This and all other episodes of the MAKE IT podcast are brought to you in partnership with Women in Film and Television as part of the Voice of the Filmmaker Program. Please help us keep the conversation going.
In this edition of Mistakes In The Making, we talk with Cinematographer Logen Christopher. Logen talks about the mistake of creative isolation and how his habit of creating within his comfort zone threatened the success and viability of his studio, Stormlight Pictures, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
About Logen Christopher
Logen's passion is for storytelling and emotional connection. Whether it's a fictional narrative, a creative photoshoot, documentary work, or a commercial brand shoot, he loves the exploration of creative ways to get to the heart of a story. Throughout his personal career as well as with his production company Stormlight Pictures, he has had the opportunity to express that passion in films, commercials, music videos, EPK's, documentaries, corporate and educational video, editorial & fashion portrait photography and live music visuals. His work and work he's been involved with has been featured in publications and networks such as the New York Times, Billboard, Rolling Stone, HBO, CBS, NBC, Amazon Prime, Cinemax, CMT, Refinery 29, Maxim and many more.
Listener Reflections
Do you embrace the creative community or do you isolate yourself?
Do you support the creative community the way you want the community to support you?
Continued Learning
In Find Your People, bestselling author Jennie Allen draws on fascinating insights from science and history, timeless biblical truth, and vulnerable stories from her own life to help you:
• overcome the barriers to making new friends and learn to initiate with easy-to-follow steps
• find simple ways to press through awkward to get to authentic in conversations
• understand how conflict can strengthen relationships rather than destroy them
• identify the type of friend you are and the types of friends you need
• learn the five practical ingredients you need to have the type of friends you’ve always longed for
About the MAKE IT Podcast
The MAKE IT podcast is a platform for the voice of independent filmmaker. We offer a variety of educational, aspirational, and entertaining content that promotes the success of creatives across the filmmaking community and the film industry.
Our Filmmaker Conversations with filmmaking professionals are dedicated to sharing the advice, knowledge, and insights of experienced filmmakers while exploring what it truly means to be an independent creative in the highly competitive world of filmmaking. Each filmmaker conversation is backed by thoughtful research that allows us to uncover the raw, authentic truths behind each filmmaker's journey.
Through our Indie Talks, we share our thoughts and perspectives on navigating independent film from the perspective of Advisory and Executive Producers. We discuss topics that are relevant to filmmakers across a wide spectrum of filmmaking perspectives, and we do our best to uncover hidden truths and new developments in the film industry. Our goal is to help filmmakers avoid the pitfalls and obstacles on the business side of film so that their filmmaking creativity can thrive.
Our Industry Insights provide bite-sized actionable advice that filmmaking professionals and creatives of all kinds can use to keep their heads up as they continue their filmmaking journeys. With advice sourced from the filmmaking community, we build upon the wisdom of our filmmaking guests to provide our audience with truly aspirational and inspirational content.
The Mistakes in the Making series gives our filmmaking friends an opportunity to speak directly to our filmmaking audience to share a specific lesson they've learned through a mistake they've made. We are firm believers that mistakes can be the gateway to success when we open our hearts and minds to learning from them, sharing them, and using them to Be Better.
The Film Investment series is a conversational series of 52 episodes geared towards the would-be film investor. Each episode, facilitated via a friendly conversation between hosts and friends Christopher Barkley and Jason McConnell, highlights a unique aspect of the film investment process. In addition to being a great resource for film investors, it serves as a reference for filmmakers regarding the many considerations that must be made when seeking film investment.
This and all other episodes of the MAKE IT podcast are brought to you in partnership with Women in Film and Television as part of the Voice of the Filmmaker Program. Please help us keep the conversation going.
This and all other episodes of the MAKE IT podcast are brought to you in partnership with Women in Film and Television as part of the Voice of the Filmmaker Program.
Please help us keep the conversation going.
In this episode, we have a conversation with filmmaker, actor, and philanthropist Julia Rosengren. We talk about her challenging upbringing in Northern Brazil, traveling the world at seventeen, surviving the modeling industry, climate change, UNIAO GAIA, why she fell in love with trees, her short film, ‘Leaves,’ and what the world gets wrong about money.
