Happy Friday, Dear Listener!

For many of us, 2024 was a wild rollercoaster ride. I hope you enjoyed the wind in your hair and didn’t get too nauseous along the way. Soooo, let’s take a deep breath and look forward with optimism. The new year is like an unopened gift; it’s full of potential, surprises, and maybe even a little bit of glitter…and while the glitter may be impossible to vacuum, who doesn’t love a bit of sparkle?

If you had to sum up your year in one image, what would it be?

Mine is the artwork below. It perfectly captures my year of birthing humans, ideas, projects, and somehow keeping them all alive.

These anonymous artworks from 200-1150 AD were found in the American Southwest and believed to be made by women. How much of our contributions are anonymous, amirite? But that’s another post for another day…

This week, Fassa Sar, founder of Callo, stopped by the pod to share her insights on attending Content London. You may recognize Fassa’s name from the dinner celebrating 5 years of AOP we co-hosted this past summer at UTA.

Admittedly, I was not too familiar with this annual conference but in the spirit of expanding my horizons beyond Hollywood, I am definitely planning to go in 2025. Content London is a three day development marketplace and conference. It attracts over 3000 leading content executives from all over the world, with a focus on creating fresh partnerships around the most progressive ideas and initiatives.

Check out her minisode!

Speaking of going abroad in 2025, I was delighted when the Spanish Film Commission reached wanting to highlight all the wonderful benefits of filming there. The 30% tax incentive, the infrastructure, the tapas, and of course, the sangria, make Spain the ultimate destination for your next project.

When thinking of who has the finger on the pulse of global production, I knew Sara Spring was the right person to highlight. We are both a part of The Women’s Production Society, which is an powerful community of all the badass physical production executives in entertainment.

She is an incredible producer and former studio executive with a penchant for Luther Vandross. She has also shot all over the world in places like Spain, France, Italy, England, Ireland, Jordan, Morocco, Greenland, South Korea, and Tahiti.

Her episode is brought to you by ICEX-Invest in Spain. Click to learn more about #ShootinginSpain.

A former studio executive who was at Paramount for 17 years and Sony for about 3 years, she oversaw some incredible film such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Mean Girls.

Her uniquely holistic approach to production is a result of working for studios, production companies and as a freelance producer for 20+ years. Most recently, Sara was Non-Writing EP on Netfilx series Warrior Nun which shot in Spain and produced the sixth season of Seal Team for CBS/Paramount+.

During our hour together, we dive into:

• The benefits and inherent challenges of shooting overseas

• Her $1 million dollar mistake

• Why she dreaded becoming a studio executive

Listen / Watch

We will close out 2024 with one of the Executive Producers of THE SUBSTANCE, which is appropriately dropping on New Year Eve. IYKYK. Keep all of your eyes peeled.

As always, thanks for doing this life thing with me!

UPCOMING HAPPENINGS

Learning the CA Tax Credit Workshop - Jan - TBD We’ve invited someone special from the commission to breakdown the nebulous application process. Let’s make filming in CA sexy again.

AOP Mixers -  Save the Date! Next Mixer is on Wed February 5th at 7pm.

PRODUCER’S CORNER

• READ | Ryan Reynolds - “I love that we get to talk about producing, because of all my accomplishments, that’s what I’m most proud of.” Link

• LEARN | Making Movies with AI - VFX artist & AI Educator @mickmumpitz has a great YouTube channel for the curious. Link

• GROW | End of Year Happiness - Hot tips Link

• WATCH | Nightbitch by Marielle Heller - I raved about Rachel Yoder’s best-selling novel a while back and am thrilled to motivate you to get your butts into a theater. Amy Adams is coming for that Oscar! Link