The Broad Humor Film Festival

Graphic Novelize

2012-01-16T16:23:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a girl can't get no respect as a filmmaker. So I was thinking...well perhaps not thinking but something close enough...about graphic novels. There's a lot of buzz these days for films based on graphic novels, and bidding for the rights to make movies of them can run pretty darn high. Six figures is a lot of respect if you ask me. Now, I don't have the "wrist" to draw what's in my head, but I certainly have the skills to film it. I decided to take a look at one of my shorts, Little Miss Malice, and see if I could pull out pages and turn it into a graphic novel. Here's what I've come up with so far...

Broads Co-op for WGA credit

2012-01-13T08:51:00.000-08:00

I had an idea this morning. I have been trying to figure out a way for web writing to give our broads credit toward WGA membership. It is fairly simple credit to get, but requires that we incorporate ourselves instead of just being under a non-profit umbrella for fiscal sponsorship. That costs a bit more than we have in the bank for miscellaneous fees. But then, if the various broads who write pitched in a few bucks each, then it would be doable. We're talking about $1500 for a LLC that includes the hefty California fees. Broad Humor could make the deal with the guild, and you all could shoot your web videos as co-productions and have it count as points toward WGA membership. A win for all. Email me if you have any interest in this, or post a comment with your thoughts.

2012 Goals?

2012-01-04T07:40:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of looking forward to the year and making, if not resolutions, then plans, I'd like to know what folks are working on. Writing or filmmaking, making a public statement before the world is a way of infusing some discipline into the mix.

My goal is to put something out in the world every single day, be it a blog post, a video, a vlog, even a comment on someone else's blog will count so long as it is an expression of my ideas. In addition I hope to finish a short film and to write a feature script over the course of the year. But my resolution is the 365 days of getting some kind of output in the world.

Riley Wants to Know...

2011-12-24T16:32:00.000-08:00

Check out this YouTube video of a little girl named Riley getting upset in a toy store cuz all the girls have to be pink and princesses while the boys get to be superheroes. Out of the mouth of babes...

Ask Me No Stereotyping Questions, I'll Tell You No Lies (Oooh, you're so smart!)

2011-09-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

I am going on a bit of a tirade today about the New York Times interview of Whitney Cummings. Others have discussed her style of comedy and how the networks are handling her. There's a nice piece on Jezebel.com about that. I'm more interested in the interviewer, Andrew Goldman, and the meta-message of his questions to her. So I've reprinted his questions, and put in my own analysis of their subtext. If you want to read Whitney Cummings' actual answers, read the NYT article here.

This fall, you’re coming out of relative obscurity to have two shows on network TV: “Whitney,” which you star in, and “Two Broke Girls,” which you co-created. What do you remember about being broke?

At first glance, a reasonable question given the title of one of the shows, But since she has only recently come “out of relative obscurity” it’s actually a rather dumb question when you think about it.

Hold on, you did your grocery shopping at 7-Eleven?

Imagine a guy tells an interviewer he shopped at 7-11. Would that call for such a “hold on” bit of faux incredulousness?

On those Comedy Central roasts, your fellow comedians liked to joke about how you slept your way to fame. How accurate is that criticism?

Two problems here. His lead in tries to hide his question behind her fellow comics. John Stuart likes to point out his show doesn’t have to pretend to be fair since his network is Comedy Central but that one would hope for more balance on a news network. Similarly, a joke at a roast and a “legitimate” question by the Times are not the same level of insult.

In addition, it’s impossible to imagine the same question being asked seriously to a guy because of the nasty reality of gender inequality in the business. So not only is the question rude, it takes as reasonable the shi**y distribution of power that creates a world where this does happen. No matter what her answer, the idea that women don’t deserve their success get a little bump in the unconscious of both male and female readers. Way to go.

Your friend Chelsea Handler got her show while she was going out with the head of Comcast, E!’s parent company.

Just in case the actual answer tries to divorce women’s success from her sexual behavior, we have a tasty chunk of innuendo thrown in gratis.

Norm Macdonald was pretty hostile toward you in an interview, saying, “Hey, guess what, there’s a young girl that’s middling attractive that swears a lot, let’s get her,” suggesting you were an inferior version of Sarah Silverman.

Drawing attention from the interviewer’s general tone of hostility and stereotyping of women by pointing a finger at the competition.

Michael Patrick King was your co-creator on “Two Broke Girls.” Considering that he’s best known for his writing on “Sex and the City,” how do you dress to meet him?

Well, I can’t really parse a question that takes such a leap of logic...or non-logic...that I can’t follow. I suppose the question was never anything but “how did you dress” and the first half was some halfhearted effort to make it seem, I don’t know, pertinent. Again, would anybody ask a male comic how he dressed for a meeting? I am so tired of the interviewer at this point I don’t know if I have the will to finish.

You once said, “I need a man who financially needs me.” Was that a joke?

Again, would this be one of only 10 questions asked of a male comic who made the same comment about a man or a woman? Maybe a high school newspaper could get away with such clichés. Or do I insult high school newspapers?

Didn’t the fact that you modeled early in your career make you understand that you’re objectively attractive?

Don’t need to rate the question because her answer was clear and smart and basically taught him something if he was listening.

You have a comedy bit about how you wrecked your car by filling it with diesel. That can’t be true.

That can’t be true? How about simply asking the question “Is that true?” rather than throwing in the rhetorical equivalent to the macho eye roll about how women are hopeless about machines?

Was it expensive to fix?

Hold on. I thought you were the guy. Of course it was expensive to fix. Even I with my ovaries know that.

They’ll say you’re too dumb to own a car.

Rather than too dumb to interview a woman. 

Poster!

2011-09-17T21:26:00.000-07:00

DIY as a Creative Choice

2011-09-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

So I was going to order a banner from a printer but my design cohort, a former game show props and set gal, convinced me that the alternative-leaning crowd of Venice is unlikely to be pulled in by yet another plastic banner at the Lodge. So instead we began a 3-D collage project for this year's festival poster. Or rather, she began and I gave opinions.

Here she is laying lettering after covering a 4x8 sheet of foam core with script pages. (No submissions were harmed in the process. These are old scripts of mine...) Will keep you posted on how it turns out.

Start with the Baby

2011-09-12T08:46:00.000-07:00

I was talking to a filmmaker, a good one, about beginnings. I was trying to figure out a way to convince her to consider cutting the top of her film, but she loved it and so did her circle of beloveds. So I used the movie-as-baby analogy and took it a step further. Your movie may be an amazing baby, but if you introduce me to it by showing me the delivery or, God forbid, the act of conception, I am so outta there you have to work doubly hard to capture my heart. TMI, folks, too much information.

Seeing act of birth can be beautiful and amazing to family. The lovemaking that leads to conception is also beautiful, but not really something I want to watch if I'm not one of the parties in bed - and even then, probably not. Keep all that in your heart, and possibly in the extra value content on the DVD, but take it out of the film. Show me the shining, luminous new being already washed and swaddled in its blanket. All that other stuff you are so sure needs to be in there so I know what's happening probably is covered again later. And even if it's not, I can figure stuff out. I know where babies come from. I know that you had to do the deed and nine months later push it out. Not necessary to explain. Start with the baby, not the birth.

When I first started writing screenplays myself, I read all about how a movie has to grab you right away. Comments on my earliest work were always the same: starts slow. But I needed all that stuff. Now I realize the emphasis was wrong... I needed all that stuff. Readers and viewers were telling me they didn't.

Part of the reason I didn't write more "by the book" openings was that I really didn't know what that meant. I could understand the words but couldn't feel the right or wrong of it. So I avoided and rationalized that my work was different because I was afraid I would lose heart otherwise. Over the last few years, I have read hundreds of screenplays and watched as many if not more films for Broad Humor. One right after the other. And that work has made me hyper-sensitive to wasted page or screen time. Not to mention a better writer. I volunteer my time here, but I do get amazing intangible benefits out of it.

I write this blog hoping it gives you the insight that I had to spend years figuring out. If you get it from this analogy: great. If you have to take the long, slow path of learning through mistakes and false starts, that's okay too. That's one of the reasons why I created the festival: to have a place where women doing comic film writing and directing can come and get their work in front of a public that is not friends and family, but is still supportive. A kind of half-way house for the overproud "moms" who have "babies" they want the world to accept and love.

