A very informative event titled, How To Make A Film In Washington, DC 101 was held at the Source Theater yesterday.
Jaia Thomas, a practicing entertainment attorney and Founding Producer of Singularus Productions, a multi-media production company focused on providing quality and innovative content, organized the event.
Co-organizer, Noah Jacobs & a moderator
Show Me the Money: Film Finance
with Steven Scott Mazzola
Steven Scott Mazzola joined the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in July 2011. He is responsible for administering 100 grants this year including the Grants-in-Aid programs, Festivals and City Arts program and Cultural Facilities Program.
Above-the-Line Vs Below-the-Line
with Carol Davis & Brian Dragonuk
with Carol Davis & Brian Dragonuk
The panel focused on the intricacies of above-the-line and below-the-line hiring of cast and crew to meet film needs, while highlighting the abundance of local resources available, crew and cast requirements and local union regulations.
Carol Davis is a casting director who started in the film, TV and commercial industries over 20 years ago. Her background includes working at a full service production studio, Producers Video Corporation in Maryland, as production secretary on feature films, production coordinator for an original music and audio studio, and in the Marketing Department of United Way of Central Maryland. Her most recent casting experience in the DC area was for HBO’s The Washingtionne.
Her service experience includes Treasurer, then President of Women in Film and Video of Maryland, and sitting on Kendall Ehrlich's board for the 2003 Points of Light Foundation Conference in Maryland. For more information, visit carolwdavis.net/
Brian Dragonuk is an actor, model, TV show host and radio personality working the Mid-Atlantic States. He has been cast in several roles since his start on the set of The Replacements in 1999. He has experience in almost every type of acting/modeling work except theatre including experience in major films & TV series, independent films, hosting/co-hosting cable talk shows, voice overs/ narrations, co-hosting radio shows, print work, modeling men's clothing on live TV, runway modeling, and live practical training.
He has also worked as a casting associate for some of the region’s top agents and casting directors , as a casting PA on projects like The West Wing, Breach and Step -Up, and as a casting director on several low / no budget feature films and shorts, Cable TV shows and TV commercials. He has owned and edited three industry newsletters and in 2010 merged them into DragonukConnects.com, a professional networking website community covering the Mid-Atlantic States’ entertainment industry.
Filming in the District with Crystal Palmer,
Hans Charles, Otessa Ghadar & Claudia Myers
The panelists discussed their varied experiences of filming in DC and how they successfully navigated the landscape to produce feature length films and videos.
Crystal Palmer is director of the DC Office of Motion Picture and TV Development, with oversight responsibility for every film and TV show shot in the DC. She offers a wealth of experience resolving the special needs required for filming in the nation's capital. She also has extensive experience producing short films, infomercials, and promotional spots.
Hans Charles started his journey into the world of cinema studying at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center and worked for Tracey Edmonds (Soulfood, Set it Off), Bridget Davis (Sister Act II, Hav Plenty) and Patrick Ian Polk (Punks, Noah’s Ark) at Edmonds Entertainment in 2000. In 2006, he enrolled in Howard University’s graduate MFA film program, where he focused on cinematography and shot for a range of directors including Spike Lee, and worked on films like Just Wright, and Sundance Film Festival premiering Pariah and Middle of Nowhere.
His films have screened at the Urban World Film Festival, Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, the New York City Latino Film Festival and HBO. He is currently an adjunct professor in cinematography at Howard University, directing a project for ESPN and has two films in post production including the DC production, Joe Young.
Otessa Ghadar is the creator and director of the web series, Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden (OJ in BG), which follows the lives of D.C. teens growing up and getting down in the 1990's. She is a graduate of Columbia University’s Film school. OJ in BG started as her MFA Thesis and grew from there.
OJ in BG is her returning to her D.C. roots and is an example of "writing what you know," because it is inspired by memories of her own teenage years. It is part recollection, part urban legend, and part pure fiction. She continued in 2009 to focus on the other side of DC: the culture, the fashion and the indie lore. She is also the founder of 20/20 Productions, which produces the series. With a female driven production team, and a cast and crew comprised of all local area residents, OJ in BG brings fiction filmmaking out of D.C. in the form of cutting edge new media, that's streaming virally online.
