Creative Connections: Trust, Collaboration, and Seizing Opportunities with Zina Wilde

Ever wondered how to build a filmmaking team that feels like family? Listen to our conversation with the talented Zina, known for her captivating roles in "Billions" and "80 for Brady," as she reveals her journey of forming a trusted network in the indie film scene. Zina opens up about her beginnings in writing shorts and the serendipitous connections made through her then-boyfriend, a filmmaker. She emphasizes the importance of mutual support and trust.

Join us as we navigate the gritty reality of shooting a web series without permits in Brooklyn, finding creative solutions under street lights and store displays. We draw insightful parallels to similar filmmaking adventures in Seattle, highlighting the true essence of organic community-building over forced networking. Plus, hear a charming story of reconnecting with a music video director from England through social media, proving that global connections can enrich your filmmaking journey. Tune in for an episode brimming with stories of collaboration, trust, and seizing opportunities in the world of indie film.

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A Podcast for Indie Filmmakers

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YT: Cinematography for Actors

In the world of social media, and fast-paced journalism, knowledge is abound. But with all the noise, finding the right information is near impossible. Especially if you’re a creative working in independent film.

Produced by Cinematography For Actors, the Indiewood podcast aims to fix that. This is a podcast about indie filmmakers and the many hats we wear in order to solve problems before, during, and after production.

Every month, award-winning Writer/Director Yaroslav Altunin is joined by a different guest co-host to swap hats, learn about the different aspects of the film industry, and how to implement all you learn into your work.

"We learn from indie filmmakers so we can become better filmmakers. Because we all want to be Hollywood, but first we have to be Indiewood."

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

Welcome back to the IndieWood podcast. This is a podcast where we talk about independent film, how to make independent movies With me today I have a really special guest, a good friend of mine. She spent nine years on a TV show called Billions playing Helena. She was recently in a film called 80 for Brady and now she is going up for a leading role in a show in Greece. But she's also been a part of my filmmaking community. Zina was also playing a role in a web series I did ages ago and is making her own shorts as a writer and as an actor and as a producer in those shorts. Zena, welcome, thank you for having me. You're welcome. Yeah, no, thank you for being on the pod.

Speaker 1: 1:14

I'm always happy to have friends on and someone who is aware of many hats, because sometimes you bring someone on, they're like, oh, I just do one thing and I'm like like, and what are the hats to wear? Like, no, no, just the one thing, but I want to wear other hats, um, and so right now you just wrapped a short film and we were talking about, you know, having you on the pod and like what we talk about and what we discuss and I think the coolest thing that I like about your experience in the film industry is your ability to network. You have this really cool group of people that you can tap into that you've nurtured and kind of found over the course of your career. And I guess I want to talk about finding your team. You know the people you work with and then trusting your team, because I think those are two very important things. And so for this film, you're working with a group of people that you've worked with quite a bit, quite a bit, yeah yeah. How did you meet them?

Speaker 2: 2:04

So it's a really interesting story because this goes back to, like I want to say, nine years now. So when I was lucky enough to get on the show, to get on Billions, and I started having a little bit more of flexibility with my life, my schedule and all that and some momentum, I decided because my role was so small. I was like I just want to be able to use that and amplify it. So then I took the time that I was on set and I wasn't doing anything or I was not needed or whatever, to write things. And then I just even though I was like I don't think I can write things, everyone was like you should write your own stuff. I was like I have no idea how to do that. And then I remember I had a friend that was waiting tables and he was a writer and I was like can you write something for me? And he's like you should write it, you should write it for you. And I was like I don't understand, I don't, I'm not a writer, I can't do it. He's like no, no, no, you just sit down and you write, and then that's how it goes, and then you'll see. And then I kind of got exasperated. I was like I'm just going to try it.

Speaker 2: 3:25

And then I did, and then I started writing these shorts and then I was my boyfriend at the time was also a filmmaker and he kind of had a group of people that was like really close to and he's like no, we can do this, we can make, we can make it happen for like very little or for you know, just for fun. And this is what it was really just for fun and practice. So during this process I started writing nonstop and I started I really was into making things. I just somehow I met these people through him at the time because they were all working as like they all did lighting together and so they were in that world, and especially my good friend, jack Sherman, who is my cinematographer that I worked with for all these years and I think we've done, I think, 15 short films. Wow, I didn't know it was that many, it was a lot, it's a lot.

Speaker 2: 4:25

It was just that it was, so he had his own people and then we all kind of gelled together and then we stuck to each other, and then that was the thing that I realized that made the best team that Once you find the people that you love, you stick with them and you do things for them. You scratch their back, they scratch your back, and that's how it works. It's literally like a community and a family, and we've both helped each other out many, many times.