About Julia Rosengren
As the middle child of four, she and her siblings grew up living with their parents in poverty in the tiny northern Brazilian town of Timbaúba. When Julia was a young girl, she would walk a couple miles to town each day to pick up the two largest jugs of fresh water that she would carry home, as her loving family’s household had absolutely no electricity or running water. Although times were rough, these very difficult living conditions motivated Julia to desire a better future for herself and family.
As an adult, Julia made her mark in the highly competitive world of modeling, which opened the opportunities to visit numerous different countries across the globe. With each new adventure Julia embarked on, she would immerse herself in the country’s culture, and to date she speaks Portuguese, English, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, French, Russian, and Danish.
Always reinventing and challenging herself, Julia hosted a London talk show and later signed on as a fashion consultant for the iconic French department store chain, Galeries Lafayette. From there, she enrolled in a master chef class and rose to become an in-demand executive chef for her own catering brand called “Julia’s Cuisine Exotique,” located in the Golden Triangle area of Europe.
Despite successes in a broad array of business ventures and explorations, Julia felt like she finally found a home for her soul when she had an opportunity to lean into the world of philanthropy. It was then that she decided to make a direct change in her life by helping to raise money for underprivileged children. Julia's passion willfully took her to the United States, where her love of languages persisted. She enrolled as a student of Russian in the Modern Languages Department at the University of Central Florida, and there, became a part of the academic culture by granting scholarships for deserving students.
Julia and her husband also did a lot of joint philanthropy work at the University, helping to build the locker rooms for the UCF football team, as well as the soccer and volleyball teams. Additionally, Julia also helped a non-profit organization in North East Brazil, where together with her friend, Anderson Ribeirao, have created a project called “United Changing Lives” allowing women the opportunity to learn how to become manicurists in order to provide jobs and help them sustain themselves.
Most recently, Julia has been working on writing and producing films, where she was the producer on Before Sunrise (2020). Julia’s latest work is her screenwriting and starring debut, LEAVES (2021), a mesmerizing environmental-awareness short film that showcases issues with climate change, global warming, wildfires and deforestation. The movie chronicles the story of an academic-minded woman, played by Julia, discovering an epiphanic connection between herself and an ailing massive red oak tree in her backyard.
Threaded through the narrative are ties between the infirm tree, the out-of-control west coast forest fires, and our disappearing rainforests. LEAVES marks the beginning of a creatively fertile and purposeful era for Julia, where her humanitarian interests intersect with her artistic pursuits.
The inspiration behind LEAVES comes from Julia's ability to create projects that send a positive note to the world, and in turn, make a difference. Her goal with the film is to plant an important message to enact social change and responsibility, therefore inspiring and making a difference for our planet’s future.
Apart from Julia's own films, she also oversees more than a dozen major philanthropic projects, one of which is MoviesMakingADifference.org –– a 501c3 that creates feature films that highlight social issues and gives back to the communities profiled.
About the MAKE IT Podcast
The MAKE IT podcast is an audio platform for the Voice of the Filmmaker Program. We offer a variety of educational, aspirational, and entertaining content that promotes the success of creatives across the filmmaking community and the film industry. Our Filmmaker Conversations with industry professionals are dedicated to sharing the advice, knowledge, and insights of experienced filmmakers while exploring what it truly means to be an independent creative in the highly competitive world of filmmaking. Each filmmaker conversation is backed by thoughtful research that allows us to uncover the raw, authentic truths behind each filmmaker's journey. Through our Indie Talks, we share our thoughts and perspectives on navigating independent film from the perspective of Advisory and Executive Producers. We discuss topics that are relevant to filmmakers across a wide spectrum of filmmaking perspectives, and we do our best to uncover hidden truths and new developments in the film industry. Our goal is to help filmmakers avoid the pitfalls and obstacles on the business side of film so that their filmmaking creativity can thrive. Our Industry Insights provide bite-sized actionable advice that filmmaking professionals and creatives of all kinds can use to keep their heads up as they continue their filmmaking journeys. With advice sourced from the filmmaking community, we build upon the wisdom of our filmmaking guests to provide our audience with truly aspirational and inspirational content. The Mistakes in the Making series gives our filmmaking friends an opportunity to speak directly to our filmmaking audience to share a specific lesson they've learned through a mistake they've made. We are firm believers that mistakes can be the gateway to success when we open our hearts and minds to learning from them, sharing them, and using them to Be Better.
