Julie Ritson’s Post

As a long-time editor (and writer and journalist) the past few months have been rough; witnessing the constant stream of layoffs (my own included) within media orgs has been heartbreaking and a bit demoralizing. However there is a bright spot among the ruins and that is The 19th*. Next Tuesday, a documentary about the org, "Breaking the News," will broadcast on Independent Lens. I have a vested interested here because I want to see orgs like the 19th * grow and prosper. I also wrote the guidebook about the documentary for a pop up program, which is produced by ITVS. They fund and produce docs for Independent Lens, among other programs. The stories that the 19th* publishes are a refreshing change of pace. The editorial team focuses on the experiences of women and LGBT + people - not policy makers. I encourage any and all who are concerned about the current state of journalism in the U.S. to give this doc a watch. I guarantee you will walk away feeling hopeful. #journalism #news #editorial #journalist #content #reporters #reporting #newsroom #newsmedia #media #mediaindustry #mediastrategy #contentstrategy #editor #newswriter

How to Use Your Voice to Make Socially-Driven Films https://ift.tt/2F6Qigs In order to set yourself apart in Hollywood, it's important to find you voice and to make movies and TV shows that you truly care about. That means figuring out what you believe in and fostering your ideas from there. Filmmakers Allison Norlian and Kody Leibowitz, the co-founders of the new production company BirdMine, do just that, making socially conscious stories that connect on many levels. We sat down with them to talk about their new company and what's in store for the future. Let's dive in. BirdMine Editor's Note: the following interview is edited for length and clarity. No Film School: What inspired you to start your own production company, BirdMine, and why did you choose to focus on socially driven films? Allison + Kody: We met as interns in college, with dreams of becoming reporters and journalists. We followed our dreams, becoming television news reporters and anchors and working in various markets across the country, and we remained friends during our respective journeys. As the years went by, we would discuss wanting to tell longer-form, more impactful stories—we wanted to take what we'd learned as journalists and become documentarians. Documentaries were the pinnacle; we'd have more time to investigate, research, and dive into the stories. But for a while, it was just talk—a pipedream that neither of us knew would ever come to fruition. And then, in 2020, everything changed. We decided to act and start BirdMine, our company that focuses on amplifying the voices and stories of underrepresented communities in socially driven films. It only made sense that our films would be socially driven, considering who we are as people and why we got into journalism and documentary work in the first place. Allison became a journalist and now a filmmaker because of her profoundly disabled sister. Growing up with a sister with developmental disabilities and a grandmother with physical disabilities because of Multiple Sclerosis, Allison became an advocate at an early age for the disabled community. She became a journalist with the hope of "changing the way the world views disabilities" and creating a more accessible and inclusive reality for people with disabilities and their families. Being immersed in two marginalized communities since birth—both the disabled and Jewish communities—Allison gained empathy for everyone and anyone suffering. She found her calling to help through journalism and now filmmaking. Kody spent much of his journalism career as an investigative journalist, holding public officials accountable and exposing racial injustice, political corruption, and wrongdoing by corporate or religious institutions. Growing up with a single mother who was a high school educator exposed Kody to the inequalities faced by so many in America—and people around the world. Kody also saw how illness and domestic violence impact a family at an earl...

