We Get Real AF
We Get Real AF
Ep. 163: We Get Real with Kristi Ray & Erika Arlee, Co-founders of HoneyHead Films
Kristi Ray & Erika Arlee are Wilmington NC- based filmmakers who are bringing their profession to young girls through their innovative summer camp, Shoot Like a Girl. Besides producing their own mission-driven original films through their company Honey Head Films, they're helping to ensure that more women have the technical know-how and decision-making power to build a more inclusive film industry.
Honey Head Films website
Honey Head Films - LinkedIn
We Get Real AF Podcast Credits:
Producers & Hosts: Vanessa Alava & Sue Robinson
Vanessa Alava
Sue Robinson
Audio Music Track Title: Beatles Unite
Artist: Rachel K. Collier
YouTube Channel Instagram Website
Intro Voice-Over Artist: Veronica Horta
Cover Artwork Photo Credit: Alice Moore
We Get Real AF Podcast / MicDrop Creative
The We Get Real AF Podcast is a production of MicDrop Creative, telling stories that uplift, inspire and empower women worldwide. www.micdropcreative.com
Tags: DEIinclusiondeafhard of hearingdisabilitytalent poolrecruitingHRSTEMtech talenttalent poolaccessibility
00:00:04 Vanessa Alava
Welcome back to the we get Real AF podcast everyone Sue and I are so excited to introduce today's guests right from our very own backyard.
00:00:12 Vanessa Alava
These two film makers are making big waves in the Wilmington, NC film community. Christy Ray and Erika Arley. They are Co founders of Honey head films.
00:00:21 Vanessa Alava
Production company with purpose, heart advocacy and education.
00:00:26 Vanessa Alava
Its core, this dynamic team is changing the narrative for diversity and filmmaking.
00:00:31 Vanessa Alava
Women in the industry, storytelling and content production from the ground up and they are here to chat about the amazing things they have going on at the hive.
00:00:40 Vanessa Alava
Christy and Erica.
00:00:41 Vanessa Alava
Welcome to the show.
00:00:43 Kristi Ray
Thank you, thanks ladies.
00:00:43 Vanessa Alava
Thank you so much.
00:00:45 Vanessa Alava
Thank you.
00:00:46 Vanessa Alava
And went for joining us.
00:00:47 Vanessa Alava
We virtually met both of you this summer and were so impressed we felt so much alignment and values between honey head and Mike.
00:00:55 Vanessa Alava
Trout creative you.
00:00:56 Vanessa Alava
Were doing great work, needed work and walking the.
00:01:00 Vanessa Alava
Walk so kudos.
00:01:03 Vanessa Alava
So I think that Sue let's just stop it, start at the top right.
00:01:06 Vanessa Alava
Like let's learn more about honey head ladies, you want to take it off?
00:01:10 Vanessa Alava
Tell us about how you met how this came to be, and what the name means.
00:01:14 Vanessa Alava
What the hive means to you.
00:01:17 Kristi Ray
We should give.
00:01:17 Kristi Ray
Them the 32nd you know we met on Craigslist wave. Is that true? Yeah, amazing.
00:01:22 Erika Arlee
What yeah, yeah yeah yeah I wrote the first short film I ever wanted to endeavor to direct and was cast.
00:01:34 Erika Arlee
Playing a couple extra rolls and put out a casting call on Craigslist.
00:01:39 Erika Arlee
The very first last casting call ever.
00:01:43 Erika Arlee
Don't know why it was 2014 I think before Craigslist was as sketchy as it is now and Christie submitted for the role and she.
00:01:52 Erika Arlee
Did a fabulous audition.
00:01:55 Sue Robinson
That's kismet.
00:01:57 Sue Robinson
That right there it was meant to be.
00:02:00 Kristi Ray
Erica was the first female director.
00:02:01 Kristi Ray
I actually worked with and when I you know we met virtually like over e-mail, she cast me in the role and then when I showed up on set it was just amazing to see you know the similarities like we're the same.
00:02:14 Kristi Ray
We're the same age where we both have like really similar backgrounds and we just instantly.
00:02:18 Kristi Ray
Clicked on that set and we've been making creative work together ever since so honey head wasn't necessarily born during that first encounter.
00:02:27 Kristi Ray
But it was like a A meant to be.
00:02:31 Vanessa Alava
OK, so again you met you.
00:02:34 Vanessa Alava
You had this kismet moment and then what?
00:02:36 Vanessa Alava
What was it like a year or two later you guys are chatting, you're like hey, we should collaborate.
00:02:40 Vanessa Alava
Oh no, let's just start a business together like get into that a little.
00:02:44 Erika Arlee
Yeah, basically yeah, I'm we start.
00:02:49 Erika Arlee
We became friends after after Christy and I met on that short film.
00:02:54 Erika Arlee
We became fast friends and we were both acting at that time I I don't.
00:02:59 Erika Arlee
I'm not represented anymore.
00:03:00 Erika Arlee
I don't really act as much anymore, but we have the same agent and we.
00:03:05 Erika Arlee
Would get.
00:03:07 Erika Arlee
Breakdowns from our agent and we would need to go on tape and record ourselves auditioning for roles and reading for roles, and you need to have someone off camera when you're recording on audition, as your reader to do a scene with you, and so we would put each other on camera and be each other.
00:03:20 Erika Arlee
's readers and we were.
00:03:22 Erika Arlee
Just so bummed with all of the types of roles we were getting and they.
00:03:27 Erika Arlee
Because they were so flat, especially as young women, you get a lot.
00:03:31 Erika Arlee
Of these you.
00:03:32 Erika Arlee
You know the supporting waitress role or the hot girl at the party and it was not fulfilling and it just wasn't filling her cup.
00:03:41 Erika Arlee
So we decided that we wanted to produce our own work and really knowing not that much about film production, we just knew what we had seen from being on set.
00:03:52 Erika Arlee
We knew how.
00:03:55 Erika Arlee
When things worked well, we could see that was happening and we knew what things when things weren't working well.
00:04:00 Erika Arlee
We could see that from, you know, just being in front of the camera you can.
00:04:03 Erika Arlee
Watch and say.
00:04:05 Erika Arlee
Ohh, I'm being treated a way I don't necessarily like or I see that someone's being treated this way and I would if I were in charge of this which I'm not as an actor. But if I were as a director or producer or leader on set.
00:04:17 Erika Arlee
And I would definitely do some do this differently to empower this person and to uplift them.
00:04:23 Erika Arlee
And so we started making movies.
00:04:25
I think that's.
00:04:26 Kristi Ray
Yeah, something really unique about Honey head is that we're both self-taught film makers. So with just primarily acting background, we.
00:04:33 Kristi Ray
We have restructured and rebuilt the way that film sets can operate in this kind of small footprint model that you don't necessarily need all the all the tools and all the things that they teach you in film school.
00:04:46 Kristi Ray
And there is an alternative method to it.
00:04:49 Kristi Ray
I can I can look back on my life as an actor.
00:04:52 Kristi Ray
I think I had been working.
00:04:54 Kristi Ray
Almost eight or nine years before I met Erica as a professional actress and not really being able to put my finger on what it was that a producer did, or even like what the role of the assistant director was.
00:05:06 Kristi Ray
It's not something as an actress, you really?
00:05:08 Kristi Ray
You can grasp until you do it and I just back then had no idea I had it in me to be such a good producer or such an effective AD and take on all these different roles that we sort of by necessity have learned how to do and execute execute really well with honey head.
00:05:26 Kristi Ray
It's part of our model.
00:05:27 Kristi Ray
It's just kind of wearing.
00:05:29 Kristi Ray
Many hats as you women can relate to and and I think it's something that's inspiring and it makes your crew happy because you have this relatability with them and your you can appreciate you know what they bring to the table because you've been there and you've done that as well.
00:05:46 Sue Robinson
So in addition to being actors and wanting to get into producing, I mean that is a bold move to decide to start your own production company.
