BlackmanVision Film Production

Instead of getting angry and doing nothing I am just writing this list in response to the laziest stoopidest film power list created by the Guardian. I guess they just sat around in their white office full of smug white people who are too lazy to look beyond their white picket fence. Yes pun intended.

So here is the BlackmanVision 100 Film Power List in no particular order because we are not into competition and each person/organization has their own value and worth. Power is not just about money and box office, it is also about contributing to a wider important film culture and debate.

And guess what?  In this list there are some white people!  Feel free to add more in the comments or disagree. Bring it On!!

1. Horace Ové – The first black person to ever make a feature length movie – Pressure,  in the UK, he is still going strong
2. Gurinder Chadha – one of the most commercially successful female directors in the UK, invented a catchprhrase – Bhaji on the Beach, Bend it Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice
3. Pratibha Parmar – award winning filmmaker of features and documentaries, the first lesbian of colour to make a feature film in the UK - Nina’s Heavenly Delights, Warrior Marks, Jodie; An Icon, The Righteous Babes
4. John Akomfrah – award-winning director and film artist and OBE  - Handsworth Songs, Seven Songs for Malcolm X, Mnemosyne & the whole crew at Smoking Dogs, cos they are a collective Lina Gopaul, David Lawson, Trevor Mathison & Eddy George
5. Noel Clarke – he makes all those gangsta urban dramas and gets on TV alot – Adulthood, 4321
6. Lee Daniels – first Black person ever to win an Oscar – for Producing Monster’s Ball and directed Precious
7. Oprah – she can just go by one name – nuff said, but put her money behind Malcolm X and Precious and other film/TV projects
8. Tyler Perry – made his name through selling works to black people and set up the first Black owned film studio in the USA
9. Will Smith – the biggest box office draw in the UNIVERSE!
10. Jane Goldman – writes the best screenplays and directs and has pink hair – Stardust, Kick-Ass, The Debt, X-Men:First Class
11. Ben Cook – director of LUX and supportive of people who are working in artists moving image
12. Laura Mulvey – author of “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” and professor of Film at Birkbeck College
13. Cheryl Dunye – first Black lesbian ever to make a feature film and recently directed The OWLS, also Watermelon Woman and Stranger Inside
14. Ilene Chaiken – Producer of the L word – the biggest lesbian series ever
15. Christine Vachon – most powerful producer of and the founding producer of New Queer Cinema – Poison, Swoon, Go Fish, Kids, Boys Don’t Cry,
16. Tom Kalin – new queer cinema director – Swoon, Savage Grace
17. Sarah Schulman – screenwriter and activist and will adapt her play Carson McCullers (Historically Inaccurate) into the movie Lonely Hunter
18. Guinevere Turner – screenwriter of American Psycho,  Notorious Bettie Paige and  Go Fish
19. Rose Troche – director of Go Fish iconic lesbian movie
20. Effie Brown – indie film producer of Stranger Inside, Real Women Have Curves and In the Cut
21. Racialicious – we are reading them, are you?
22. After Ellen – if you are not on there, why not?
23. Queerty – inside queer stories in Hollywood
24. Derek Malcolm – wonderful critic who came to East London to talk to youths about film when I asked. His TV show was fantastic. His column awesome.
25. George Clooney – because he does work in Darfur and knows Africa is NOT a country, box office god
26. Ben Affleck – OK apart from J-Lo – let’s draw a veil over that one, is very knowledgeable about Black culture and Africa
27. Matt Damon – has he been in any flops? No! And is a good writer and actor and friend to the queers
28. F. Gary Gray – director Set it Off – nuff said and of course The Italian Job
29. Spike Lee – for his massive portfolio and not letting Paxman get away with stupid questions about race, She’s Gotta Have It, X, Do the Right Thing
30. Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski – (brother and sister team) for making awesome films like the Matrix and deconstructing white masculinity in a sneaky way
31. Charlize Theron – for being a kick ass actress and Producing risky edgy  films  - Monster
32. Apichatpong Weerasethaku – for  winning the Palme D’or this year and being an out gay man from a non- Western country making non-narrative films. w00t!
33. Helen de Witt – for being one of the first people to work to set up the Trans Film Festival and also working at the LLGFF and LFF
34. Kim Yutani – for setting up Fusion a place for films for queer people of colour
35. Barbara Hammer – powerhouse of lesbian aesthetic and avante garde cinema
36. Julianne Moore  - a friend to queers who has consistently used her *name* to get challenging queer work made. ♥
37. Keith Shiri – founder of Africa at the Pictures which showcases African cinema
38. Haile Gerima – writer director of Sankofa
39. Isaac Julien – artist filmmaker Looking for Langston and Young Soul Rebels
