Collaboration: On Writing Film Makers: 15 Groundbreaking Women Directors

Collaboration: Lyn Miller-Lachmann and Tanisia Tee Moore on Writing a Book Together

Many different people need to work together to make a successful film. The director plays a key role, translating the scriptwriters’ vision and words – note that we said scriptwriters because screenplays are rarely written by one person alone – to the screen via set design, camera angles, the actors’ movements and dialogue, and more. When we decided to work together to create Film Makers: 15 Groundbreaking Women Directors, we too engaged in this process of collaboration. We experienced a little of what our featured directors do to make their films and TV shows.

We met when both of us had the same agent. Jacqui Lipton, then with Raven Quill Literary Agency, suggested we consider writing for the Women of Power series, which features 15 contemporary women who have reached the highest levels in their professions. The women chosen would have diverse and international backgrounds and represent multiple generations but still be active today. Both of us have backgrounds in film and television, Lyn as a reviewer of international films and Tee as an intellectual property attorney with a marketing background.

We also have different tastes. Lyn appreciates international art house films, believing that even if a subtitled film is disappointing, “at least you’ve learned a new language.” Tee enjoys popular films including big-budget franchises like Marvel and Star Wars.

Tee, who is Black, identified her most admired the directors and TV showrunners: Ava DuVernay, Shonda Rhimes, Regina King, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Dee Rees, and the up-and-coming Mindy Kaling and Issa Rae. They tell uncomfortable stories, challenging a society that has not fully faced up to its democratic promise, but also entertain through humor, sports stories, popular music, action, and big-budget spectacle.

Lyn took on several filmmakers born outside the United States – Lulu Wang and Chloe Zhao from China, Petra Costa from Brazil, Agnieszka Holland from Poland, and Jane Campion from New Zealand. Her work as a translator from Portuguese to English and her contacts in the translation community helped her research non-English language sources that were especially helpful for Petra Costa’s and Agnieszka Holland’s biographies. 

We each brought other skills to the table that fit well with the other. Lyn has a background in history and has four published and forthcoming historical novels for children and teens. One of Agnieszka Holland’s works inspired Torch, her YA novel due out in November, which is set in Czechoslovakia in 1969. Tee is the author of two forthcoming picture book biographies of notable Black achievers in politics, sports, and entertainment. Her writing style is well suited to a book about the entertainment industry, which Lyn credits as instrumental in making her writing less academic and more accessible.

The best thing about collaborating, though, is knowing we are not alone. We bounce ideas off each other and geek out talking about our favorite films and their directors with someone who loves the medium as much as we do!

Excerpt from Film Makers: 15 Groundbreaking Women Directors

Shonda Rhimes: The Titan of Television

“Don’t you have enough?” This question was allegedly asked of Shonda Rhimes by a high-ranking executive at ABC. Taken aback by this query to her request for an additional ticket for her sister to go Disneyland, Shonda decided in that moment to leave her TV Land home of 15 years and take her talents to Netflix. The move was shocking to those within the television

industry to say the least, but Shonda knew that she needed to be in a place that celebrated her, knew her worth, and would let her authentic creative self-thrive without restrictions.

During her time with ABC, which is owned by Disney, Shonda was responsible for over 70 hours of programing for the network, not only earning herself millions of dollars but also earning the network $2 billion dollars from her various shows. She dubbed herself a titan because nobody in television was doing the same caliber of work as her. She even created a production company aptly named Shondaland. Her creative brain is global, and at one time people around the world were brought into her artistic mind and the various worlds she created through her shows. During her time at ABC, she had three shows—Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to get Away with Murder—in production, and sometimes even four. With this many shows running, her wheel of creativity was constantly turning.

Shonda’s vivid imagination has been brewing since she was a child playing in her family’s pantry with the soup cans. But it was her ability to lie, or tell stories—it’s been said both ways—that helped to fuel her love of storytelling. But don’t pass too much judgment on her; it is her job after all to create believable worlds for television. “I make up stuff because I have to,” she shares in her bestselling memoir. “Imagining is now my job. I write television shows. I make up characters. I create whole worlds in my head. . . I wrap my myself in fiction. Fiction is my job. Fiction is it. Fiction is everything. Fiction is my jam,” she unashamedly admits.

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Find out more about Tanisia on her website:  https://tanisiamoore.com/

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Film Makers: 15 Groundbreaking Women Directors (5) (Women of Power) 

In Hollywood, women don’t have to be in front of the cameras to shine.

Each of the 15 women profiled in Film Makers share a common trait: she is, as Shonda Rhimes says, “First. Only. Different.”

These phenomenal women have redefined the film and television industry, winning awards historically given to a male counterpart, being the only woman in a writers’ room, or portraying stories no one else could tell.

While their resumes are impressive, it is how they live their lives that has made a greater impact in the communities they serve.

BUY HERE 

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