thursday. If interested, email her directly at juliamcamara at yahoo dot com.

For more information on the screening and the party, read further.

Never Odd or Even Screening:

http://neveroddorevenfilm.com/

Saturday, February 27th at 2PM

Culver Plaza Theater

9919 Washington Blvd

Culver City, CA 90232

Phone: (310) 836-5511

You can buy tickets here:

http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=1188685

OPENING NIGHT: NYIFF kicks off with a film market and networking party

Thursday, February 25th from 6pm-10pm.

Cabana Club

1429 Ivar Ave Hollywood, CA 90028

21 and over only. Dress Code: Nightlife attire or business casual. NO T-SHIRTS, SNEAKERS, JERSEYS, BASEBALL HATS, BAGGY JEANS, SWEATS, etc

The Broad Humor Film Festival in Wikipedia

We are now officially listed in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Very exciting! Another positive sign that the Festival is widely recognized.

Check out the Broad Humor Film Festival Wikipedia entry. Forward to other filmmakers and writers. Edit and add links as appropriate to Wiki rules and NPOV (neutral point of view) standards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Humor_Film_Festival

Workshop on Self-Distribution (and more)

Tamar Halpern, (BH '07, '08, '09) is an alumna of Hedgebrook, a women's writers' retreat in Washington State.  She's helping organize a fundraiser for the beloved place at St. Mary's College in Brentwood with workshops on 2 Saturdays -  March 6 and March 13.  The workshops are $40 each and will support Hedgebrook.

For example, Judith Dancoff, who had great success with self-distribution of her documentary, will pass on an easy, how-to-self-distribute method to filmmakers on March 13.   More info and sign-up here.

Web Series Anyone?

Here's an article from Patrick Bardwell of Slebisodes offering some web series guidelines. I talked with Patrick today, and he's taking an idea - a sort of TV Guide for web series - and making it happen for himself.  Kinda like we do. So read his article, and if you have web content, go to his website, slebisodes.com, and click through to submit to him to be included. 


I know, I know you want somebody else to give you the green light.  But in the meantime, why not green light yourself on the web?  Yes, it will be a lot of work and who knows if anyone will watch.   Yet you may find if you keep at it that you connect with your core audience, and that is bankable.   Meanwhile, you get lots and lots of practice, which will make your work better, guaranteed.  

I'm going to be saying a lot more here about women using the web to produce their work instead of sitting and waiting for Prince Charming a green light. For now, check out 

Kathryn Bigelow becomes Award-season frontrunner

Kudos to Kathryn Bigelow for winning the top prize from the Directors Guild of America last Saturday! Even more, she is the FIRST woman to win the guild’s top honor!

And there is a change she might even take home an Academy Award for Best Director for The Hurt Locker.

Not that the Academy tends to generously honor women in top categories…

Kathryn Bigelow is only the 4^th female director to be nominated in the directorial category. Six years ago it was Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation. No woman has ever won a Best Director Oscar.

More over, Bigelow’s under-the-radar, very manly, war thriller The Hurt Locker is competing with James Cameron’s 3D blockbuster Avatar for Best Picture. And Cameron is none other than her ex-husband. Both are also running for Best Director.

Get ready for the battle of the exes!

Read more in these articles.

http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/02/james-cameron-avatar-kathryn-bigelow-hurt-locker-forbes-woman-time-oscar-nominations.html?boxes=Homepagetoprated

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100131/ap_en_ot/us_film_directors_awards

The Los Angeles Comedy Festival, another festival for funny people!

A reminder that submissions are now officially open for the 5th Broad Humor Film Festival taking place June 11-13, 2010.

We are looking for humor created for the screen generated by women. Women writers. Women directors. It is our goal to showcase the female comic vision. Save money by submitting your work before the early deadline, March 14, 2010.

We also invite you to check out another festival in town that embraces humor and comedy: The Los Angeles Comedy Festival. It is open for creations by both women and men!

The LA Comedy Festival is the place for all things funny! Bringing you the best sketch, improv, standup and film from LA, nationally and around the globe. You’re in for great comedy every night! The Festival will be held from May 6-23 at the beautiful ACME Comedy Theatre. Final deadline to apply is March 5, 2010.

http://www.lacomedyfest.com/

Julie Gray Screenwriting Workshops Go Global

You may remember Julie Gray from the great screenwriting workshop at the 2009 Broad Humor Film Festival, where the script consultant and blogger of The Script Department (justeffing.com) talked in-depth with Laura Shapiro, entertainment consultant and producer, about writing, Hollywood, women and comedy. Both women shared very useful advice and gave much insight on these topics.  She's embarking on a world-wide tour with her workshop Ideas to the Page to the Screen, with workshops in NYC, London, Chicago, San Fran....look for one near you and go! Los Angeles locals can also take Julie's workshop! But hurry. It starts this weekend!

One thing that Julie told us in the workshop last June really made an impression on me at the time: her stats on men vs. women paying for professional help with scripts matched the Hollywood stats for working screenwriters.  Apparently, the guys are more willing to put their cash on the line to get better.  So we broads perhaps shouldn't moan that our scripts aren't getting bought when we don't use professional services to make sure we've got them where they need to be.  I'm not saying you have to pay Julie, but you should be willing to put your script to a professional test someplace and polish with a pro.

Full workshop details below the fold...

Julie Gray is packing her bags and setting off on a whirlwind, world-wide tour to teach you how to get your Ideas to the Page to the Screen. She's off to NYC February 27-28 for an intensive two-day weekend workshop, then jetting across the Atlantic for UK workshops in London (March 6-7) and Oxford (March 13-14). After, that she's taking some much needed time off in Tel Aviv before heading back to the states to teach workshops in Chicago in April and San Francisco in May. All workshops are $329 with deep discounts given to early-birds including a 10% discount at the Writer's Store and $50 off attendance at the Great American Pitch Fest in June. Sign up before February 12 to receive a free bundle of three podcasts from Julie's teleclass series Just Effing Do It!

Oh, and for you local folk, Julie is also teaching The Saturday Series in Los Angeles on Saturdays January 30, February 6, and February 13 at The Lot on Formosa - $50 a class or $125 for all three. Each class runs 9am to 1pm - get in early, get out early, get on with your day! Go to www.justeffing.com to learn more!