Effie T. Brown

Effie T. Brown is a Los Angeles based producer who received a degree in film production and theater from Loyola Marymount University before going on to participate in Film Independent’s (formerly IFP/Los Angeles) Project Involve, an intensive fellowship program for people of color, who are seeking a career in the film industry. There she received an invaluable introduction to the film industry and quickly worked her way up through the ranks to become the Director of Development for Tim Burton Productions in 1995.

Eager to try her hand at producing, she landed assignments as Line Producer on feature films including Desert Blue (1998), starring Kate Hudson and Christina Ricci; But I’m a Cheerleader (1999), starring Natasha Lyonne; and Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her (2000), starring Glenn Close, Cameron Diaz, and Holly Hunter. Brown would soon take on the role of Producer on critically acclaimed, awarding-winning feature projects from HBO Films, including Stranger Inside (directed by Cheryl Dunye, 2001, World Premiere at Sundance Film Festival); Real Women Have Curves (directed by Patricia Cardosa, 2002, winner of Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award and Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Performance); and Everyday People (2004, Jim McKay). She also executive produced, in association with Sony Screen Gems and Pathe International, In the Cut (2003, directed by Jane Campion).

Embraced by industry peers, Brown received the Motorola Producer Award at the 2003 Independent Spirit Awards, and her alma mater honored her with the 2003 Distinguished Young Alumni Award. She also serves on the board of the FIND / Film Independent.
In 2001, Brown launched her own production company, Duly Noted Inc., where she continues to produce original film projects by emerging and established filmmakers. Demonstrating a continued commitment to championing challenging independent work, Duly Noted Inc. has seven new feature films in development and production, with producing partners that include HBO Films.
Currently, Effie’s latest film Rocket Science won the Sundance 2007 Grand Jury Prize for Directing and will be released theatrically by Picture House.

What Effie will be doing at DIY DAYS

Blending & Bending; Throwing the Movie Making Playbook out the Window

With more energy than two electrons colliding, the fiercely independent producers Effie “Hollywood: Brown and Zeke “DIY” Zelker team up to discuss, debate, listen and learn on their two very different approaches to creating cinema. In today’s creative environment producers need to adapt their approach to tell compelling stories that do much more than jump off the screen. Effie and Zeke are in the midst of producing a multi faceted, multi phase project blending and bending the rules between truth and fiction to create in today’s interactive world.

 

DIY DAYS asks Effie

 

What are you currently working on that you’re excited about?

Two things

(1) Zeke Zelker and I are about to launch a multi platformed feature film that will traverse the Alternate Reality Gaming world, Radio (launching new acts) and good old fashioned story telling all the while being funded by Branded sponsors.

(2) * this will most likely have a big announcement in the trades in the next two weeks. Hence why I am being a little vague. I am a part of the producing team that has been commissioned to produce 10 webseries (125 episodes in all) about the lives of women in different walks of life. What makes this series different from the rest is that it will be directed and starring A list Actors and Award winning directors. It is sort of their chance to dip their toe in the new media world. Okay…that’s all I can say about that…I’ve probably already said too much.

What are some of your favorite sites and / or mobile apps and brief why?

(sigh)…that’s one of the reasons I am participating in DIYDAYS. There always seems to be something new and exciting out there. I have been in the throes of making content so I don’t have time to search out new sites etc. You tell me something good to check out.

What are you currently watching, reading or playing?

I am currently reading and watching anything I can get my eyeballs on that is about women of color and genre…preferably action and sci fi. It’s time we had our own heroines again! Ya know… but with a new millennium spin to it – as sexy and righteous as they were in the 70’s Blaxploitation but with a Sara Conner/Ripley badassness in the mix.

For More on Effie and her work visit

Site:Duly Noted Inc.