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LAUREN DEVINE wonders whether we can take the Nomadland director’s awards season success as a harbinger for the diversification of the film industry we’ve been waiting for.

Chloé Zhao is a woman of firsts. The first Asian woman nominated for best director at the Golden Globes; the first woman of colour to win the Academy award for Best Director (the second woman in 93 years of the Oscars, following Katheryn Bigelow for 2010’s The Hurt Locker); and the first woman to be nominated for four Oscars in a single year - for Best Director, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing.

Mar 17

Mar 17 Upside Down and Inside Out - A conversation with Georgie MacEchern

Carlotta Beck-Peccoz

We had the immense pleasure of interviewing Georgie, such a huge female crush and inspiration to all of us! More than an industry professional, she is like a superhero: she is Head of Sales and PR for the award- winning entertainment company Caviar by day and, under the alter-ego of DJ Miss G, amazing DJ by night.

Mar 17

Mar 17 Bounce Back Homework

Léa Aubigne

It’s been a tough few months with unusual celebration plans, freezing cold weather, lack of daylight, lockdown 3.0, and work slowing down. It’s bound to create some frustrations, and lack of motivation. It’s hard to sit around wondering why work hasn’t come through for us, while it has for others. It can send us in a downward spiral, but don’t let it chip away at your confidence and undermine the quality of your work. It’s okay to let it overwhelm you for a bit, but then get back to it and persevere. Easier said than done of course. In the meantime, here are a couple of examples of what you could do to fill your days with work related activities.

Mar 17

Mar 17 Chloë Thomson (BSC) shoots Channel 4 Adult Material

Ashleigh Ashley and Amy Shaw

Fran: What is your background? Did you go to film school? When did you realize that you had a passion for cinematography?

Chloë : My dad is a film editor, so there was always cinema in the family. When I was about 11, I went to the Children's Film Unit, which was a charity that taught kids how to make films, and that got me really passionate about filmmaking. So I did that from ages 11 to 16, and I really learned a lot. They had Steenbecks, we shot on 16mm, we made films for Channel 4. It was really, really inspiring. Then when I was 16, I was given a 35 mm stills camera, and started shooting stills and seeing the world in shots. I really loved that side of things. Then I went a slightly more wayward route to films. I did an academic degree in social psychology and worked in a number of different areas, before circling back to documentaries. Then I worked as a camera trainee and clapper loader for about 3 years before I went to the NFTS to do an MA in Cinematography. DoP Vanessa Whyte inspired me to apply. When I was a trainee, I loaded for her on a short film, which was a 35 mm short, and I just thought, hang on a second, what am I doing? I'm an assistant when I want to be shooting. So then I went to NFTS, and I graduated in 2012.

Mar 17

Mar 17 Two is the Magic Number

It’s a startling fact that just 14% of women who work in UK film or TV are parents compared with 75% in the UK industry (Raising Films).

Having worked as a freelancer in the industry for almost 10 years I took a break to have my children because although I was keen to continue working in an industry that I loved (and had spent my whole working life being a part of) I found the long hours and lack of flexibility impossible to juggle. My partner also works in the sector and there are little to no childcare provisions that cover the hours a week we would have been working.

Mar 17

Mar 17 In Conversation with Nathalie Pitters: Cinematographer

Fran: If you could tell me in one sentence, what it is that you love about being a DOP?

Nathalie: I love telling stories from different perspectives. That's what it always boils down to.

Nathalie Pitters work can be viewed here: https://www.nathaliepitters.com/

Nathalie is a member of Sporas, Illuminatrix Rising and is currently rep’d by Worldwide Production Agency.

Mar 17

Mar 17 BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival 2021

Oriana Gregorj

During the past year, the film industry has faced unprecedented challenges due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Faced with these obstacles, film festivals have been pushed to adapt to a virtual age. The BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival is not lagging behind, jumping on the wagon and delivering the event digitally once again. Despite latest announcements of lockdown restrictions coming to an end, the event will not be postponed and be held online from March 17 to 28 for UK-wide audiences to enjoy from the comfort of their own homes via BFI Player–their streaming platform.

Mar 17

Mar 17 Frances Hounsom: Makeup and Hair designer, Art, Balance, Mental Health and Resilience

Mar 17

Mar 17 Healthy Oils That Should Be In Your Cupboard

Sarah Scott

As a Nutritional Therapist I am often asked which plant-based oils are the best for optimal health. If you google a particular type of oil there can be lots of contradictory information and it can leave most of us in a head spin!

Mar 17

Mar 17 Meet Francesca Reggiani - Icon of Italian Comedy, Film, TV and Theatre

Denise Di Castro

Speaking with Francesca Reggiani is a truly captivating experience, it is as if you were part of a performance! Reggiani is a comedian and actress icon of Italian theatre, TV and Cinema. In this interview, she reveals the relationship with her master Gigi Proietti and interesting anecdotes from her career and future projects. Read till the end to discover one of the highlights of her career… you won’t regret it!