Speaker 1: 4:55

I met Jack once on the short you did previous to this, I think, or was it before yeah, yeah, with Sarah, yes, yeah, and it was fun to see him just show up, pull a camera bag out of his car and then, like two other guys show up and they pull like lighting, and then you know, camera, camera accessories out of their car and then they just get together and shoot and they've been working together for a long time and and what really didn't surprise me, but what really kind of solidified the idea of finding your team and trusting your team, is that they all have found a way to not only help each other but, like, be there for each other.

Speaker 1: 5:34

So if Jack has a project, the two buds show up. If one of the buds named Cody, who's a great guy, if he has a project, you know Jack and, I'm sorry, the other guy's name I can't remember Pete Pete shows up, and so it's this trifecta of folks helping each other. And it's so important because I find that you know, and maybe this was your experience at the beginning you write something, you make something you're like OK, make it Absolutely no-transcript if you don't luck out to get a Jack, because, it's true, like he is special, he is very good at what he does, or I got really lucky.

Speaker 2: 6:37

I completely understand that. But I think that any set that any actor finds themselves on, they can calibrate and see who is my person here. Be flexible. Flexibility is huge because I think people get so scared and they are too worried that they're going to mess up. But just be of service and then I think that that's how it worked out for me. I just wanted to make sure that I have a good time, because really it's about that. Like we're not bankers, we're not doing this to, we're not saving the world, you know, yeah, it's just, it's have a good time.

Speaker 1: 7:15

Although I will say, on some level, I think art does save the world, absolutely. Yeah, so maybe we are saving the world.

Speaker 2: 7:21

It's true. It save the world, absolutely. Yeah, so maybe we are saving the world, it's true. It's like I just heard this earth without art is, eh, and I was like that's awesome, that's really funny. Okay, yeah, so you know, I totally, and it's what you were saying. That like, if Cody has a project, then Jack is on it and Pete is on it. If I would never do one without asking those three dudes first.

Speaker 1: 7:43

That's really cool. I like that and I want to add to that because I tried to do that when I first got to Los Angeles to build this network of people because I had it in Seattle and then I moved to Arizona and then I had it in Arizona and then I moved to Los Angeles and I don't think it translated.

Speaker 1: 7:59

I think the people that I met in those respective places stayed there and when I got here, it took me a while to find my people and even now I think it's still hard. Sometimes I really have a hard time. If I need someone specific for a specific thing, I really have to dig through my community. But what I ran into and I don't know if this is your experience is I'll meet a group of people and then they'll just leave. Not like me, yeah, Like oh, I'm breaking up, we're leaving, it was. You know. They'll move overseas. They'll move, They'll switch career, Sure.

Speaker 1: 8:33

Yeah, it happens all the time it happens and it sucks, because I don't want people to get discouraged because, having been in Los Angeles for a decade while those, I think, I went through one, two, maybe three groups before I found, like this core group of people. What I've noticed is that this core group of people is made up of folks from all those groups, you know. So it takes time and effort and it's not really about like, hey, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. It's about building friendships, it's loyalty.

Speaker 2: 9:03

Yeah, it's loyalty, it's, and it's it really is, it has I say this about everything in my life that it has to be a win. Win, like that's the thing that I think is the most important in terms of like every relationship has to have, has to be a win, because otherwise one source gets depleted and that doesn't work.

Speaker 1: 9:25

And that's been. I think I had a moment like that where I showed up for someone's spec, I put in effort and I put in the time, but I wasn't reciprocated. And I felt like I was being hired for you know, as hands, but I wasn't getting paid for a particular spec. And then you, you know that was it.

Speaker 2: 9:44

Yeah, and that's why that doesn't work. But in a way, the good thing with that is that you find out through that experience. Oh, that's not my person yeah and I think that that's the positive. The contrast shows you I've also been for all the jacks that for you, the one Jack that I've met, there's been hundreds of other people. Yeah, not that, and it wasn't my people.

Speaker 1: 10:11

It's interesting you say that it does take hundreds of people. I mean, maybe that's an exaggeration for some and for others it's on point. It does take a long time and an effort. It's like dating, Of course. Sometimes you find the right one right out the gate and you work with them. You know from grad school or from film school, and sometimes you go through dozens of Absolutely, until you find that right person.

Speaker 2: 10:32

And you just have to keep trying until you find your group, your team, and once you have them, just go back to them. That's what I think is the most important, because that's where the loyalty and the trust plays, because then, as you grow, they grow and then you know, maybe you start without anybody making money and then you grow to like I'll pay you a little bit of money and then you grow into like I'll pay you your full rate and then you grow into making something great that is doing fantastic yeah, then you're not worrying about rating anymore.

