HollyShorts 2018 - GIRL CODE
When Anna runs into ex-best friend Nikki at the gym, she finally summons the courage to voice her suspicions.
Interview with Co-writer/Lead actress Jessica Jacobs
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Thank you! I originally conceived the story as a short play. I wanted to work on something with Kate (the other principle actor), and I wrote the part of Nikki for her. I asked Casey to come on as director (the three of us all know each other through our acting studio, Stuart Rogers' Studios in North Hollywood). We got the play produced in 2016 and ran for three sold-out weekends. Casey always had her eye on adapting the script into a short film, which she did after we closed. Performing the play provided a great opportunity to workshop the script, and Casey's adaptation is the perfect evolution out of that work onto the screen – she does so much with the story that I couldn't do on the stage.
Casey and I worked closely together throughout the writing and producing process. We both knew that we wanted to use the project not only as a vehicle for our writing, acting and directing, but also as an opportunity to create jobs for women in front of and behind the camera. We brought on a female director of photography, Soraya Selene, and shot GIRL CODE with an all-female cast and over 50% female crew.
It's my first film as a writer and Casey's first as Director and Producer, so we really learned by doing. We crowdfunded the entire budget for the film, did all of the producing ourselves, oversaw post-production, and created our own festival strategy. We premiered at LA Shorts Fest last year and have since screened at 8 more festivals across the country. It has been extremely fulfilling to get to take this project from its inception through all its iterations to where it is now, and to meet so many amazing creators and grow our network in the process. I wanted to write the kind of characters I want to play, and we wanted to create the kind of content we want to watch. I feel that we achieved those goals, and we are really excited to get to share the film with a wider online audience.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
First of all, because it’s entertaining! Some of our favorite feedback from audience members is when they talk about how quick the film felt, the tension, the shifting allegiances. I think a successful short elicits an emotional response, so it’s great when we hear “I wanted to slap Nikki” or “I felt so panicked while I was watching your character lose her shit.” (Those quotes were from a producer and from a girlfriend of mine, respectively.) We think that it’s important to portray nuanced, flawed, relatable female characters onscreen, and if the response at festival screenings is any indication, we feel that a lot of our audience can see themselves and their friends in these women, even if that’s an uncomfortable recognition.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
This film deals with the coded and often insidious ways in which women communicate with each other, with paranoia and gaslighting, and with female friendships in general.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
When GIRL CODE ran as a short play, we had the opportunity to interact with a lot of audience members, and after each show, so many women came up to us and said things like:
"That exact thing happened to me."
"I could completely see my girlfriends up there."
"I love how it doesn't pass the Bechdel test, but in an intentional, pointed way.”
That felt amazing, because this story is not Wonder Woman. It’s not an overtly female-empowerment piece, and when I finished writing it, I did have concerns that I may be doing a disservice to female creators by putting out a story about two women being awful to each other. But with the support of my team and the feedback from our audiences, I came to understand that we as viewers and consumers of content want to see stories about women that reflect our experiences in the world; we want to play characters who make the wrong choices and who have to deal with real issues. We are craving a plurality of female-driven stories.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Our team would love to have more women view our film, and hear our story about how we made it. It's not easy to create your own content, but it is feasible and so rewarding. We want to inspire other women to make their own magic, create their own work, and to stop waiting for permission to do so.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We would love to work with distributors to make this short available to stream on platforms like Amazon or Netflix. We would also love to get connected with producers who are interested in developing female-driven content, whether that’s a feature version of this film (we have a concept in the works) or one of the other projects we are currently writing.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
We didn’t set out to create a message-driven piece with GIRL CODE. This film is entertainment, and it’s a vehicle for representation of women’s stories. As long as the film starts conversations, it’s not up to us what direction those conversations take. We hope that audiences will relate to the problems of these characters and go on an emotional journey with the film. We also hope that this film can serve as a reminder that a story like ours – told by women, directed by women, shot by women, acted by women – can be universal, compelling, and valuable.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
What makes a story "feminist"? Does it have to be about strong, empowered women? Does it have to tackle sexism head-on?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Casey wrote her first pilot, BLISSED OUT, in 2017 which had a reading at UCB's "Let's Table This" earlier this year. She is now completing her second pilot, THE BUMP, which she plans to submit to the WIF/Blacklist Episodic Lab, and use for future writing samples. She is also directing a new digital series through her film initiative #LadyBrain that will highlight female figures in history. Follow her on Vimeo to stay up to date. Jessica is also currently working on two pilot scripts, one half-hour network comedy about Hebrew School, and one half-hour cable dramedy about internet trolls.
Casey and Jessica have collaborated on several more projects, including the internet video “BDay Bail” and an upcoming sketch called “A Time for Action,” in which they both appear as actors.
Interview: August 2018
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
GIRL CODE
When Anna runs into ex-best friend Nikki at the gym, she finally summons the courage to voice her suspicions.
Length: 9:38
Director: Casey Gates
Producer: Lady Brain Productions
Writer: Jessica Jacobs and Casey Gates
About the writer, director and producer:
CASEY GATES is an emerging writer and director, creating and spotlighting original, female-driven work through her digital initiative #LadyBrain. In 2016 she received a BlogHer Voice of the Year Award for her mission-statement film “What Is Lady Brain?”
JESSICA JACOBS is an actor/singer/writer/semi-pro diner. When not making movies, she is educating the Jewish youth of the Pacific Palisades, practicing yoga, walking her Pomeranian, and traveling/eating the world with her husband, Jose. More at www.jessicajacobsfilm.com.
Key cast: Jessica Jacobs and Kate Spare
Looking for: Producers (for a feature version of the script); distributors for the short
Facebook: girlcodefilm
Instagram: @theladybrain, @jessicajacobsfilm AND @katespare
Other: www.girlcodefilm.com; IMDb: Jessica Jacobs, Kate Spare
Funders: Crowdfunded on Seed&Spark
Made in association with: Renaissance Man Productions
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Our Vimeo link will be live and password-free starting August 9: https://vimeo.com/217396453