00:05:55 Sue Robinson
There's a whole business angle to that at the end of the day it is a business.
00:05:59 Sue Robinson
I don't know if either of you had a business background, but talk about how you launched an actual business that could generate.
00:06:06 Sue Robinson
Income and what kinds of struggles and things you faced as women going into a business.
00:06:10 Sue Robinson
Starting your own very unique production.
00:06:12 Sue Robinson
OK.
00:06:13 Kristi Ray
I yeah, I think it's a really, really important thing to touch on. Sue is that we're self-taught entrepreneurs as well.
00:06:20 Kristi Ray
Neither of us do have a business background at all, and when we started honey head it was more of launching a brand and less of a business, right?
00:06:29 Kristi Ray
So we didn't incorporate Honey Head Films LLC.
00:06:33 Kristi Ray
Probably for the first three, 3 1/2 years of creating content and making a splash.
00:06:39 Kristi Ray
Being advocates for women making cereal short films.
00:06:43 Kristi Ray
I mean we call ourselves cereal short film makers.
00:06:46 Kristi Ray
Before we we started this feature film a song for imaging, but all of that those skills came at the right time but we didn't bite off more than we could chew.
00:06:56 Erika Arlee
So to speak, yeah, yeah.
00:06:58 Erika Arlee
We we still had other part time jobs for the first couple of years.
00:07:02 Erika Arlee
So we were honey head as a brand and we were making short film content and it's.
00:07:07 Erika Arlee
Very hard to figure out how how, if anyone is listening and knows how to create, has a business model for short film production that.
00:07:15 Erika Arlee
Has a return on investment on the back end I.
00:07:17 Erika Arlee
Would love to.
00:07:20 Erika Arlee
I would love.
00:07:20 Erika Arlee
To hear about it, but it's really just shorts.
00:07:21 Vanessa Alava
Ditto, Ditto.
00:07:26 Erika Arlee
It's it's really about passion and exposure at festivals and networking, and those are.
00:07:31 Erika Arlee
That's what you know.
00:07:33 Erika Arlee
I like to tell young film makers when they ask.
00:07:35 Erika Arlee
About that, well, how can I make money with a short film and I'm like, well, it's not necessarily.
00:07:40 Erika Arlee
Going to be a monetary gain, but it's a great networking tool. You go to festivals, you tour your film, you meet people, and your network is 50% of it, if not more.
00:07:50 Erika Arlee
When it comes to the film industry so that it's really more of a tool, so we were doing that, we were doing what was what was within our means, which was short film production.
00:08:00 Erika Arlee
Our own personal projects and then projects for others.
00:08:03 Erika Arlee
And when we decided to make the leap.
00:08:08 Erika Arlee
And we knew we wanted to go full time with honey.
00:08:10 Erika Arlee
Had we had to figure out how to translate our love for narrative storytelling into a commercial space.
00:08:17 Erika Arlee
And so we've always been even in the season of Honey head, when we were doing more commercial work, we came at it with a narrative storytelling Abel.
00:08:27 Erika Arlee
And that's what.
00:08:30 Erika Arlee
Without knowing that we were creating our U VP, we were.
00:08:33 Erika Arlee
We were becoming the company that people came to when they were like I don't know how to put my finger on it, but I want to feel I want my video to feel the way this video feels.
00:08:43 Erika Arlee
I want to feel the way I felt watching this other project you did, and so I think that that's the storytelling.
00:08:50 Erika Arlee
But it it's character first.
00:08:52 Erika Arlee
It's story 1st and it's heart drive.
00:08:55 Kristi Ray
And as honey head, we've always approached narrative filmmaking from a mission driven perspective.
00:09:01 Kristi Ray
And so we've been able to build our brand on the effect on the fact that we really value diversity in front of and behind the lens.
00:09:08 Kristi Ray
So even if we're working for a corporate or a commercial client or a music video or a brand film.
00:09:15 Kristi Ray
Back in the day.
00:09:16 Kristi Ray
Say people would hire us and we would say great, we're going to have a diverse cast and great, you should let us suggest these crew members.
00:09:24 Kristi Ray
We're not going to hire a camera man, right?
00:09:26 Kristi Ray
It's going to be a camera woman.
00:09:27 Kristi Ray
We're going to.
00:09:27 Kristi Ray
We're going to diversify.
00:09:29 Kristi Ray
The people we work with and the content we create for you, which is on brand with every business these days and we were able to.
00:09:37 Kristi Ray
You know, become.
00:09:38 Kristi Ray
Like a wheelhouse of all of these different skill sets, and in addition to that, we also took on narrative clients.
00:09:44 Kristi Ray
So young film makers or people with financing, but they were just screenwriters who didn't know how to get their project off the ground.
00:09:52 Kristi Ray
They naturally and organically would start approaching honey head to help them learn the steps of production.
00:09:57 Kristi Ray
And so we became consultants.
00:09:59 Kristi Ray
Very early in our career as well, and didn't necessarily know how to.
00:10:05 Kristi Ray
Price that out I think like in our early days people would just come to us with whatever their little tiny budget was and we would just say OK we can do it for that.
00:10:14 Kristi Ray
We'll make it work, you know, whatever it is, you've got $2000.00 for your short phone. It's 21 pages long. What are we going to do, you know? Well, let's script doctor it up for them.
00:10:25 Kristi Ray
Of course, we'll work for free like this was early, early, early days, and we would we would do pull every string you know.
00:10:32 Erika Arlee
OK.
00:10:33 Kristi Ray
All of our friends.
00:10:34 Kristi Ray
We've kind of like activate the community around these little tiny projects until people were just really excited about what we were doing and then they could recognize the value and we personally recognized the time that was going into each of these projects.
00:10:48 Kristi Ray
And then we were able to sort of break down a budget and get ourselves paid as well so.
00:10:53 Kristi Ray
I wouldn't necessarily recommend anyone listening to go the route that we did.
00:10:59 Kristi Ray
Three years like slave labor for ourselves and our passions, but it it ended up building a brand that people really trust and they want to get behind and a lot of exposure.
00:11:10 Kristi Ray
That that has been really pivotal to our projects.
00:11:14 Kristi Ray
Currently, you know that we're working on and I.
00:11:17 Kristi Ray
I feel like if I could go back in time, I wouldn't change the way we did it.
00:11:20 Kristi Ray
I just wouldn't necessarily advocate for it.
00:11:23 Kristi Ray
Either it just was like the way.
00:11:25 Kristi Ray
It happened and.
00:11:26 Erika Arlee
I think there's more of an angle now for business.
00:11:29 Erika Arlee
Centers who are out there trying to make it.
00:11:32 Erika Arlee
In their own space, in a sense, I think that.
00:11:36 Erika Arlee
We were still coming up at a time where, you know?
00:11:41 Erika Arlee
Social media was also still kind of in a it had blossomed, but it was still in sort of a phase where people weren't thinking, oh, I can just go be a brand and make money and make a business of myself and just work for myself.
00:11:56 Erika Arlee
I feel like that was still coming along that mentality that people have now of.
00:12:01 Erika Arlee
Of how do I learn to work for myself and so we were learning how to do that neither of us come from a a business background, but we.
00:12:11 Erika Arlee
Just learned how the same way we learned how to make films.
00:12:15 Erika Arlee
We just learned how to be a business and a lot of it came from trial and error, but.
00:12:21 Erika Arlee
And learning your value.
00:12:22 Erika Arlee
And now when we you know, give workshops or we, you know, teach our interns or we, you know, run our summer camp.
00:12:31 Erika Arlee
It's like that.
00:12:32 Erika Arlee
That mentality transcends into all those different platforms of understanding your worth.
00:12:38 Erika Arlee
Not asking for permission.
00:12:39 Erika Arlee
All the things we wish.
00:12:41 Erika Arlee
We had had a mentor say to us.
00:12:42 Kristi Ray
Exactly right.
00:12:43 Erika Arlee
Along the way.