I was prompted to share my workflow, and despite having authored numerous books on the subject, I'll do my best to distill it here. Upon arriving at a location, my very first step is to question my purpose for being there. What is my personal connection to this place? Instead of immediately raising my camera and indiscriminately capturing images, I strive to establish a rapport, a connection—be it with a person or an inanimate object. I seek an emotional bond and frequently refer back to my list of emotional keywords to reinforce that connection. As a photojournalist, I initially found myself in competition with television, which, in my view, aimed and still aims to depict for its audience what they would witness if they were physically present. Therefore, when working as a journalist and seeing my images published the following day or month, I was determined not to replicate what viewers had already seen on TV. My enduring objective has been and continues to be revealing to the world what they would likely miss if they were not physically present. When I encounter something remarkable, I consider whether it has a stage and an actor or actors. I often come across beautiful scenes that lack a central figure. To me, an image should resemble a Broadway production, complete with a stage and a lead actor or ensemble. Once I identify what I'm seeking, I process it in my mind's eye and then strive to capture it with that vision in mind. Upon completing the photography session, I promptly initiate the following routine: I transfer the images to Lightroom and consistently execute this step each time. Upon import, I embed my copyright details and assign the file names in the format of yyyy_mm_dd_customname_0001 and so forth. These files are then organized into a corresponding folder named yyyy_mm_dd_customname. Subsequently, I proceed to caption and add keywords to the images, following which I assign them rankings. Images rated as "1" denote a commendable attempt but fall short of expectations, leading to the deletion of most. Those rated as "2" are earmarked for potential future review, with the majority also being deleted. A rating of "3" indicates a promising start—a solid image, albeit lacking a truly captivating essence. I opt to retain only a select few of these. A rating of "4" signifies an exceptionally strong image, while a rating of "5" designates a prospective addition to my portfolio. It is worth emphasizing that I embrace the act of deletion, recognizing its pivotal role in maintaining an organized and efficient archival system amidst the wealth of accumulated data. FOR THE REST OF THE STORY https://lnkd.in/eXZB2TGq

Dear Contract Services, I'm an editor who just spent over two hours going through your mandatory Harassment Prevention Training, and we need to address the elephant in the room: There wasn't ONE single video representing the thousands of us working in post-production. Your comprehensive training includes 14 separate units with over 100 lessons to help us better understand how to recognize different perspectives and ensure we are all respected and valued. Yet there isn't a single video that depicts those of us who don't work in writer's rooms, production offices, or on set. Every single dramatization excluded editors and their assistants, colorists, sound editors & mixers, foley artists, engineers, animators, recordists, post producers, and everyone else who sacrifices their health, relationships, and sanity AFTER the cameras stop rolling. This lack of representation further perpetuates the belief that post-production is the red-headed step child of Hollywood. Contrary to popular belief, the creative process is not over when production wraps. Having worked in this business for 20+ years, I'll say this training has come a long way. It's no longer the empty corporate BS that shows no understanding of how things really work. This training is well-organized; the production value is impressive; the scenarios were well-written, acted, and produced; and the scenarios are vulnerable, honest, and relatable. But your attempt to promote diversity & inclusion rings hollow having excluded tens-of-thousands of working professionals in IATSE. As a white male working in Hollywood, I'm fortunate to have never been subject to any form of discrimination or harassment my entire career, and I recognize that a certain amount of privilege beyond my skills & work ethic helped me to get where I am today. But this post isn't about me. Imagine how this myopic lack of diversity & representation (in training designed to recognize diversity & representation) feels to: - The female editor trapped in a windowless room by herself with an A-list director that feels the only way to keep her job is accepting unwanted sexual advances...with nobody else around to verify her side of the story. - The minority assistant editor who despite being perfectly qualified is constantly passed over by post-production teams because they don't look like everyone else. - The autistic sound mixer who's laughed at by producers because of their struggle to socialize with the team and have drinks after celebrating an awesome final mix. - The veteran music editor experiencing ageism who's worked in this business for 30 years but can no longer get hired because they are "too old" and "don't understand the latest trends." - The female recording engineer who just returned from maternity leave and is made to feel like "you're not dedicated to this project" because they chose to be present for their family instead of working exploitive hours. We need to do better. You need to do better.

