In a way, this episode is like a do-it-yourself guide to how to launch your career as a filmmaker.  Leslie speaks with Brenton Tyner Bryan about putting together funding for independent projects, establishing yourself as a filmmaker, finding the right crew, guerilla-style filming, finding a mentor, asking the right questions and much more. The lesson? Get out there and start, complete, learn the lessons and then do it again. This is a great episode.

Brenton Tyner Bryan

HOLLYWOOD - MAY 18, 2022 -- Multi-award winning director/actor/writer/choreographer
Breton Tyner-Bryan will present the Los Angeles premiere of her short film “Delusione” at the
25th Annual Dances With Films Festival, June 9-19, 2022.
Starring Breton Tyner-Bryan (Winner World London IFF, Madrid IFF, Barcelona IFF) and Emily
Ulrich (Other World), “Delusione” has been on the festival circuit at Paris International Short
Festival, New York International Women Festival, Bucharest Film Awards, Big Apple AGENTS
AND MANAGERS Lab, ASVOFF14 Paris, and La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival.
Described as “an examination of dissociation, as a means for survival and manipulation,” the
passionate and nuanced film follows the dancers as they explore an empty vintage hotel filled
with memories that probe the depths of their shared past, creating a mirage of illusion. The film
is an ethereal exploration of two characters entering and exiting one another’s lives.
“Delusione” has screened on the festival circuit including the French Riviera Film Festival May
2022, Stockholm Short Film Festival February 2022, Paris Short Film Festival December 2021,
Bucharest Film Awards December 2021, New York International Women’s Film Festival
December 2021, ASVO Film Festival Paris November 2021, Big Apple Film Festival Agents
and Managers Lab November 2021.
Additionally, Tyner-Bryan has two other films on the festival circuit this year: INVICTA
premiering at La Jolla IFF (nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Fashion Dance, Best
Score, Best Cast Ensemble) that will compete at Tokyo Shorts this month, and TIMELESS
LOVE that won 22 awards at Vegas Movie Awards including Best Director and Best Editor.

Are you looking for a class in how to write for stage and screen? This is the episode for you. Leslie speaks with writer and educator William Nedved on his life and process for writing and teaching writing.

About William:

I am a playwright, lyricist and screenwriter engaged with exploring the journeys that define us. I’m the co-founder of The Gift Theatre Company of Chicago, where I have premiered my plays Body + Blood (Jeff Recommended), Northwest Highway (2011 Steinberg American Theater Critics Association nomination), A Young Man in Pieces, and County Fair. 

I wrote the book and lyrics for Medusa: The Musical, with a score by composer and Project Runway winner Kentaro Kameyama, developed by the Tony Award-winning Deaf West Theatre at The Getty Villa in 2019. Our The Passion of McQueen, an opera based on life, death, and art of fashion visionary Alexander McQueen, played a sold-out concert at Pasadena’s Boston Court Theatre in 2019.

My play Closet Drama, or The Dick Pic of a Twink was featured in the 2018 LAMBDA Literary Fest in Los Angeles. I wrote and performed in the critically-acclaimed Fact & Fiction for the 2011 Hollywood Fringe Festival. My short play Kid was awarded “Best Production” at Collaboraction’s Sketchbook 2009. All Tomorrow’s Parties premiered at the 2002 Los Angeles Short Film Festival. Against the Grain was part of the 1997 Young Playwrights, Inc. Summer Festival. Fate, an original musical, was awarded the inaugural 1997 Leonard Bernstein ‘Learning through the Arts’ Interdisciplinary Scholarship through Scholastic, Inc.  The journey that defined me was the year I lived in Brazil as a Rotary International high school exchange student. 

Caroline Friend is fresh out of film school and already making waves in the industry.  In this episode, Leslie and Caroline discuss all things film and festivals.  You're gonna love it.

About Caroline:

Caroline Friend is an award-winning director and writer. Caroline earned her degree in Film Production and History from the University of Southern California. Her latest film, Under Darkness, was a finalist for the Student Academy Awards®, premiered at Telluride Film Festival, and won the Horizon Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Her work has been recognized by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Television Academy, as well as supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Adrienne Shelly Foundation, Panavision, and Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation. She continues to seek meaningful true stories to bring to audiences.