One more thing. I did the over-sharing opening myself in writing this blog entry. I front-loaded - started by giving you background on myself and my learning curve - instead of diving in and trusting you will keep reading. So I'm gonna rewrite, reorder, put the baby/birth analogy in the first paragraph and give the background on me at the bottom. If you made it this far, you now know that I do practice what I preach.

Down to the Wire

2011-09-07T18:36:00.000-07:00

Selections for this year's festival are almost finished. At the moment, I am thinking about short films and how they often tend to deliver the same amount of "story" despite their different lengths. By story, I don't mean plot. Longer shorts usually have more plot, but they rarely have more "story."
Plot complications that raise the stakes are not enough. Getting the characters in a tighter spot where they are more invested isn't the point. It is the viewer who has to care more. Raising the stakes is not about the filmmaker doing it to a character in the movie. Whatever happens to raise the stakes has to induce me to raise the stakes of my participation in the ongoing story. Putting the character through hell is just a tool to pull me in and is not an end in itself or a romance between the author/filmmaker and their delight in their own oeuvre.

This gets missed frequently in documentaries where each turn of events moves the story to a new place, but on the same plane. Another fascinating fact or event or insight moves the movie horizontally and eventually leaves the viewer feeling flat. Docs have more of an excuse for this, however, since reality is often picaresque. Yet many of the narrative films make the same mistake and at some point I get antsy because the film keeps covering the same emotional terrain even as the plot moves onward. A movie, or a screenplay, needs to move me, not the plot. And if something happens in the story because the writer needs it to connect the dots but the reader/viewer is not moved to invest more by it, then the writer/filmmaker needs to dump the excess baggage and focus on saving the ship aka the viewer/reader's investment.

2011 Submissions Closed

2011-08-22T21:09:00.000-07:00

We are very excited about this year's festival. We received more submissions this year than ever before. There is some wonderful work that we are looking forward to sharing with the world.

We are also expanding to include a day of DIY filmmaking on Friday. Women who do comedy have got to start greenlighting themselves. Period. Yes, it would be nice for someone to shower a "golden yes" down from the towers of studio glory.But if "they" don't buy our work, it doesn't mean there is no audience for it. It cheats that audience and ourselves to deny the world the spectrum of women's humor simply because the gatekeepers are looking for something else.

Streaming site

2011-07-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

Teri Carson sent this along to us about Dynamo Player, a new video streaming service where viewers pay. Don't know much about it, but those of you interested in self-distribution might want to check out this article in Microfilmmaker Magazine:

Impoverished Humor

2011-07-05T08:35:00.000-07:00

A broad send me a notice announcing the finalists for the FOX/NYTVF comedy screenwriting competition. Out of 25 scripts with 36 writers, only 4 are women, and only 2 were solo scribes. The other two women were in writing teams with men. Check it out here.

The reasons for starting Broad Humor still stand. The comic vision of women is absent from our entertainment landscape. Kinda like a painting of the countryside with no flowers. Trees, rivers, wildlife, rocks, sky and sun. Fine. But where are the Roses, the Irises, the Daisys?

The Women's Anger Problem

2011-05-17T07:49:00.000-07:00

There are dissertations devoted to the "angry young man" writer and his centrality to the culture. For artists, to be an "angry young man" is essential to becoming an important and respected trailblazer in the world of ideas. There is a value placed that sometimes borders on reverence for that anger as a forge for genius.

In men. Because it is mighty hard to imagine people standing around praising an "angry young woman" story about the injustices she experiences. And the analogy is not quite right anyway. Young men write their "angry" polemics because they are at the nadir of their social status and from there can see the unfairness, the small-mindedness, and the shallowness of the world (not to mention women) that gives them less respect than the older men with more experience and success get. The young men may have the powers of mind and spirit equal to greatness, but the world can't see it and this makes them rightly angry.

Young women, on the other hand, find themselves at the apex of their social status and power. Their youth and beauty, their sexual desirability catapults them into a status equal to the older and more successful men. They feel the status quo to be quite correct in valuing them.

An equivalent does exist, and could be called the "angry middle-aged woman." Through no fault of her own, a woman's status suddenly plummets. But notice your own reaction to the idea of that woman venting in polemical terms. Are you drawn to her rage or do you desire to distance yourself? Even if you are yourself angry and middle-aged, as a woman you will probably shy from it, hoping to distance yourself from the rejection that follows expressions of female anger.

I have a theory. It may not be patriarchy that makes us distance ourselves from female anger. It may be biology that makes female anger problematic. A mother's anger can threaten a baby's very survival. If that fear doesn't get processed in adults, then that anger will get rejected out of hand before it can trigger the infant fears. Yet anger expressed is central to being a vital human. If the culture through its narratives does not mediate this fear by presenting very adult female models allowed a full spectrum of feelings, then the whole society will be weirdly skewed away from 3-dimensional depictions of women and leave men and women with deeply disfigured spirits.

Yet we crave stories that have some substance, some nutrition for our souls. In movies, scenes of female anger are often the cathartic apex of a chick flick. From the bridal shower fight in Bridesmaids to the rooftop knockdown dragout in The Turning Point, there is something exultant about women finally letting it all out. I think Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew survives not because Petrucchio "tames" Kate, but that their fights in the beginning are so much fun precisely because she doesn't give an inch and stands her ground. Do you have a favorite fight scene between women or between a woman and man?

This is one of the areas where I think art needs to lead and not, as it does when it becomes part of the entertainment industry, pander to the existing narrative. Profit is easier when the message is "you don't have to think, you don't have to change; all your current prejudices and unjust ideas are fine." Twinkies for the human spirit, not meat and potatoes. This is unfortunately all we are getting these days when our narrative arts have been handed over to the god of profit. If we can't find ways to re-invigorate the art of the narrative that strives for cultural healing and growth over corporate dividends, we will remain a people imprisoned by our infantile fears and desires, malnourished in our societal soul.

"Saw Bridesmaids with a Friend" Says It All

2011-05-16T08:31:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I went to see Bridesmaids with a female friend. Whatever the quality of the movie, that statement says it all. I have never been a bride or bridesmaid, being a gal who is not really interested in that whole spectacle. So a drama about that "female" experience would pass me by. But a comedy? I'm game. Women friends acting out? Looking forward to it.

I hear women every day complain that they don't enjoy the movies they see. And that goes double for comedies. They are hungry for stories that they can relate to enough to really dive in, but they get zip, nothing, nada. Bridesmaids may not be anywhere near a perfect film, but it sure does go for laughs with women I feel like I know. Sure they are drawn in comic proportions, but these are not candy-box females (you know pink silk box, sweet, gooey filling, but no nutrition or fiber). The women are all sizes, not just stick thin. They have real faces with expression and character. Lines and freckles show. The semiotics are spectacular.

The film presents a series of hilarious vignettes and strings them together with the story. For the first 2/3 of the movie, it is the individual scenes that keep your interest. Every time it goes to the overall story arc, it loses its vitality. A couple of times I felt it was on the edge of a flatline when another scene would pop out and I'd find myself laughing out loud.

Interestingly, though I did not know going in who directed the film, I found myself wondering if it was a guy based on the overall style of the movie. The early lunch scene between the best friends where they joke about the way guys "hint" for oral sex served as a weird metaphor for how some of the "in your face" humor in the film was presented for laughs. I know, I know. You can't have a comedy both written AND directed by women....

Happily, the film story line clicks into place for the last act, and so it delivers all the satisfactions one could want in a comic film. Laughs, heart, a few tears, and some final rolicking.

Broadening Our Scope

2011-05-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

We're expanding the reach of Broad Humor this year. We added a Thursday night live comedy show to the plans for this year's festival. Broad Humor is about all the ways women tickle your funny bone and so when the opportunity arose for some stand-up organizers to add their broad experience to our event, we were thrilled. (Okay, I'll stop with the "broad" puns for now.) Eventually, we'd like to have a film festival, a comedy festival, and a theater festival: all events featuring the humor of women.

So the festival will begin this year on Thursday, October 29 with a live stand-up show featuring all women performers. Friday day we are putting together a day of workshops and panels. Friday night we have a Belgian sex farce out-of-competition screening of "Madly in Love." Saturday film screenings. Sunday screenlab script readings, Legacy films and award ceremony.

Janice Kennedy Film Screening at El Cid in LA

2011-04-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

A short film written by Broad Humor alum Janice Kennedy, Man. Woman. Blackbird., will screen at the El Cid Short Film Night on Wednesday, May 4, along with several other shorts. This is a film adaptation of her play, The Dark, which was part of the first incarnation of Broad Humor, a night of plays by women.

