Stareable Interview: Bri Castellini
I’m a feminist because I recognize the institutional barriers for women in nearly every facet of life and I think someone ought to kick them over.
Sometimes we are lucky enough to stumble across great things on Al Gore’s Internet and other times we are even luckier to meet rad women who connect us with more rad women and great things.
In the case of our Stareable news post earlier this week, it was the latter. Enter Bri Castellini, a filmmaker and the Community Director of Stareable. We were introduced to her through another woman (seriously, bless women connecting women!) and got to chat with her last week about Stareable. Her enthusiasm and passion for Stareable shone through after only a few minutes—it was almost enough to make us want to start a web series so we could really get the most out of the platform. Almost. Instead, we’ll spare you all and do what we do best: chat with Bri about her work with Stareable and her own filmmaking.
Bri Castellini is the Community Director for Stareable, the largest community of web series creators, the host of Stareable’s podcast Forget The Box, an adjunct professor for digital media at LIU-Brooklyn, and an award-winning independent filmmaker, known for the web series Brains (creator/star), Sam and Pat Are Depressed (creator/star), Relativity (executive producer), and Stray (producer), as well as the short film Ace and Anxious (writer/director).
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved with filmmaking.
I come from a prose-writing background—in college I was focused on writing novels. But after listening to a podcast about TV writers as a TV fan, I realized that the style of writing they were talking about sounded like my ideal situation- all dialog, no setting descriptions. So I applied to grad school in TV writing in New York, got accepted, moved to New York (from Oregon, where I went to college), and started filmmaking myself pretty soon after.
We had a web series class (that I now teach as an adjunct) where we had to produce a 5 minute pilot, something I’d never done before, and after doing that first episode I was hooked, so my classmates became my collaborators and since then we’ve made 5 web series seasons together, I’ve made three short films and wrote/long-distance-produced a mini series, and I have no interest in slowing down anytime soon!
How did you get involved with Stareable?
After releasing the first season of my first web series, Brains, I started to get involved in online web series spaces, and was introduced to the concept of Stareable on Twitter. They sounded interesting, and they were based in New York, and I ended up attending their second ever happy hour networking event. The CEO, Ajay Kishore, and I hit it off, I started writing some guest blogs for them, and eventually, as with all things with me, things escalated until I was a full time employee: their Community Director and their podcast and webinar host.
What do you love most about the platform?
As a filmmaker, I love that my Stareable show pages centralize all of our efforts—you can learn about the show, watch episodes, learn about the cast and crew, read updates and supplemental content we create, and financially support us all in one place. That’s huge—having to promote to fifteen different links constantly is really irritating.
As a person and as a filmmaker, my favorite thing about Stareable is the community. I have met so many wonderful people through this platform, have collaborated with some and have been supported by others, and am always in awe of the genuine camaraderie of this group of people from all over the world.
Tell us a little about Stareable Fest too!
Stareable Fest, which is currently gearing up for its second event, is our annual indie TV festival! It’s half industry marketplace, because every official selection will be considered for one-on-one meetings with our various industry sponsors, which last year included HBO, Comedy Central, Bustle, and more, and half creator convention, with workshops and panels about the craft and business of digital filmmaking. We’re super excited for our second annual fest, and the next submission deadline is March 31st, just sayin’! [Editor’s note: use MUFFStareable when you submit to get 15% off!]
We also hear you have an upcoming web series that you are directing, “Better With You.” How did you get involved?
Funny enough, the web series community I’d started cultivating with Stareable! I met the women behind Apple Juice Productions, the company behind Better With You, as a result of people I’d met through Stareable events and activities, and we became online friends and fans of each other. When they started developing Better With You, I jokingly responded to one of their newsletters announcing it that if they needed a director, I’d be happy to do it. I say “jokingly” because they’re based in Utah and I live in Brooklyn, New York, but distance be damned—they hired me and I’ll spend a few weeks at the end of May in Utah making the show with them! It’s a romantic comedy set during Halloween about an introvert and an extrovert trying to find a balance for their budding relationship. [Editor’s note: “Better With You” is currently crowdfunding!]
You’ve done producing, directing, acting, and writing within the industry. Do you have a favourite filmmaking role?
I will always, always be a writer first, but I think my second love might be directing. I enjoy acting, to an extent, and would be happy to do it more in the future, but if I had to choose, I’d be a writer/director and never look back. Producing is more of a means to an end for me—a thing I often end up having to do if I want to get a project off the ground. If someone wanted to take that responsibility away from me, you can have it! Please, take it!
Can you tell us about some/all of the other amazing women who you’ve worked with?
Though I haven’t technically done more than have production meetings with them yet, I already adore working with Amanda Taylor and Kailee Brown on Better With You. You wouldn’t believe how organized their Google Drives are. Michele Austin Rodriguez is another awesome woman I’ve had the pleasure of working with on nearly every project since Brains’ season 2, for good reason. Rebecca McDonald was one of the first friends I made in New York, as my coworker at a cafe we’ve both since left in the dust. She’s acted in my projects as well as been our wardrobe lead on several. Page Schumacher is a former classmate of mine who both production designed for both my web series and did all the zombie special effects makeup for Brains season 1. She also designed the poster for my short film Ace and Anxious! Also, shout out my friend Lauren Wells, who’s worked with me on my short film Ace and Anxious and who invited me to help produce a super fun Kay Jewelry parody a few Valentine’s Days ago. I’ve also had the honor of working with several incredible actresses who I absolutely adore and hope to work with again in the future: Masha Danilenko, Dana Shiree, Shannon Spangler, Mae Mitchell, and Michele Agresti. With performers like them, I am happy to stick to directing.
Tell us about why you are a feminist and why it’s important to your work.
I’m a feminist because I recognize the institutional barriers for women in nearly every facet of life and I think someone ought to kick them over. Part of that is about representing more kinds of women in media and telling stories that haven’t gotten told before, and that’s obviously a huge part of my own work. I am an asexual woman, a bisexual woman, a plus size woman, an anxious woman, and an ambitious woman, and all those have stories attached to them that aren’t currently being told, so I’ve decided to tell them myself. Not just for me, but for anyone else out there who identifies with them.
Who are your favourite women working in the industry?
I’m sure I’m missing someone, but here’s an incomplete list: Mindy Kaling, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Elizabeth Banks, Elizabeth Meriwether, Jenn Kaytin Robinson, Samantha Bee, and Anna Akana.
What’s the best advice about filmmaking you’ve ever received?
Write press releases. Tara Jayn, who created the amazing web series Social Medium, was instrumental in teaching me what the hell I was doing. Learning to write a press release for new announcements/projects and learning where to send them has absolutely changed my life and how many people find out about my work. It’s not the sexiest piece of advice, but it helped me see that making good work wasn’t enough, not if the goal was to get that good work seen.
What’s your go-to jam?
This answer is going to date this interview pretty severely, but right now it’s that new Jonas Brothers song “Sucker.” It’s a very good song and I will not apologize! The alternative answer is “Crush” by Tessa Violet.
If you could live in any sitcom, which one would it be?
Maybe New Girl? The fact that four ding dongs could live in such a spacious apartment despite their low-paying jobs means that’s a world I want to live in.
Finally, recommend one #MUFFApproved film for our blog readers!
That’s hard because I’m definitely way more of a TV person, but for films, I was blown away by Captain Marvel recently, and am excitedly anticipating the release of Mindy Kaling’s new film Late Night!
Follow Bri online: BriCastellini.com | Twitter | Undead Burrito Productions
