July 11, 2025 • 30 mins
On this week’s Fan Out Friday, filmmaker and former college athlete Andrea Buccilla joins Khristina to share how studying journalism and competing in sports shaped her storytelling lens. She takes us behind the scenes of Shattered Glass and Power Forward, two projects focused on elevating the stories of women in the WNBA. Andrea talks about the importance of authenticity, building trust with athletes, and finding aligned brand partners while navigating the challenges of a male-dominated industry.
Want more women’s basketball scoop? Follow the show on Instagram @ICYMIwithKW and X @ICYMIwithKW and for more on Khristina, follow her on Instagram @khristinawilliams
Let us know what you think of the show by leaving a rating and a review!
CREDITS
Executive Producers:
Nikki Ettore
Jessie Katz
Tyler Klang
Jonathan Strickland
Producer:
Buffy Gorrilla
Producer & Editor:
Tari Harrison
Host:
Khristina Williams
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
In Case You Missed It with Christina Williams is an
iHeart Women's Sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports
and Entertainment. Welcome back to another episode of In Case
You Missed It with Christina Williams here on Iheartwomen's Sports Network.
And I'm super excited for today's guest because I am
(00:24):
a huge advocate for storytelling and amplifying the stories of
women athletes in sport, and today's guest is one of
the people who are really laying the blueprint for how
women athletes stories should be told. And I'm super excited
to dive into this conversation. So, without further ado, I
(00:46):
want to welcome Andrea Bucella to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Thank you. You said it right too. No one ever
does well done. Yes, it's the journalist. You nailed it.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So the last time I saw you was at the
Power Forward premiere, and I know that this is a
huge week for you because something big is happening in
your life.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So how have you been and what's the latest. I've
been great. I'm having baby girl number two this week.
I have a five year old girl named Aila. She's
very excited, maybe the most excited because she well, she
didn't want to admit that she did not want her brother.
We all know down deep that she really did not
(01:29):
she wanted a sister. So she's like, she's very much
like me. She's like a tomboy but had a little
more girly girl. So two girls. My husband excited to
be a girl dad. And yeah, as of next week,
I'll be out of pocket for a little bit. That
must be.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Super exciting for you to have a new addition to
your family.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And I love that you're still hustling even in the
final stretch, leaking up to you know, the delivery. But
I want to get into Yeah, I got to filmmaker.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
What inspired you to pursue to directing and how did
your background as a former college athlete shape your storytelling voice.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, so I played college golf at Ole Miss and
while I was there, I studied journalism, but print journalism. Actually,
I wasn't really interested. In my mind, broadcast journalism would
have meant being in front of the camera. I am
much more comfortable on the opposite side of the camera.
So after that I did not really pursue journalism. I
went into education for ten years, taught middle school English,
(02:29):
worked in school operations schools in Mississippi and Brooklyn, and
then towards the end of my time there, my husband
and I he studied screenwriting after he got out of
the military, and we were just doing indie films around
New York, like usually in our apartment, I'd help him write.
I got the creative juices flowing again. Of course, like
writing was a big part of my life as an
English teacher, but thinking about it visually was pretty new,
(02:50):
and I realized after like a year of doing that, like, man,
I love this a lot more. So I applied to
like every ad agency job around New York that I could.
One place was willing to take a risk on me.
They were really interested in people from non traditional backgrounds,
and they said, you know, like, okay, you've directed a
couple of indie films, you can write, Like my cover
letter was a screenplay. So I tried to be creative
(03:10):
and they liked people who hadn't like climbed the traditional
ranks and advertising, so that really worked out for me.
I spent two years there and then jumped over to
another company called Malchamedia, where I directed my first feature
for the WNBPA. Now it means to fast forward through.
You know, it did happen fast, but I poured myself
in a lot, and I think that like having had
a career before, someone told me like, oh man, you're
(03:31):
like you're an adult in the room because you switched
careers at thirty helped me big time. I got connected
to Terry Carmichael Jackson and the PA through my coep at,
Jessica McCourt, and we had to make that film, which
was like such a crazy experience. I got plugged into
this women's basketball world. Like I said, my background was golf,
but I sort of got I did get very lucky
because when I got to make that film, it was
(03:53):
not the very beginning of this boom we're seeing women's basketball,
but it was like in the beginning stages, right, it'd
begun for sure, And I got to just be a
fly on the wall and tell the story through the
perspective of the players, not the league, not a team,
not a network, not a brand evenly like Puma came
in and funded that primarily, but they were wonderful as
a brand because they said, like listen, not a Puma story,
(04:15):
Like we sponsor Stewie. That's cool. You can shoot a
couple of events and we get some private placement in there. Great,
but we just want to support the cause. So like,
as a first time feature film director, it was a
dream scenario. And then from there, like you know, you
and I have talked, it's like now I have to
leverage it and try to do more of these, and
Power Forward is the next like big thing that I've
gotten to do. I've done a handful of you know,
(04:35):
thirty second commercials and one with Kelsey Plumb for a
brand called Zip, done some golf stuff. But yeah, like
the goal is to do is to do more of that.