Food and drink is available prior to the screenings at the El Cid, which begin at 9 p.m - it's actually listed in Google maps as a restaurant. The El Cid, once owned by D.W. Griffith, is here. For more information, go to the short films night Facebook page here.

During an electrical blackout on a hot summer night, a woman's long-suppressed rage materializes from the shadows as she confronts her philandering husband in a candlelit death-dance of seduction, suspicion and murder.

New Business Card Design

2011-04-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

I designed some new business cards to go with our re-styled website. What do you think, broads?

Cine Gear Expo Film Competition

2011-04-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

CineGear Expo is having a film series competition. Deadline Extended to April 20, 2011

The Film Series at Cine Gear Expo - A Tribute to the Visual Art of Filmmaking will comprise screenings of films based on their illumination of the visual art forms in filmmaking, such as cinematography, art design, set and costume design, and will also feature a Student Short Film Competition, the Independent Short Film Competition, the Independent Feature Film Competition, and the Documentary Film Competition. The winner in each category will receive one of the Production Prize Packages.

Rules and Entry Forms, Production Prize Packages, Schedule and more here.

Submissions: Paris Project deadline April 22

2011-04-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

Paris Project invites the foreign filmmakers and producers of the selected projects in development to spend 4 days in Paris: personalised appointments and one-to-one meetings are organized with professionals who are likely to be interested in those selected projects and to bring them financial support through co-production or presales. In 2010, more than 350 professionals from 140 societies attended Paris Project and 476 meetings were scheduled.

Deadline for projects application: April 22, 2011
(please note that projects have to be submitted by a production company and projects submitted should not have French partners attached)

CONTEST: The Los Angeles Video Project

2011-03-31T16:06:00.000-07:00

If you have a short film or care to make one that features the city of Los Angeles and present it in a positive light, you have until April 22 to upload. This festival presented by New Filmmakers LA on May 20, 2011 at the Montalban Theatre in Hollywood. More info here...

Calling All April Fools! - Submissions open for 2011

2011-03-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

April 1, the Broad Humor Film Festival opens submissions for its sixth year of celebrating funny films by women with exclusive screenings, screenplay readings, exciting industry panels, delicious eats and the best conversations a bunch of broads could ask for! Ladies, break out your director's cuts. Funny femmes, make the finish flares on that final fabulous draft. Women everywhere, get ready to submit your comedic works to the film festival tailored just for YOU.

Get Ready to Submit Your Films and Screenplays

2011-03-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

Submissions are open for the 2011 Broad Humor Film Festival.

This year is already shaping up to be a barrel of laughs. We have broadened (yes pun intended) the categories so that now a film written by a woman but directed by a non-female can still be eligible for inclusion in the festival. Likewise, a gal can direct something written by a man and still see her work included in the event and possibly garner a directing award for it. More details on the Broad Humor website submissions page.

Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival Next Weekend

2011-03-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

If you're in LA and interested in women's work on stage, next weekend you can sample the works of women performers from near and far taking place March 24-27 at the Electric Lodge, 1416 Electric Ave, Venice, 90291

There's gala Thursday March 24 (see invite graphic) that costs $40. For the other programs, ticket prices this year include Festival VIP passes for all six shows at $125; and general admission single show tickets at $20 in advance, or $25 at the door. Discounts are available upon request for students, seniors, and groups of ten or more. The Electric Lodge welcomes all audience members to use its free, on-site parking lot.

Reservations: (818) 760-0408.
Online reservations will be available at http://www.lawtf.com

Sexy Women and Comedy

2011-03-01T11:04:00.000-08:00

Wading into the conversation about last week's 30 Rock and the convoluted relationship of feminism to women's humor, I want to first send kudos to Salon's Rebecca Traister and Women and Hollywood's guest blog by Emilie Spiegel. You should know that my opinions come from my experiences performing in a Seattle late-night cabaret as a "babe" - baby-voiced, blonde, and completely self-absorbed. (Watch an old video of me in Freud & Box Envy on YouTube if you care to see where I'm coming from.)

Comedy with cleavage plays on the power of sex. A gal who uses that power without admitting that she's doing it risks pissing other women off. You can get the guys with testosterone poisoning to swear they love you for your brains, but don't expect me to buy the lie. I don't mind if Babycakes gets what she wants by dumbing down or dressing up. I mind if she turns to me with those same wide eyes and innocently demands I accept her status as coming from her brains, artistry, or great personality.

There's a difference between sexy girls delivering jokes and dead-on comic timing by someone sexy. Gracie Allen could make you laugh with "Oh." This is not generally accepted today, and while in the past we had a host of not-so-very attractive female comics, they are virtually absent today.

And we are all the poorer for it. It's great that Tina Fey has the status to give us her take on women and comedy. We should not have to all hang our hats or handbags on one person. She cannot embody the spectrum of women's comic version of life in our times. She becomes a lightning rod for everything, and that's unfair to both her and to us.

Do You Write Like a Man or a Woman?

2011-02-17T18:06:00.000-08:00

There's a program called the Gender Genie that supposedly tells you if you write like a man or a woman. It turns out that I write more like a man (Female score: 300/ Male score: 370) Hollywood, do you hear? I write like a man!

How about you broads? Do broads write more like men or women. Post your scores and let me know.

A Super 8 Film Festival- Watch and Enter

2011-01-11T19:24:00.000-08:00

Straight 8 is a film festival that invites you to shoot a film on one Super 8 cartridge. The entry fee includes the cartridge. They send it, you shoot and send it back. Then they process it, you send the soundtrack separately. No editing. They'll be at Sundance this year if you plan to go. Meanwhile, you can watch some of the best films from previous years here. Some really creative stuff. Entry deadline: March 1.

Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative

2011-01-10T16:57:00.000-08:00

Met this great bunch of women working to raise awareness in Los Angeles of the stage work done by women. They have launched an organization called the Female Playwrights Initiative - FPI. The sad fact is that too few of the plays by women are getting produced and the skew in the voices is resulting in a skew in the stories. I think that our stories are not serving us very well these days, caused at least in part by the narrow range of narratives that get exposure. More women's voices would benefit not only the women writers, but the culture as a whole.

It would be great if we would all take the time to go and enjoy the work of one woman a month, be it a play or a movie or an art exhibit. Perhaps we can make it a group outing and meet and greet for a beverage or snack before or after. We need to have fun supporting women or it becomes a chore. But if we don't support women in the arts, then how can we complain about the movies, the music, all the stories out there that fail to engage us because we're not the target audience.

So how about it. Anybody up for a "women's work" play group to go to one event a month?

Who Gave You Your Inspiration or Aspiration?

2011-01-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

I'd like to know who have been the women - and men - who inspired you to take on the creative life or who helped you give yourself permission to aspire to it. We broads think we've got something to say that others need to hear, whether they know it or not. How did we get so confident? Or driven? I'd like to see if we share common heroines, real or fictional. Maybe there are some women who we should be recognizing as part of the festival for their contribution to our lives.

I have a host of women I can point to. As I'm an old broad, mine are pretty old school. The first name I have to put on the list is Anita Loos. Female scifi/fantasy writers like Ursula LeGuin and Andre Norton were other writing inspirations, though neither of these is funny. Then comediennes like Carol Burnett and Jean Harlow. (Lucille Ball was not my favorite. I preferred Ethel.)

Another role model for me from a young age was Barbra Streisand. She did not look like any other woman at the pinnacle of American success anywhere, she had worked her way up with talent, and she took the reins like it was a woman's right to do so. There weren't any women directors that I knew of. (Okay, so there are only a few now. At least there ARE a few.) Streisand directed and I remember thinking, "Can she do that?" I've come a long way, baby.

So how about you? If you have time, please share your thoughts along with the names. I think we are in trouble as a society because the stories manufactured in the marketplace are failing us. I'd like to get down to the root with some real stories and see if we can make a fertile field for a new narrative crop to nurture our minds and spirits.

The Circle of Time

2010-12-30T11:20:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-14T17:17:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-30T18:09:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-27T07:46:00.000-08:00

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

2010-10-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-25T10:04:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-05T09:01:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-07-30T17:09:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-12T09:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-06-22T06:31:00.000-07:00

...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

2010-06-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-04-04T17:48:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

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:

2010-03-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-03-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-02-24T16:34:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-16T18:42:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-02-06T10:40:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-02-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-03T18:51:00.000-08:00

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!

