Author: Etta Devine

Prescott, Arizona is an adorable mountain town with cool coffee shops, an incredibly hip updated Motor Lodge and some truly bizarre thrift stores I’ll let you find yourself. It also has the 7th annual Prescott Film Festival running July 17-24, 2016. I attended the festival with a feature in 2011 and it’s one of the festivals that I consistently recommend to other filmmakers. I talked to Founder/Executive Director Helen Stephenson about the festival. Helen! You run one of my favorite film festivals of all time both as an audience member and a filmmaker. Your seats are full and your town…

There are a lot of crazy things going on in the world right now. So how the hell are you supposed to write anything more edgy than what is really real, that is also an existing property because that’s all anyone has the balls to make (prove me wrong). Here’s how. Write a historical drama. Because this is what is real right now: The booger eating Zodiac killer dropped out of the Republican primary, a “maybe the KKK are cool IDK?” reality TV Oompa Loompa with inconsistent views on tacos made everyone feel sorry for the guy who yells at…

Has the constant refrain of “Make Your Own Stuff” finally gotten to you? Have you and a plucky band of compatriots cobbled together a script and a camera and some sound and actors and snacks to shoot your thing? Yay for you! Well, guess what. You aren’t done making it. There is still post-production to get through before you have really made your thing. What’s post-production? It’s just a fancy way of saying after production. Aren’t you fancy, using filmmaking jargon like a pro? Well, unless you went to film school that’s the last time you’ll feel like you know…

Bah humbug. I hate Christmas movies, and not just because filming them takes up all the parking in my neighborhood in July. Really. The fake snow trucks are everywhere. I hate Christmas movies because they are generally terrible, sappy, saccharine, soupy, weak-storied, emotionally manipulative crap. (Note to casting directors: I would be thrilled and honored to come in and read for any Christmas movies you happen to be casting). “But what about (insert classic Christmas movie) Etta? That’s good.” Sure. Whatever. That one is good. But I’m still not watching it again. And if you were going to say “Love…

Remakes. Ugh. (fart noise) They’re really making another Spiderman? Really? Whether we like it or not remakes in the era of the Sheinhardt Wig media conglomerate are here to stay. There is something a little electric that happens to people when they hear the name of something they’ve heard before. That’s why studios are excited to make any book with a following into a movie. People crave the known. Anyone who’s ever done improv knows the gleam in the audiences eye when you pander to their uncouth lust for the known by bringing up the Care Bears or Captain O.…

If you work at NASA you’d better get used to lame rocket scientist jokes. If you are a creative these are the questions you will get. Get used to it. People are aware of the end product whether it’s an album, a book or a movie, but they don’t have much of an idea what the day to day is like. Why should they? People are nice and interested in you! It’s not their fault 50 other people already asked you these questions this month. So smile and answer them as best you can. When is your thing coming out?…

I have two sets of wonderful friends who show movies in their backyards during the summer. There are drinks and snacks and sometimes a curated program of obscure shorts beforehand (living in LA does have some benefits). Selecting these movies is a fine balancing act of old favorites, fun, must sees and should sees. So here are my recommendations that slant girl friendly and just obscure enough to make people think you used to hang out in the cool section of the video store. I suppose you could show these inside your house too. ISHTAR I am not kidding. This…

Good ideas are a dime a dozen. I could give you 20 exciting original loglines by lunch and it’s almost lunch. But picking what idea gets your years of sweat, blood, and money is a tough decision. Do you like it? Will they like it? Will they watch it? That last one is probably the toughest. Unfortunately, marketing and eyeballs are important. You can make something wonderful, but if nobody sees it then it’s hard to get to make the next wonderful thing. I’m very excited about your original idea and I can’t wait to see it. But there is…

How many times can you ask people for money? If you’re a theatre company or a nonprofit of some kind it’s expected that you’ll continually be fundraising. But if you’re someone who has used crowdfunding to make a movie, or a web series or a book, (things that are not a business that continues to make product) how many times can you go back and ask people to give you money for something? Like many things in the crowdfunding sphere I feel like this is a balancing act. I have done three successful campaigns in four years. My latest project,…

So you made a thing! Yay! And now you’re presenting it to some form of the public and there is a Q & A afterwards. If you’re used to public speaking and presenting yourself and your work this is no big deal. If you’re not used to it you just threw up in your lap while reading this. You’re disgusting. But I’m here to tell you the way to make everything about a Q & A quick, cool, informative and fun. Since the Q & A is ubiquitous at film festivals (and if it’s a feature your first festival is…

I’m in the middle of making a feature film called Diani And Devine Meet The Apocalypse. It opens with a show scene where my partner Gabriel Diani and I do our act. It’s a little like sketch, a little like standup and very generous people have compared it to Nichols and May. We originally shot the show scene in April with a bunch of wonderful people in the audience and, well, it just doesn’t look as good as the rest of the movie. It’s a shallow stage with a black wall behind us and honestly in comparison to the rich…

We are living in the golden age of tent pole movie$. I don’t care about superhero movies because they’re all terrible and just about boring dudes fighting each other. Hulk, just don’t get mad. PROBLEM SOLVED. But sweeping fantasy and sci-fi epics based on well-loved literary properties? Bring them on. The studios seem to be saying the same thing. With The Lord of the Rings series set to make 2 BILLION dollars by the time it’s all out and The Hunger Games above 1.5 Billion (and only half way through) there is a lot of “butts-in-seats love” for properties like…

One of the major ways our society honors and educates about the achievements of amazing people is through film. If you look at movies like Lincoln, Braveheart, Lawrence of Arabia, Walk The Line, Ray, Gandhi etc. you’ll notice two things: These movies are often expensive successes and they’re usually about men. Queen Elizabeth I gets a movie or two but the stories of women from history often go untold. But they are out there. They really are. Screenwriting is a tough job and the lack of imagination from the people who hold the purse strings in Hollywood can be staggering…

One of the biggest excuses/reasons people have for not hiring a good balance of women in the entertainment industry is that they don’t know where to find them/they don’t have the experience. This is a semi valid excuse/reason. I’ve used it myself. When you need a gaffer tomorrow and none of the three guys available is a woman then you just use the three guys (shout out to my dude gaffers, you’re awesome) but that happens enough times and you end up with an all male crew. It is the path of least resistance. One of the best ways to…