40. Deepah Mehta – director of Fire and big phat portfolio of others
41. Mira Nair – director of Amelia, Vanity Fair, Monsoon Wedding
42. Souleymane Cissé – director of Yeelen among many other films
43. Nollywood – those Nigerian filmmakers are gonna take over the world and you won’t know what hit you
44. Rajkumar Hirani – dir of 3 idiots the highest grossing Bollywood movie forget Bollywood at your risk
45. Queen Latifah  - Producer  The Perfect Holiday – there will be more
46. Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein – bare nostalgia here, so really scraping through – Crying Game, Pulp Fiction, Heavenly Creatures
47. Debra Zimmerman – Women Make Movies
48. Kathy Wolfe – Wolfe Video – largest/oldest distributor of LGBT movies
49. Kahloon Loke/Tom Abell – supporter and distributor of indie LGBT work and founders of Peccadillo Pictures
50. TLA Releasing – one of the largest distributors of LGBT titles
51. Yvonne Welbon – Sisters in Cinema  - compiles a resource about African American women in cinema
52. Sylviane Rano & Betty Sulty-Johnson – Images of Black Women Film Festival – it does what it says on the tin
53. Suzanne de Passe – nominated for an Oscar for Lady Sings the Blues and now a major Hollywood executive
54. Antoine Fuqua – dir Training Day where Denzel Washington won the Oscar
55. Denzel Washington – a bankable heart throb since back in the Spike Lee days
56. Halle Berry – one of my friends had lunch with her and said she was sweet and smelled nice. Box office kerching. This moment is so much bigger……
57. Jodie Foster – did she come out yet? A child actor who did not go crazy and addicted
58. Rich Ross – Head of Disney and out and proud – erm …how could he be ‘in” c’mon look at his picture?
59. Sherry Lansing – first woman to head a Hollywood studio
60. Amy Pascal – head of Columbia Tri-star
61. Donna Langley – co-chair of Universal Pictures
62. Sue Naegle – President of HBO Entertainment
63. Elizabeth Gabler – President Fox 2000 Pictures
64. Ann Daly – COO Dreamworks Animation
65. Nancy Utley – President Fox Searchlight Pictures
66. Emma Watts – President of 20th Century Fox – yeah she was responsible for Avatar
67. Ellen De Generes – I know, she doesn’t make films but anyone promoting films wants to be on her show.
68. Amy Baer – President and CEO CBS Films
69. Laura Ziskin – Produces the Spider Man franchises
70. Lauren Shuler Donner – Producer of the X-Men series
71. Christina Norman – CEO The Oprah Winfrey Newtowrk
72. Tracey Jacobs – Top Hollywood agent – Tim Robbins is on her books yaay and other A-Listers
73. Hylda Queally – represents among others – Penelope Cruz nuff said
74. Cynthia Pett-Dante – represents Brad Pitt
75. Claudia Lewis – Head of Production – Fox Searchlight – Whip It, Notorious
76. Deborah Schindler – Head of Sony Pictures international motion picture production
77. Nina Shaw – one of Hollywood’s power lawyers who negotiates for Jamie Foxx, Laurence Fishburne amongst others
78. Vanessa Morrison – President of Fox Animation – Fantastic Mr Fox, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
79. Aamir Khan – Producer and actor – 3 idiots, Lagaan
80. Stephanie Allain Bray – Hustle & Flow, Something New, and Black Snake Moan
81. Debra Martin Chase – heads Denzel Washington’s Production Company
82. Lisa Cortés – Producer – The Woodsman, Shadowboxer, Monster’s Ball, Precious
83. Ava DuVernay – her company DVA provided strategy and execution for directors such as Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Michael Mann, Gurinder Chadha
84. Samuel D. Pollard – producer Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin yes!!! aslo works as a power editor
85. George Tillman Jr. and Robert Teitel – producer/director team – Barbershop films, Notorious, Soul Food
86. Abbas Kiarostami – writer – Certified Copy
87. Rachid Bouchareb – French director – Little Senegal, London River, Hors La Loi
88. Cath Le Couteur and Jess Search – Shooting People
89. Rebecca O’Brien – Producer – Sweet Sixteen, My Name is Joe, Land and Freedom and The Wind That Shakes the Barley
90. Rachael Prior – Producer – Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz
91. Diablo Cody – Juno, (draw a veil over Jennifer’s Body) has cool ink and a great blog
92. Angelina Jolie – no film will fail with this woman in it and lesbians love her!
93. Jennifer Aniston – another box office winner – obviously the good girl to Jolie’s rude gyal tings
94. Meryl Streep – apparently if her name is on anything it gets greenlit pronto. Hooray for older hotties
95. Sarah Jessica Parker – people may sneer because of the so called ‘chick flick” genre but she brings home the box office bacon
96. Cameron Diaz – quirky box office gold
97. Sandra Bullock – everybody loves her and even more so now we know she can have heartache even tho she is worth millions
98. Drew Barrymore – just gets better from E.T to  Charlie’s Angels and Whip it. Doing it for the grrls
99. Helen Mirren – just plain UK film royalty
100. Dame Judy Dench – used to be a patron of a little organisation I worked for and was charming and unpretentious – pure class

