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A weekly podcast interviewing women behind-the-scenes and below-the-line of the British film industry.
Episodes
Friday Sep 29, 2023
Friday Sep 29, 2023
This week my guest is Cassandra Johnson-Bekoe, a woman who wears many hats - among which are writer, producer, script editor and the current Head of Scripted Development at DARE Pictures.
After working as a bouncer to fund her Screenwriting certificate from the Met Film School, Cassandra's way into the industry was through the Mama Youth Project in 2016.
Cassandra was previously senior development executive at Daniel Kaluuya’s production outfit 59%, overseeing the company’s slate and generating new IP across international and regional markets. Prior to this she worked in scripted development. Her credits include “Ted Lasso” season 2 (WarnerBros/Apple+), “Riches” (Greenacre Films for ITV), “Secret Invasion” (Marvel Studios) and “The Chemistry of Death” (Cuba Pictures Ltd, for Paramount+).
Cassandra also co-founded the collective 'Black Women in Scripted' in 2020, and which currently boasts over 300 members - a mix of established and award-winning writers, producers, and execs, as well as new industry talent.
We talk about the difference between pride and self-worth, how to set your rates as a freelancer, how to adapt to working at different companies, how securing an agent changed her career, how she treads the line between writer and script editor, how she gives notes and what it means to be a warm CEO, finding community in the industry and prioritising your mental health above all else.
SHOW NOTES:
- Mama Youth Project
- Black Women in Scripted
- Sister Pictures
- Vanity Fair article about the toxic atmosphere on the set of “Lost”
- Find out where to watch Cassandra’s film recommendation I AM NOT A WITCH
- For more conversations with women who work in development, listen to episodes of Best Girl Grip with Katie Sinclair and Dionne Farrell.
Friday Sep 22, 2023
Friday Sep 22, 2023
This week I'm pleased to welcome to Best Girl Grip talent agent Emma Obank.
Emma joined Casarotto Ramsay & Associates, an industry-leading literary agency representing many of the world’s best-known creatives, in 2014 as an Agent’s Assistant.
At the age of 26, Emma started building her own list of screenwriters, directors and literary properties; today she represents some of the UK’s most exciting and promising new voices.
Alongside her agenting work, Emma launched Casarotto’s unrepresented writer and director surgeries, which act as a platform for unrepresented talent to gain direct access to agents and creatives and freely ask questions about the industry; guests at the surgeries have included Bisha K. Ali, Jack Thorne, Jessica Hobbs and Kayleigh Llewellyn.
Emma is a frequent guest speaker at the NFTS and has been on the panel for writing competitions such as BAFTA Rocliffe and Funny Women. Emma was a mentee on the 2023 Women in Film & TV mentorship scheme.
We talk about how she became aware of, and interested in, talent agenting, how she worked her way up the agenting ladder, how she acts as a buffer for rejection and maintains client relationships, how she decides to take on new clients and her recommendations for approaching agents.
SHOW NOTES
- Follow Emma on Twitter, where she gives lots of great advice and shares useful resources for writers and creatives looking to break into the industry.
- A great thread that Emma put together of film industry accounts to follow on Twitter for updates and opportunities.
- And the thread I reference about ‘how to cold approach an agent’.
- Check out the BBC Writersroom Opportunities page.
- Find out where to watch Emma’s film recommendation ‘Millie Lies Low’, directed by Michelle Savill.
- For more conversations with talent agents, listen to my episodes of Best Girl Grip with Roxana Adle and Kat Buckle.
Friday Sep 15, 2023
Friday Sep 15, 2023
This week my guest is award-winning, freelance foley editor and mixer Sophia Hardman.
Sophia studied Sound Technology at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and started out her career at Twickenham Studios as an intern 9 years ago.
Since then Sophia has worked on a wide range of projects, from high-end TV dramas to Oscar-nominated feature films. Her credits include THE OUTFIT, HOUSE OF GUCCI, THE LAST DUEL, BELFAST, NO TIME TO DIE, ENOLA HOMES, THE TOURIST, STATE OF THE UNION and THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH.
We talk about the strange and unique language of foley, the differences between a foley artist and a foley editor, what it means to create impactful, unexpected sound effects, why she made the move to freelancing after working in-house at post house, how she chooses projects to work on and how she stays across technical / technological trends.
SHOW NOTES
- Find out where you can watch THE OUTFIT
- Find out where you can watch THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH
- Find out where you can watch NO TIME TO DIE
- Watch ENOLA HOLMES on Netflix
- Watch the trailer for THE INVENTOR
- Find BECTU’s rate cards here.
- Check out Midge Costin’s documentary MAKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND
- Watch the trailer for Sophia’s film recommendation EARTH MAMA directed by Savannah Leaf.
- For more conversations with women who worked in sound, listen to episodes of Best Girl Grip with Lucy Bright, Ines Adriana and Anna Bertmark.
Friday Sep 08, 2023
Friday Sep 08, 2023
This week's guest is producer Helen Gladders.
I became aware of Helen’s work through the 2016 short film RHONNA & DONNA, directed by Daina O. Pusic, and then I kept seeing her name popping up everywhere and knew she was a producer to watch.