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

2010-02-01T17:05:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-29T19:23:00.000-08:00

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!

Gia Milani Script a Winner at Slamdance

2009-12-29T19:11:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Gia Milani for her script, All the Wrong Reasons, winning the Script Accessible Award as part of the 2009 Slamdance Feature Screenplay competition. The awards are in January at Slamdance, so if you're in Park City, get in touch and say hello.

Gia's short film, Bathroom Stalled, was in the very first Broad Humor festival and her short, She Lost Her Marbles, was in the very first alumnae invitational the next year. For more info on her films go to her company website, Shore Road Pictures.

Julia Camara Invitational Reviewed

2009-12-14T09:20:00.000-08:00

Julia Camara's Invitational Short has been reviewed here. I started the no-fee invitationals as a way to encourage all our 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 a testament to the idea that women can do comedy. All we need is a little encouragement.

For info on this year's invitational, check out our home page: broadhumor.com. Remember, any festival participant from any past year can submit a film for no fee and be guaranteed a screening in next year's fest.

It's Not Called HisTube...

2009-11-04T14:55:00.000-08:00

I went to a YouTube round table yesterday and got a bit of a jolt in my broad-minded attitude. The guys around the table were all there because they have channels that are popular enough to qualify them as YouTube Partners. Many of them make their living on YouTube.

If you caught my use of the word "guys," good for you. The shock for me was there at the table. Without any studio executive choosing who gets the green light because on YouTube you greenlight yourself; without any prejudice in hiring since nobody there worked for somebody else; without any philosophizing about gender bias in the media, the fact remains that the proportion of guys to broads at the table was as bad as it is in the mainstream movie and TV biz.

And that pissed me off.

The last time I got pissed off like this at the Writers Guild, I started this festival. I gotta do something. And I can't do it alone, gals. If we want a place at the table, we need to start putting it out there, as regularly and as boobs-to-the-tubes as the guys do.

So let's hear all the objections and excuses. Maybe some are valid. And yes, I know some women have very big audiences on YouTube. Nevertheless, we have some explaining to do to ourselves and each other.

Going on Thirteen on KQED

2009-11-02T20:35:00.000-08:00

Going on Thirteen, this year's Broad Humor best feature documentary, will be screening at 11 pm November 2 on KQED in the SF Bay area. Check out this great film about four girls coming of age in urban America.

Cupcakes?

2009-10-29T06:39:00.000-07:00

Apparently, Dick Cheney sent Mika Brzezinski cupcakes after she weighed in against him for his "dithering" comments. His response to her criticism was that she seemed cranky. Awww, isn't it cute when your females get all in a snit, maybe at their time of the month. Give her cupcakes like a good little girl, pat her on the head, and let everybody get a good laugh.

Me, I love a good joke, but I'm not laughing. Mika's response was telling: part of her was businesslike in her resistance to the idea and her preference for a real interview. Part of her was girlish in her response, saying she wanted the pink one. And part of her was worried about the calories, as almost all public women do because they must stay slim to be taken seriously. I don't have time or interest to go on a tirade here about the substance and implications of these things. I'd prefer for us all to go out and make a movie called "Cupcake" and explored them via film.

I don't know if the Cheney's meant to demean Mika with the gift. My dad was an executive from the days when it was perfectly appropriate for him to call secretaries and waitresses "cupcake" - as he often did, along with "doll" and "baby." I'll never forget the day in the mid-70's when a waitress shot back angrily that she was not his doll. His feelings were hurt, for he had meant to be nice. He couldn't see that his effort to be nice insulted her.

At that time, I though that the waitress could have said the same thing only been more pleasant about it, precisely because my dad had meant no harm. But that burden on women, that they take an insult, consider the other person's intentions, and then convey their feelings in a non-offensive way, is just too high a standard to be a requirement. If we accept the insult, we feel bad. If push back, we feel bad.

I learned to take my bad feelings and instead of turning them inward and getting depressed, or turning them outward and getting angry, I turn them into comedy and have a laugh with my friends. This is my wish for women through this festival.

Make a 'cupcake' movie. I'd like to see it. I'd like to show it in the festival next year.

Demading Women - Where Are They?

2009-10-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

Joanne Lipman, a former deputy managing editor at The Wall Street Journal and the founding editor in chief of Condé Nast Portfolio magazine has an op-ed in the NYTimes today that struck me hard because it accounts for some of why women are not getting ahead. Yes, I know all the ways the deck is stacked against women's comedies, women directors and women writers, and I don't mean to minimize how hard it can be. Yet when she says this about the simple act of asking for a raise, it makes me pause:

In my time as an editor, many, many men have come through my door asking for a raise or demanding a promotion. Guess how many women have ever asked me for a promotion?
I’ll tell you. Exactly ... zero.

This echoes something that Julie Gray of the Rouge Wave (now justeffing.com) and The Script Department said at our screenwriting panel last year. She talked about the proportion of men to women who pay for screenwriting critiques and help. Few women seek criticism, even when by a savvy, safe and obviously constructive source. This worries me, in part because I, too, have trouble in this area.

So what are we gonna do about it?

Creating Karma at the Laemmle

2009-10-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

Some of the Broads showed up for the premiere of Jill Wisoff's Creating Karma at the downtown Laemmle. Donna Wheeler and I took a snap in front of the screening room marquis. We all want our films to be there.

We all shared some news about what we're doing next. Donna's making a short-short for the Green Screen Film Festival no-fee category which I am helping put together. You can too if you do it soon. Check out the info at greenscreenfilmfestival.com and click on the Community Shorts tab. Michelle Clay is working as an editor and trying to put together funds for her next feature, Tony and Leo.

As for Jill, she was tired from all the prep leading up to the release but she's got no time to rest. On to AFM in November to see if she can sell the film. Kudos to a Broad making farce, the hardest kind of comedy to tackle.

And then there's Ralph Lauren...

2009-10-11T08:33:00.000-07:00

My last post was about the German magazine, Brigitte, and the response of the male designers to it. The logical result of their mindset has its poster-cartoon in the new Ralph Lauren ad. (I say cartoon because it looks like a comic book drawing to me.)

Boing-boing raised a stink, mocking the ad with a pithy, "Dude, her head's bigger than her pelvis." At first, Ralph Lauren threatened to sue. Now Ralph Lauren has apologized for the ad and replaced it with a de-touched image here.
But there is no sense from RL that they have had a realization about their own attitudes toward women and beauty. Only that they did a bit too much photoshopping. I don't want apologies. I want self-reflection and a change of behavior that comes from the realization that they have been wrong.

Is it just me...

2009-10-07T06:10:00.000-07:00

A German fashion mag has decided to use real women instead of super-skinny models. So far so good. But then the video interviews some fashion industry guys and smoke started coming out of my ears. Money quote:

The problem with using "real women" is that women don't want to look like real women; they want to look like beautiful women.

Laugh Out Loud Moments

2009-10-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

Comedy is not just about timing. Too many people overplay funny Here's a video making the rounds because of a recent oil spill in Australia. Folks are claiming it's a real interview, but a quick check at snopes.com reveals that it is in fact from the 90's. No worries, as the Aussies say. It's still a fine model of comic delivery.

2008 Best Feature Opening in LA October 16

2009-10-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

Broad Humor's 2008 Best Feature, Creating Karma, is having its theatrical release here in LA on October 16. Come on out and support one of the broads. I'm going to be running the Q&A. It should be interesting for all of you to talk with Jill about how she's worked the system and her film to get distribution. Details below the fold.

CREATING KARMA
89 min Theatrical Release Version 2009

U.S. THEATRICAL PREMIERE
October 16-22
Q and A with filmmaker and cast following the Fri Oct 16 and Saturday Oct 17 evening screenings

LAEMMLE GRANDE THEATRE
345 S. Figueroa Street
213-617-0268
Showtime information at www.laemmle.com

“This Bollywood style romp from the 60's era of free love to contemporary pseudo-intellectual is big screen farce full of fun!"
...Broad Humor Film Festival

NR: Some naughty words and insuations
this film is karmically safe for tweens & up

WINNER of the 2008 BROAD HUMOR FESTIVAL BEST FEATURE AWARD
WINNER of the 2007 BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE COMEDY AWARD; About Women By Women Category: BRILLIANT LIGHT INTERNATIONAL FILM FEST OF LOS ANGELES

Karma, uptight fashion editor, becomes a poet after moving in with
her new-age therapist sister. Join Karma on her cosmic journey from the
swinging sixties to a colorful NYC landscape of shallow friends, rapping nuns,
men in housedresses and inappropriate romance! Stars dancing diva Karen Lynn
Gorney of Saturday Night Fever fame, the great American character actor Joe Grifasi
and introduces talented newcomers. Original songs byJill Wisoff (Welcome to the
Dollhouse songs/score) and music by Joel Diamond (The Believer, Milarepa).

