Today’s notes were brought to you direct from my teak writing desk and whilst watching my new comfort blanket:
Actress/comedian Amy Poehler has a new podcast and the guests are top tier (starting with Tina Fey) and just to happen to relevant for today’s note-taking.
First thought
I have been gently and quite hesitantly tip-toeing around the idea of researching, gathering, and writing something that would resemble a book of sorts. The most comforting thought I have is — nope, lost my train of thought. Writing a book is an intimidating prospect. I don’t know why; I am more than happy to voice my own opinions in person or through a conversation or when guiding my mentees. Perhaps there’s something around whatever I write being finite and unchangeable. Or criticised or ridiculed. But I am feeling gently encouraged by those around me and in conversations that have recently been arising to type up my notes, organise my thoughts and write about (perhaps) Why I Feel The World Needs Actors You or How to Make Your Own Luck. Title and exact content pending.
A thought on community building
Another thought that resurfaced for me today (I say resurfaced as I learned through my Raindance MA in filmmaking when I interviewed my good friend, who happens to be the BAFTA-winning Gamer-in-Chief of Bossa Games, Henrique Oliviers - what a cool title he has), and that is how in order to build our audience, we need to learn how to nurture and feed a small community; they are our way through. We need our audiences; it’s a consenting exchange — and hopefully we can create work that is rewarding for both parties. If we are able to entertain and therefore connect with others, then we’ll be able to share with others whilst receiving what feeds us too.
In response to my question that asked whether an audience could ever establish an audience there and then, Henrique replied pragmatically, “: You have to grow [online communities] over time. You will always find 5-6 people to start with. You can go on a similar community, of a similar film or a similar game and participate there and mention you’re doing this as well. People will go there and if they like what they see they will start bringing more people to it. Start small, don’t start big.”
Scroll down to the bottom to access my Final Masters Dissertation (awarded Distinction) that explored my research around audience engagement.
A thought on auditions
Maybe it is watching Amy Poehler and thinking about Hollywood but today for the first time I considered what life might be like living in Los Angeles. Could this be a healing place? Maybe, with the right amount of luck and generosity of people, we could get our film in front of the right people and I could audition - in person for roles. London is feeling like self-tape central and I really don’t think it brings the best out of my performances.
I hate self tapes. They stress me out. Auditions are stressful. You have to provide the best of you in the worst of environments; what can feel like an arena of judgment. As actors, you have to learn how not to care about what other people think because otherwise you can’t be yourself. And if you’re not yourself, you’ll blend into a sea of talent and into the deep waters of rejection.
Audiences want and need to see themselves — the selves of themselves that they want to see or need to see. Greta Gerwig is such a free spirit and I gravitate towards her films — and anything she chooses to express — because she reveals to us a true part of herself.
Meryl Steep said, “Acting is not about being someone different. It's about finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there”.
https://graziadaily.co.uk/celebrity/news/meryl-streep-best-quotes/
The last line!! That last line is exactly what I just wrote here before I remembered Meryl Streep’s quote and looked it up! I liked on the Grazia last and ta-dah! This beautiful article, short but oh so sweet, popped up and surprised me.
What is this day?! With Jack Black’s episode now playing in the background at 17m 30 minutes, Amy Poehler is now literally talking about auditions and repeating (and furthering!) what I was saying above on auditions.
❤️
More about my Final Master’s Project in Filmmaking…
(Written in 2018)
BACKGROUND
New York film Academy (2015) expressed “with women being so grossly underrepresented, it’s no wonder many actresses are making the transition and taking part in the production of their creative platforms.” I am an actress who wanted to have more freedom to choose the stories and characters I am part of and so producing became a liberating option for me to create my own platform, instead of waiting for somebody else to build one for me. Therefore, I have spent the past five years working my way up the production ladder on shorts, features and documentaries, starting first as a Junior Producer at an EMMY-nominated production company, then Assistant Producer, Associate Producer and Co-Producer.
When starting this course my skills set lended itself to the creative side of producing, with my strengths being around developing concepts, scripts and helping producers to bring their creative projects into fruition. Consequently, I lacked experience in the business side of producing, particularly around areas surrounding business plans, film financing, marketing, audience building and the development of my own projects. Through this Master’s degree I have targeted these commercial aspects of filmmaking and even led (as producer and lead actress) my own project, from idea to completion, through the Film Production Module and addressed my lack of experience in leading a project, whilst test-driving my new-found skills and applying my learnings from this course.
My short proof-of-concept film, titled How to be Human had quite an incredible response from its audience after a test screening at the British Film Institute in front of over 100 industry guests. I have since won Best Sci-Fi Film and Best Actress in a Sci-Fi Film at Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival 2018 and received overwhelming feedback from film critics, “from within minutes [How to be Human] had its claws in me and I wanted to see more ... now I get to be the impatient viewer and hope that either the story continues with more short films, or the movie gods smile and How to be Human becomes a feature film or a TV series," (FromPage2Screen, 2017).
By utilising the business skills obtained throughout this course, I am preparing myself to develop my proof-of-concept short film into a feature film project with the hope of franchising the expansive world of our story in the future and creating the opportunity to achieve my next acting and producing milestone.
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