It's Simply Filmmaking

By Cali Gilbert

Guide to Creating a Successful Career as a Female Filmmaker
Interviews with 30 prominent female filmmakers from around the globe in the areas of Screenwriting, Producing, Directing, Cinematography, Composing, Editing, and Acting.
Glossary of film terms
List of film festivals which showcase women in film
Resource section of film sites
The is the first of a 7-books in the It's Simply FILM series

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cali Gilbert
• Release date: May 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463895115

Cali Gilbert

Cali Gilbert is an International bestselling author, award winning filmmaker and photographer. She has travelled the globe as a former figure skater and magazine publisher, and has contributed to the Huffington Post. With an extensive background in event management, Cali assisted the Canadian Olympic Committee at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, and most recently served as an Event Ambassador for the 34th America’s Cup sailing regatta in San Francisco.Cali is an accomplished photographer, whose work has been showcased in galleries across the United States. As the creator of the IT’S SIMPLY book series, Cali has published several bestselling books of her own and now serves other writers through her imprint, Serendipity Publishing House.As Founder & CEO of Tower 15 Productions, Cali supports other creatives through education and collaboration in the areas of publishing, photography and filmmaking. Cali splits her time between Los Angeles and San Diego, California where she enjoys serving her community, especially women in transition and youth programs. To learn more, visit www.CaliGilbert.com

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Although I spent the last 30 years writing my thoughts in journals and had my eye behind the lens of a camera, it wasn’t until September of 2014 when my filmmaking dream actually began. I was living in Los Angeles and had just attended the Lady Filmmakers Film Festival in Beverly Hills. I can remember that day as if it were yesterday. I was attending two events, a film screening and a panel discussion entitled Script to Screen. It was made up of a group of producers and directors providing feedback on best ways to get your film from the script stage to the big screen. It was followed by a question and answer session.

I learned quite a bit and even had a chance to share my story of going from being homeless less than a year prior to now having five books on the market, including my number one international bestseller, It’s Simply Serendipity. I shared that my dream was to now adapt my book to film and I was looking for advice as to the best way to go about that. Following my share, I received an ovation from the crowd gathered and had some of the people in attendance reach out and offer support. It felt so good as I was eager to learn.

Following the panel discussion I attended the screening of the documentary film, The Empowerment Project directed by friend and colleague, Sarah Moshman. I had met Sarah earlier in the year at a women’s event in Santa Monica and wanted to support her work. I was looking forward to seeing the film and connecting with the all-female crew. Well, as I sat there in the theatre watching this truly inspiring film, something happened. All of the sudden I was overcome with a feeling of true empowerment.

As I watched these amazing women being featured and listened to their stories of overcoming barriers and achieving their dreams, my own dream of writing the script based off my Serendipity book changed. I suddenly felt there was so much more I wanted to do, so much more I wanted to accomplish and so much more I wanted to become. I didn’t just want to write a script. I wanted to learn everything there was to learn about becoming a filmmaker. I wanted to direct. I wanted to produce. I wanted to learn how to edit and work with music and the logistics of filmmaking. I wanted to become a FILMMAKER.

From that day until now I have immersed myself in the world of filmmaking. I have attended endless events from conferences to film festivals, to meet-up groups. I’ve also listened in to classes online via various platforms. As a transformational author I reached success by learning from those who had experienced success. I was eager to learn and grateful to have such amazing mentors to lead the way. I thought it best to take that same approach in my desire to become a filmmaker. Learn from those who were doing what I wanted to do, and doing it with success.

The idea for this book came to me in mid-February as a gift from my Muse (intuitive higher self). I thought back at my journey as an author of now multiple bestselling books and how my approach to filmmaking was the same, to learn from the best. I thought about the world we live in today and all the focus on women in film and the gender gap in the industry. I thought about all the amazing women I have met over the last few years who have guided me on this journey to becoming a filmmaker. I thought about the font of knowledge out there and how I felt so very blessed to be a female filmmaker during this day and age.