 TOP FESTIVALS & AWARDS:

Student Academy Awards® - Finalist, 2019

Telluride Film Festival - Official Selection, 2019

Sundance Film Festival - Horizon Award Winner for Directing, 2019

Director's Guild of America - Jury Award Winner for Student Film, 2019

Television Academy (Emmys) - College Awards - Best Drama Nominee, 2019

Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival American Pavilion - Best Student Film, 2020

Film Pittsburgh Presents: The Robinson International Short Film Competition - Award Winner 2020

Today, Leslie's guest is acclaimed actor, producer and writer Chris Mulkey! Leslie and Chris cover everything from his original music to Twin Peaks, , Captain Phillips, his most recent project "The World Without You", and how he's managed to have a career of such longevity and prestige. Do NOT miss this one.

About Chris Mulkey

Award-winning American actor, writer and director, Chris Mulkey has a long and diverse career in film, television and stage. Chris is best known for On the Basis of Sex (2018), Whiplash (2014), Captain Phillips (2013), Twin Peaks (1990), Castle Rock (2018), Broken Trail (2006), Any Day Now (1998) and Boardwalk Empire (2010).

Chris grew up in the Midwest, majored in acting at the University of Minnesota and spent four years as a company member of the Children's Theatre of Minneapolis. While in Minnesota, Chris starred in Loose Ends (1975), the Grand Prize winner at the USA film Festival. Chris moved to Hollywood 1975, married actress/artist Karen Landry and they moved to Venice Beach. The couple wrote and starred in Patti Rocks (1988), an independent film that won the Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival. Chris and Karen often worked together in film and on stage in LA, New York, and the Twin Cities.

Chris is also a songwriter with original songs featured in films and television and can be seen playing around the country with his band Chris Mulkey and Deluxe.

Co-writing and film-making is a tricky business in Hollywood today which is why Leslie spoke with the team of writer/filmmaker Jacob Withers and writer/director/editor/composer Justin Norman.

Jacob has over a decade of writing experience and four years of filmmaking experience.  During those four years Jacob has worked on several short films, including seven award-winning shorts: Admission, winner of Best Film at the 48 Hour Film Project Des Moines (2018); Subtext, Runner Up Best Film at the 48 Hour Film Project Des Moines (2019); Cope, Runner Up Best film at the 48 Hour Film Project Kansas City (2019); A Negotiation, winner of Best Director and Best Score at the 48 Hour Film Project Kansas City (2020); Be Happy, winner of Best Film and Best Writing at the 48 Hour Film Project Minneapolis (2021); Flour & Eggs, winner of Best Writing at the 48 Hour Film Project Milwaukee (2021); and Enjoy Your Evening, winner of Best Director at the Great Canadian Comedy Film Festival. He has also co-written five feature screenplays, including Roy of Sealand, which scored in the top 4.8% of entries on The Black List, and TubeLords, which was awarded a $50,000 grant from the Iowa Arts Council. He worked as a director of photography for the Elison music video “Hopes + Horoscopes” and the interactive film-based video game, In Lukewarm Blood. He also has experience as an editor, sound editor (Welcome to a Better You and TubeLords), and sound recordist.

Justin is a Des Moines-based award-winning writer, director, videographer, editor, producer, animator, actor, visual effects artist, and music composer with a decade of film experience creating advertisements, narrative short films, television pilots, and documentaries. As an editor, he has won seven Best Editing awards in competitions across four states in three different genres: comedy, drama, and documentary. As a director and producer, he has helmed over 60 short films, a feature documentary, and a comedy TV pilot. In 2020, he won a Greenlight Grant from the Iowa Arts Council, won the 2021 Best Director award from the Great Canadian Comedy Film Festival, and won the 2018 Best Director award from the 48 Hour Film Project.

As a videographer, he has shot footage for more than 70 productions, including advertisements, documentaries, narratives, and television series, including the 2020 PBS series American Portrait, the award-winning 2019 documentary The Happiness Machine, and the 2021 Frontmen series which aired in the UK.

He has written more than 60 produced short films and co-written five feature screenplays and two television pilots. His 2020 dramedy, Roy of Sealand, was ranked in the top 4.8% of all scripts on The Black List, and was featured as one of the top 10 scripts of the week.

Leslie talks with her guest Ana Tuazon Parsons about moving with her single mom from the Philippines all the way to Hollywood. Ana has appeared in projects such as Adam Ruins Everything, Dexter, Sherlock Holmes, the Asian That Didn't  etc..., but may be best known as a theatre actor and stage comedian. Ana also discusses her writing background and storytelling style which has taken her on many incredible journeys and opened up all sorts of opportunities.

