Venice - The Groundbreaking Series

I went to a discussion panel last night called ‘Casting Female Roles: Actresses and the Casting Couch’ hosted by the wonderful group “Women in Film and Television” (WFTV) which is the UK branch of an international organization that is dedicated to helping women in the film and TV industry through information and networking opportunities etc. This does link back to Venice, so bear with me!

The reason for the discussion is due to the sever lack of female roles in the industry. An Equity survey showed that over half the viewing public is female (not hard to believe) but that for every 2 male roles, there is only 1 female role (35.3% female to 63.5% male). And often, depending on the genre, it’s even less than that.

The panel was made up of some significant names in the UK industry:

Nancy Bishop - casting director for films like Wanted, Chronicles of Narnia, The Bourne Identity

Ros Hubbard - casting director for films like Angela’s Ashes, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and most recently Desert Flower

Pippa Cross – A producer of many films including Vanity Fair and who has recently joined the UK Film Council’s Board of Directors.

Aisling Walsh –writer and director. She directed Fingersmith (helloooo sista!) as well as numerous other projects that have seen her win awards and recently completed a project with Kenneth Branagh.

Sharman Macdonald – Playwright and Screenwriter. She’s won numerous awards for her plays as well as writing “The Edge of Love” which starred her daughter, Keira Knightely and is working on “Gellhorn” which will star Gillian Anderson.

So we’re all sitting as comfortably as one can in the those rickety fold up chairs, a room full of women and two men (both partners to women on the panel) and not surprisingly the room is mostly comprised of actors.

Why is it there are so few women roles, especially when there are more actresses than actors? Well the conclusion was that women tend not to get as high up in the industry, that there aren’t as many female writers, female directors, producers, crew members etc except for a very few selected jobs like casting and script supervising which harks back to a time when secretaries were given these roles by default. You may be nodding your head at me stating the obvious, but the panel was not really there just to talk that because THAT discussion would have been short – it was more a call to arms, an inspiration panel of women who have been successful and who are telling us that hey! The industry IS skewed towards males but that we need to do our own thing and basically elbow our way into industry! They also spoke about getting out there and making our own things – using the current volatility of the industry (the recession has hit the UK film industry hard) and get on the web!

Starting to sound familiar? Naturally throughout this my mind is jumping to Venice and if ever there was answer to last night’s panel it was this series. The three creatives behind Venice are women with Crystal, Kim and Hope. We have a series which will be woman centric by its very nature and glory hallelujah in the Venice banner you will count seven women to three men, plus another now that Nadia Bjorlin has joined the cast. And more than half of those women roles are to be played by over 35's. I can’t think of a single series right now that boasts that (possibly the Imaginary Bitches webseries, but I haven’t watched that yet and I believe it’s a more youth orientated cast…) and the last series I can think of is the L Word – which again was youth centric.

From the incredible buzz surrounding Venice it is already clear that there is an audience for woman orientated entertainment and we are willing to use our considerable buying power to be represented. Just look at our response to the t-shirt the challenge issued to us by the Venice Team only today! (Okay, so we have a very tasty incentive…but let’s not get too technical…). This is also reflected with films like Mama Mia, which pulled in a decidedly older woman centric audience, and the Sex in the City film – perhaps not la crème de la crème of film making, but viable box office hits. This shows the industry that it is commercially viable to make entertainment specifically for women including the over 25 demographic.

Indeed Venice is breaking ground on many levels. It represents lesbians, it represents women and it is boldly forging a way forward for the viability of web series by showing us how it’s done! This series is simply comprised of so much WIN! *does an I love Olivia dance*.

xAnita
http://bidforvenice.webeden.co.uk/

I've updated!

So I've been quite the busy buzzy bee this weekend - I set up my YouTube channel, this blog and made my website. I've just added my Message to Venice, just in case they actually do deign to peruse. I've also uploaded another video which gives them and anyone else out there who is following, an idea about what I am doing!

It's all rather exciting and scary!

xAnita

What it's all about!

I never thought I would find myself blogging. I also never thought I would have a twitter account, have created a YouTube channel or have made a website. Funny how things can take hold of you!

And that is exactly what has happened to me. I stumbled across a thing called Otalia... if you're reading this, there is a fair chance that you have heard of them - the super couple that almost was, Olivia Spencer and Natalia Rivera on the recently demised 72 year old Soap Opera, Guiding Light. Or GL for short. Oh and yes, that does make it the longest runnning show EVER.

Without going into details the mostly superbly sensitive writing on the Otalia storyline galvanised a whole new generation of avid fans and the wonderfully enterprising Crystal Chappel, the woman who brought the character Olivia Spencer to life for 10 years, saw an opportunity to create a spin off series of sorts - Venice (http://www.venicetheseries.com/). She teamed up with her long-time friend and work partner, Kim Turrisi to create, produce and act in a web based series set to be launched in November 2009.

What has this got to do with me? Well I have been watching as this... phenomenon has been building over the last few months. It's been inspiring. It's like a course in 'How to'. With a delightful amount of transparency the Venice Team have set about wipping the Otalia fans into a frenzy over the anticipation of seeing Crystal and her Otalia co-star, Jessica Leiccia on screen again and getting together a superb, well thought out cast. The Venice Team has been twittering, vlogging, facebooking, leaving clues and causing quite a stir on the web getting publicity in places like the TV Guide (US) and CNN International.

So getting to the point!!! I am an actress and I'm watching all this unfold and I'm sitting down one night when the though occurs to me. I want to be on the show. I want to be part of this thing that is bursting full of potential, joy, light. Of course there are a few issues. I don't know Crystal, Kim or any of the others in the Venice Team. I also live in London. How to grab their attention? So I decided to make a Bid for Venice.

It started with this video that I posted on YouTube a few days ago. And then I quickly realised that it would hardly be enought to get their attention or to make them consider me for even the smallest role! Having made the first steps I'm now determined to go the distance, take a chance, take a risk and put myself out there.

So welcome to my blog. I hope you'll join me as I blog, tweet and YouTube my way to Venice, CA!

xAnita

Links:
My Bid for Venice Website: http://bidforvenice.webeden.co.uk/
My Actor's Wesbiste
My YouTube Channel
My Twitter page

The Venice Series Website: http://www.venicetheseries.com/
The Venice Series YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/venicetheseries
TheVenice Series Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/VenicetheSeries/110016459291
The Venice Series Twitter: http://twitter.com/venicetheseries
Crystal Chappel Twitter: http://twitter.com/crystalchappell
Kim Turrisi Twitter: http://twitter.com/KimmyT22