00:12:44 Erika Arlee
We like to turn around and try to give that knowledge to other people so that they can maybe bypass some of the roadblocks that we had along our journey.
00:12:52 Erika Arlee
But like Chris, you said I I wouldn't change it.
00:12:54 Erika Arlee
I feel like we learned.
00:12:55 Sue Robinson
A lot go ahead, Vanessa.
00:12:56 Vanessa Alava
You know you.
00:12:58 Vanessa Alava
You both have mentioned so many things here and I kind of want to.
00:13:02 Vanessa Alava
I don't want to glaze over them because I think they're so important.
00:13:05 Vanessa Alava
The brand versus the business I think is huge and that ties into you know different forms of currency.
00:13:11 Vanessa Alava
You know it when you are an entrepreneur just starting out.
00:13:16 Vanessa Alava
You aren't making bookoo's money. I mean there's there's passion and heart there, and there are things that you need to do to be nimble and to get your name out there. But also show people what you're about.
00:13:26 Vanessa Alava
So the fact is that you did.
00:13:28 Vanessa Alava
You built a community and people saw what you were about.
00:13:31 Vanessa Alava
And you know your network.
00:13:33 Vanessa Alava
That was the highest form of currency for you at the time, even though it wasn't reflecting in your bank account.
00:13:39 Vanessa Alava
But that came, I'm sure, and you know you being actors first.
00:13:44 Vanessa Alava
I think that there's so much value there and you know I'm an actress as well.
00:13:49 Vanessa Alava
And you see so much on every project.
00:13:52 Vanessa Alava
And to your point of like what was done right, what was done mediocre and what you definitely want to avoid in the future is huge.
00:13:59 Vanessa Alava
And how people feel like they remember.
00:14:02 Vanessa Alava
Remember that and you remember how you felt in certain instances and the fact that you're integrating that into your business and how you want to run it and how you want the types of people you want to employ the the backgrounds that they come from, like it touches every piece of it and then the biggest thing too that applies to all of this is the human connection.
00:14:23 Vanessa Alava
Your clients now that Jenna say qua, I don't know what that is, but I want that feeling like it's human connection.
00:14:30 Vanessa Alava
Like how am I gonna feel when I watch this?
00:14:32 Vanessa Alava
And the fact is that you have created that within your brand that when someone sees what you've created, they're like OK.
00:14:39 Vanessa Alava
This is what I want to apply to.
00:14:40 Vanessa Alava
Whatever it is they want to put out into the world for their business, so that's fantastic.
00:14:44 Kristi Ray
And you are like woo enough to believe that the energy you put into a project can permeate through the screen when someone's watching it. But we believe that and absolutely.
00:14:55 Kristi Ray
I feel when they're on set with us.
00:14:58 Kristi Ray
The camera doesn't lie and the camera person doesn't lie either.
00:15:03 Kristi Ray
It's like their energy is reflected in the final product and it's it's a.
00:15:07 Kristi Ray
It's a miracle that any film gets made these days, but if a film gets made, that's good and it's good for the world and the way you made it is also good and good for.
00:15:16 Kristi Ray
The world that's
00:15:17 Kristi Ray
Something that's like the ultimate goal for us and what we're always proud of.
00:15:20 Kristi Ray
Accomplishing and what we put first, almost over, like getting the light just right.
00:15:25 Kristi Ray
It's like how do people feel when they leave set or when they finish watching the product?
00:15:30 Kristi Ray
How is that's our priority?
00:15:33 Sue Robinson
Well, and I also think.
00:15:34 Sue Robinson
As you build that ecosystem where the people that you work with feel valued, feel.
00:15:39 Sue Robinson
Heard, feel safe.
00:15:40 Sue Robinson
Because I think in a lot of times in the film industry, and especially for women or other minority groups, people don't feel safe as you build that ecosystem.
00:15:50 Sue Robinson
You're so building that network that you have of people who want to come.
00:15:53 Sue Robinson
Back and want to work with you.
00:15:54 Sue Robinson
More and more, and your reputation builds as well as a company of integrity.
00:15:58 Sue Robinson
So I I think you were really smart.
00:16:00 Sue Robinson
I also like the fact that you you know you didn't quit your day jobs at the beginning you, you just kind of worked.
00:16:06 Sue Robinson
Overtime over overtime probably to get all this done so that you could have you.
00:16:12 Sue Robinson
You recognize that you were running a marathon, not a Sprint, and I think that's really wise.
00:16:16 Sue Robinson
I think a lot of times with side hustles, it's a temptation to feel I have to jump in 100% at the beginning and and.
00:16:24 Sue Robinson
And then I can't make it because I don't have.
00:16:26 Sue Robinson
A way to sustain.
00:16:27 Sue Robinson
Myself or it's just too much and I'm not going to try it.
00:16:30 Sue Robinson
And I think it's really wise that you kind of you allowed for both ways of life so that you could continue to build your business and put food on your table, because it's not easy to start out that way.
00:16:41 Sue Robinson
And you're also doing wonderful things to help other young men.
00:16:44 Sue Robinson
And then.
00:16:46 Sue Robinson
Learn from what you've learned through shoot like a girl and we would love to have you share with us about that program and what you're doing there.
00:16:52 Kristi Ray
Absolutely, and I think it's a really nice segue, so I feel like the brand that we built as honey head is the platform that our summer camp and our curriculum stands on in this really symbiotic way and what made the camp successful this year was all of those years of Labor and work and passion that went into creating a platform so.
00:17:14 Kristi Ray
Before you try to start a summer camp, build a brand that people are going to invest in and that they care about and that stands for something because it was really.
00:17:22 Kristi Ray
Seamless in this way.
00:17:24 Kristi Ray
Just the energy permeating there.
00:17:27 Kristi Ray
Do you want to talk about what she like a girl is is like this?
00:17:31 Kristi Ray
You know what it started out as and when.
00:17:32 Erika Arlee
It's becoming, yeah, we started mentoring young girls and and a couple of years ago. When would we shoot Oreo 202018?
00:17:45 Erika Arlee
And it started with a young girl who had this incredible script that had the theme was was an anti bullying short film written for young children and it was a really endearing script and we fell in love with the story and helped.
00:18:01 Erika Arlee
This young girl produced her film and with an entirely female crew and it was really just a lovely experience and what we it was edited by one of our interns at that time and it got into our festival here or in the children's block.
00:18:16 Erika Arlee
Coors Film Festival was programmed there and.
00:18:20 Erika Arlee
That was such a invigorating process for us to to see a young, a young woman, and be able to work with an all female crew and be able to see herself in this role.
00:18:31 Erika Arlee
She could look at all these other older women and say that could be me.
00:18:34 Erika Arlee
It was a way of demonstrating to her that it what she believed would be possible.
00:18:38 Erika Arlee
Cool and then we had another young woman a couple of years later who.
00:18:43 Erika Arlee
Wanted to shoot a documentary about implicit bias in the school system and things.
00:18:47 Erika Arlee
That she had.
00:18:48 Erika Arlee
Experienced as a young woman of color in her middle school environment, and so we jumped on board to help her with that.
00:18:56 Erika Arlee
And it became this mentorship program after that second project.
00:19:00 Erika Arlee
We sort of coined it.
00:19:01 Erika Arlee
The honey head mentorship program and we.
00:19:04 Erika Arlee
Really enjoyed helping these young women tell their stories, whether it was mission driven, narrative or documentary with a purpose.
00:19:11 Erika Arlee
This and that's where the genesis of the idea of shoot like a girl.
00:19:14 Kristi Ray
Came from and they were both quite young.
00:19:17 Kristi Ray
Ella the first gal was 11 and the 2nd girl with her documentary was 12 years old and these girls stepped into the director's role with with ease. I'd say they got to, you know.
00:19:31 Kristi Ray
Pass their project and conduct the interviews and do all the things that a director would do and then show up at the Film Festival of this international acclaimed festival as the director.
00:19:41 Kristi Ray
And it was just really empowering for a lot of people.
