Rayka Zehtabchi and Sam Davis are Los Angeles-based filmmakers. Their documentary Period. End of Sentence won an Academy Award for best documentary short in 2019. After their success at the Oscars, Rayka directed and Sam filmed and edited A Woman’s Place which is now streaming on Hulu. A Woman’s Place captures the stories of three chefs, their careers, and their shared experience as women in the culinary industry facing and overcoming institutionalized sexism. 

What you will learn:

• How branded content has evolved over the years. 
• How Rayka and Sam were able to take branded content to a new level by approaching the “A Woman’s Place” assignment as they do with all of their documentaries - by focusing on the story and the characters. 
• Why Sam and Rayka are excited about the branded content space and the opportunities it offers filmmakers.  
• How the limitations on their days on location required them to exhaustively plan their shoot in advance of their arrival. 
• Why they chose a visually darker look cinematically for many of the scenes in A Woman’s Place.  
• How they were able to tell the stories of three women in the restaurant industry in less than 30 minutes of screen time through the use of dramatization, metaphors, and creative approaches to interviews of the subjects. 
• What projects they are working on currently, including a narrative short called Are You Still Here?

Resources:

• Rayka’s Website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
• Sam’s Website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

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