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88 Cups of Tea
88 Cups of Tea
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Leah Meyerhoff on ‘I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS’ Award-Winning Filmmaker on Creating Short Films for Career Opportunities as a Director & Financing Your Film in Creative Ways

  • 3 minute read


Award-winning director-writer Leah Meyerhoff is an absolute force. Her feature film debut I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS world premiered at SXSW, and I’m so thrilled to share her episode with you: For fellow filmmakers, this is a must. In this episode, Leah dives into the technicalities of making her film, the inspiration behind the story, how she financed her film, and a ton more inspiring and actionable advice and tips. For first-time feature filmmakers, you’ll want to pay special attention to Leah’s interview, she shares a lot of valuable resources for you guys to take action with for your own first-time projects! You’ll also learn how to finance your indie film!

“It’s much more important to make something, even if it’s not perfect, than to not make something at all.”Tweet:

“The mistakes are still happy accidents.”Tweet:

 

Learn More About Award-winning Filmmaker Leah Meyerhoff

Leah Meyerhoff is an award winning filmmaker whose debut narrative feature I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS was released theatrically in 2015 after premiering at SXSW, winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Atlanta Film Festival and additional awards from Woodstock Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, First Time Fest, Tribeca Film Institute, IFP, NYU and the Adrienne Shelly Foundation. Meyerhoff’s previous work has screened in over 200 film festivals and aired on IFC, PBS, LOGO and MTV. She is a fellow of the IFP Emerging Narrative Labs, IFP Narrative Finishing Labs, Tribeca All Access Labs, and the Emerging Visions program at the New York Film Festival. Meyerhoff is also the founder of Film Fatales, a female filmmaker collective based in New York with over a dozen local chapters around the world. She holds a BA in Art-Semiotics from Brown University and an MFA in Directing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

  • How creating a short film can help your feature film tremendously while your feature is in development (Hint: Financing, calling card for your directing career, and more)
  • How Leah prepared and directed the underage lead actress for a graphic sex scene in a respectful and sensitive manner
  • The very best thing a director can do to receive the performances they want from an actor
  • Why Leah chose stop motion puppet animation to portray the most intimate fantasy parts of her film and how she animated it
  • Exactly how Leah financed her feature film
  • How to finance your indie film
  • How Leah found her first feature film investor through the film festival circuit for her short film
  • Using Kickstarter as a specific technique to maximize the exposure of your project
  • How intentionally casting very specific people hugely impacted the authenticity of Leah’s feature film
  • Why writing grants are really helpful even if you don’t receive the grant
  • How limited resources can be incredibly beneficial in expanding your creative boundaries
  • How Leah found her crew for her award-winning feature I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS that world premiered at SXSW

Leah’s Recommended Books & Podcast:

Shooting to Kill: How an Independent Producer Blasts Through the Barriers to Make Movies that Matter by Christine Vachon
Film Fatales
Sundance Institute
Tribeca Film Institute 
IFP
Slamdance Film Festival
Film Independent
Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival

 

Please Leave a Review

It means so much to me to be able to share my interviews with you. Ratings and reviews on my podcast’s iTunes page helps a LOT in helping me to spread the word about the podcast. The more ratings and reviews I receive, the more you’re helping with the ranking of my show. That means there’s a higher chance of my podcast being found and subscribed to. Please leave me honest feedback as I read every single one and want to know how I can make improvements and continue delivering awesome content. Click here to leave a review for 88 CUPS OF TEA.

Thank you so much in advance for leaving me a review and rating!
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Topics You'll Enjoy!
  • advice
  • authenticity
  • award winning
  • creativity
  • director
  • expanding your creative boundaries
  • film festival
  • Filmmaker
  • filmmaking
  • finance
  • I believe in Unicorns
  • indie film
  • Inspiration
  • kickstarter
  • motivation
  • process
  • producer
  • short film
  • stop motion
  • SXSW
  • writer
  • writing grants
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