*“Female professionals in European TV/SVOD fiction production 2015-2022 figures” has just been published by the European Audiovisual Observatory | Observatoire européen de l'audiovisuel, part of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. This report provides an analysis of gender inequality for 6 categories of off-screen staff: directors; writers; producers; cinematographers; composers and editors and data for lead roles. Key findings include: In 2022, the share of women professionals in the production of #TV and #SVOD fiction was 28%. The low share results from three cumulative factors:     o   A low share among the active population of professionals;     o   Fewer assignments for female professionals;     o   Work more often shared with other professionals (e.g. female writers    cowriting more often than their male counterparts). - Gender inequality obviously varies between categories of staff. The share of women professionals is higher for producers (48%) and writers (37%), close to the average for editors (26%) and directors (25%) and significantly lower for composers (11%) and cinematographers. - Female professionals seem to be more represented in categories of staff where several professionals work together, as it is the case for producers and writers. Conversely, when the position is generally held by only one professional (e.g., directors or cinematographers), women tend to be more under-represented. - However, even for categories of staff with several professionals in charge of writing or producing a work, the teams are mostly led by male professionals. For example, in 2022, while female writers accounted for 37% of the writing of audiovisual fiction, female-driven teams accounted for only 28% of all writing teams (vs. 56% for male-driven teams and 16% for gender-balanced teams. Author: Gilles Fontaine Download the report for free: https://lnkd.in/gzZdSYHq #Europe #streaming

Women working in European TV/SVOD fiction get 28% of assignments In 2022, the share of women professionals in the production of #TV and #SVOD fiction was 28%. The low share results from three cumulative factors: o A low share among the active population of professionals; o Fewer assignments for female professionals; o Work more often shared with other professionals (e.g. female writers cowriting more often than their male counterparts). • Gender inequality obviously varies between categories of staff. The share of women professionals is higher for producers (48%) and writers (37%), close to the average for editors (26%) and directors (25%) and significantly lower for composers (11%) and cinematographers • Female professionals seem to be more represented in categories of staff where several professionals work together, as it is the case for producers and writers. Conversely, when the position is generally held by only one professional (e.g., directors or cinematographers), women tend to be more under-represented. https://lnkd.in/dmXCNRNi European Audiovisual Observatory | Observatoire européen de l'audiovisuel

https://lnkd.in/dYay-fEV Find out more about what life is like for filmmakers in 2023 in our Cost of Docs 2023 survey just released. https://lnkd.in/dqHm29VP

Lessons in Editing A Salacious Basketball Story https://ift.tt/6mJD7tx I love professional sports, there's so mcuh drama on and off the court. But when TV shows about that drama come out, they often miss the beats of the story that I felt like drew me in to begin with. Well, that's not the case for the FX show Clipped, which covers the NBA's Donald Sterling incident with hilarity and humility. At the heart of the show is its editing, done by Susana Benaim. Her deft touch allows the scenes to seamlessly flow, and the story to unfold. Check out our conversation below! Clipped | Official Trailer | Laurence Fishburne, Jacki Weaver, Cleopatra Coleman, Ed O'Neill | FX www.youtube.com No Film School: Clipped is unique in that audiences likely recall the events of the show. How did you ensure that the editing style contributed to creating this sensation of virility for the audience, while also making the show feel fresh and new? Susana Benaim: Gina Welch, our showrunner, was very intentional in her approach to telling the story with pacing and humor. She wanted each storyline to feel almost like they would crash into each other. With that in mind, we played with the ebb and flow of the pacing throughout the series to up the ante accordingly. Between almost every scene there are sound and visual style transitions that we made sure we had in the edit. For example, in the pilot, after Shelly’s conversation with her friends, she nods and we hear some glass clinking sounds in the restaurant; then we cut to a close up of V’s hand holding a champagne glass at the game in the next scene. Another huge part of bringing the virality to the show came with the scrolls. We were able to hit the highest speed of the scrolls in the cold open of the pilot, and then, we slowed them down once we came to the top of our story arc so we could build once more to when the tape comes out. We wanted to feel that difference in the speed of how the internet and social media moves versus how our regular lives do. NFS: You have mentioned that you had more influence in setting the tone and style of Clipped than in your previous projects. Could you elaborate on how you approached this creative freedom and what specific elements you focused on to shape the series' unique tone? Benaim: Gina and I had many conversations about how this was a show about a viral event taking place on social media, and the idea came to us that the internet should be a character and the action in that world should be happening in parallel to our story. With that in mind, I brought a few rough options to show Gina what the internet could look like, and one of them was of sliding stories from left to right, similar to how Tinder works. Gina liked the idea, but she insisted that the internet really moved vertically. That was our “a-ha!” moment, and once we knew the “infinite scroll” already existed at the time of the scandal, we were off! FX was excited to see our mockups of the scrolls i...