00:19:44 Kristi Ray
And when we met Sam McLeod and partnered with her.
00:19:48 Kristi Ray
She she thought.
00:19:51 Kristi Ray
Let's use this curriculum that I've built as a high school educator and combine it with the honey Head mentorship program.
00:19:58 Kristi Ray
And we can create a platform to do this with high school girls and I.
00:20:01 Kristi Ray
Thought that might be even more fun because at 11 and 12 years old it's really hard to kind of apply everything that goes into it.
00:20:08 Kristi Ray
You do a lot of hand holding in that capacity and so shoot like a girl.
00:20:12 Kristi Ray
Was born this summer in 2022 and we really are giving girls the tools and education and confidence that they need to tell their stories and to build community just like we did with honey head and just pursue an interest in film. Whether that's in directing.
00:20:29 Kristi Ray
Acting producing we had screenwriters.
00:20:32 Kristi Ray
We had girls in our summer camp this year that were interested in every aspect of production.
00:20:37 Kristi Ray
That they get.
00:20:39 Kristi Ray
A really well-rounded experience.
00:20:41 Kristi Ray
It's a 14 day intensive and we held it here at the honey headquarters.
00:20:46 Kristi Ray
The girls actually cast and write.
00:20:49 Kristi Ray
And direct their own narrative films, and they were really good.
00:20:54 Kristi Ray
They were complex stories.
00:20:56 Kristi Ray
They're partnered through Honey head with female DP's and editors and sound designers so they have a really tiny small footprint crew and we cast professional actors in their films and we pay all these people to come and create a real environment for the girls to stretch their chops and be able to like lean on a support system and they're mentored throughout the whole process.
00:21:17 Kristi Ray
By Sam and Erica and myself.
00:21:19 Kristi Ray
And we help them, you know, make the best script possible and they learn from different workshops throughout the camp.
00:21:26 Kristi Ray
Every day we had a guest speaker that was also another female in the industry, whether that was a costume designer or a production designer or someone who works in lighting and grip, or they did cinematography workshops and they.
00:21:40 Kristi Ray
They did directing for acting.
00:21:42 Kristi Ray
They did all kinds of breakouts and workshops, even like mindset.
00:21:46 Kristi Ray
Coach would come in and like teach them how to think positively about themselves and build these soft skills that we all know you need to work in this industry as a woman.
00:21:54 Kristi Ray
And at the end of it, it culminates in a really fun Film Festival.
00:21:59 Kristi Ray
The girls get to watch their movie at a local movie theater, and it was sold out standing room only.
00:22:06 Kristi Ray
They wanted to like wear prom gowns so we made the you know the dress code like ridiculously overdressed, and we showed up in gowns too, and the girls just had.
00:22:15 Kristi Ray
The time of their lives, and it was just such a formative experience.
00:22:22 Kristi Ray
Got raving 5 star reviews and they all asked can you do an after school program like I want to keep learning please please please and so you want to talk about what?
00:22:30 Kristi Ray
Happens today.
00:22:31 Erika Arlee
Yeah, it's our first day of our right, like a girl after school program, so we've now.
00:22:37 Erika Arlee
Sam has built a month long for four class.
00:22:42 Erika Arlee
After school program, that's about 2 hours after school for for girls to come anyone.
00:22:48 Erika Arlee
They don't have to have gone to camp.
00:22:49 Erika Arlee
They can come and they can write a script and have a workshop and then next month we're also launching a once a week writing, directing Acting Workshop, so directing, basically acting for directors.
00:23:02 Erika Arlee
And sort of how we're gonna structure it so that you can kind of get your feet wet.
00:23:06 Erika Arlee
That in learning about directing where that comes from, how to talk to actors, and then we'll probably grow into weekend workshops and things like that is.
00:23:14 Erika Arlee
The goal to.
00:23:15 Erika Arlee
Keep keep the momentum throughout the year so it isn't just something that happens in the summer time.
00:23:20 Vanessa Alava
Amazing congratulations first of all and second of all I just want to say like on top of this amazing experience that you've offered up to these young ladies, which again, they're seeing it.
00:23:20 Sue Robinson
That is incredible.
00:23:22 Sue Robinson
Oh my gosh.
00:23:34 Vanessa Alava
They're going to believe it.
00:23:35 Vanessa Alava
They can do it.
00:23:36 Vanessa Alava
You're building a pipeline which soon.
00:23:39 Vanessa Alava
We always talk about building the pipeline of women.
00:23:43 Vanessa Alava
To continue down this trajectory because it's so as we know, difficult sometimes, especially with a male driven industry, which film has been traditionally for a long time, and thankfully now you're starting to see all these amazing women like, hey, I'm here.
00:23:59 Vanessa Alava
I've been here, I'm doing it now I'm doing this too so.
00:24:03 Vanessa Alava
Yeah, just this.
00:24:05 Vanessa Alava
Is fantastic and I'm so excited for you both on expanding this.
00:24:10 Erika Arlee
Thank you, yeah the workforce development.
00:24:12 Erika Arlee
Lease was a a big part of this too.
00:24:16 Erika Arlee
We have a lot of collegiate interns that come and work at Honey head over the years.
00:24:20 Erika Arlee
I think our first intern was in 2017, right and and we noticed that there was a a bit of gap in education with the young women. You know, even as juniors and seniors in college that.
00:24:34 Erika Arlee
They weren't as confident as the young men.
00:24:36 Erika Arlee
Some of them were at, you know, in their penultimate season in.
00:24:41 Erika Arlee
University and they still hadn't even really touched a camera and they be in film and they were often.
00:24:49 Erika Arlee
Pushed to the side or they didn't have the confidence to raise their hand and say I want to. I want to direct the film or I want to hold the camera and be the cinematographer so often they were the first AD's or they were hair and makeup or a just a production assistant and it's kind of.
00:25:04 Erika Arlee
Like pushed into these roles that women are often pushed into in the industry and away from technical roles and away from leadership roles.
00:25:12 Erika Arlee
And so we would take them under our wing when they came into honey head as interns, and tried to empower them.
00:25:18 Erika Arlee
But it was it really needed to start sooner was what we were realizing is.
00:25:23 Erika Arlee
Wouldn't it be great if these gals came out of high school already?
00:25:29 Kristi Ray
A leg up and some.
00:25:31 Erika Arlee
Some experience and some knowledge that would allow them to walk into a university setting with a lot of confidence so that they could get more out of their experience there.
00:25:40 Erika Arlee
So that was also a big part of why she like the girl was born was because we wanted to be able to hire these young women and continue to work with them, you know?
00:25:50 Erika Arlee
We wanted once they were through college, for them to be able to step out and get and join the workforce instead of can, you know, doing continuing education or you know, plotting away for the next few years until they had enough experience to be higher able.
00:26:03 Erika Arlee
We wanted them to be hirable right out of.
00:26:05 Kristi Ray
University and also we'd love to hire them.
00:26:07 Kristi Ray
Yeah, you know, as we grow and expand as honey head.
00:26:10 Kristi Ray
We accrued our feature film a song for imaging with 70% women and that was really fun and amazing to do, but it's almost.
00:26:18 Kristi Ray
Still really challenging. It's not almost challenging. It was hard. It's difficult to find enough women to fill 70% positions.
00:26:22 Erika Arlee
Thank you.
00:26:26 Kristi Ray
There just aren't quite enough yet, and people should be working to build that.
00:26:31 Kristi Ray
They should be having prerequisites to apprenticeships and internship programs, and exactly what Erica said that workforce.
00:26:39 Kristi Ray
Element piece we want we want to scale honey head to be a female LED studio and how are we going to hire all these amazing women if they just aren't really around right?
00:26:47 Kristi Ray
So having girls that amazing screenwriters and directors because they've been working on it since they were 14 years old.
00:26:49
OK.
00:26:54 Kristi Ray
I mean, think about when you start dance class as a young girl or music lessons or acting.
00:26:59 Kristi Ray
You do theater and things.