One day as I was looking over the posts of one of the female filmmaker groups on Facebook, one of the members posted a request for any books that would be of help for someone just starting out in the industry. Many commented and suggested books that would help for individual areas such as screenwriting, but not a good source to cover everything. It was as if that post sparked the idea in my mind to simply create a book that would satisfy that need, and thus, the idea for It’s Simply Filmmaking was born.

I’m so excited to share the stories and words of wisdom from 28 amazing female filmmakers. Their journeys are inspiring and I’m sure you will learn a lot as I have. You will also come away with a list of resources in the back of the book that will help guide you on this journey of becoming a successful filmmaker. You have a dream of sharing your creative vision with the world, and you hold in your hands a book that will be a stepping stone in making that dream a reality.

You can do this and I believe in you.

Now go out there and SHINE!

WOMEN IN FILM, A HISTORY

When we look back at women in film throughout the years, two names automatically come to mind. Those of Mary Pickford and Frances Marion. Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in 1892 in Toronto, Ontario Canada. A child actor along with her two siblings, Mary took various roles in her early career in both film and theatre, and even appeared in fifty-one films in 1909, nearly one per week. In 1913 she decided to focus solely on film and her popularity grew immensely.

In 1916 she signed a new contract with Adolf Zukor, founder of Paramount Pictures which granted her full authority over the production of the pictures she starred in. In 1919, Mary along with D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks, formed the independent film production company United Artists.

After 1920 Mary and Douglas Fairbanks shot their films at the jointly-owned Pickford-Fairbanks studio on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. By now Mary was also the producer and star of her own films, which labeled her "the most powerful woman who had ever worked in Hollywood".

Frances Marion was born Marion Benson Owens in 1888 in San Francisco, California. In her early career she became an assistant for renowned photographer, Arnold Genthe, and also worked as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. Once moving to Los Angeles she worked as a poster artist for the Morosco Theatre as well as an advertising firm doing commercial layouts. In 1914 she was hired as a writing assistant by Lois Weber Productions, a film company owned and operated by pioneer female film director Lois Weber. It was here where she honed her craft. She became the first screenwriter to win two Academy Awards (1931 – The Big House) and (1932 – The Champ). Today, she is thought to be the most renowned female screenwriter of the twentieth century.

Lois Weber was born Florence Lois Weber in 1879 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. She was a silent film actress, screenwriter, producer and director who is considered the most important female director the American film industry has known. In 1904 she married Wendell Phillips Smalley, and in 1910 together they decided to pursue a career in the motion picture industry. For the next five years they worked together on a number of projects for several small production companies.

In 1911, Lois acted in and directed her first silent short film, A Heroine of '76 along with her husband and Edwin S. Porter. In 1914 she made her first feature silent film, Hypocrites which was very controversial for its time because it included the first film full-frontal female nudity scene. In 1916, Lois directed ten feature-length films for release by Universal, nine of which she also wrote, and she also became Universal Studios' highest-paid director at that time. In 1917, with financial assistance from Universal, she became the first American female director to establish and run her own studio when she formed her own production company, Lois Weber Productions. Also that year she became the first and only woman granted membership in the Motion Picture Directors Association.

Lois Weber’s career spans so much time and includes so many accolades, that several books could feature her work and impact on the film industry. This is just a brief glimpse of some of what she accomplished and the doors she opened for the rest of us.

Other names that made an impact on film include French pioneer, Alice Guy-Blaché who began making films in 1896. She had an illustrious career with Gaumont et Cie which spanned some twenty-five years where she served in directing, producing, writing and/or overseeing more than 700 films. Like Frances Marion, Dorothy Arzner also hailed from San Francisco, California but grew up in Los Angeles as her father owned a restaurant frequented by many Hollywood celebrities. She was an American film director whose feature film career spanned from the late 1920s to early 1940s. She was also the first woman to direct a film with sound, and in 1936 she became the first woman to join the Directors Guild of America.

