Writer-producer Marta Kauffman could rest on her “Friends” laurels. Instead, she’s delving into the online series world to explore offbeat material and a new role.
Kauffman turned official first-time director for “Georgia,” a short Web series about a warmhearted yoga instructor-therapist who needs to heal herself when it comes to romance and family.
“Georgia,” with Mary Elizabeth Ellis (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) as the title character and Harold Perrineau (“Lost,” ”Sons of Anarchy”) as her fiance, is on the WIGS YouTube channel. Each of the three episodes runs between five to eight minutes.
“It was so much fun,” Kauffman said of the series, which she wrote and directed. “It was a little bit like guerrilla television. We shot seven pages (of script) a day, and that’s a lot.”
WIGS, which launched last March, is the brainchild of two high-profile filmmakers, Jon Avnet (“Black Swan,” ”Fried Green Tomatoes”) and Rodrigo Garcia (“Albert Nobbs,” TV’s “In Treatment”), who are turning the spotlight on women.
The lineup on WIGS (an acronym for the tag line “Where it gets interesting”) includes original series, short films and documentaries. All feature lead female characters and stories that the channel promises will be provocative and “addictive.”
Avnet and Garcia “want to do grittier, edgier stories about women than you normally see,” both dramatic and comedic, Kauffman said.
“This was an opportunity to tell stories about many different women,” she said of their channel. “Younger, older, whatever the writer wanted to bring to it.”
In her case, Kauffman said, it also allowed her to assume a director’s full arsenal.
“I’m not going to say this was a lifelong dream. But in the process of reinventing myself after ‘Friends,’ I did a version of directing without the camera stuff for many, many years,” she said. “So I was really thrilled to get a chance to do it for real.”
Kauffman and David Crane created “Friends,” the NBC hit that aired from 1994 to 2004.
Others actresses featured on WIGS include Jennifer Garner, Jena Malone, Virginia Madsen, America Ferrera and Julia Stiles. Besides Perrineau, actors who are appearing include Alfred Molina and Stephen Moyer.
New episodes debut Monday, Wednesday and Friday on the channel.
Directing and Editing “Conclave”; Insights From Edward Berger and Nick Emerson
It’s been a bruising election year but this time we’re referring to a ballot box struggle that’s more adult than the one you’d typically first think of in 2024. Rather, on the industry awards front, the election being cited is that of the Pope which takes front and center stage in director Edward Berger’s Conclave (Focus Features), based on the 2016 novel of the same title by Robert Harris. Adapted by screenwriter Peter Straugham, Conclave stars Ralph Fiennes as the cardinal leading the conclave that has convened to select the next Pope. While part political thriller, full of backstabbing and behind-closed-door machinations, Conclave also registers as a thoughtful adult drama dealing with themes such as a crisis of faith, weighing the greater good, and engaging in a struggle that’s as much about spirituality as the attainment of power.
Conclave is Berger’s first feature after his heralded All Quiet on the Western Front, winner of four Oscars in 2023, including for Best International Feature Film. And while Conclave would on the surface seem to be quite a departure from that World War I drama, there’s a shared bond of humanity which courses through both films.
For Berger, the heightened awareness of humanity hit home for him by virtue of where he was--in Rome, primarily at the famed Cinecittà studio--to shoot Conclave, sans any involvement from the Vatican. He recalled waking up in Rome to “soak up” the city. While having his morning espresso, Berger recollected looking out a window and seeing a priest walking about with a cigarette in his mouth, a nun having a cup of coffee, an archbishop carrying a briefcase. It dawned on Berger that these were just people going to... Read More