00:27:00 Kristi Ray
Why shouldn't you be building those skills to to become a desirable and hirable member of the film community at a young age, it feels like.
00:27:09 Kristi Ray
Just a good a good thing to put energy into.
00:27:12 Kristi Ray
It's a win win all around.
00:27:13 Sue Robinson
Absolutely, and I imagine it's a lot of fun too, to work with those girls because you're giving them an opportunity that they haven't had before.
00:27:20 Sue Robinson
You know when Vanessa and I started this podcast, we started out focusing on science, technology, engineering and math because those are the fields that you hear so often women are underrepresented and it is true.
00:27:30 Sue Robinson
But one of the interesting statistics we learned along the way was that young girls will be really interested in those fields up until about kindergarten or they, they are able to see themselves as a leader in a next gender group.
00:27:44 Sue Robinson
Up until about kindergarten and then after about that five to six year old age, they start if you ask them who's the leader in a group, they'll point to a boy.
00:27:53 Sue Robinson
Also, interestingly, those same girls who are really interested in in science, technology, engineering and math like they really love math classes are.
00:28:03 Sue Robinson
They'll start to peel away from that between middle school and high school, and what I'm hearing, you say, is that the same thing is true in the arts, and that's why you know we now talk about STEAM and throwing the arts in there.
00:28:12 Sue Robinson
And Vanessa and I've had this conversation because I don't think that that's realized as much either that women who are in.
00:28:20 Sue Robinson
Typically there are a lot of women in the arts, but they're not in some of these roles.
00:28:24 Sue Robinson
That they need to be in because they can't see themselves.
00:28:26 Sue Robinson
And if you see a mentor like the two of you and you see somebody who's willing to reach their hand back and take grasp of yours and pull you along and show you what they do, that's when you really do start to fill that talent pipeline.
00:28:38 Sue Robinson
I'm wondering if they're because your program is so awesome.
00:28:41 Sue Robinson
Are there other places around the country that you're partnering with to spread it?
00:28:45 Sue Robinson
Because it seems like there's a lot of opportunity out there.
00:28:49 Kristi Ray
Absolutely our producing partner, Andrea Nordgren lives in Denver, Co.
00:28:54 Kristi Ray
She helped us produce a song for Imagine our feature and she's from the Chicago area originally and she is the first person we're going to be partnering with to expand this program beyond.
00:29:05 Kristi Ray
North Carolina, but we've also had interest in your neck of the woods.
00:29:08 Kristi Ray
Like in Cary, the folks at the Beyond Film Festival are wanting to hear eagerly about how it went and how we could possibly branch out to Wake County, which feels like not big stretch for us at all.
00:29:20 Kristi Ray
Sam, our business partner and shoot like a girl.
00:29:22 Kristi Ray
She's a former Wake County educator and she actually worked with.
00:29:25 Kristi Ray
County officials to build all the curriculum for the English courses and also did this program.
00:29:33 Kristi Ray
It was co-ed in high school.
00:29:35 Kristi Ray
You know she had boys and girls both go through it, but she's been able to really refine it and she has a huge reach in Wake County as well.
00:29:42 Kristi Ray
So we're thinking as soon as maybe early next spring, having like weekend workshops for shoot like a girl in the triangle area in North Carolina and then trying to take the summer camp to Denver.
00:29:52 Kristi Ray
In the next two to three.
00:29:54 Kristi Ray
Years mm-hmm awesome.
00:29:55 Vanessa Alava
Yay yay.
00:29:56 Vanessa Alava
Another thing that I just feel.
00:29:58 Vanessa Alava
Needs to be said.
00:30:00 Vanessa Alava
And I want to just praise you for this because I think it's so important as creators in this industry for some reason.
00:30:08 Vanessa Alava
As as open minded as we are, we sometimes not not in this group I don't think, but traditionally people have been so divisive in the lines in the sand.
00:30:20 Vanessa Alava
As to year end, production year, performer or you work in unscripted television, you work in scripted television, oh, you're an animation there.
00:30:28 Vanessa Alava
Have been so many divisions as to like what you can and can't do, and as creatives, that's so limiting.
00:30:35 Vanessa Alava
Umm, so I love that you're teaching these girls like the classes that you're adding into this program.
00:30:40 Vanessa Alava
Like the the directing for wait, acting for directing.
00:30:44 Vanessa Alava
Is that?
00:30:44 Vanessa Alava
Correct, like things like that where it's like expand your skills.
00:30:48 Vanessa Alava
The more skills you have, the better, and as an actress you should be able to create your own content because that's only going to add value to you.
00:30:56 Vanessa Alava
And eventually.
00:30:57 Vanessa Alava
You you will be able to create the stories you'd like.
00:31:01 Vanessa Alava
We are the prime example of that.
00:31:03 Vanessa Alava
That's what we wanted to do.
00:31:04 Vanessa Alava
We wanted to create opportunities for for ourselves on screen.
00:31:08 Vanessa Alava
We wanted to tell the stories from underrepresented voices.
00:31:10 Vanessa Alava
We're creating those stories, so the same should go for anybody in this creative field like don't feel limited and you're showing.
00:31:18 Vanessa Alava
Young girls that that you can do anything you can step behind the camera.
00:31:21 Vanessa Alava
You can be in.
00:31:22 Vanessa Alava
Front of the camera.
00:31:23 Vanessa Alava
You should.
00:31:23 Vanessa Alava
You should be able to do that and you should be exploring and adding to your resume, because the more you add, the better the better for you, the better opportunities are going to come and opportunities that you can create for yourself.
00:31:36 Kristi Ray
I agree, and I think part of the university system must be a little flawed if they're not promoting that you know it's.
00:31:42 Kristi Ray
It's like you have to choose a lane when you're when you're in film school and how will you know if you've never had a chance to ask questions in a safe environment and to touch the camera and learn about stop and like?
00:31:53 Kristi Ray
Learn about shutter speed and things like you don't want to be.
00:31:57 Kristi Ray
The gal in the back that's asking Ohh can you explain what that is when all the boys seem to like already know when they've had their hands on a camera before?
00:32:04 Kristi Ray
Or maybe they don't know, they just pretend like they do because they have this.
00:32:08 Kristi Ray
Like built in confidence, I think that the university system is a little bit flawed in that way, so we're just teaching them how we grew up learning, which was doing exactly what you're saying is just trying all the hats on and having a great appreciation for what other people bring to the table and and being able to relate to all different department heads.
00:32:28 Vanessa Alava
Absolutely well, I would love. We've we've mentioned the name a few times, a song for imaging, which is a film that you both worked on in 2022.
00:32:39 Vanessa Alava
Please share what that experience was like, what the kind of a a synopsis of the story and where we can potentially see it once it's completed.
00:32:50 Erika Arlee
Yeah, so a a song for imaging is a wonderful journey that started in 2015 as a short film that I wrote in this season.
00:33:01 Erika Arlee
Same season we've been talking about.
00:33:03 Erika Arlee
When Christy and I were really starved for roles that we felt inspired by.
00:33:08 Erika Arlee
And so.
00:33:09 Erika Arlee
I was when we really wanted to play on-screen sisters, so I wrote a short film for both of us that was set in the rural South.
00:33:16 Erika Arlee
It was 7 pages and we produced it. It was written in 2015. We produced it in 2017 and that was kind of it.
00:33:27 Erika Arlee
It was about two sisters who are grappling with, you know the passing of their mother, what to do with her estate and the older sister who Christy played is planning to sell the house and the property and then go move back with her boyfriend and it's alluded in the script that he's abusive but she's stuck in sort of this cycle.
00:33:48 Erika Arlee
Of abuse with him, it's alluded to.
00:33:49 Erika Arlee
The mother was abusive emotionally, so it's kind of talking about these these intrinsic issues that exist in rural communities, not just in the South, but you know across the country where people get stuck in these cycles of poverty, and they can't seem to free themselves.
00:34:05 Erika Arlee
And then with that could sometimes come cycles of abuse, whether it's emotional, physical, financial, any of these things and and people were.
