Category: PODCAST

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Episode 004: Maya Maffioli

Listen to this episode on Podbean, iTunes or Spotify.

This week I spoke to film editor Maya Maffioli. Maya grew up in Italy, and upon moving to London worked as a runner and edit assistant in a post-production facility in Soho. She’s also has an MA in editing from the National Film and Television School. It was there she met Michael Pearce and went on to edit his BAFTA-nominated short films Rite and Keeping Up With the Joneses, as well as his BAFTA-winning debut feature film Beast.  

Maya is currently working on Sarah Gavron’s latest film, and also edited Annabel Jankels’ film Tell It To The Bees starring Anna Paquin and Holliday Grainger, which recently sold to Vertigo Releasing at this year’s EFM. As well as the controversial Russian art project Dau, in which 400 people lived as Soviet citizens in a meticulously reconstructed research facility, causing Screen International to label it “one of the strangest endeavours in European film history”.

We discussed how Maya even knew that editing was a career path, why there are still so few female editors, how she got an agent and who she counts as editorial influences. 

Show notes:

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Episode 003: Helen Simmons

Listen on Podbean, iTunes or Spotify.

Helen Simmons – a producer, writer and Screen Star of Tomorrow 2018, joins me on the podcast to talk about producing partnerships, making a micro-budget feature film, when she finds the time to write and why you shouldn’t force yourself to be a morning person. It’s a blinder of an episode in my opinion.

Show notes:

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Episode 002: Grace Barber-Plentie

Grace Barber-Plentie, a programmer, writer and marketer for BFI distribution, joined me to talk about internships, periods of unemployment, setting up her own film club and why it’s important to have a passion project that you’re not depending on income for.

Check it out on iTunes, Podbean and  Spotify!

Show notes:

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Episode 001: Georgia Goggin

https://soundcloud.com/user-710028135/episode-001-georgia-goggin

 

You can also listen and download the podcast on Podbean, Spotify and very soon, iTunes!

About 12 days ago now I sat down with Georgia Goggin, a producer first and foremost but also a director. She produced the short film We Love Moses which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in 2016, won numerous awards and screened at festivals worldwide including Toronto. She’s currently producing her first feature, written and directed by her regular collaborator Dionne Edwards, who as I speak is at the Sundance Institute Writers Lab with the project, so I feel very lucky to have been able to meet Georgia at what is undoubtedly the dawn of an abundant career. What struck me most about Georgia is how incredibly hard she works. This is someone who is clearly firing on all cylinders. We talk about motivation, collaboration, mentorship, sexual harassment on set, how to get a meeting, wearing the directing hat as opposed to the producing one and a new funding opportunity for filmmakers that she’s collaborating on called The Uncertain Kingdom. It was a joy to be in the room with Georgia so I hope you get as much from it as I did.

Here are links to the organisation, films, networks and other bits and pieces we talked about…

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Best Girl Grip: The Podcast

SOME NEWS…I’m starting a podcast!

I’m taking the plunge and launching a new podcast that hopes to create visibility around different roles in the film industry, and a platform to spotlight successful women in it. I listen to a lot of film podcasts, with screenwriters, cinematographers, directors and actors featuring frequently, but I want to shine a light on the names and jobs we might not know. I also want to foster a space where women can talk about the realities of making ends meet whilst working in a creative sector. 

From distributors and marketers to programmers and talent executives, to upcoming producers, filmmakers and editors I’ll be chatting to brilliant women from across the industry to hear how they began their careers, what it is they actually do, what keeps them motivated and what their ambitions are.

A new ‘Celluloid Ceiling’ report from San Diego State University concluded that only incremental gains have been made in gender representation in behind-the-scenes roles throughout 2018. I believe this can be improved with greater transparency about the types of careers that exist and to quote that much repeated refrain – you can’t be what you can’t see.

Well you might not be able to see these women, but I hope that in hearing their stories, their successes and sometimes their setbacks, it will become apparent that there are lots of different ways to the ‘top’ and there are lots of definitions for what that looks like.

Why best girl grip?

There’s a role on a film set called ‘Best Boy Grip’, serving as the key grips assistant and whilst it applies to technicians of both gender, the lack of a female equivalent seems to hark back to the days when the film set, and by extension, the film industry was deemed an unsuitable place for a woman.

It’s long been the name of my blog, and seems an equally appropriate fit for a podcast designed to give a voice to someone killing it in their field, who you might not have heard from before.

LAUNCHING AT THE END OF THE MONTH…