Women in Entertainment Workshop series application deadline May 6

“As women, our leadership roles keep expanding and with them, the challenges we face in the entertainment industry. We want to be sure that we are not only shining a light on the most prevalent issues that women face in the industry, but also providing women with the tools to succeed,” states Gretchen McCourt. “The launch of the workshop series is a developmental opportunity for emerging creative talent to learn from industry leaders in an intimate setting where they can freely ask questions and learn from these role models and their experiences.”

Women in Entertainment Workshop series application deadline May 6

Gretchen McCourt, Executive Vice President of Arclight is hosting the Entertainment Workshop Series. The workshops will feature creative leaders across film and television from May 17 – 19, 2016 in Los Angeles, CA.

The Women in Entertainment Workshop series will focus on three areas of film and television: production, marketing and distribution. Arclight has gathered leaders in entertainment to spark a conversation and the opportunity to hear from first hand from:

Susan Cartsonis (Storefront Pictures), Julie Lynn (Mockingbird Pictures), Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Director, Producer, Writer, Blackfish), Carolyn Harris (Skydance Television), Theresa Won (Myriad Pictures), Jennifer Cochis (Los Angeles Film Festival), Dalia Ganz (Freeform), and Joseph Beyer (Sundance Institute) among others.

Please apply for tickets at www.arclightwomen.com/wie-workshop. The deadline for applications is May 6, 2016.

 

 

Tuesday, May 17, 2016: Production

The production workshop provides a forum for industry professionals, producers, and directors to explore essential roles, tasks and obstacles faced by film and television producers. This workshop will explore the role of the producer; working with writers, production overview and management; budgets; packaging presentations and post production.

SPEAKERS: Susan Cartsonis, Storefront Pictures; Julie Lynn, Mockingbird Pictures; Gabriela Cowperthwaite, ‘Black Fish’

 

Wednesday, May 18, 2016: Distribution

Advances in technology have completely rewritten the rules for distribution. New avenues for distribution are constantly emerging and this workshop will focus how content creators should navigate the current entertainment landscape – from traditional feature platforms to online film and television markets. Participants will hear from esteemed industry executives and discuss the opportunities, challenges, tactical strategies and financial models associated with connecting storytellers to audiences.

SPEAKERS: Carolyn Harris, Skydance Television; Theresa Won, Myriad Pictures; Jennifer Cochis, Los Angeles Film Festival; Missy Laney, BitTorrent 

 

Thursday, May 19, 2016: Marketing

This workshop will discuss cutting edge tools and techniques for developing a marketing strategy to generate a market interest for film and television, amongst both industry and mainstream audiences. We will discuss trends from how to develop cutting-edge out of the box creative campaigns, to marketing including paid marketing, direct-to-fan engagement, social media, influencers, events, and festivals, and other digital tools. Topics will include the planning, development, execution, and evaluation of a marketing campaign while revealing the insights and challenges met by industry executives along the way.

SPEAKERS: Dalia Ganz, Freeform, Disney – ABC Television Group; Joseph Beyer, Sundance Institute; Julie Candelaria, Gravitas Ventures; Robin Geisen, Creative Artists Agency

Each workshop will take place between 12:30pm – 2:30pm and a full lunch will be served.

WORKSHOPS WILL TAKE PLACE AT SONOMA WINE GARDEN, 395 SANTA MONICA PIER #300, SANTA MONICA, CA

PARKING IS AVAILABLE AT SANTA MONICA PLACE

About ArcLight Cinemas

ArcLight Cinemas, created by Pacific Theatres, a privately owned, Los Angeles based company with 60 years of theatrical exhibition history throughout California, Hawaii and Washington is a premiere moviegoing experience with an unparalleled commitment to bringing a variety of rich cinematic content to moviegoers in all markets. ArcLight Cinemas operates eight theaters in California including Hollywood, Pasadena, Sherman Oaks, El Segundo, Santa Monica, Culver City and La Jolla, as well as one theater in Bethesda, Md, Chicago and Glenview, Ill, with a new location in Boston for early 2018. ArcLight also owns and operates the historic Cinerama Dome and programs the TCL Chinese Theatre and IMAX in Hollywood. Pacific Theatres currently operates theaters in Los Angeles that include The Grove and The Americana at Brand in Glendale, Calif. Additional information about ArcLight Cinemas is available at www.arclightcinemas.com/  

 

5 Questions with Jose Marquez director of ISA on Chiller tonight

Before you watch the premier of ISA on Chiller tonight learn about the director Jose Marquez.

1. What inspired the story?

It was a few things coming together. For over a decade, I’d wanted to respond, however humbly, to the movie “The Matrix,” which, like so many others, I found completely exhilarating. But the movie also left me wondering what it is that makes humans valuable – that is, other than the small amount of electricity we produce. I’d also spent a few years watching many people – some in good faith, some not – arguing about immigration. Seldom do people talk about larger, structural issues like international capital flows. Finally, when I first started toying with a high school story, a friend of mine left a poster on my desk in support of the DREAM act. It’s such a powerful metaphor. So that’s how it all came together, mostly.

