The all-female crew from The Empowerment Project have been doing something special other than making one of the best documentaries we are ever going to see about women! In each city where they are filming around the United States, they are having interns, local girls, to come and be part of their crew for the day and get some hands on experience with some of the best producers out of Hollywood! We wanted to give them a chance to share their experience, as we hope it will inspire other female filmmakers to get out there and not be afraid to get into the industry because of their gender.
LOS ANGELES – Rocio Ortega
“Calling all aspiring female filmmakers!”
Imagine seeing that as the headline of a Facebook post from your news feed.
I immediately clicked the link and found myself being exposed to a group of amazing and successful female filmmakers as they were about to embark in their journey called The Empowerment Project.
After working together on a youth filmmaking program, Directors and Producers Sarah Moshman and Dana Michelle Cook founded Heartfelt Productions in 2007. Heartfelt Productions started as a way to tell stories, and showcase uplifting, positive content to inspire women everywhere. Joining their team is Director of Photography Alana Fickes, Associate Producer Ashley Hammen and Documentary Shooter Vanessa Crocini. Their current work includes The Empowerment Project where literally a group of five women pack their camera, light and sound equipment, making stops across the country from Los Angeles to Chicago and New York, to interview successful women from diverse professional careers and produce a docu-series about women.
Talk about a lot of work! But wait, it gets better! Along the 10 stops on their journey across the country, they are mentoring one young girl who is interested in filming – experience not a requirement but simply willing to learn and be part of an all-female crew.
Here’s where my Global Girl Media experience kicked into place. As I kept scrolling down this calling for submissions, I found myself applying to be part of an all-female crew for the Los Angeles stop. I was fortunately enough to be a mentee on August 29, 2013 as we interviewed Ellen Rakieten, co-creator of The Oprah Winfrey Show and founder of her own Productions Company.
The day was full of setting up camera, sound and light equipment, running over interview questions and of course experiencing what it was like to be part of an all-female crew and interview a successful woman in the media. I was in amazement from how a professional female crew conducts an interview to listening to Ellen Rakieten say “I do not have any regrets in my career.” This was probably one of the highlights of my day, listening to a woman who is already successful in her career and getting the opportunity to learn from her.
As a Global Girl Media reporter, trained in Los Angeles and be able to work with girls from Chicago, Morocco and South Africa, I know there’s a constant need to learn from women who already work in the media. I definitely feel like I enhanced my filmmaking skills and even learned jargon words/phrases in the media industry.
The Empowerment Project is truly inspiring and lives up to its name. I wish the Heartfelt Productions team a successful and fun journey! You are definitely creating positive content for young women like me to look forward to and learn from. Thank you for letting me be part of an all-female crew and can’t wait to watch The Empowerment Project in its final product!
You can read more about Rocio on her blog. She is 18, a student of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, is involved with the organization Girl Up and is also a teen reporter for Global Girl Media. Her passion is female empowerment and gender equality for the future.
SAN FRANCISCO – Angelisa Candler & Caitlin Dong
Though I spent only five and a half hours with the production team and our empowered woman, Mina Bissell, I learned more than I anticipated, from how cameras are set up to knowing how the lights work to more logistic aspects, such as ensuring release forms are signed, and so the list goes on. Though, the best part of this experience was having the privilege of spending time with Dana, Ashley, Sarah, Alana, and Vanessa. Each of them comprises an important and integral part of the team. To witness their dedication toward and their passion for the Empowerment Project was and continues to be inspirational.
You can follow Caitlin on Twitter.
PORTLAND – Krystal Abbott
Hi I’m Krystal Abbott and I helped out on the Portland set. I currently live in Seattle and I write, produce, and perform comedy shows. It was kind of random that I even found out about the Empowerment Project. A friend sent me a link to the application and I submitted. What interested me in it mainly, was that as an emerging female artist in the entertainment industry, it was important that I witness/be a part of a project that is specifically intending to empower women in a heavily male dominated industry. I needed to feel refreshed and hopeful that there are women out there that are interested in building each other up as opposed to beating each other down, climbing over each other, backstabbing, manipulating, etc. Women can be more cut throat with each other than with men. I even hear myself at times being extremely harsh on women. To climb the ranks, women almost have to transform themselves to even compete in an established man’s world. We have to speak like men, hang like men, and almost forget that we’re women. Teri, in her interview, touched on a great point. Instead of women focusing on trying to talk like men, we have to reshape the conversation. Her example being instead of asking the question, “Can you carry a 75lb keg?” it should be, “How would you get a keg to the top of the stairs?”
Oh my gosh, love the update!!! Look what you have done for these 3 interns already! This is such an epic adventure already! (Epic is the new word, used instead of awesome~~~I learned this from my grand nephew, Owen!) See no matter how old you get, you can still learn, and usually it is from the younger generation! Love following you and your journey. Safe travels.
Love, Gma
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