Today Leslie speaks with Actress and Acting Coach Kadina De Elejalde about how to transform and live inside a character. Next they discuss auditioning for major roles vs. supporting roles, auditioning with  self tapes, the intimacy of film, casting during Covid,  Kadina's specific coaching process.  If you're an actor then this is your episode.

Joanna Mae Park is a much sought-after costume designer. Her love of storytelling, character and genuine passion for clothing as a form of expression led her to a career as a costume designer. Joanna’s designs are about the human condition, self-expression and the worlds in which a character lives. A keen observer with a very detailed eye for colour and tone, clothing has become her language in which she tells these stories.

• Most recently Joanna designed PIECES OF HER, the upcoming television adaptation of Katherine Slaughter’s novel of the same name, directed by Minkie Spiro for Made Up Stories and Netflix, and starring Toni Collette and Jessica Barden. Joanna also designed Glendyn Ivin’s feature film PENGUIN BLOOM for Made Up Stories, starring Naomi Watts, Jackie Weaver and Andrew Lincoln, the film premiered at the 2020 Toronto Film Festival. For her next project Joanna will collaborate again with Ivin and Made Up Stories on the television adaption of Holly Ringland’s novel THE LOST FLOWERS OF ALICE HART for Amazon, starring Sigourney Weaver.
• Joanna’s other film credits include PALM BEACH for director Rachel Ward, which opened the 2019 Sydney Film Festival; the critically acclaimed film FELONY for Goalpost Pictures, directed by Matthew Saville, which screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival; ADORATION, directed by Anne Fontaine and produced by Hopscotch Features, starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright, which screened at Sundance in 2013; WISH YOU WERE HERE, directed by. Kieran Darcy Smith for Aquarius Films, starring Joel Edgerton and Teresa Palmer, which opened the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an AACTA Award for Best Film; and AFI nominated THE TREE, directed by Julie Bertuccelli for L’Arbre Films, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, which premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
• Joanna’s other television credits include the children’s series THE UNLISTED, for Aquarius Films and Netflix; and the 2013 NBC/Universal series CAMP produced by Matchbox Pictures.

Are you looking to build a career as a film editor? Maybe you just want to learn a few new tricks of the trade. Well,  today Leslie sits down with film editor Matthew C. Hart to talk about everything from how to be a true partner with your director to how to break into the business.   Don't miss this jam packed episode.

More About Matthew:

Matthew Hart is a British/American feature film editor living in New York.He has worked across genres on intense character studies, comedies, revenge thrillers, non-binary sexual awakenings and cerebral horror,and his films have screened at festivals including Sundance, Cannes, Toronto and Berlin.He also edits documentaries, most recently working with director Andrew Dominik and cinematographer Robbie Ryan on the Nick Cave/Warren Ellis performance film, “This Much  I Know to be True"

So, how do you get your short film nominated for an Oscar? Well, you're in the right place. In this episode Leslie talks with Polish filmmakers Monika Ossowska and Tadeusz Lysiak about their Oscar nominated short film "The Dress", the requirements to get nominated, the event and much more.

Tadeusz Łysiak – born in 1993, graduate of Cultural Studies at the University of Warsaw, student of Directing at the Warsaw Film School. Creator of two award-winning short films in Poland and abroad: "Techno" (starring Leszek Abrahamowicz, Danuta Stenka, Michalina Olszańska) and "The Dress" (Anna Dzieduszycka, Dorota Pomykała, Szymon Piotr Warszawski). For the latter he’s been nominated for an Oscar in Live Action Short category. Participant of the prestigious program FUTURE FRAMES – Generation NEXT of European Cinema within Eastern Promises at the Karlovy Vary Festival. Winner of the "Discovering Eye" award for young talented filmmaker at the Polish Film Festival in Chicago.

Monika Ossowska - born in 1997, a graduate of the Film Art Organization at the Łódź Film School.  Executive producer and production manager of the short film "The Dress" awarded at the Atlanta Film Festival, In the Palace, Rhode Island and Oscar nominated for Best Live Action Short. Recently, she worked on Agnieszka Smoczyńska's English-language debut, "Silent Twins" in a Polish-British co-production, distributed by Focus Features. At the moment she focused on the international series production for the streaming platform.