00:34:16 Erika Arlee
Enthralled by the characters when they saw the finished film in festival circuit and kept asking when we were going to turn it into a feature film.
00:34:24 Erika Arlee
And at the time we didn't have any plans to.
00:34:27 Kristi Ray
We should.
00:34:28 Kristi Ray
Yeah, oh very buggy. So yeah, not even like you know thousand or $500.00. I mean it was no money at all and we had an amazing group of people from our five come out and help us direct and shoot and production manage.
00:34:44 Kristi Ray
You know the three person crew that made it possible and when we watched the film back, it's like buried in the vault.
00:34:50 Kristi Ray
You know we don't let people see it very often, but.
00:34:52 Erika Arlee
We watched it.
00:34:53 Erika Arlee
It's a little cringe.
00:34:54 Kristi Ray
They played it on NPR a couple weeks ago and they didn't tell us they're going to do it in the interview and like they just did the sound like it was like everyone listened, listened to.
00:35:03 Kristi Ray
This and like not the sound.
00:35:07 Kristi Ray
You know what are we recording on, like an H4 zoom and that was it.
00:35:11 Erika Arlee
And it was just yeah zoom but.
00:35:13 Kristi Ray
Yeah, back when you're just scrappy enough to tell a story so it was character driven in this way.
00:35:18 Kristi Ray
And when Erica says people were enthralled with the characters, they really were, they weren't necessarily enthralled with, you know, the production design, or like the.
00:35:27 Kristi Ray
Coloring it wasn't a perfect film, right?
00:35:29 Kristi Ray
But people cared so much about these two.
00:35:32 Kristi Ray
Women and it's our debut feature film now that film was called Lorelai and it's been turned into this feature length script.
00:35:40 Kristi Ray
Erica wrote in 2020 called a song for Imogene and she basically went back in time and and figured out the genesis of the short which is a slice of life. So instead of saying what happens next
00:35:52 Kristi Ray
She started the film with well, how did they get to this?
00:35:55 Kristi Ray
Point and brought in the back story and explored, you know, a lot of different themes of women's issues and how they're explored in the American South and these cycles of poverty and abuse. But also it's like it became this sister story of rekindling their adult relationship after so many years apart.
00:36:15 Kristi Ray
And so that's that's the part that's like, really fun and hopeful about the movie.
00:36:20 Kristi Ray
We were able to move into production this summer and we wrapped principal photography in 21 days. We started June 1st and we wrapped June 30th and right now Erica is working on the edit with our editor. They're already done with the first Assembly so we're on like a pretty quick timeline with post.
00:36:41 Kristi Ray
Like I said before, the the crew was.
00:36:44 Kristi Ray
70% women, which is incredible. All of our producers are females. Our financiers are females in North Carolina, so we have this like really amazing grassroots women LED movement and this story obviously centers around these two sisters. So it's it's something that.
00:37:02 Kristi Ray
Bleeds everything we talk about and we champion at Honey head.
00:37:05 Kristi Ray
But it's also like our baby.
00:37:07 Kristi Ray
We've been, we've been waiting and like building our brand for so long to be able to launch this project and Eric cause the writer, director and I played the lead character and I'm one of the producers on the project and I'm just like.
00:37:22 Kristi Ray
Always on Cloud 9, knowing that it finally happened.
00:37:25 Kristi Ray
You know to be working so long on a project like that.
00:37:29 Kristi Ray
It's like before the origin of honey head we we were just envisioning these characters and to see them fully fleshed out, and there's been like name changes and fun.
00:37:39 Kristi Ray
Developments along the way that have happened really, organically, but our our growing audience has really committed to, you know, celebrating this film with us and I'm excited about where it's going.
00:37:52 Kristi Ray
Do you want to talk?
00:37:52 Kristi Ray
About festivals for it.
00:37:55 Erika Arlee
Yeah, our plan is to have festival distribution next year in 2020.
00:37:59 Erika Arlee
Three, so we're targeting the film to be completed in like Feb late February, early March 2023 so that we can premiere it in the fall.
00:38:10 Sue Robinson
That's amazing, congratulations to you both that's and and we want to see it so keep us posted about it because it that's really awesome.
00:38:17 Vanessa Alava
Absolutely, and I think that we've obviously incorporated all of these themes into the main conversation here.
00:38:25 Vanessa Alava
But you know the season four for us on we get really F is highly leaning into, you know, impacts on society representation and why that matters.
00:38:37 Vanessa Alava
Can you both just give a piece of you?
00:38:40 Vanessa Alava
You know?
00:38:41 Vanessa Alava
Honey head and and when you say purpose driven like what does that mean for you?
00:38:45 Vanessa Alava
You know you're you've mentioned.
00:38:47 Vanessa Alava
Obviously women and the amazing programs you have, but why?
00:38:51 Vanessa Alava
Why does it matter?
00:38:53 Vanessa Alava
Why does it matter for you?
00:38:56 Vanessa Alava
You want.
00:38:57 Vanessa Alava
To do.
00:39:00 Kristi Ray
The big why for honey head?
00:39:05 Kristi Ray
I think permeates in.
00:39:09 Kristi Ray
Like a greater need for the world in this.
00:39:12 Kristi Ray
Way earlier, before we started recording, we're talking about.
00:39:17 Kristi Ray
The way that people are now picking up the pace and there's efforts around changing the landscape for women, and I think that when Eric and I started our company, we weren't really thinking about all that noise like the me too movement and the things hadn't happened and they hadn't taken off.
00:39:35 Kristi Ray
So the brand that we.
00:39:38 Kristi Ray
Sort of organically.
00:39:39 Kristi Ray
We built by just being ourselves in this way has become.
00:39:45 Kristi Ray
It's like in step with the way the world is going and so to me it always feels like.
00:39:51 Kristi Ray
You're building this female filmmaker empire and all it's doing is permeating and creating opportunities.
00:39:57 Kristi Ray
This this motto of lifting while climbing is something that we champion with everything that we're doing so with.
00:40:05 Kristi Ray
With our feature film with the shoe like a girls summer camp with our mentorship programs with the work that we set out to you know, influence other people who hire us.
00:40:15 Kristi Ray
How can we extend this opportunity and and create more roles for women behind the scenes?
00:40:20 Kristi Ray
I think that.
00:40:21 Kristi Ray
It's it's just the bigger why you know when you're a creative person, it's hard to find motivation, self motivation sometimes.
00:40:29 Kristi Ray
And if you are working towards a bigger goal and a bigger purpose, that's.
00:40:33 Kristi Ray
Just more of intrinsic motivation to do good in the world and.
00:40:38 Kristi Ray
To have.
00:40:39 Kristi Ray
A greater impact than just being a creative person who's putting out a product for people.
00:40:44 Kristi Ray
I think living in like a.
00:40:47 Kristi Ray
A world where we're just inundated with media and people are just constantly producing.
00:40:51 Kristi Ray
It's hard to feel like you're not always in the rat race of trying to keep up.
00:40:55 Kristi Ray
So having a greater purpose that we you know it's like it's not like we.
00:41:00 Kristi Ray
Sat down and decided like strategized about it.
00:41:03 Kristi Ray
Well if we create a brand that people care about and we you know do all this for women like people will invest in our work.
00:41:09 Kristi Ray
That wasn't the goal.
00:41:11 Kristi Ray
It's like it just happened organically.
00:41:13 Kristi Ray
So it's like in the heartbeat of what we do.
00:41:15 Kristi Ray
It's hard to really articulate, but I think that kind of sums.
00:41:18 Kristi Ray
It up for me.
00:41:19 Vanessa Alava
Yeah, I think it's about.
00:41:20 Erika Arlee
Making space at the table.
00:41:21 Erika Arlee
For yourself, because we realized very early on, no one was going to do it for us, and there needed to be a change.
00:41:29 Erika Arlee
That's definitely how my perspective is I wanted.
00:41:34 Erika Arlee
To do all these things and.