Speaker 1: 11:04

Exactly, you're worrying about the crowd.

Speaker 2: 11:07

And then you've just like gone, you know, together, and I think that that's really wonderful.

Speaker 1: 11:12

When you found your team, your community. How do you trust? Because sometimes you know there are filmmakers who have their people but they maybe are too stuck to their own kind of perspective, their own way of doing things and they maybe not trust. They don't trust the people they're working with, even though that they go to them all the time because you know that's their people. You know they don't maybe trust. How do you trust or how did you kind of develop that trust? Was it more of letting go or was it, you know, something you developed over time?

Speaker 2: 11:45

To be honest, this is something that I'm really focusing in my life in general. Right now it's instinct, Like if your gut feeling tells you oh no, this person I can trust. Filmmaking is a collaborative project. It doesn't matter what I have on the page.

Speaker 3: 12:01

It doesn't, matter what.

Speaker 2: 12:02

I have on the page. What's most interesting to me is how we all put it together how the actor will see it, how the cinematographer will see it, how the director will see it, how I will see it as a writer. And then putting it together and then just making a salad of this whole thing and like, how is that salad going to balance and just being so. I mean, I know, and maybe that's just how I do things, but I'm really interested in community and I'm really interested in collaboration. I'm not so interested in oh, this is my vision, this is what I had. That's great for a bunch of amazing directors, but I'm also not a director, so kudos to them for doing that.

Speaker 2: 12:43

But I really enjoy the process of flexibility, of adjusting, because to me that's really it's like a dance, it's like, okay, I will go this way, you will intuitively know how to go that way, and it really jazzes me up Like that's really cool, I find. So, instead of, this is my vision and I got to do this. So I think it's instinct, it's trust, like if you know from the start that you're like oof, my gut feelings tell me that something's off, something's off. So trust it, you don't. That's the thing that I've learned now, later in life that I had to see it play out, and now I'm like I don't really need to see it play out anymore, I just can.

Speaker 1: 13:31

I have something your gut can tell you. Yeah, and it's interesting you say that because I think I've been thinking about this quite a bit how do you like when people are starting out, how do they get to where we are? And I think it just takes time. There's so many parts of this craft, this industry, that we want to just fly right past because it feels scary or boring or uncertain. Yes, past because it feels scary or boring or uncertain. Yes, we want to get to the end where we're making stuff. But you know, sometimes you have to put in that time to build friendships, to build a community, so you can have people you can rely on, like a cinematographer, like, um, you know, a sound person, or someone who can light your scene, or actors, for example. You, you know, uh, I, I. When we first met, we were shooting our web series in in, in the middle of the street.

Speaker 1: 14:15

So, fun, I don't know. I mean, I don't want to house myself. I guess I don't want Brooklyn to come back and be like, hey, you owe us the permits Because we didn't get permits, that's okay. We were just like, hey, we're going to go out on the street and people were worried about that and we just showed up wherever and we shot and then no one cared, which is. It felt very much like seattle, which was we did back in 2005, and that's where we met, that's where we met and, yeah, you know, to this day it's one of my favorite scenes in my reel.

Speaker 2: 14:42

I love it, I love it so much and everyone that I showed so they're like what is this program? It's so funny, that's so cool I remember writing it.

Speaker 1: 14:51

Well, sarah wrote it. I kind of just jazzed it up a little bit. When we were shooting it, our team who, speaking of you know, not trusting your instincts, they were really kind of pushing back on, like, how are we going to light it? It's Brooklyn at night, you know, and this is a person who was, you know, adamant that we get an Alexa, and we only had a Sony, and I think everything kind of came together because the Sony had a really high ISO at the time. I think it was a Sony F5. So we could shoot with a little darker. Sure, we could shoot with, you know, lights that were off the street, and we did. We went next to a giant store, I remember, yeah, that had a giant like display of purses, giant display of purses, and that's what we shot. We utilized the store lighting right as they closed, and it was a lot of fun and that was a great scene. So I guess you can't do it on your own. You've got to find your people and we are each other's people.

Speaker 3: 15:46

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 15:47

I think in the future we'll do a whole lot more stuff. 100%, find your people and find the trust. Sometimes it might not work because sometimes you might have to go through a gazillion people to find your people. Yeah, but yeah, find your clan, your community.

Speaker 2: 16:03

And I think you know, obviously this is like whatever, it's a little woo woo, but I do think that the best way to find your people is to let it happen organically. So do what you do, be who you are. You can be in a coffee shop and find your people, like sometimes pressuring so much to be like I'm gonna go to these network events and do this and do that, and it just kind of backfires. Not that it can't work like that, but I do think that when you're aligned and when you can be walking down the street, walking your dog, whatever, and you start talking to this person and that's your person.