Currently in its fifth season, the series has won a 2011 Telly Award, two 2011 LA Web Series Festival Awards (for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Cinematography in a Drama Series), and received a 2010 Indie Intertube Ensemble Drama Award nomination, in addition to a nomination for "Outstanding Ensemble" in the 2nd annual Indie Soap awards. It also received media buzz and a cult following for its positive representation of LGBT youth. For more information: http://www.ojinbg.com/
Claudia Myers wrote and directed the feature film, Kettle of Fish starring Mathew Modine and Gina Gershon. The movie premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released theatrically in 2007. She optioned her script, Wild Oats, which will be directed by Howard Deutch and has attracted Shirley MacLaine. In 2010, she produced the independent DC-based comedy, Below the Beltway with Tate Donovan, Sarah Clarke, Noah Wyle, and Spencer Garrett. The film won the Audience Award at the Newport Beach film festival and was acquired by Showtime.
As a screenwriter, she has won several awards, was twice a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and is a recent alumna of the Hamptons Screenwriters Lab. She has also directed two award-winning short films, including the Sundance short, Buddy & Grace. She has also worked with the Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs to produce several award-winning films for and about the military community. She is also a professor in the Film & Media Arts division of American University’s School of Communication. She is currently in pre-production on her next feature, Fort Bliss starring Michelle Monaghan.
Film Editing and Post Production
with Erica Rowe & Craig Moorhead
with Erica Rowe & Craig Moorhead
Attendees learnt the fundamentals of editing film scenes and trailers from these local film editors who shared on editing resources, key tools and techniques used to edit films.
Erica Rowe is a bilingual (English and French) freelance film and video editor who can adapt her talent to many genres and styles, from documentaries to shorts to advertising to comedy. After TV work at télé Miroir in France, she has had the opportunity to work on documentaries and short films alike, including her latest work, Endangered Hawai’I, a documentary about Hawaiian bird conservation.
As an editor, she brings each story alive in a visually stimulating way, while remaining faithful to the director’s vision. She has a BFA in Film & Video Editing form the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City. For more information, visit http://www.ericarowe.com/
Craig Moorhead is an Emmy-nominated editor who has been toiling in the DC's trenches for the past 12 years. His work includes the 1999 feature Five Lines and National Geographic's Nat Geo's Most Amazing Photos. He will begin post on his next feature later this year. For more information, visit www.craigmoorhead.com
Film Marketing and Distribution
with Rachel Johnson, Mark Heckathorn,
Brandi Dunnegan, & Laura Law-Millett
Rachel Johnson (The Moderator) began her broadcast career as the creator/producer of “HU’s Coffee Break” on WHOV 88.1FM, a radio station in Hampton Roads, VA., where she was named a Young American Broadcaster by radio legend Blanquita Cullum. She crossed over into TV to work for the Starz Movie Network and co-produced the network’s first original program, Looking for Stars.
She was an on camera talent covering interviews on the red carpet, press conferences and several film festivals and interviewed industry veterans including Halle Berry, Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell. She also worked for the legal department at CBS/Paramount and the Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles.
Brandi Dunnegan is the President of The Boutique Agency (TBA), an integrated marketing communications firm with specialized services in entertainment, event marketing, and luxury-brand representation, which she launched in 2010. She is a savvy film, TV, and music publicist with more than a decade of experience managing theatrical and broadcast campaigns for 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures/Screen Gems, MGM/United Artists, Magnolia Pictures, Discovery Networks, TNT, and TBS.
Her growing start-up boasts a diversity of clients and campaigns that include the DC Premiere and Congressional Black Caucus/ALC screening of MONEY MATTERS, the Lincoln Theater and University of Maryland Premiere of EPSN's WITHOUT BIAS with director Kirk Fraser, and Moët+ Chandon Presents Champagne & Cinema: SEX AND THE CITY 2.
As a former Account Executive/Publicist for Allied Integrated Marketing, she was instrumental in generating local-market publicity and promotions for over 75 films. From planning press tours, to securing promotions with local radio stations and screening films to movie critics (WAFCA) and tastemakers, she was responsible for managing all aspects of integrating national campaigns locally.
Laura Law-Millett is a successful entrepreneur, Chief Operations Officer at Constant Motion Entertainment, a full service entertainment company and co-founder of the GI Film Festival, the nation's only military film festival, which is in its 6th year.
The mission of the festival is to honor the service and sacrifice of the men and women in uniform through the medium of film. Films screened by the GI Film Festival have won Academy and Emmy Awards, and aired on Showtime and HBO.
The GI Film Festival was awarded the coveted American Legion National Commander’s PR award. Previous award recipients include Lou Dobbs and Tim Russet.
More pictures from the event are below. Enjoy!
Singularus Productions forces its viewers to think more critically and creatively, while fostering, developing and showcasing the talent of new and fresh performing artists. Singularus opens the doors for novice artists chasing their dreams in theatre, TV and film. For more information, visit www.singularus.com
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