More things you might want to know about Helen:
She is a graduate of the National Film and Television School having done their MA in Producing for Film & Television. She set up her own company Gingerbread Pictures in October 2016 and was nominated for the “Best Producer” award at Underwire for her short THE WYRD written and directed by Chloë Wicks, in 2017. She is an alumni of the BFI NETWORK’S Producer weekender, Edinburgh Film Festival talent lab, and NETWORK@LFF. Her recent short films include NIGHT BUS directed by former podcast guests Jessica & Henrietta Ashworth and the Film4 & BFI Network backed RUN written & directed by former podcast guest Ruth Greenberg and starring Niamh Algar.
At the time of recording, she was in post-production on her first feature TUESDAY, written and directed by Daina O. Pusic, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Lola Petticrew and backed by A24, BBC Films, BFI, and Cinereach. And excitingly, the film has since had two festival appearances confirmed. It will premiere at this year’s Telluride festival in the US, followed shortly after by the BFI London Film Festival, where it will screen in the First Feature Competition.
Elsewhere, Helen is busy working on several projects including debut features from filmmakers Jessica & Henrietta Ashworth, Astrid Thorvaldsen, Morayo Akande and Zoe Alker.
We talk about how Helen discovered a knack for producing, her experience studying at NFTS, establishing a vision and a voice for her production company, the short film funding landscape, what it means to package a project, the differences between producing shorts and features, and how Titanic kickstarted both of our fascinations with the film industry…
SHOW NOTES:
- Watch Helen's shorts RHONNA & DONNA, RUN and NIGHT BUS.
- Listen to my episodes of Best Girl Grip with filmmakers Ruth Greenberg and Jessica & Henrietta Ashworth.
- Read Deadline's review for the feature TUESDAY, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
- Buy tickets for TUESDAY at the BFI London Film Festival.
- Find out where you can watch Helen's film recommendation: JUMBO.
- For more conversations with producers, listen to episodes of Best Girl Grip with Jeanie Igoe, Chi Thai, Sarah Brocklehurst, Emily Morgan and Elhum Shakerifar.
Friday Oct 21, 2022
Friday Oct 21, 2022
This week my guest is the wonderful Eve Gabereau.
Eve is someone whose work and ingenuity I became aware of quite early on in my own career and she is someone I have wanted on the podcast for a good while.
Eve is the Founder and Managing Director of Modern Films, a London-based, female-led, social issues-driven production, distribution and event cinema company. It was founded in 2017 and since gone onto to release buzzy titles such as BORDER, MURINA, HAPPY AS LAZZARO, WHITE RIOT, WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY and Oscar-winner DRIVE MY CAR.
Two of their upcoming releases were part of this year’s LFF programme - Emily Atef’s MORE THAN EVER and Kristoffer Borgli’s SICK OF MYSELF, which both speak well to the kind of provocative, spellbinding and whip-smart cinema that Modern Films have made their trademark.
Prior to that Eve was the MD of Soda Pictures for 15 years, where she released such indie hits as TONI ERDMANN, ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE, PATERSON and MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE. She also executive produced Rungano Nyoni’s directorial debut I AM NOT A WITCH.
She is a regular feature on panels and training schemes throughout the industry, and was also featured in Geoffrey Macnab’s 2021 book ‘The British Film Industry in 25 Careers: The Mavericks, Visionaries and Outsiders Who Shaped British Cinema’, so it’s fair to say I approached this interview with high expectations for the wisdom and insight it might contain and Eve definitely didn’t disappoint and it’s truly a privilege to count her among Best Girl Grip’s guests.
Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
This week my guest is producer Jeanie Igoe.
Jeanie’s big break came when she landed a role at A24, where her credits as a production executive include Barry Jenkins’ MOONLIGHT, Trey Edwards Shults’, IT COMES AT NIGHT, Bo Burnham’s EIGHTH GRADE and Robert Eggers’ THE LIGHTHOUSE. She also served as a producer on their TV series RAMY, and a co-producer on David Lowery’s THE GREEN KNIGHT.
She then launched herself as an independent producer, with her first project MISS JUNETEENTH, the directorial debut from Channing Godfrey Peoples going on to premiere at Sundance and receive a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize.
Most recently, Jeanie co-produced CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS alongside Catherine Magee and the team at Element Pictures, including former podcast guest Emma Norton and Development Producer Chelsea Morgan Hoffman who developed Sally Rooney’s novel into the series script, alongside the writers.
We talk about moving to New York, getting a job at A24 in its fledging years as a company and then being witness to their exponential growth, making the decision to start producing independently, moving back to Ireland, maintaining a work-life balance, how Jeanie creates an atmosphere of collaboration and care on set and adapts her role to the needs of the project and the filmmaker.
I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as I did having it.
Tuesday Oct 04, 2022
Tuesday Oct 04, 2022
This week I’m thrilled to be chatting with film critic, broadcaster, podcaster and now author Hanna Flint, about her path into the film and media industry, as well as how her new book STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER was born.