This is a terrifying read. The large proportion of people I speak to around me, including myself are feeling this first hand. As always, the creative sector and more importantly, the freelancers who work in the industry, are always an afterthought when the Government is concerned. But it really shouldn’t be. Considering the amount of revenue this industry generates for our economy every single year. But this is serious. We are essentially in a Film/TV recession and it’s not being talked about enough. Freelancers are the ones being most impacted. BECTU conducted a survey of 4,160 Film and TV workers and found that 68% are currently without work. 88% are concerned about their financial stability, 34% are planning on leaving the industry in the next five years, with 75% having reported that they are struggling with their mental wellbeing because of the crisis. This is a reflection of what is happening on a much bigger scale to thousands if not millions of people across the UK. In 2023 the overall takings of the UK Box Office was up by 5.5%. But the headline figures, despite sounding like good news, was and still is completely at odds with the reality of what freelance workers are facing and is overshadowing what is actually going on. This is not just down to the repercussions of the SAG-AFTRA and/or Writers Guild strikes in America. It’s a combination of the effects from the pandemic, the slowdown in commissioning from global streamers, a freeze in the BBC License fee (sensitive topic I know), a downturn in advertising, (don’t get me started on AI), badly timed alongside an increase in inflation, skyrocketing production costs. In other words, a recipe for disaster. What we need to worry about though is the long term consequences within the industry. If we are unable to stop Frelancers from leaving the work sector, who will replace them? What loss of skills will occur? What encouragement would there be for outsiders looking in? Especially if there is very little support to keep freelancers afloat during times of hardship within the industry. Workers with protected characteristics, women and BAME workers are all more likely to leave the industry within the next five years. I mean ffs people, we’re going backwards! Speaking of support, in France they have an unemployment insurance scheme that provide benefits for creatives during times of unemployment in the sector. Not perfect but at the moment Universal credit is not viable for most freelancers, as the minimum income floor rule is not compatible with the stop/start nature of their work. Broadcasters, as BACTU sets out, to which I agree with, should have a responsibility of providing greater clarity to the workforce about the slowdown. To be as transparent as possible about changing economics, so workers can assess their financial situation accordingly and decide what to do. There is much to be done and there are solutions but it’s clear Government engagement is vital.

🎬 Calling for a shift in the casting paradigm! 🌟 As a passionate advocates for the craft of acting, we can't help but raise a concern regarding the increasing trend of casting influencers as characters in film and TV. While we deeply respect individuals who have successfully built their personal brand and amassed a significant following, we believe it doesn't automatically qualify them for the job of acting. Actors are artists who dedicate their lives to honing their craft, constantly refining their skills to deliver captivating performances. Just as a doctor is passionate about saving lives or a screenwriter is committed to producing exceptional scripts, actors live and breathe their art. So why have follower count become the deciding factor in casting decisions? Imagine if we applied the same logic to other professions. Would it be justifiable to hire a junior scriptwriter solely based on their number of followers? Would we truly get the best script, or would we settle for something average that merely attracts attention? Casting directors and filmmakers must take a serious stance on perpetuating this notion. If we truly seek the best actors for the best roles, we need to prioritize talent, skill, and dedication. By casting talented actors, we not only ensure exceptional performances but also attract a wider audience. It's a win-win situation for all involved. Just as influencers excel in their respective domains, actors shine in theirs. Let's acknowledge and appreciate their expertise by granting them the opportunity to showcase their acting prowess on screen. It's not rocket science, and there's no excuse for getting it wrong. Let's champion the art of acting and cast actors who deserve the spotlight. Together, we can elevate the quality of our film and TV productions while honoring the dedication and passion of those who have dedicated their lives to their craft. 🎭✨ #CastingDebate #ActingCraft #TalentMatters #ArtOfActing #ChampionActors #QualityOverFollowerCount #FilmIndustry #TVProductions #ElevateTheArt Cassandra R. Aizuddiin Nasser