FIND YOUR INNER HIPPIE! Be prepared to sing along!

CREATING KARMA
(Verse 1) Let me take you on a journey to a real hip place
Where the mandrake grows
And a daisie bends in the wind
Rest beside the nurturing water and reincarnate
You are Karma creating karma
(chorus) And whatever you may choose, Girl (Creating Karma)
And whatever you may lose, Dude
Don’t worry about it
You are Karma!!!!

PASS THE PUPPET
(chorus) Pass the puppet, pass the puppet
Pass the puppet to the left, to the right
Pass the puppet, pass the puppet
Pass the puppet with a hey, with a ho!
It’s pass the puppet night!

CREATING KARMA, PASS THE PUPPET © Fantasy Creature Productions 2009

I'm Happy and Female - What's Wrong with Me?

2009-09-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

A recent study showing women are much less happy today than they were in the 70s before Women's Lib and Equal Opportunity while men are still about has happy if not happier has triggered a lot of chatter on the news and on the web. Here's just one article on the Huffingon Post by Marcus Buckingham with 43 pages of comments. (My comment is way back on p. 41 as I saw the article right away.)

My take on the situation is different from many of the others that to my mind rehashed much of the same arguments that have been going on about men, women and our culture for the past 30 years.

What I see is that my anecdotal experience is way off from the norm. I not only would score my happiness at a 3, I would say there is not one time in my past when I was happier. My sisters and female friends are very happy. Even the sister who lost her house in a foreclosure recently has bounced back and is loving her new life. I don't doubt the trends; I just wonder what's different.

One difference is that my friends and family all lead artist lives. We are not rebels nor crusaders, because all that involves too much negative energy that interferes with creative pursuits. We are more like off-road vehicles exploring the world, looking for our own path to our dreams.

As a young woman, the culture did not see me as one of the 'winners' and that led me to stop expecting happiness to come from that culture; I would have to build it whole cloth, by myself or with friends.

The disparity in happiness shows something wrong at the core of our culture. Women's 'liberation' has exposed a deeper imbalance than work and pay. The roles that held the imbalances in check are gone and the imbalance is running loose wreaking havoc. Women have no new models for a fulfilling life, only flickering images of the old roles overlayed over current realities. The experiences of myself, my family and friends have no expression in mainstream arts to help women model a new kind of life that can be happy today.

Film and television are the main mirrors of cultural norms and ideals. But women to get funded and produced have to craft stories that fit the model that the bankers and their studio partners understand. Hence the slew of romantic comedies with smart, beautiful, successful women who are essentially broken getting 'fixed' by a relationship with a sloppy, lazy, unappealing schlub of a guy.

Is it any coincidence that an Edinburgh university study shows that watching romantic comedies hurts your love life? While everyone knows it's just a movie, as Dr. Bjarne Holmes of Heriot Watt University said: "... some of us are still more influenced by media portrayals than we realise."

And don't get me started on all the skinny women. I make movies with women of all sizes, and audiences of people who do not work in the movie business don't even notice. I should say the men don't notice, and find the women of normal size plenty appealing. The women often comment how nice it is to see people who look like their friends peopling the world of the movie.

So it's up to us broads to keep making movies despite the indifference of the mainstream entertainment biz. Women need our vision. The world is better for us. No wonder we're happier.

Bully for Her - Making an Invitational Short

2009-03-14T15:21:00.000-07:00

Julia Camara (website) has shot her entry for the alumnae invitational, Bully for Her. I hope the rest of you are thinking about making something for this year. Remember, there's no entry fee and you're guaranteed a slot. What better workshop for your craft?

The Making of a Short Film
I’m the process of editing my invitational short for the 2009 Broad Humor film festival. This was my third experience directing a short and I couldn’t be happier with what we’ve accomplished so far. Our two-day shoot went very smooth. We had no personality clashes, no brokenequipment, no damaged property or bruised egos. We were a well-oiled filmmaking machine.

The only set back I had was losing my location a week before the shoot. I actually didn't lose the location, my contact just stopped returning my calls and emails. But as my husband and filmmaking partner, Tim, said, it turned out to be for the best. The location we ended up using was beyond perfect.

I also had my first experience directing children. It surprised me to see what great instincts they have. Toward the end they were telling each other to match their actions from take to take and where their "marks" were. They also fully got how sometimes you cheat they way you look at the camera and where your eye-line should be.

They are natural born actors and I really hope they get signed to an agency very soon. As much fun as it was, the scene called for the kids to get pretty loud and crazy, so at the end of the day we were all exhausted. As, I'm sure, was their mom, who doesn't really allow them to get that rowdy very often. These are the best behaved kids I've ever seen, and I'm not just saying that. Stay tuned for their screen debut this summer in my short film entitled “Never Odd or Even.” (Notice how the title is a palindrome.)

Directing adults was much easier. I ended up with a pretty talented bunch, I must say. I asked two of my friends who are actresses and one of them found my third actor.

Everything has fallen into place for this project. Before I had a shoot date and a location, I was goofing around on Craigslist and found an ad from a DP looking to partner up with a writer. Later, I posted an ad on Craigslist looking for a location, and got several answers. The owner of the office I ended up using, a production company in Hollywood, told me she also runs a Mexican restaurant and was on Craigslist looking for a Margarita machine for her restaurant when she saw my ad. Our lunch on the day of the shoot came from the exact same Mexican restaurant...

Now, I’m talking to a musician, recommended by one of my actresses, and almost ready to lock in the picture. I have a feeling my female bully will be a crowd pleaser this summer.

This process has really reminded me of how much of a collaborative medium film is. To get something in the can, you have to get out there and meet people. You’ll be surprised how many people are willing to help you just for the fun of making a movie with you. Bottom line is, no bad economy can stop you from being creative. Creativity is one of the few things that are still free, and for everything else there’s Mastercard.

Moviemaker Writing and Promo Opportunities

2009-03-01T10:24:00.000-08:00

Moviemaker Magazine has three ways you can contribute to the magazine or website, sharing your experiences and promoting yourself through their magazine and blog at the same time. The Moviemaker blog, with entries written by indie filmmakers and entrepreneurs who share their stories and lessons, looks to be a good read.

And you can be a part of it in a number of ways. (Notice that for the festival writing, we are not one of the festivals they will be featuring, but many of you have been to some of the other ones. And you can always point out to them that we are unique and fun and should be written about!!)

So here's the info on contributing to the Festival Beat, the Tales from the Trenches, and Coming Attractions.

Working the Festival Beat
MovieMaker Magazine is looking for a few moviemakers to help us revamp our always-extensive festival coverage by letting us know, firsthand, what the festivals were all about. If chosen by our editorial staff, you will be asked to write a short piece about the festival, detailing the festival winners, noteworthy screenings, most memorable events and general atmosphere. We want those who couldn't make it to the fest to feel like they did.

If you—and your movie—have attended any of the following festivals, drop us a line at festbeat@moviemaker.com and let us know which festival(s) you'd be interested in reviewing for us. Be sure to include a short writing sample—no matter how informal.

Upcoming festivals to be profiled in MovieMaker include:

AFI Dallas
Ann Arbor Film Festival
Appalachian Film Festival
Black Maria Film & Video Festival
California Independent Film Festival
Crossroads Film Festival
Cucalorus Film Festival
Florida Film Festival
Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
Haydenfilms 4.0 Film Festival
Indie Short Film Competition
International Family Film Festival
LA Comedy Shorts
Magnolia Film Festival
Poppy Jasper Film Festival
Red Rock Film Festival
Sedona International Film Festival & Workshop
Starz Denver Film Festival
Trail Dance Film Festival
Whistler Film Festival

If you have/are planning to attend any of these fests with your film, we want to hear from you. And we're adding new fests all the time!

If selected and published, your contribution will be noted in our Festival Correspondents section, where we will include a short bio of you and mention of your movie as well as your e-mail and URL information.

Submit your request today to festbeat@moviemaker.com. Be sure to include the title of your film, the festivals you've attended and a brief explanation as to why we should pick you as one of our Festival Correspondents. We look forward to hearing from you!