00:41:37 Erika Arlee
And just needed to learn how to do everything.
00:41:40 Erika Arlee
Basically I was like well.
00:41:42 Erika Arlee
If it's going to take making a making a film in order to see myself, you know and Christy and anyone else in roles that we actually want to be in and be able to to do the things we want to be doing, then we.
00:41:57 Erika Arlee
Then we're not going to be able to just go around and wait for someone to cast us.
00:42:01 Erika Arlee
Say it's like being an actor.
00:42:03 Erika Arlee
And you're waiting for someone to cast you. And no one's no one's just gonna like miraculously you know.
00:42:10 Erika Arlee
Give you a handout in this way, so just trying to figure out how to make it for yourself, and that's where all the hat wearing all the hats sort of came from was from.
00:42:21 Erika Arlee
Saying OK, well if I want to make a film I'm gonna have to write a film I'm gonna have to direct it sometimes shoot it and then learn how to edit it and then figure out where it goes afterwards.
00:42:32 Erika Arlee
So this the self-taught mentality came from kind of like.
00:42:35 Erika Arlee
Elbowing our way into the a seat at the table and then realizing.
00:42:41 Erika Arlee
It doesn't have to be this hard for other people.
00:42:43 Erika Arlee
You know if we just set an example, then we can make it easier for other other women you know and other people who haven't.
00:42:50 Erika Arlee
Traditionally, you know felt like they had a voice in media and we can be the people that can turn around and hold the door open so that other people don't have to.
00:43:01 Erika Arlee
Necessarily do it that way because not everyone you know.
00:43:04 Erika Arlee
Lives with their friends when they're in their early 20s and pays like a small rent.
00:43:08 Erika Arlee
And so they can afford to have like a small part time job and do what we were able to do.
00:43:13 Erika Arlee
Not everyone, always.
00:43:14 Erika Arlee
Has that sort of life opportunity that we had that allowed us to incubate a brand like that and to do work for free and to produce narrative content in that way so.
00:43:26 Erika Arlee
It's important, I think, to just remember that and remember that the work you do.
00:43:31 Erika Arlee
If you worked hard, you shouldn't breed.
00:43:34 Erika Arlee
Resentment and the mindset shouldn't be Oh well, now they have to work hard because I had to work hard.
00:43:39 Erika Arlee
It's like I worked hard to make it easier for other people so that you know there can be more familiar faces with with us the next time we produce something.
00:43:49 Sue Robinson
There's this expression, you know, be the change that you want to see in the world, and I feel like the two of you are really walking that.
00:43:55 Sue Robinson
And that's what Vanessa and I are trying to do as well.
00:43:57 Sue Robinson
And also I feel like sometimes.
00:44:01 Sue Robinson
It's so hard to get inside a company or inside a production.
00:44:05 Sue Robinson
The production industry, an existing entity and try to change it from within.
00:44:09 Sue Robinson
And sometimes you just have to step outside and and create something of your own and then other people who share your values values will be attracted to you and you can grow sometimes a lot quicker and make more of an impact.
00:44:23 Sue Robinson
More quickly than going in and slogging through trying to make that space at the table as you were describing.
00:44:30 Sue Robinson
You know you've done so much over the past several years since you you founded since you met each other, which was back in was.
00:44:36 Sue Robinson
It 2000 what year was that?
00:44:38 Kristi Ray
We met in 2015 and we first short film as Honey Head in late 2016, so it's been, you know, going on 6 or I guess seven years, yeah?
00:44:49 Sue Robinson
So my thought is, as you look back over that 6 to 7 years and you sort of take that 30,000 foot view, how do you feel each of you has?
00:44:58 Sue Robinson
What's the biggest change that you've seen in yourself?
00:45:01 Sue Robinson
Over that time.
00:45:04 Kristi Ray
Ohh, I think.
00:45:07 Kristi Ray
I think about the 30,000 foot view I haven't thought about like the change in myself yet, so I'm gonna have to like something.
00:45:12 Kristi Ray
Will come to me maybe as I ramble, but the 30,000 foot view is really interesting and I think it's important for people listening to know that there was no master plan and that sometimes that's OK to not know where you're going maybe?
00:45:27 Kristi Ray
Something sorry about the lawn noise.
00:45:30 Kristi Ray
They're cutting the lawn outside.
00:45:31 Kristi Ray
If y'all can hear that.
00:45:33 Vanessa Alava
No problem, it's all good.
00:45:34 Kristi Ray
Maybe something that I've seen in myself is the ability to have a little bit more of.
00:45:42 Kristi Ray
Perspective of direction and to be able to sit down and think well where do we want to be going and how do we get there?
00:45:49 Kristi Ray
So strategy maybe strategizing and not winging it as much.
00:45:54 Kristi Ray
I think a lot of really great things came from winging it, but I do feel that we're both a little bit more disciplined in like knowing that.
00:46:02 Kristi Ray
Now we have all these tools and we have this platform.
00:46:05 Kristi Ray
What are we going to do with it?
00:46:06 Kristi Ray
Because it's obviously going to come back tenfold and boomerang around to work for us because we sacrificed so much to make it happen.
00:46:14 Kristi Ray
So maybe that's something that's just another.
00:46:18 Erika Arlee
I think I started out in the capacity of just.
00:46:23 Erika Arlee
Throwing cast in a very wide net and you know wanting to be able to do everything so that because so that I could just know what it could happen, whether that was, you know, for honey head or for someone else.
00:46:37 Erika Arlee
I just wanted to have all the skill sets.
00:46:38 Erika Arlee
Technical skill sets that I could in order to know that a project could happen, and you know whether or not.
00:46:46 Erika Arlee
You know that's shooting editing, you know, writing, directing, whatever it was.
00:46:49 Erika Arlee
I just wanted to be able to know that it could happen, and that I couldn't wouldn't have to rely on other people in order to make it happen, cause that's had that had been.
00:46:58 Erika Arlee
My experience was that I couldn't necessarily rely on people you know to to prioritize.
00:47:05 Erika Arlee
Something, especially was a passion project, so I think.
00:47:08 Erika Arlee
On mindset shift for me.
00:47:09 Erika Arlee
I was I.
00:47:10 Erika Arlee
Was learning OK.
00:47:11 Erika Arlee
I'm I've developed a skill set in all these different areas, but what do I really want to be doing and how do I learn to say no?
00:47:19 Erika Arlee
And how do I learn to accept help from other people who might be really passionate about post production?
00:47:25 Erika Arlee
And I just because I?
00:47:27 Erika Arlee
I'm a good editor, doesn't mean that I necessarily want to edit all the time, and so where?
00:47:33 Erika Arlee
How can I?
00:47:33 Erika Arlee
Identify people who enjoy this aspect of something and empower them to do it. You know and Createspace for them so that I can keep you know, narrowing in my focus in order to grow. Because when you're spread so thin, you can't.
00:47:49 Erika Arlee
You can't move forward because you're just using in all these different directions so that those like you need to be able to control that energy.
00:47:57 Erika Arlee
You know, instead of spreading yourself out so much, you know.
00:47:59 Erika Arlee
So I think in order to grow the company, there was a need to center in on what it is I actually wanted to be doing.
00:48:07 Erika Arlee
As a creative person, not just.
00:48:09 Erika Arlee
What could I do, but what did I want to be doing?
00:48:12 Erika Arlee
I think that like I think that's the big focus of, I think.
00:48:16 Erika Arlee
If I jump up to 30,000 feet and look.
00:48:18 Erika Arlee
Down I think.
00:48:19 Kristi Ray
That marries what I, what I kind of pulled away to that narrowing in, and that like saying, no thanks.
00:48:25
And then.
00:48:27 Kristi Ray
We don't want to shoot your real estate video just purpose driven so we don't need that job.
00:48:34 Kristi Ray
That's OK, something it will like.
00:48:36 Kristi Ray
Be an opportunity to open the door for something else, and trusting that that strategy is like, OK, you got to kind of jump off the Cliff and be, you know.