You got funding for your film after submitting your precious script or treatment to a funding body. Someone liked it! In fact someone out there loved it so much they want to invest their money in you and in your film. Celebrate! Go out with your friends. Feel the love because the next months are going to be hard and you will need your friends. This may all sound basic to some people, but to others maybe not.

1. Meet the funders with your producer who will have read the contract and has some questions. If you are the producer as well as director, read the contract very carefully and ask any questions about things you don’t understand. Clarify. Clarify.
2. Make sure you understand the needs of the funders. Yes they love the script, they love you. It is a kissy kissy lovefest. But they usually have an agenda er …goal. Find out what it is from other people who have received funding previously, if you are not alert to this, the relationship can turn sour very quickly.
3. Find out how many stakeholders need to see the film before the rough cut is signed off. It may not be just the people you meet up with, but other invisible backroom people who have a say. Build this into your schedule.
4. Get a good senior production manager or line producer to manage the shoot. Not your mate!  Get someone who is skilled and comes with cash flow templates, contracts, and other tricks. She – it is usually a ‘she’ will negotiate good deals for you. She usually comes with loads of contacts too. If you are not very experienced these are like gold dust. She will also prevent you from going over budget.
5. Work with a crew who believes in you and your vision. Yeah I know you are paying them and they should get all enthusiastic because you are flashing the cash. However you need to have support of the crew because after several days working long hours, they will be tired and narky.
6. While you are at it, don’t forget to feed people. Humans on film crews somehow get primal, and food is one of the basic needs. If you feed them food they like, they will be very happy. This is for any film whether funded or not.
7. If it is a drama get professional actors or performers to be in your film. It is tempting to use friends who would LOVE to be in a movie. I am passing on this warning  from more experienced directors than me.
8. Film sets are notorious for having loads of people hanging around. Leave that to the blockbuster movies with their multimillion budgets. On your lo-budget movie every penny has to count. Check with your line producer if you really need everyone. More people means more mouths to feed, more people to move around which eats money. Be brutal.
9. But don’t delete the stills photographer who will take stills for your film. Trust me, stills are better than frame grabs for press and publicity. And you can afford a photographer with funding.
10. Enjoy the experience it is like no other.