This and all other episodes of the MAKE IT podcast are brought to you in partnership with Women in Film and Television as part of the Voice of the Filmmaker Program.
Please help us keep the conversation going.
This and all other episodes of the MAKE IT podcast are brought to you in partnership with Women in Film and Television as part of the Voice of the Filmmaker Program. Please help us keep the conversation going.
In this edition of Industry Insights, Nick expounds on the challenges faced by Simone Biles during her latest Olympic experience and her response to those challenges while contrasting those trials with some of the issues filmmakers face once their film gets out of post-production.
One year ago, Simone Biles suddenly withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics after struggling with the “twisties". Her departure left the other members of Team USA to compete without her. This is arguably the biggest competition there is for a gymnast and she was the anchor to a team vying for a gold medal. She had trained all her life for moments like these but, in a moment, she realized that she needed to sit this one out. Why? Because of the 'twisties', a severely disorienting feeling that caused her to lose touch with where she was in space and time. She didn't know which way she would land or on which body part. Had she kept going, she would have been sacrificing her body as well as the dreams of her team of achieving a medal. Fortunately, she and the team doctor knew what to do. They knew the depth of the decision they were about to make but made the right one.
When I heard this story, I couldn't help but think, "The twisties! Filmmakers get that!" When indie filmmakers finish the long, arduous, yet rewarding process of producing a film, they often run right into the festival circuit. They go from the physically and emotionally taxing birth of their babies into a whirlwind of travel, networking, promotion, and screenings. It's disorienting. It's confusing. It's draining. And then, along come distributors with their deals. These deals are far from great, but the weary filmmakers can barely tell up from down. Instead of sitting it out to get their heads straight again, they press on and walk right into contracts that do little to care for the film they've so lovingly brought into this world.
But what if filmmakers followed in the footsteps of Simone Biles? What if they sidelined themselves just long enough to take a deep breath and recover from the exhaustion? What if, instead of placing their films in the first set of outstretched hands willing to take the pressure off, they sat back to admire their babies and realize what was truly best for them?
As a filmmaker, this momentary pause to regain your footing can be the one thing that defines the future of your film, the future of your baby. It's worth the time away from the hustle and bustle to just sit back, clear your mind, and prepare yourself for the journey ahead. What Simone Biles understood is that her future is much longer than those fleeting moments at the 2020 Olympics. Injuring herself when she had the power to pull herself out would have been a fool's errand with unknown, lasting consequences. The same is true for the hasty filmmaker who takes a deal that doesn't have their best interests at heart. The consequences often last for years as they are bound in contracts that are near impossible to break.
So, take a lesson from Simone Biles. Recognize the 'twisties' for what they are. Take a step back. Reflect. Relax. Recuperate from all the blood, sweat, and tears that went into bringing your film to life. Once you are in the headspace to make the right decisions, go forth and do great things!
Listener Reflections
In the process of making a film, have you ever felt disoriented, like you didn't know which way to go?
Have you ever felt the need to stop to take a break but just pushed through anyway?
What was the biggest lesson you learned once your last film was completed?
Actionable Advice
Step 1: When you finish your next film, take time off to celebrate the success of finally making it happen. Spend time with the friends, family, and fellow filmmakers that helped bring your project to life.
Step 2: Take time away to disconnect from the process. Give yourself space to breathe and time to shake off the stress of the grind that got you here.
Step 3: If you have a plan for what happens next (sales and distribution), review and reassess your plan. Change is a constant. The world that existed when you made your plan is no longer the same and the film you set out to make may not be the film that you made. Adjust (or create) your plan to fit the new reality.
Step 4: Execute your plan with a fresh set of eyes and a renewed spirit. Remember that the film you brought to life deserves a proper home and that the first offer doesn't equal the best offer.
About Nick
Nicholas Buggs is a filmmaker, advisor, content creator, author, and advocate of the filmmaking community. As co-host of the MAKE IT podcast and co-founder of Bonsai Creative, Nick works alongside his co-host and co-founder Christopher Barkley to produce multi-media educational and inspirational content. Nick is a firm believer in harnessing the collective power of the community to give each of its members a better chance at success.
This and all other episodes of the MAKE IT podcast are brought to you in partnership with Women in Film and Television as part of the Voice of the Filmmaker Program. Please help us keep the conversation going.