Reframing Networking as Friendship

Episode Transcript:

Avril Z Speaks  00:00

artistically like, what are the things that you value? What are the things that you hold? Like what do you value in terms of the work, but also just in terms of your own personal values in life. And I find that when those things are aligned, they usually make for the best collaborations.

Isotta Page  00:29

This is Art Is… a podcast for artists, where we brainstorm the future of the art world and the creative industries.

Loria King  00:46

First, thank you for having us. We're excited to be on as well. My entry into filmmaking started with photography. And I really wanted to see more of a moving image. And so I ventured into filmmaking. I started off as an intern for 40 acres and a mule and then decided to go to film school. And that is where my journey started. But sates film school, I really didn't focus well, actually, in film school as well. My focus is primarily documentaries. And I really love going into any type of environment and connecting with people. And during that process of connecting with people, there are always things amazing stories to unearth. I will say that working as a producer is the first time of working as a producer on this environment that we're in now. Like, things have really shifted a lot. So it's been a lot to learn. And it's been a wonderful process. We through the process of working on this particular project, I've had the opportunity to work with some amazing to fall Avril and I have had team members, it's really kind of felt like a family, though, it's been very anything of a really good word. It's been very natural, just a very natural experience. Like everything fell together. And we were just a lot of free

Avril Z Speaks  02:07

people. Yeah, so my backstory, I guess I can say I started out I got interested in filmmaking, because I like to write. And I always had an interest in writing. And then as I got older, that translated, I went to film school for directing, because oftentimes that the default for people when they realize they want to be a filmmaker is to either be a director or actor or writer. And so I've studied directing for several years and just worked as an independent filmmaker for many years. And then maybe about 10 years ago or so I moved out to LA. And then when I moved to LA, I made the transition into producing, I started out in production management. And then I started producing and I initially started out producing films. So I produced a short that did very well on the festival circuit. And then we ended up doing a feature film that did very well. And then I did some work in television as well. So I flip flop back and forth between producing television and producing film, Lauria mentioned that COVID has changed a lot, I think with a lot of things in terms of production, shutting down what some regards, the dark side, and on the unscripted side became just a little bit more manageable with smaller crews, and just more intimate storytelling. And so I started doing a lot more doc work a lot more doc series work. And that's how kind of how the showrunner piece came about was through that, but I've kind of had a journey from writer to director to producer and now showrunner. It's been. It's a very path. I'll say that.

Isotta Page  03:51

That's so interesting. Thanks for sharing. So how did you both start working together? All the

Loria King  03:56

evil and I we went to graduate school together. And it was really actually it was interesting, because it actually remember the first day help orientation. And they call her name. And when they said fabled sneaks up, but that's a really interesting name. I can't wait to meet her. And then they broke us up into these little teams for orientation. And we went off and we made, I think, like little shorts, didn't we? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And we were in the same group. And I speak we pretty much had all of the same classes the first year. We did. Yeah. So that's when we formed our font.

Avril Z Speaks  04:38

Yeah, and I think we just we started there, and we just kept working with each other. Like, even after we graduated from Columbia, we just stayed in contact. Like I feel like we both have moved to different places. And Lauria has traveled the world and you know, doing documentaries and teaching and different things. And we've just always maintain that friendship and always maintain that relationship where we just have always been artistically kind of on the same page and wanting to see the same things, you know, or haven't have a very similar vision for the type of content that we want it to be seeing. And so I think our bond just it started there at Columbia, and then just continued through the years,

Isotta Page  05:24

could you give any maybe like, tips or advice for a younger, creative, who's maybe at the beginning of their journey, seeking out creative collaborators, like the relationship that you guys have, it's often hard to find someone who understands the creative vision that you have, and especially now, with COVID, changing everything, I was just wondering if you had any thoughts to share for younger creatives?

Avril Z Speaks  05:54

I know, for me, I'll just say that we talked about our relationship starting with a friendship, you know, and in our case, we were in film school together. But I mean, having built those types of relationships, and those types of friendships can be born out of any situation, whether you're in a lab with someone, whether you just you know, meet someone online. But I think for me, I think that those collaborations start with friendship, because I just, I really do believe that. And this is just my opinion, and my feeling, these projects take a long time to develop, they take a long time to do and it just really helps when you know the people and are just on the same page, not just in terms of like, oh, we get along, but even artistically, and especially when it comes to director producer collaborations, I just feel like that when you have those fundamental sort of shared ideals and shared values, it helps with the collaboration. So I just always say, like, get to know the person for if you're looking for a true collaboration. It's about getting to know people first. I know sometimes in art, it's like, we just want to find someone who will do it. And we'll take our call or you know, whatever. But do you even like the same things do you can have the same taste when it comes to and not everything is gonna be identical? You know, there are definitely times where Lori and I see things differently. We don't necessarily see eye to eye artistically on things. But I think the core of what we believe in and what we're looking for in terms of content, there is an alignment there.

Loria King  07:27

I just wanted to add, I think that's very good advice. And I also want to stress, yes, we did me in graduate school foot fell. And I can recall all the opportunities rare, I had a chance to as April said, it comes someone's friend that maybe I want to collaborate with and I was a little resistant to doing that, because I had this idea that if not really liking networking, but I stayed faithful, the way in which you approach it is the way that I've learned to have photic sent and that's entering into it as a friendship of getting to know someone, and then developing relationships, and then collaborating with them.

Isotta Page  08:10

You both mentioned this idea of having shared values and aligned vision on your work. So I was wondering, how does that come into play when you're working on a mission driven project, or something that has a direct impact behind it,

Loria King  08:29

in this particular case, and the project that we're currently working on, I think is very important. And, again, we've we have shared values, but like a roll pitch, and earlier, we don't always agree. So it's important to have both. So we're gonna share values come in as a type of work, we're interested in making sure that the meaning is not lost in the work. But the other part is, when we differ, it's good to have that because it challenges you to think differently or see a different perspective, which brings more to the project as well.

Avril Z Speaks  09:05

Yeah, I would agree with what Laurie has said, I think even decision making about this specific project, black community is which I know we're going to talk about war. I think just having that central mission to come back to, like Gloria said, I mean, when there are challenges, or when there are disagreements, like it's always coming back to like, what are we making this for? And sometimes I also think it's kind of like, what are we making this for? And also, who are we making this for? And I find that when it comes to values, and I think I can speak for every project that I've been on prior to this one. It's like, when you answer that question of why are we making this who are we making this for that tends to kind of grow that conversation about the mission and the impact and the values and I think that that always just helps to ground the project a bit. I think it's really important just in terms of just ground Finding the project so that you have a purpose. Sometimes it comes easy to kind of get lost in the production or get lost in the day to day workings of making the thing or in opinions or timelines or whatever the case may be. But it's like when you come back to that, that question of like, what's the mission and what is this for who was this for? I just felt like that just grounds a lot of the decision making during the process I just wanted to just mention that again, to just reiterate that we are looking to expand black America is into other territories and if anyone is interested in helping us do that, or just wants to stay abreast of what we're doing at Black America is and sort of what our next phase of the journey is making always follow Lauria or myself on social media I'm at as you speak, that's a Z as in Zebra, U S as in Sam P as in Paul e a k. And they can also follow Lauria at about Lauria and both of us are on Instagram

Isotta Page  11:22

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