Last week I attended a Film Fatales online virtual shadowing workshop with instructor Mary Lou Belli.

Mary Lou Belli is a two-time, Emmy-winning director with over 30 years of experience in television, including shows like NCIS: New Orleans, Black Lightning, and Wizards of Waverly Place. A trailblazer in web series, she has also directed award-winning short films, including Straight Eye for the Gay Guy and America. She holds leadership positions with the DGA, the Alliance of Women Directors, and Women in Media, and is a dedicated mentor for the next generation of directors through programs at ABC/Disney, CBS, and Warner Bros. Belli is also the co-author of four books, including Directors Tell the Story. (condensed from her IMDb bio)

In this virtual workshop hosted on Zoom, we were able to watch as six emerging episodic directors, including Anna Fahr, Christina YR Lim, Lilian T. Mehrel, Melissa Haizlip, Sonia Sebastian, and Whitney Clinkscales, participated in an interactive virtual class as "Shadows" to Mary Lou Belli. She went over key pre-production elements such as casting, location scouting, script breakdown, scene blocking, and shot listing. The six directors were given homework before the workshop with regards to these key pre-production elements and their work was shared publicly and reviewed by Mary Lou Belli for all of us attending. I loved being able to see the different ways in which all the directors worked.

Some key take aways for me were:

1) how Mary Lou works with everyone from the writer, the casting director, the locations manager, her 1st AD and line producer to gain as much insight about what her episode she'll be directing, especially when she's tight on time.

2) the way that creating her director's diagram in a Numbers App, gives her a clear understanding of the visual threads and themes that weave throughout the episode.

3) how being able to see any visual threads/themes helps her see the episode from a macro standpoint and that can determine what directing decisions she'll make.

4) how she asks the editor if she's getting them what they need, and if not what do they need from her to help the edit.

5) how knowing the long-term production plan can help a director request specific sets or locations for their episode, potentially lowering costs by sharing them with future episodes.

There were so many links being shared in the chat that I couldn't keep up with, but I collected them all so that I could return to them later as a resource. If you're interested, I've listed them below:

About Mary Lou Belli

Fellowships & Education

Film Production & Craft Resources

Professional & Career Development

Projects & Portfolios

Streaming Content

Learn more about Film Fatales here:

Homepage - Film Fatales
An inclusive community of women feature film and television directors
Film Fatales - An inclusive community of women feature film and television directors

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