Having started out in various journalism and media roles for the likes of MailOnline, Metro and OK! Magazine, Hanna has since become a prolific film critic and features writer, with bylines at a wealth of outlets, including Variety, Empire Magazine, Sight & Sound, Time Out, The Guardian, Esquire, Dazed, British GQ and Stylist, and has also appeared as a critic and commentator on the likes of BBC Radio 4, Sky News, BBC Radio 5 Live and TALKRadio.
She is also a host for MTV Movies and the co-host of the Fade to Black podcast alongside Amon Warmann and former Best Girl Grip guest Clarisse Loughrey.
Her book STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER, is out now and weaves together personal memoir with cultural criticism as she reflects on how cinema has been formative to her own identity and the world we live in. The book is sprawling, funny and down-to-earth and manages to traverse topics such basketball, sexuality, sexual assault, colourism, her changing relationship to her Tunisian heritage, eating disorders, social media, family, first crushes and much much more.
Our conversation likewise covers lots of ground as we probe the pros and cons of doing an MA in journalism, how Hanna hustled her way into her career with hard work and persistence, how she established herself as a critic, how the idea for her book developed, the madness of writing it in just under three months and her relationship to it now as it makes its way into the world.
Tuesday Sep 27, 2022
Tuesday Sep 27, 2022
My guest this week is the incredibly talented and prolific sound designer and mixer Ines Adriana.
Ines studied for an MA in sound design at NFTS and has been credited on over 40 projects since 2020, including some incredible short films like Ruth Greenberg’s RUN, Molly Manning Walker’s, GOOD THANKS, YOU?, Theo James Krekis’ PRAM SNATCHER, Nia Childs’ HOME, as well as documentaries such as THE CATHEDRAL and SELF-PORTRAIT.
Ines’ work has screened at Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, BFI London Film Festival and Sheffield Doc/Fest. She is a Film London Lodestar 2022, a Berlinale Talent alumni and a member of the BFI NETWORK x BAFTA crew.
We talk about how she discovered a passion for sound, finding the confidence and the skills to call herself a sound designer, her ‘fever dream’ experience studying at NFTS, how her career picked up momentum and how sound design can facilitate and augment story.
I always enjoy the craft-centred episodes because I’m such a rookie in that space and it’s such a fun opportunity to learn about a completely different area of filmmaking, so I appreciate Ines’ time and I hope you get something from our conversation.
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
This week, my guest is music supervisor Lucy Bright.
Lucy started out at Mute Records working with artists such as Nick Cave and Depeche Mode, before moving to Warner Classics for six years and then leaving to manage composer Michael Nyman. She joined the film and TV department of publisher Music Sales (now Wise Music) in 2008 and worked there for a decade. In 2020 she launched her own music publishing company, Bright Notion Music, signing the composers like Anne Nikitin, Jed Kurzel and Tamar-kali Brown.
Lucy has supervised some of the most critically-acclaimed British films and TV shows in recent years including The Unloved, The Arbor, Slow West, Southcliffe, McMafia, This is England ‘90, Daphne, The Virtues, The Nest, Life After Life and BAFTA-winning short The Swimmer.
Most recently, she has worked on two forthcoming films: Charlotte Wells’ directorial debut AFTERSUN, which is showing at this year’s London Film Festival and then coming to UK cinemas via MUBI on 18th November, and I can testify it has a truly phenomenal soundtrack and Todd Field’s TÁR, set within the world of classical music in which Cate Blanchett plays the first female conductor of a German orchestra.It recently premiered to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival and is one of my most hotly anticipated films of the year.
We spoke about how Lucy got her start in the music industry and then gradually discovered the role of music supervision, getting her first credit as a music supervisor on Samantha Morton’s TV film THE UNLOVED, how she collaborates with directors and other HoDs to build a soundtrack, why certain songs cost more than others, how needle drops happen and what song she is particularly proud of clearing for use in a film…
Tuesday Sep 06, 2022
Tuesday Sep 06, 2022
Olive Nwosu is a Nigerian filmmaker, a BAFTA Pigott 2020 Scholar, an Alex Sichel Fellow at Columbia University School of the Arts, and one of four ‘African Promises’ directors selected by the Institut Français.
She has directed two award-winning short films: TROUBLEMAKER and EGÚNGÚN (MASQUERADE), both set in Nigeria and which have screened in numerous film festivals, including Sundance, the BFI London Film Festival, TIFF and the Aspen Shortsfest. The latter was also nominated for Best British Short Film at the BIFAs in 2021.
Earlier this year, Olive took part in an online edition of the Sundance Screenwriting Lab and she is currently developing her first feature film with Film4.
We talk about initially studying engineering and how she discovered, and decided to pursue, filmmaking, some of the difficulties Olive has experienced in sustaining a practice and what that practice looks like. We also talking quite in-depth about Olive’s short film EGÚNGÚN (MASQUERADE) and how that film came to be, what she wanted to explore, how she crafted its visual language and finding the right collaborators.
I saw that film and Olive speak on a panel at Sundance London and was immediately beguiled both by her cinematic voice and by how she spoke about the film on stage and I knew straight away I would love to have her on the podcast and the conversation we had didn’t disappoint. I think Olive is a really special filmmaker and I was incredibly privileged to share this space and this moment in time with her.