2. What attracted you to the science fiction genre?

I’ve always been a fan. I was born during the Cold War in a country that is still, in many ways, stuck in the Cold War. When I was a very little boy, my uncle, who lived in the U.S., visited us and brought me a Superman belt that had various scenes from the 1930s comic painted on the belt. It was my favorite thing for quite a long time. Like that comic, there’s something very blatantly political about science fiction, about a fantasy that wants to be of the current moment, the moment that is emerging, rather than a historical story.

3. What director inspired you to pursue the field?

Many! John Carpenter, Todd Haynes, John Waters, Mary Harron and Neil Jordan. More recently, I think the world of Matteo Garrone, Jonathan Glazer, Andrea Arnold, Nadine Labaki. Too many.

4. What stories do you want to tell as a director/writer?

Fun ones? Less glib answer: I would love to make emotionally powerful movies that inspire audiences to talk and think about hard questions.

Check out the trailer: http://bit.ly/isatrailer

Watch it ISA live with popcorn and the lights off!!!

Leave a comment below about what sci-fi movie inspires you …

Ultimate Spider-Man Is Better Than Marvel’s Advertising Gives It Credit For By Arturo

Link to article Racialicious Blog

By Arturo R. García

In promoting the new Ultimate Spider-Man comic, which features a black Latino protagonist in Miles Morales, Marvel pulled out the kind of pull-quote driven advert you’d expect for a high-profile launch.

Unfortunately, the ad short-changes what proves to be a compelling, if not particularly exciting, story.

As seen above, the ad uses the first sentence in this story from ComicsBeat, which opens, “All of you folks who have been crying about diversity in comics had better be all over this!”

While the rest of the story is played straight, for Marvel to validate such blatant Othering of progressive comics fans – characterizing calls for diversity as “crying;” the Tropic Thunder-esque use of “you folks,” and the ransom-note language (“you had better be all over this!”) – is a questionable choice. Particularly since The Beat’s Editor-In-Chief, Heidi McDonald, has written more sensibly about Miles in other posts:

That panel of Miles demasking was everywhere yesterday. And the more I saw it, the more I loved it. It’s iconic (I wish the dialog were a little more iconic but so be it.) It’s a beautiful drawing full of character that draws me in. It reminds me a little of Velazquez’s portrait of Juan de Pareja, which is surely too high praise as that painting is one of the greatest of all times, but they share that sense of humanity which informs the best art.

Moving on to the story itself, McDonald’s critique of the artwork still holds up in USM #1. The tandem of Sara Pichelli (pencils) and Justin Ponsor (colors) shines best in the story’s city settings. Their Brooklyn looks lived in, and authentically, refreshingly diverse. This should be the norm by now, of course, but … well, you know. Comics.

Pichelli and Ponsor’s art also elevates writer Brian Michael Bendis’ riskiest creative choice: positioning Miles’ background as far away as possible from that of his predecessor, Peter Parker.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Set before Miles’ first appearance in Ultimate Fallout #4, Bendis spends USM #1 showing us how Miles got his powers, in an accident not unlike the one that granted Peter his abilities, and introducing us to his family. While it’s never said outright, it’s strongly suggested that Miles’ parents are having trouble making ends meet, a feeling that comes out most heavily in a sequence where the Morales clan attends the lottery for entry into a charter school.

According to former Marvel EIC Joe Quesada, the lottery scene was inspired by the documentary Waiting For Superman, and it could have veered into Poverty Porn pretty easily, but a crucial piece of direction by Bendis, along with the artists’ work, saves it: as Miles’ mother tells him, “Oh, my God, you have a chance,” we cut to a close-up on Miles’ eyes, then to two separate shots of kids whose names didn’t get called.

“It shouldn’t — all these other kids,” Miles says. “Should it be like this?” This show of empathy helps ground Miles for the readers at a crucial moment. He revisits these emotions later on, while visiting his uncle Aaron, something Miles’ dad doesn’t like – especially after Miles faints after his fateful accident, the consequences of which start to dawn on him as the story closes.

This kind of decompressed story – or “writing for the trade,” as fans often call it – might disappoint some of the new readers Bendis and Marvel want to hook with the new USM; after all, for a book selling for $3.99, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that after all the hype, it would have been nice to see Miles out “learning on the job” like we saw him doing in Ultimate Fallout.

But at this point, USM #1 accomplished what Bendis and company set out to do – show us a young hero worth getting invested in. The key now is to follow up: not just in the key details about Miles’ regular life (what are Miles’ parents’ names? What’s going on that has them so worried about their living situation?) but about the touches that will eventually make Miles his own Spider-Man; the tagline for the next issue, “Who Is Miles Morales?,” could hardly be more apropos.

Reprinted from Racialicious blog