Producers Eva Longoria and Charles D. King shared their frustrations today at the Produced By conference, relating that studios tell them they looked for diverse crew members, but couldn’t find any.
MACRO CEO King and UnbeliEVAble Entertainment founder Longoria said they are creating a database of diverse talent they can present to studios when faced with that question.“We have to do the work,” Longoria said at a keynote talk for the Produced By conference. “Every time I produce something, I bring my crew list.”Longoria and King said they share the list amongst each other, and with other filmmakers like Ava DuVernay.
DuVernay has gone a step further, creating the Array Crew database, accessible by studios.Even with a list of resumes, Longoria said producers must advocate for talent to get a chance.
Longoria is directing the movie Flamin’ Hot for Searchlight Pictures. She was met with resistance against hiring cinematographer Federico Cantini for his first feature film.“They kept saying he never has done a movie of this size,” Longoria said. “I said, ‘I haven’t done a movie this size.’ You haven’t done it until you’ve done it.
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