Don't Forget!
We're still accepting submissions for our new Tales From the Trenches and Coming Attractions features at MovieMaker.com.

Tales From the Trenches
MovieMaker wants to hear your production nightmares—your struggles with cast and crew, your technical pitfalls and (most importantly) the steps you've taken to reign the project back in—for an all-new weekly feature called Tales from the Trenches. Submit your story today (no more than 1,000 words) to tales@moviemaker.com. Who knows, you just may be the next featured writer at MovieMaker.com, reaching out to our more than one million readers!

Coming Attractions
Speaking of publicizing your movie, we're also looking for your help with our new Coming Attractions section. We want to keep our readers up to date on all the hottest upcoming movies—including yours! Send us a few choice photos from the movie you're working on right now along with all the pertinent info (director, actors, synopsis, completion/release dates, etc.) and you may just see it posted on MovieMaker.com for all the world to see. Send all photos and information to photos@moviemaker.com (and be sure to include any photographer credits).

Welcome to the Footage Firm

2009-02-16T18:12:00.000-08:00

Well, we've got a great new sponsor for our filmmaker prize packages. They are giving us their royalty-free stock footage DVDs to pass along to our winning filmmakers. In addition to the DVDs they sell, they have launched a new website: StockFootageForFREE.com where video editors can download stock footage clips from around the world absolutely free. Here's the info Joel at Footage Firm sent me on the site.

StockFootageForFREE.com provides completely free stock footage from around the world that can be downloaded instantly and incorporated into any type of video editing project (commercial use is okay!). There are absolutely no fees-just register for free and start downloading an unlimited amount of footage! http://www.stockfootageforfree.com

This is a great deal, folks. Check it out.

J.J. Abrams' Mystery Box

2009-02-06T22:54:00.000-08:00

Browsing the TED archives, I came across this video of J.J. Abrams talking about his love of mystery. Along the way, there are some fantastic lessons about story and narrative, as well as a powerful challenge to filmmakers near the end. Watch it here.

Susan Emshwiller - A Winning Broad!

2009-02-05T18:16:00.000-08:00

Susan Emshwiller, an alumna of Broad Humor Film Festival whose film, "In the Land of Milk and Money" opened the very first festival, has just won an award from the Environmental Defense Action Fund for her film, "Cap It." We all give her a huge cheer for her work.

2009 Festival Call for Submissions

2009-01-28T16:35:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Comedies by women? You must be joking!

THE BROAD HUMOR FILM FESTIVAL PUTS OUT THE CALL

Los Angeles, California, Jan. 24, 2009 - The Broad Humor Film Festival (BHFF) gears up for its fourth annual weekend of fun with a call to all women with a sense of humor and a camera. Film submissions are now open for the festival taking place June 12-14, 2009 at the Electric Lodge Performing Arts Center in Venice, California. Comedy screenplays written by women are also being accepted for the writing competition.

Brainchild of Susan diRende, the Broad Humor Film Festival began in response to the lack of attention given to women-generated comedy and is today he only festival in the world to put the spotlight on women's onscreen humor.

"As our broads in the trenches of the indie world have been demonstrating for years, women are suddenly being recognized for being, yes, funny." Today, high-profile funny women are getting attention and accolades, but it is still an uphill battle for most.

BHFF accepts entries of films and screenplays in three length categories: under 20 minutes/pages; 20-60 minutes/pages; over 60 minutes/pages. Documentary, narrative and web films are all welcome so long as all writers and directors are female and humor is an important part of the story. But it doesn’t need to be the whole story.

“We love the ways that women create humor,” says diRende. “We’ve found that women prefer to create ‘blended genres.’ If a serious movie has lots of laughs or plenty of smile moments important to the story, we want to see it.”

Competition categories exist for both experienced filmmakers and for no-budget novices working on a shoestring.

The June festival will have screenings of selected films and scene readings for screenplay finalists. Participants become a permanent part of the BHFF community with a free invitational screening for alumnae every year thereafter.

go to festival website

Social Networking Works for You - Yes, YOU

2009-01-27T06:07:00.000-08:00

Broad Julia Camara wrote to share some thoughts on how the internet and social networking are changing how we do business. A lot of our participants are internet shy, can list all the reasons why the connections made there are not 'real' and why they do not believe it will help them. Julia, clearly, is not one of those.

I just had a fun dinner with a friend who’s an actress and as we talked about the amount of progress we were making with our careers, she mentioned how she’s constantly meeting producers and agents at her day job, and how they started saying they’re going to look her up online and see what kind of clips of projects they could find.

It occurred to me how even casting is changing these days. When I went to film school casting our projects was done by placing an ad in backstage west, getting a million head shots, sorting through them, and then calling the people you thought had the right look.

Nowadays you can put an ad on craigslist, or myspace, or facebook and not spend a dime in ad costs. Actors can submit electronically, which takes a whole five seconds; you don’t have to wait for the submissions to be delivered via snail mail. (Sometimes I’m surprised the US Post Office is still in business.)

When I first started submitting screenplays to whoever would accept them, competitions, production companies, agents and managers, you had to mail them. There was no other option. Email was around, I’m not that old, but it just wasn’t heard of to email a script. I know writers who refuse to send anything but a hard copy, but I’m not one of them. Having read hundreds of scripts on my computer screen, I’m glad to save space in my tiny overpriced condo, and some trees.

So, this little trip down nostalgia lane made me think about how important for all of us artists it is to have an online profile that is accurate and portrays us in the best possible light. Myspace and facebook aren’t just for kids or people looking to hook up, we should never post drunk photos of ourselves or anything we wouldn’t want our work community to see. I can’t tell you how many potential collaborators I’ve met through social networking.

I realize some of this might be common knowledge since these days employers are looking at job applicants myspace profiles so you should always have your best side out there. You never know who’s looking.

Check out Julia's website here.

Gia Milani's New Film

2009-01-26T05:55:00.000-08:00

Gia Milani ('06) has a trailer for her new short film up on YouTube. Not a comedy, but we still like to give a shout out to alumnae. Watch it - Dark Radius.

Netflix Film Grant Competition

2009-01-24T08:10:00.001-08:00

Netflix has a competition for a film grant of $350,000. You have to have a script, a vision, and a budget. Deadline is Feb. 9 or when the applications reach 2,000. If you've got a project ready, the process is easy and free.

Netflix FIND Your Voice Film Competition
(310) 432-1275 (voice)
Web: www.netflixfindyourvoice.com
Email: filmmakerlabs@filmindependent.org

News from a Broad - Julia Camara

2009-01-21T05:46:00.001-08:00

One of our Broads, Julia Camara, has written to us about her latest project:

Hi Friends,

Reduce to Dust, the short film I completed in 2001, is finally available for sale on DVD.

I'd like to invite all of you to check out the page and write a review if you've seen it. If you haven't, use this as an opportunity to support a starving filmmaker and buy a copy.

Thanks for your support.

Also, if you're receiving this and you worked on the film and would like a copy, I'll gladly order one for you. Make sure to send me your address.

Julia Camara

A synopsis: Reduced to Dust

A black and white eerie short about a man dealing with divorce in a very unusual way; befriending a skeleton. Starring Miller Scott and Joanna Tisell. Written and Directed by Julia Camara.

Meeting Global Peace

2009-01-19T20:22:00.000-08:00

Today I had a great meeting with Nina Streich, the Executive Director of the Global Peace Film Festival. It was great to talk to another festival founder/organizer who has been at it a bit longer. Nina is also a former NY Film Commission Director, so she has a lot to share. It is clear that we are doing the right thing to be growing slowly and in a very organic way. Nina's festival, which takes place in September, is a great event for any of you broads to consider if you have films that fit into its mission of promoting community, humanity, dialogue and discovery of value in the world we share, check them out at peacefilmfest.org.

Tips for Screenwriters - Off with Their Heads!

2008-12-22T13:49:00.000-08:00

Where does your script REALLY start? More than 50% of the scripts I read every year have opening scenes that are not nearly as interesting as the rest of the story. Not badly written, not meaningless, but tiresome and overdrawn. I get a lot of background I don’t care about. I want to get on to what happens to whom. I swear I could toss out the first fifteen pages of most scripts, and no one other than the author would miss them.

So why don’t good writers see this obvious failing? I think this is because the writer’s pleasure is as vastly different from the reader’s pleasure as a mother’s love is from everyone else’s. How many of us have seen photo after photo of a child or pet when, for us, one or two would do? Well, as a writer, when you read your story, every beat that is adorable to you may not be of equal interest to your reader. You have to teach your prose manners.