Mar 17

Mar 17 Intimacy, Hollywood and Bridgerton: In Conversation With Lizzy Talbot

Louise Howland

Back in 2016, Lizzy Talbot established Theatrical Intimacy, one of the first UK companies dedicated to challenging the archaic approach to intimacy in film and theatre. Both at the time and in hindsight, Lizzy’s vow to activate change in that space was a truly revolutionary act, largely because, as stated by Lizzy, the “world of intimacy”, as we understand it in its current form, “simply didn’t exist”.

Dec 22

Dec 22 Meet Dale Elena McCready: Cinematographer, Trans female in progress, Cyclist

Summer. Richmond cafe. Socially distancing over coffee and banana cake. Dale with her sleek cycling gear greets me with such a contagious smile. I had previously met Dale (online) a couple of weeks ago as a guest on Cinegirl’s podcast. I confess that I was so looking forward to meeting her. Just glancing over her extremely impressive IMDB credits made me nervous and excited at the same time.

Dec 22

Dec 22 How my Filmmaking became my Activism

Cintia Taylor

Perhaps it´s the same dilemma that every filmmaker shares when we begin: we are driven by a need to tell stories but we can’t really explain why. One film finally enlightened me.

Your Hair is Cute explores the subtleties of everyday racism through a poetic monologue. It was written as the inner-thought of all the things non-white people may want to say, but keep to themselves in so many countless occasions when faced with lenient racism. I wrote it before the Black Lives Matter movement amplified its voice this year.

Dec 22

Dec 22 Blow Away the Winter Blues

Sarah Scott

It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s winter - and it’s here to stay for the next few months! On average, in the UK, we only have approximately 8 hours of daylight and this period is often a blanket of grey skies that make the day-light hours feel pretty bleak and dark. It is no wonder that the population often report having the winter blues and feeling tired all the time.

Winter can affect us both physically and mentally. We may feel more lethargic during the day, need to sleep more, want to eat more calorific foods and may even gain some weight - a little bit like hibernation in animals. However if symptoms become so bad that they begin to interfere with your daily life, it is possible that you are suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Dec 22

Dec 22 Girlhood, Pleasure, and the Longevity of Catholic Guilt: In Conversation with Karen Maine, director of Yes, God, Yes

Mila Fielker

Yes, God, Yes is funny, candid, enlightening, warming and clever. Karen Maine’s feature debut tenderly explores budding female sexuality entangled by fears of eternal damnation. Set in Iowa, USA during the early 2000s, it is inspired by the writer-director’s own godly adolescence.

Alice (Natalia Dyers), who attends a strict Catholic high school, is in the midst of a sexual awakening: rewinding thatTitanic scene a few too many times and partaking in an erotic AOL chat. After a rumour circulates around school that she ‘tossed the salad’ of a fellow student, not only will Alice spend the rest of the film trying to find out what the hell that means, but she also attempts to salvage her virtuous reputation at a religious retreat.

Dec 22

Dec 22 “Miss Marx” Through the Lens of Director Susanna Nicchiarelli

Denise Di Castro

Susanna Nicchiarelli shed light on her experience conceiving and directing “Miss Marx”. She touched upon the way the film’s songs resonate with Eleanor Marx’s destructive yet romantic character, her discovery of primary sources such as Eleanor’s childhood drawings, and the way she relates to the protagonist in a personal way, highlighting her contemporaneity.

Dec 22

Dec 22 The Great Roast Potato Challenge

Briony Puddepha

“Aww!” He said. They always said aww. Tilted their head to one side, knitted their eyebrows together, upturned their mouths. She knew what was next. “Well, I know we haven’t spoken in a while but you’re welcome to spend it at my house. My mum makes the best roast potatoes”.

Dec 22

Dec 22 Léa's Diary

Léa Aubigne

Correct me if I’m wrong, despite the urge of wanting to create magic behind the lens, if you have chosen this industry, and more specifically the camera department, it’s most likely because you can’t stand the idea of sitting in an office. Yes, you can be constantly filming in studios, not seeing any daylight for months, but don’t you just all love the adrenaline, challenge, and feeling of being on location, especially when it is outside of the city? Travelling to different locations is part of the nature of our work, whether it’s around London, or around the globe. Now… is it all it’s cracked up to be?

Oct 1

Oct 1 Camera and Lens Service Technician and Rising Cinematographer: Amanpreet Sahota

Autumn Issue 2020

Tucked away at a work station, I had the pleasure of (virtually) meeting Aman, one of Panavision’s camera and lens service technicians in London, aspiring cinematographer, and Sporas member.

Oct 1

Oct 1 Meet Director: Emily Freda Sharp