Marion Fairfax was an American screenwriter and playwright. Throughout her career, she worked as a company director, director, editor, editorial director, playwright, producer, screenwriter, and theatre actress. Prior to pursuing a career in film, Marion was known for being one of the most distinguished stage writers in the United States, writing Broadway hits such as The Builders (1907), The Chaperon (1908), The Talker (1912), and A Modern Girl in 1914. In 1921 she developed her own production company and had success which enabled her to become a commodity in the industry enticing other companies to seek her expertise.

June Mathis was an American screenwriter. She was the first female executive for Metro/MGM and at only 35, she was the highest paid executive in Hollywood. June is best known for discovering Rudolph Valentino and writing such films as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and Blood and Sand (1922). She was also one of the first writer/directors and laid the groundwork for writers to become producers as well.

Source: Wikipedia

These and so many other remarkable women who have set the stage for those of us now making our mark in the film industry. Please be sure to research these fabulous women further, and learn about all of those who have paved the way so eloquently.

*Photo credit - Mary Pickford and writer Frances Marion 1920 – 'The Love Light' directed and written by Frances Marion at the United Studios in Hollywood. Photo courtesy MARC WANAMAKER/BISON ARCHIVES

"Write what you know. The more specific you can be, the more universal your story can be, so don’t be afraid to share. Never sign onto anything you are not crazy passionate about because if it’s a feature, you will spend seven to ten years dealing with it. Passionately love everything that you do."

AUTUMN MCEWEN MCALPIN, Writer, Director, Producer and Owner, Side Gig Productions

PART ONE

SCREENWRITERS

"A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter for short), scriptwriter or scenarist is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs, comics or video games, are based." – Source: Wikipedia

CHRISTINE CONRADT

Christine Conradt is a Los Angeles based screenwriter, director, producer and author with more than 80 film credits. Her films have aired on Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network, Showtime, Fox, USA, UPtv and Hallmark. She holds a BFA in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California and a Master's in Criminal Justice from Boston University.

She is the primary writer behind Lifetime's most successful franchises and routinely speaks at writing conferences in the U.S. and Canada. She's directed three features, two of which she also wrote and produced, and is coming out with three books for the Young Adult market this summer, all novelizations of her popular 'at 17' thriller series for Lifetime. The books, published by HarperCollins, are available for pre-order at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and other major retailers. At the same time Christine will be in Jamaica getting married!

Q&A

1. How did you get started in the film industry?

I'm from Nebraska and back in the early 1990s, there wasn't much of a film industry there so I didn't even know screenwriting existed as a career. When I received a brochure my junior year from the University of Southern California, I saw screenwriting listed as a major and instantly knew that's what I wanted to do. Instead of getting a law degree like I'd planned, I wanted to go to film school. Not even really understanding how competitive that program was (the Cinematic Arts program at USC), I applied and luckily got in. Four years later, I graduated with a BFA in Screenwriting and began working for a temp company that specialized in the entertainment industry.

From there, I accepted a full time position at Fox Studios and then a position as a creative assistant to a now-defunct production company called Image Organization. When that company closed, the producer I was working for went to work for MDP Worldwide so I went with him and eventually quit to become a reader. After doing that for about six months, I was hired to do a rewrite on a movie for USA Network by the executive producer who had run Image Organization. He had gone on to start a new company and brought me in as a writer.

2. Tell me about the short film, Partners (2005) and your role as a screenwriter with that film.

It's funny how that one came about. Back in film school, I had a friend who always made horror movies and I always acted in them as a favor. About eight years after graduating, he called me and said he was producing a real horror film and wanted to know if I was interested in being an extra in it for old time's sake. I told him I'd come spend the day on his set.

The film was Gangs of the Dead. While I was there, sitting around in full zombie make up, I meet this guy, also in zombie makeup, who had come out from the East Coast to be an actor and he tells me how he has the rights to his off-Broadway play that he wants to turn into a short. After wrap, as we were saying goodbye, I told him if he needed someone to adapt his play into a screenplay to call me. The next morning, the director called me and said, Hey, I hear you're adapting our screenplay. Let's meet up and talk.

So I met with them at a coffee shop which was funny because I had no idea what either of them looked like. I'd only seen the guy from the East Coast in zombie makeup. And