Speaker 1: 16:43

Well, you know, it's interesting because in Los Angeles, in New York, that's correct, Sure, but in Oklahoma and Wisconsin that's so hard to find True. We recently, Sarah and I Sarah's my partner and wife and producer and actress, so she's kind of my community as well and that's how we met for those who weren't listening, five minutes ago, we did. We were judges for a 48-hour film festival in Wisconsin Wow, the first of its kind in that like small town.

Speaker 2: 17:17

And I want to say that, you know, people think that LA and New York are the hubs and they are for the industry, but there are filmmakers everywhere 100% here, and you know, I mean not to be a little whatever, but just because of reality, like I think that in places like Wisconsin they probably are a little more sincere, yeah, a little more eager, yeah, yeah, yeah, a little more willing, and that goes a long way and there's a lot of creativity there.

Speaker 1: 17:45

Yeah, if you've ever seen a 48-hour film festival, they're not maybe like the best film, sure, you know if we're thinking about films in general, but there's a lot of passion, sure, and there was one film that I think for me, sparked a lot of joy and a lot of like ooh, like there's something there. It didn't win any of the main prizes because I don't think it met the certain criteria, but it won the certain criteria, but it won the audience award. That's awesome. And I remember when all the judges were kind of meeting, when we were meeting, we talked about this film and I championed it. I was like I think there's something here and it won the audience award. That's great and it was such a cool film. So I hope that the people in Wisconsin and they trust each other and I think it was just a guy directing it and it was his sister and his best friend and they were like in high school.

Speaker 2: 18:36

And you know now that you say that I'm also thinking. One of the cool parts of this living in this day and age is that you find someone that inspires, you Write to them on Instagram and write to them and message them, and then start having a conversation, even on Zoom or whatever, and then you don't even have to live in the same spot.

Speaker 1: 18:55

I did that. I did that last year. I never used to do that, but I found there's an old music video that one of my favorite songs called Can Do it by Atu A-T-U, and this music video was really great. It was weird but I loved it. It kind of fit all my criteria for creative things, and this gentleman named Sam shot it. This was 10 years ago, and so I found him on Instagram a year ago and I go hey, did you do this music video? And he goes oh my God, that's a blast from the past. And so we just connected and we chatted for a little bit and he's in England and I'm here and we're connected now.

Speaker 2: 19:32

I think that's the best thing. I mean, if we're going to be, you know, taking down the future and the internet and AI, we might as well use it for the good things that it has, and that is, we're all very connected and it's not that hard to find people anymore, and I think that that's a huge blessing. So, yeah, like it doesn't matter where you live, like you can live wherever under a rock, and as long as you have Wi-Fi, you can connect to anybody and then start Zooming with them and developing ideas, and then you can just meet for a couple of days and film something.

Speaker 1: 20:06

Yeah, yeah, so, and with phones, what they are, I think, between cell phones, social media, which can be very bad, but also very good, very good sometimes. Yeah, and like Frameio, which you know is very affordable, you can make a film. Yes, a good one.

Speaker 2: 20:21

Yes, like Tangerine was all filmed on a phone years ago, iphone 5, yeah, yes.

Speaker 1: 20:27

And then Steven Soderbergh did a bunch of films on an iPhone. Unsane was one of them and I mean, come on, you compare it to, like I don't know, any cinema camera. Yeah, you're going to be able to see a difference, but I mean, a lot of films that were my favorite films weren't shot on dedicated cinema cameras 28 Days Later, shot on a consumer camcorder, totally. There was another one, finding Kate or something, I forget it was with Katie Holmes, tom Cruise's ex-wife. Yeah, katie Holmes, yeah, she was in it, and they shot it on a camcorder. That's amazing, and it was a theatrical release. Both those films were theatrical releases. So the technology's there, we're all connected. Use it to positivity, find your people, trust your people, but it's going to take a long time. Xena, thank you, we'll see you next week.

Speaker 2: 21:16

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 21:18

Thank you for listening to the IndieWood Podcast. You can find us on anywhere you find your podcasts and on Instagram at IndieWoodPod. See you next time.

Speaker 3: 21:24

From the CFA Network. Cinematography for Actors is bridging the gap through education and community building. Find out about us and listen to our other podcast at cinematographyforactorscom. Cinematography for Actors Institute is a 501c3 nonprofit. For more information on fiscal sponsorship donations because we're tax exempt now, so it's a tax write-off and upcoming education, you can email us at contactatcinematographyforactorscom. Thanks,