00:48:45 Kristi Ray
Willing to say no to things that aren't that aren't part of like the bigger vision.
00:48:50 Vanessa Alava
You know, and it's hard.
00:48:51 Vanessa Alava
I mean, it's easier said than done sometimes, especially you know.
00:48:54 Vanessa Alava
Again, because finances money is a thing, right?
00:48:57 Vanessa Alava
I mean, it's not.
00:48:58 Vanessa Alava
That's part of these conversations of like I want to be doing something that fulfills, you know my.
00:49:05 Vanessa Alava
My passion and it's needed in the world, but I also need to live and pay my bills so that's easier said than done.
00:49:13 Vanessa Alava
So kudos to you for doing that, because that's something that Sue and I are constantly like, OK?
00:49:17 Vanessa Alava
Say we want to be doing amazing projects and we want to be doing things that are purpose driven.
00:49:23 Vanessa Alava
So even though something might have, you know dollar signs attached to it, does it align?
00:49:28 Vanessa Alava
Does it?
00:49:29 Vanessa Alava
Does it come back to the mission and and sometimes if it doesn't, it's making that decision to say, OK well we need to move on and the right thing will come at the right time.
00:49:38 Vanessa Alava
When it's supposed to.
00:49:40 Sue Robinson
Right?
00:49:41 Vanessa Alava
Go ahead.
00:49:41 Sue Robinson
I was just going to add, you know, the other thing that you all mentioned that I think is a key take away, especially for anybody with a creative brain out there is.
00:49:49 Sue Robinson
We're curious and we want to learn how to do all the things and there is a time in your business and in your career where you kind of do have to be a Jill of all trades, but it's allowing yourself.
00:50:01 Sue Robinson
To your point.
00:50:02 Sue Robinson
To narrow that down so that you can get momentum.
00:50:05 Sue Robinson
I love that you use the word.
00:50:06 Sue Robinson
Ooze because I think.
00:50:08 Sue Robinson
It's true if you stay in that spot where you're trying to do all the things and be an expert at all of them.
00:50:12 Sue Robinson
You really don't ever get a chance to master any of them thoroughly, and you rob yourself of that momentum that is so critical to having any kind of creative and business success.
00:50:21 Sue Robinson
So I I just wanted.
00:50:22 Sue Robinson
To call that up as well.
00:50:25 Vanessa Alava
And I think also going back to like choosing projects.
00:50:28 Vanessa Alava
It's also choosing who you want to work with, right?
00:50:31 Vanessa Alava
You know, like just finding people.
00:50:33 Vanessa Alava
That are that have this energy that you do that have the same values that that have the vision and end goal, potentially of like the type of content they're creating and and those are few and far between, especially in this industry where so many people are trying to make an impression and sometimes.
00:50:54 Vanessa Alava
Lose themselves in that you know, because they're trying to fit themselves to a mold that someone else already has created in their brain, and they're trying to manipulate themselves versus really staying true to themselves.
00:51:05 Vanessa Alava
So I think that there's a lot of power that comes with, again, creating your own content, taking the reins and saying.
00:51:12 Vanessa Alava
And these are the people that get it.
00:51:15 Vanessa Alava
You know, these are the people that are not trying to be somebody else.
00:51:17 Vanessa Alava
These are the people that really want to be the movers and shakers and really disrupt things in a positive way versus doing something that everyone else is trying to do and chase after that, because that will eventually go away or not be in anymore.
00:51:32 Vanessa Alava
To your point, like earlier Christy, you were mentioning that you know this.
00:51:37 Vanessa Alava
You were doing this before.
00:51:38 Vanessa Alava
It was, you know.
00:51:40 Vanessa Alava
Trendy if you will.
00:51:41 Vanessa Alava
You know for all intents and purposes and soon I had that conversation too.
00:51:43
Leave it.
00:51:45 Vanessa Alava
You know, like before it was like out there like we were just wanting to do something that was putting positive things into the world.
00:51:51 Vanessa Alava
Things that needed to to be in existence that that weren't or they were far and few between.
00:51:57 Vanessa Alava
So I think that there's something to be said for that as well.
00:52:01 Vanessa Alava
Again, you guys are are doing.
00:52:02 Vanessa Alava
It we're we're so excited.
00:52:04 Vanessa Alava
To be, you know, in each other's networks and just have.
00:52:09 Vanessa Alava
Amazing women that are supporting each other and pulling up chairs to the table versus, you know, seeing competition and saying no.
00:52:18 Vanessa Alava
You know, because again, that's another thing that comes up in this industry far too much, so it's just so refreshing to to meet people that are in that like minded space.
00:52:29 Sue Robinson
We appreciate your time today.
00:52:30 Sue Robinson
Is there anything else you all want to add before we let you get back to your?
00:52:33
OK.
00:52:34 Kristi Ray
Just just be on the lookout when we bring.
00:52:36 Kristi Ray
She like a girl your way we'd love for you to be.
00:52:38 Kristi Ray
Involved, we definitely.
00:52:40 Sue Robinson
Absolutely yeah, that sounds so fun.
00:52:42 Vanessa Alava
Purple ladder
00:52:44 Sue Robinson
That would.
00:52:45 Sue Robinson
Be so fun.
00:52:45 Sue Robinson
I would love to.
00:52:46 Vanessa Alava
Do that, yes, absolutely.
00:52:48 Vanessa Alava
We're moms at the end of the day too, so you know Sue has three granddaughters.
00:52:51 Vanessa Alava
I have two two young children.
00:52:53 Vanessa Alava
One is a.
00:52:54 Vanessa Alava
Fearless 5 year old little girl and I have a 2 year old son coming up next month and it's just as important for me to show him how women should be treated and that they're equal and all the things that we empower our young girls with so count us in, we're we're there.
00:53:13 Sue Robinson
Absolutely 100%.
00:53:14 Vanessa Alava
Thank you so much ladies and oh, before we go.
00:53:16
Thank you.
00:53:17 Vanessa Alava
I am so sorry.
00:53:18 Vanessa Alava
Please let people know how they can reach out to you because again, I love how accessible you both are.
00:53:23 Vanessa Alava
If they want to learn more about you and connect with you, where do.
00:53:29 Kristi Ray
Definitely encourage people to visit our website honeyheadfilms.com and we're all over social media at honey head films on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook.
00:53:41 Kristi Ray
TikTok, what are the things we're not really on YouTube? Also, if you're interested in learning more about she's like a girl.
00:53:49 Kristi Ray
You can go to shootlikeagirl.info and there's an interest list. We'd be very happy for anyone you know whether or not you're in North Carolina, whether or not you have a child in high school or you are a high schooler, or you just want to be involved, maybe you're an actor, you're a crew member, and you you, you know you want to get on the mailing list. We have a database of growing.
00:54:09 Kristi Ray
Interested partners and people who.
00:54:12 Kristi Ray
You know have reached out a lot of.
00:54:14 Kristi Ray
People, adult women have said, are you ever going to do this for adults?
00:54:19 Kristi Ray
I would do a weekend workshop in a heartbeat, so all of that is kind of changing and morphing. How we approach the business so shootlikeagirl.info you can register for after school classes. If you're here in Wilmington and if not you can join our interest list.
00:54:32 Erika Arlee
And imaging has a website as well. Yeah yeah. Imagingmovie.com or at imaging movie on Instagram if you wanna follow the journey of the feature film and hear about.
00:54:42 Erika Arlee
How things are going and see some behind the scenes and catch any anything we've released.
00:54:48 Erika Arlee
We're we're working on our distro and marketing strategy right now, so you can kind of stay tuned to to those platforms to learn.
00:54:55 Erika Arlee
More about that.
00:54:57 Sue Robinson
We are looking forward to seeing all the amazing things that you 2 ladies will continue to achieve in the future and we really appreciate.
00:55:03 Sue Robinson
Your time with.
00:55:03 Vanessa Alava
Us today thank you.