This is where your optin offer teaser goes.
BlogHer Series Part 2: Ava DuVernay on Hollywood, Film and Voice
At BlogHer 2015 NYC, I sat in the audience as Women and Hollywood founder Melissa Silverstein interviewed Ava DuVernay, an American director, screenwriter and film distributor. Ava had transitioned from publicity to film. Her three features include I Will Follow, The Middle of Nowhere and Selma. Ava shared her insight and experience on being a woman in Hollywood.
I’d always been fascinated about how people in creative fields get to where they are. Having returned from the WDS event in Portland, I got super inspired by the stories of all the career changers, location independent creatives and entrepreneurs who dominated the space. So my enthusiasm for this story was no different, and hearing from the point of view of this thriving, award-winning creative truly was an honor.
DuVernay related the career change as “pie in the sky” and how she first had to ignore the doubts and change her mindset:
Well I wanted to do it, but you know that voice in your head that talks you out of it, out of doing things, the voice in your head that says you’re not qualified or people will laugh or you don’t have permission to do this. And I just started to play the game. I just started to watch men – white men. It’s fantastic, they just do it! They just do whatever the hell they want. They take what they want, say what they want. I’m like, ‘Really, oh my gosh, okay, well, maybe I’ll try it.’ Not with a sense of ego or privilege, but with a sense of personhood. Like I could also ask for what I want. I also deserve to do what I want to do. It’s not something that’s easy, I just had to retrain myself in my thinking about my path.
This idea of giving yourself permission seems to be something many can relate to. Especially as women since we’re conditioned to play small don’t always have the support to play a bigger game. Actually, I think this is addressed in Tara Mohr’s website.
Melissa asked Ava if she had any advice for people who may want to make movies or take their blogging business to the next level. DuVernay suggested:
1. Diversify, don’t have all your eggs in one basket.
She related how Oprah Winfrey once told her about her shaky experiences starting her own network OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network). OWN struggled in the beginning and Oprah felt she was letting down her audience. As she talked to other well-known moguls in the business, many advise her to spread out the risk and have several different things going on, instead of putting everything into one project. When she started to put that into practice, she was able to find success.
2. Your voice matters, contribute to the conversation.
This could be on any medium, whether blogs, social media, film or whatever. DuVernay does this through her company AFFRM whose mission is to amplify voices that need to be heard. It grew from solely black directors to now include other underrepresented groups, such as Native American, Latina and Asian filmmakers. They were able to raise funds and recruit help via a telethon, dubbing volunteers as “mavericks” and donors as “rebels.” This enables them to put out movies with more diverse stories and characters that contribute a greater vision:
You have the power to put out movies that are not the cookie cutters in the multiplex … these are exported everywhere, conversations people have at the water cooler and if you can bring this voice to the water cooler you can effect change.
3. Follow the white guys, but obviously with your own voice, style and vision.
DuVernay says:
Follow the white guys, truly they’ve got this thing wired because this is so often within their game, within their specialty, within their industry… Take away the bad stuff because there’s a lot and use the savvy interesting stuff.
Ava then shared her current projects, including company expansion, television, book acquisition (for permission to write for film/television and produce), and even virtual reality cameras, which are expected to become more popular in the coming years.
So, again, to wrap it up, DuVerney suggests to diversify and not have all your eggs in one basket. Your voice matters, let it be heard. Follow the white guy’s structure (interesting stuff like diversified monetization strategy), but with your own way of doing things. Doing these three things as a creative will help you rock your industry.