You, the writer, are forming a newborn world in your imagination. You have to write your way into that world, bring the people and places to life in your mind. Once the story has legs and “has learned to walk” so to speak, you go about challenging your characters and changing their world. So. Go to your script and find the first real challenge or change for your main character and check your pages. Are you only a few pages in or are you 10-15 pages in? Remember, you are writing a movie, where backstory can be dispatched before the opening credits have finished rolling. Get the story going.

Here’s an experiment. Give someone your script minus the first fifteen pages. Then invite them to ask questions about things they didn’t understand or missed because the beginning wasn’t there. If you don’t have anyone close who has not already read the story, do it yourself. Mentally toss out what you know about the beginning. Image your movie opening with a scene about fifteen pages in and read through the screenplay. Was anything that was missing crucial, vital, absolutely essential to getting the plot or character? Put that stuff back, but try to do it later as the story unfolds, not at the beginning unless you absolutely have to. Do not put anything back in just because you love it, or, if you cannot do without, sum it up in your opening credits and get on with the story.

Women Write - Then What?

2008-12-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

News from the world of scriptwriting competitions is not good for the gals. The 2008 Movie Script Contest announced its winners, and out of the 24 finalists, three were women. And of the winners - zip, nada, zero. Out of eight comedy screenplay finalists, the only woman was at the bottom with an honorable mention.

Last summer I wrote a long post about some of the reasons for this gender bias by people of presumably good will, but understanding does nothing to further our interests. Pointing out the bias, protesting against it, fighting it at each turn uses a lot of energy and does not seem to produce results.

As someone who reads a ton of scripts every year, I can tell you women write great and funny films. True, I am female, but again, the experiences I have had in this festival show me that guys like the kind of comedy women write when they see it on screen. In general (with all the pitfalls of generalizations) women structure their comedies differently, both in the relationship of the world to the characters and in the manner of the climactic payoff(s). But I have had Marines and ex-cops who knew no one associated with the films walk out of screenings telling me that this festival was the most fun they have had at an indie screening. Anecdotal - yes. I would also say emblematic, symptomatic of a larger appeal that these women's work possesses if only they could reach a larger audience.

I want to find outlets for our films outside the mainstream. If we can build an audience and a name for women's comedy, the establishment will come to us. So how do we do that. Any ideas?

Satirizing Sarah

2008-09-05T18:50:00.000-07:00

If you care about women's humor, as I do, Sarah Palin's arrival on the national political scene has been a boon. One of the Broads from this year's festival, Susan Deming, has made a musical McCain/Palin musical spoof, "I Picked a Girl," that very definitely hits the funny bone. Susan's "singing Sarah" is a hoot. Watch it here. Susan has been doing political parodies of Hillary as well, and all I can do is salute.

And she's not the only one. Other Palin spoofs are here and here to mention a couple.

More women's satire, that's what I want to see. Maybe we should do a political blog retrospective next year.

Tamar Halpern's "Your Name Here" August 16

2008-08-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

A bunch of us broads caught a screening of Tamar Halpern's (BH 2007 Best Feature) sweet and fun feature, Your Name Here when it screened at Dances With Films.

I don't want to call Your Name Here a mockumentary because the word implies a certain attitude of superiority on the part of the filmmaker toward her subject. This is full of affection and the laughter is based in love. It follows two 14-year-old kids who play and write music and try to start a band in Silverlake. So much of the story rings so ridiculously true, in part because of how the two lead actors, who were 14 at the time, friends and musicians, improvised scenes speaking and acting the way 14-year-olds do. An adult could never write it so well. The film is a blast for adults and for kids.

Here' s the logline...

The story of two kids who want to start a band, Your Name Here is about to be endorsed by KidsFirst, an organization dedicated to quality children's programming. Shot in Silverlake, wholly improvised, and driven by original music written by the stars, Jordan and Michael, Your Name Here is a 'Once' for kids.

Trailer: www.tamarolandpictures.com, click Your Name Here
More clips, photos, and general shenanigans: www.myspace.com/yournamehereband
And of course, Your Name Here is now on Facebook

There's another screening here in LA on Aug 16th, Saturday, 4pm, Laemmle Grand Downtown, as part of the Downtown Film Fest. Don't miss it.

Broads Blogging Workshop

2008-08-03T08:39:00.000-07:00

A bunch of broads came over and we went set up accounts to blog and twitter together as a way of building our profiles. It was exciting in the same way that the big BlogHer conference had been for me because the small number was more than compensated by the fact that these were my group of gals. So now, if you go to Twitter, you can read the twitter streams not only for me at twitter.com/BroadHumor, but for Donna Wheeler , Suzi Iselt, and Michelle Clay.

So if you didn't or couldn't come, here's what you need to do. Create a blog. If you're an absolute beginner, here's how to do it in simple steps.

Blogger can set you up in a few easy steps. Yes, you'll get frustrated when you get errors because your username or blog name are taken, or you didn't check a box, or you couldn't read the insanely difficult security question that keeps bots from creating blogs. But it's only three pages of that, and you're in. Write something and hit "PUBLISH POST" (SAVE NOW merely creates a draft - it won't show up on your blog). Click the "VIEW BLOG' button when it finishes publishing and bookmark the page so that tomorrow you won't wonder how to find your blog again. Next, go to the "dashboard" (the link is on the top right) and create your profile and save.

You're almost done. Next to your blog listing is a link to "settings." Clicking that will bring up a page where you can give a general description of the blog. Save it. Then go to the "comments" link and scroll down to control comments. For example, do you want to restrict comments to bloggers or let anyone comment? You have to change the setting to make commenting open to everyone. You should leave verification on so that you don't get spam comments. And you might want to have Blogger send you an email whenever you get a comment by putting your email in the box at the bottom. Click save and you're done.

If you're feeling brave, you can go to the "template" link and play with the layout of your page. Or you can just click over to your blog and admire it. Then send a Twitter post - called a "tweet" - that you are up and running.

The Invisible (wo)Man in Hollywood - The Female Screenwriter

2008-07-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

Who knew the word 'writer' was a gendered noun like 'steward,' 'king,' and 'stallion.' Got this insight via a righteous rant called The Evolution of the "Male" Hollywood Writer by Melissa Silverstein of the Women & Hollywood blog.

We've talked a lot in the festival about this. The festival was started because of the comedy competition featured in the Writer's Guild magazine four years ago. Not one of the finalists was a woman. Since submissions were blind, many felt the contest was objective proof that women just don't write the stuff of movies. Many people, men and women, feel that women writers should stop whining and start writing better. Period.

After three years of reading scripts and watching films by women, I see the problem as one of fundamental worldview divergence. Bear with me as I take jump back in time to explain.

I remember the fuss a number of years back about the Kohlberg Scale which rated moral development in humans. Kohlberg happened to find men's moral development spread out along a nice sigma curve and women more or less clustered in the middle. At the time, the conclusions drawn suggested that while women as a group were more 'good,' they lacked the qualities to rise to moral greatness. Here we see the same pattern of thinking that dominates this business, where many of the movers and shakers regret the 'reality' that women's scripts, while not bad, are not quite good enough to warrant the money and effort that goes into a studio movie.

Kohlberg's Scale used a hierarchy of values derived from all male subjects. One research assistant at the time, Carol Gilligan, saw that when women were included, they struggled against the frame of responses written into the test. Later, her own research into the field suggested that women operated on a different scale, one based on maintaining a web or relationships rather than an ladder of individual attainment. On her scale, men came up mostly in the middle - the majority being neither terrible nor great.

Imagine two axes, like a plus sign (+). Viewed from the side, the vertical line shows its full length but the horizontal one appears as just a blob in the middle. Shift perspective and look down from the top, and suddenly the horizontal has a full range and the vertical is stuck at the middle.

My experience with the festival and reading all the scripts that come through illustrate this difference perfectly. I've been reading to find out what women write and not looking to see how well they fit in the Hollywood paradigm. In general, the scripts I get from women tend create a world into which they put a character or characters and then proceed to create the humor out of what the world elicits from its denizens. The end result is a shift in the "fittingness" of the people into the world. This is contrary to the entertainment biz wisdom of making a script about one character's journey, building the world around the character so as to maximize the humor/drama/suspense/you-name-the-genre, and shattering the world if need be to deliver the character to his destiny. This is very broad, but bear with me a bit more.

