Uptin Saiidi was a multimedia journalist for CNBC for 7 years based in Singapore and Hong Kong. His videos about business and tech like this one about Singapore's Airport and this one about 'digital nomads' have received millions of views on Facebook alone. Uptin recently left CNBC and moved to LA to develop his own channels. His family is from Iran and he grew up in Reno.

In this episode, Uptin shares why he thinks some videos go viral on social media, how legacy media companies should pivot to digital, and why he left his job at CNBC to go freelance.

You can find Uptin on Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube.

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Julie Cohen is a documentary filmmaker and television news producer. Most recently, she directed and produced RBG about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, along with Columbia J school professor Betsy West. Cohen is now directing the upcoming documentary Julia about chef and TV personality Julia Child.

Before she was a documentary filmmaker, Cohen  was staff producer at Dateline NBC, where she was nominated for four national Emmy Awards and won the Individual Achievement Award for Best News Producer from American Women in Radio and Television (Gracie Award).

In this episode, Cohen talks about how working in  broadcast news made her a better doc filmmaker, her approach to archival footage, and how she was able the compelling opening montage of RBG.


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Director Nick Bruckman and Producer Amanda Roddy talk about their upcoming film, Not Going Quietly. The film follows activist Ady Barkan as he travels the country fighting for healthcare reform. Over the course of the film, Ady's health deteriorates due to ALS, a deadly disease he was diagnosed with in 2016. Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, and Bradley Whitford serve as executive producers, and a clip of the film screened at the DNC.

When they're not working on Not Going Quietly, Nick and Amanda make videos and digital campaigns for companies and non-profits at People's Television.

In this episode, Nick, Amanda, and Jennie discuss commercial work vs. doc filmmaking, how they were able to capture such private moments related to Ady's declining health, and getting the Duplass brothers on board as executive producers.

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How do you get funding for your film before you have anything to show? In this episode, Jennie sits down with Co-founders Lisa Kleiner Chanoff and Bonni Cohen, and Senior Program Director Megan Gelstein of Catapult Film Fund, which provides development funding to help story-driven and cinematic documentary films get off the ground.

Catapult Film Fund gives early support to propel projects forward that hold the promise of a story that should be uniquely told in film. It provides development funding, up to $20,000, to documentary filmmakers who have a strong story to tell, have secured access, and are ready to create a fundraising piece to help unlock critical production funding. It also enables filmmakers to develop their projects to the next level, at the early stage when funding is hard to find. The Fund supports powerful and moving storytelling, by filmmakers with a strong voice across a broad spectrum of subject matter.

Apply and learn more at catapultfilmfund.org

Also check out Catapult's annual Rough Cut retreat.

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Sven Pape is a documentary and narrative film editor. His YouTube channel This Guy Edits is a collection of doc and narrative editing lessons. It has amassed tens of millions of views since launching in 2016.

Check out his editing course here: https://thegotoeditor.com

https://www.roughcutpodcast.com/

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Marco Williams is a documentary filmmaker and professor of film production at Northwestern University. His films—which center around race, injustice, and American history—have received numerous awards, including the Gotham Documentary Achievement Award and the Guggenheim Fellowship. Marco has also been nominated three times for the Sundance Film Festival grand jury prize.

My films are about America; about whom we have been; who we are; who we aspire to be. I have committed myself to creating a record of America by trying to deal with the topics that challenge our sense of who we are and our sense of justice, but more importantly, to make films that will have sustained impact...I try to tell the stories we’d rather not tell. - Marco Williams

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Thanks Handale Hsu for mixing this episode.

The Film Festival Alliance is a community of more than 180 film festivals around the globe. It's Executive Director, Lela Meadow-Conner, and Director of Membership, Barbara Twist, come on the podcast to discuss the role of festivals in a filmmaker's career and the future of festivals amid COVID-19.

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Claire Gordon is the showrunner and an executive producer of "Explained" on Netflix, produced by Vox Media. Previously, she was a senior producer for two Emmy Award-winning seasons of the HBO show "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," where the segment she produced on abortion restrictions won Television Academy Honors for using television to promote social change. 

On this episode, Claire shares how Vox and Last Week Tonight are able to simplify complex topics or news stories and communicate clearly through video. She also discusses how the team was able to produce the first episode of Explained: Coronavirus in just 2.5 weeks—four times faster than their typical timeline.

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Joe Coscarelli is the host of NYTimes’, Diary of a Song, a video series that breaks down how pop songs get made. The series relies entirely on FaceTime interviews, cellphone footage, and in-house production, giving it a unique, pared-down feel. The show has featured artists like Taylor Swift, Lil Nas X, and Billie Eilish.

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Rachel Mason is an artist, musician and filmmaker from Los Angeles. Her film, Circus of Books, is an intimate portrait of her parents, who owned and operated one of the largest distributors of gay porn in the U.S. Rachel discusses the challenges of making a film about her family, her decision to include herself in the film, and how she was able to get Ryan Murphy on board as Executive Producer.

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