Today we’d like to introduce you to Felicia Manning.
Felicia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
As a young girl, I always had a love for reading and writing, which I believe is the foundation for my love of film. My family is full of movie buffs too. On a personal level, I was inspired by my grandparents life story and thought to myself, “That’d be an amazing movie one day.” One particular day, my grandmother shared more details with me and innately I knew it was time to leap into this project. That moment solidified my commitment to a career in film. Today, I’ve optioned the script and am directing commercial projects under my production company, Fe Brand Films.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
There have been struggles along the way as with any venture worth pursuing. I started off by pitching the very first script I wrote and that was a massive undertaking. Ultimately, getting a feature made is a huge process. So jumping behind the camera to direct shorts, commercials, music videos and other work is really fulfilling.
For other young women out there, I would say don’t be discouraged by the odds set against you. Yes, this still is a male-dominated industry, but doors are opening.
My greatest piece of advice would be to not wait for others to give you permission to start. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Find a story that is contained with locations you have control of and make a movie or a commercial or a web series, anything to build your body of work and show people what you can do. I have received the greatest results by filming exactly what I want before anyone asks me. Work always begets more work and this is a visual medium after all.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I’m a director and screenwriter. I’m also the founder of Fe Brand Films, a commercial production company
creating brand experiences through storytelling. We partner with brands and agencies to create branded content, short docs, commercials, and digital content. My focus has always been in capturing human-centric and character-driven stories. Since I started off as a writer, the story always dominates my approach before I enter into the visuals.
I’d say what sets me apart is my ability to connect with people. Everyone has a story no matter how small and those stories help us identify and connect with each other. My specialty is finding what that common link is and communicating that through film. The projects I take on have to serve a greater purpose in some way.
I’ve worked with some larger Fortune 500 companies and that’s been a blast, but my favorite projects come from the smaller brands. To date, my favorite work has to be a spec commercial I developed for Google Home called “Surprise Mom” — we received a great response and the story made more than one person cry.
The next piece I’m most proud of is my work with Frederick K.C. Price III Christian Schools, better known as Price Schools, it’s a small private school in Los Angeles and truly an oasis to the community. We created a promotional film to help market the school and recently a music video with the entire student body, it’s one of my favorite projects to date.
What do you feel are the biggest barriers today to female leadership, in your industry or generally?
I’d say the biggest barrier for me at one point was people taking my work seriously. Sometimes, I’ll scout a location with my DP and the owner will assume my DP is the director because he’s a guy, we just laugh it off.
I’m married to an amazing creative director whose agency has been around for 15+ years. Sometimes, when I release a project people will congratulate both of us. It’s something we laugh at, as we always collaborate on ideas and toss our projects back and forth for advice, but we both know he’s in his lane and I’m in mine.
I think a barrier to female leadership is the fact that so many people naturally anticipate that the man is carrying the bulk of the value. I love seeing the Ava Duvernay’s, Issa Rae’s, Patty Jenkins’, and Cathy Schulman’s continuing to set the standard for what’s possible.
Just this year, I had the opportunity of meeting with an all-female led production company, it was such a breath of fresh air as I didn’t have to explain my work or value. We need more of that in this industry.
These days, my work is speaking for itself but it certainly took time to get there.
Contact Info:
- Address: 530 S.Lake Ave #606
Pasadena, CA 91105 - Website: www.febrandfilms.com
- Phone: 626-415-4480
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: instagram.com/febrandfilms
- Facebook: facebook.com/febrandfilms
- Twitter: twitter.com/febrandfilms
- Other: Vimeo.com/febrandfilms
Image Credit:
Ralph Jeong, Danielle Mathias
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