These women's scripts do not deliver the same monumental climax and a cigarette that the men's scripts do, hence their perceived weakness. And while there is nothing wrong with the way men climax, the world is poorer when women's climaxes are not also a part of the public narrative. From watching audiences male and female who are watching the films in our festival that have been made from women's stories. it turns out that the guys enjoy the multi-climax experience enthusiastically. It is not that the typical Hollywood structure is wrong; it has been polished and perfected for almost a hundred years. But it is a bit like a country with only one political party. It cannot help but degenerate. Room must be made for alternate narratives to be shown and polished so all films can benefit.

How do we do that? That is the question and challenge of the Broad Humor Film Festival, of this blog, and of my life.

Attacking the BlogHer Conference and Women's Writing

2008-07-28T20:24:00.001-07:00

There have been several articles written attacking the BlogHer conference that I went to last weekend for being so...well... woman-centered. One guy complained that no guys were on any of the panels. And a woman today found the idea of lactation lounges and child care and Sesame Street being there as proof that women aren't worthy of being taken seriously. (Katherine Berry's "Sisters: The Path to Punditry Isn't Paved With Baby Powder") Her closing riposte was that the glass ceiling in blogging is merely a question of quality and not gender:

It’s not because you’re a female. It’s because you bore them.

I couln't help it. I posted a long comment on her article. I thought you might like to read it as it applies equally to the film biz and goes to the heart of why I started Broad Humor three and a half years ago.

Back in the 70's I remember that many women agreed with the cultural canon that women's writing was not "real" writing, being personal and so not universal. The arguments made here are the same ones I read thirty years ago.

Back then, some women, Aunt Hen-like (as opposed to Uncle Tom), did quite well, for girls, writing in the same vein as men. And a few Olympian talents shone through gender biases effortlessly. But what about the rest of us who are neither male-identified nor Nobel quality? Do we "stifle ourselves" as Archie Bunker was wont to shout?

When a whole segment of the population, passionate, educated and talented, finds its writing disparaged and denied a place at the publishing table because it carries no interest for the 49% of the population who happen to be male (a minority if you do the math) this lack impoverishes us all culturally. Book publishing has caught up with the reality of women's writing and is making a profit from it. But the blogosphere has no such incentive to change. Fellow bloggers will not profit from the success of subject matter they have no personal stake in. It would be the same as if the book publishing community let the authors decide who deserved to be included.

I find this need to attack what does not harm you puzzling. Men don't fear that one group of men acting foolishly will reflect badly on them. Why should you care how these women act unless you feel deep down that women are second class and you despise it.

Telling Your Future

2008-07-26T22:16:00.000-07:00

Planning on finishing shooting your short by Labor Day? Got a festival you are going to enter come hell or high water? Now you can send yourself time capsule emails of encouragement or congratulations. Go to Future Me and tell yourself exactly what you will need to hear.

All the motivational gurus say you have to work as if you have already achieved the success you desire. By sending yourself the pat on the back here and now that will get delivered then and there, it might just do the trick.

Or just send a birthday note to yourself.

Social Marketing Blogroll

2008-07-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

The Friday Traffic Report has put up a list of the top 142 blogs that help with social network marketing. If you want to learn about how to do this for your film or project, here is a resource to get ideas and advice.

http://www.jackhumphrey.com/fridaytrafficreport/social-networking/top-142-social-marketing-blogs-on-the-web/

Promoting Your Film - Forget MySpace and Facebook

2008-07-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

Lots of indie filmmakers, not to mention the big studios, are trying to figure out how to get an audience for their work. Many people went the Myspace/Facebook route that worked so well for the music business. But music and film are two different beasts, and while music can be used to fill your regular life with a soundtrack that adds to the richness of your experience, movies ask you to leave your life and enter someone else's for a while. A musician rides shotgun for your mood. A filmmaker takes over and manipulates your mood.

Nevertheless, a lot of press has been given lately to the idea that you have to go 100% web 2.0 where a page on one of these sights is an ablsolute must-have. The mantra was picked up by many of the most dedicated women promoting their films I know. Me, I couldn't see the point to MySpace or Facebook even if I had a million so-called friends. After you're a celebrity, okay maybe. But as a business model, I couldn't see how it would do me, my films or my festival any material good, so I avoided it and felt guilty.

So imagine my relief when I went to BlogHer 08 in San Francisco last weekend and heard one after another woman with a successful web presence (successful meaning money-making) dismiss these tools that I had been feeling guilty about not using. Setting up and maintaining these social networking pages takes a lot of time and does nothing to build an audience. It can be used to keep an audience loyal, but many of the women I know are looking to build their numbers. These sites are not the place to do that.

Only one tool that I did not understand turned out to be a winner, and that was Twitter. I got some good advice and workable examples of how to use it effectively in conjunction with blogging. Not only that, it turns out to be a streamlined and often fun connector of people with like passions. I see how it would work to build a following. But more on that another time. For now, I'm just happy to let go of the guilt.

Breast Films

2008-07-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, breasts. Rethink Breast Cancer is having a film competition.

Breast Fest is now accepting video submissions for a short film competition. The winning films will be screened at the Festival, taking place on November 21 & 22, 2008 in Toronto.

We are looking for films of all genres that shed light on breast health and the issues surrounding breast cancer in significant and interesting ways. Produce a PSA, short film, or animation - the shorter the better - 10 minutes max!

Entry Deadline: August 24, 2008

For details go to http://tinyurl.com/63agv8

Twittering

2008-07-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

I've been Twittering (actually I think they call it "tweeting" but I refuse). I'm still not comfortable with the form, but am going to have a bunch of broads over this weekend to learn how to use it, so that we can make a whole community of funny broads there.

Italy Again

2008-05-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

We were invited back to Italy again, this time to Lucca for the Donna Discover women's travel weekend. Check us out on Flickr.

Strategy Meeting

2008-01-27T15:58:00.000-08:00

Brunch at my place to try to figure out how to win this time. We came in second in November in the Ideablob contest. We have been gathering votes, registering friends who want to support us and generally preparing for a big push next month. Chang Hun's friends in Korea are running into some kind of web problem, but Taek's friends did not have the same issue. Can is working on his Turkish pals, Mara's confirming her Italian and Croatian links and Benjm has gotten almost a hundred from France. The contest this month is looking like it will take double the votes of last month to win - ouch. Nevertheless we are forging ahead with our plan - next month is a clean slate. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

You can't vote yet. You have to wait for February. Then we have to win a weekly sprint, and then we have to take the finals at the end of the month. If you only want to be bothered once, wait until the end of February. You can register now, just to be ready, at ideablob.com. But hold that vote for now.

Going to Lucca

2008-01-11T07:06:00.001-08:00

We've been invited back to Italy - Lucca this time - to exhibit shorts from the festival at the 4th annual Women Traveller's Weekend. All the films exhibited will have to be subtitled in Italian, so we're planning on showing a combination of the films that screened last year in Lucarno and a few new ones. Stay tuned for more info.

What a Weekend!

2006-07-13T07:13:00.000-07:00

I am so happy that the Festival weekend in Venice was such a success. The filmmakers who came watched each other's films and talked in the lounge and enjoyed not only the satisfaction of having other people see their work, but also of meeting other women whom they admired. There was much to admire in this crowd.

What I loved in all the conversations was the spirit of problem solving vis-a-vis women's invisibility in the film biz. Unlike last summer's WIFTI summit, where much of the message was, "Sue the batards. We did and now we have work. We have to struggle to maintain our status, so we can't help you. You need to help yourself." The feeling here was more, "Okay, things are skewed. But look at all this great work done mostly without any support. What can we do with it?" The problem becomes how to unite or at least coordinate our energies so that some of it goes into making opportunity for all and not just for oneself.

The image I have in my mind is a dry creek bed. There, women are building boats - some tiny rafts, some canoes, some sailboats, some the Queen Mary. But without water, the boats will do nothing but rot in the sun. A flash flood will carry a few further downstream, maybe even to open water. There we are, working on our boats, praying for rain and hoping not to be smashed by the others when it comes. We are afraid of each other's work and success as if only a lucky few will make it,and their finding the way out will block or smash our own escape.

At many industry and networking events, people are always asking for help on their "boat." Instead, we need to be thinking of ways to get water to our little river. A rising tide lifts all ships. And who knows, we may find we have created our own reservoir where we can sail our flotilla and the world will come to us for a break from the vast, indifferent blockbuster ocean.