And I don't know what's going to compare to Shatter
Glass in terms of like the access that Terry and
her team gave me, But man, that was a dream
first one.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I will say, would you say that was your first
introduction to the w NBA or had you been wanted
to tell stories in this space for a while prior
to the Shatter Glass project?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
That was not my first introduction. Like I was born
in eighty eight, right, So like I was, I was
a kid playing sports when the w started. I had
a Cheryl Swoops poster. I was very much a tomboy.
I played every sport, and so when it came to
like getting a retired voice for Shattered Glass, like Cheryl
was my choice, I caught a lot of grief locally.
I'm from Columbus, Ohio, and a lot of folks were like, well,
you should have had Katie Smith on, or you should
(05:23):
have had this person or that person, and like, Cheryl
was it for me, and she was awesome. So we
went to her place outside of Houston interviewed her. But
it had definitely been like if you look at the
beginning of that film that we had Holly Row, she
wrote a script that we wrote just sort of like
about the trajectory of the w how it started like
Gangbusters selling out NBA arenas, and then I had this
fall off, like I definitely fell off to as a fan,
(05:47):
got distracted with my own sports. I'm five foot five,
did not play basketball. That was never in the cards
for me. And then the film Opportunity coming into my
lab is what got me back into it. I can't
pretend that I was like already becoming a fan again
and then the film happened. It did not happen like that.
I very much like organically had to learn through Neca Stewey,
(06:07):
JJ Cheryl the PA and learned a lot. And I
did make a conscious choice, like not to go deep
in research on several things because I didn't want to
come in bias. I didn't want like anybody else's biases
to inform the story that we told. I wanted to
like put these women on display for the world for
a high sports IQ audience and let them decide, let
them see for themselves. Where I was learning at the
(06:29):
same time, which is like these women have star power.
They do have a lot of fans. The narrative that
no one watches women's sports is not true, and I
think that I think the film did that at least right,
Like I think that people watch it men in my life.
Sports fans who followed other sports NBA, college basketball, non
basketball would watch it and say like, oh my gosh,
(06:50):
I didn't know this. I didn't know that, or like wow,
all start weekend in Vegas looked crazy, like there was
a lot of media there. I'm like, yeah, that surprised
me too, Like these women are superstars. When I often
talk to some.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Of the athletes and they say, like we want our
stories told, I feel like investors are not quick to
pour money into telling these stories. And as a woman
who is in a male dominated industry, do you face
those similar challenges when it comes to creating these projects
(07:21):
to amplify the stories of these athletes.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, I mean I run into that all the time.
My husband and I now have our own production company
called Veteran Made, so Power Forward. The Delta WNBA series
was made under that umbrella, and again we got lucky,
like in the same way we did with Puma, where
Delta the partnership already existed. Delta had already agreed to
put money behind the cause and they funded the three
(07:44):
part series, which is great, But that's in my experience,
pretty rare because like the way that I've talked to
people about it is, like my impression only right is
brands who are going to invest in men's sports know
that they're going to get an ROI right, and in
the beginning stages of leagues like the NBA, the NFL, whatever,
they were willing to delay their ROI a little bit
(08:04):
because they knew that men's sports would have an audience
down the road, and they were right. For women, it
seems like brands are less interested, less willing to take
that risk, even though the Women's League, the w in particular,
like continues to show the ROI is huge. And I
directed like a small branded doc for Gamebridge a couple
weeks ago because they're the new title sponsor for the
(08:26):
game Bridge Super League Women's Soccer and talking to their
partnerships team, they're like, it makes so much more sense
to invest in women's sports now because there's not as
much noise. The barrier for entry is lower, right, we
could give less money at this stage, attract more brands
being on the ground level and grow the brand. And like,
I'm not an economist or a business person, I'm a creative,
(08:47):
but that makes so much logical sense to me. You know.
It's like, if if you want to invest in the NBA,
there are gonna be thousands of other brands that you're
competing with. Investing in women's sports, you can be the
big fish. You can make a real difference. So you
have that brand equity play, like, hey, that brand cares
about women's sports. Also it makes business sense, and I
think that finally brands are getting that. But I mean, gosh,
(09:10):
I've got five really good ideas for docuseries or features
to make and the idea of getting in brand funded
is so daunting. So when it comes to.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
The projects that you've been able to work on in
the last year, you said you have the journalism background,
but how did you approach building trust with the athletes?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
So in terms of building trust, you know, like, I'll
start with production logistics, don't You don't want to have
a revolving door of teams production crews coming into their homes, right,
Like for Shattered Glass, the women and their agents agree
to allow us into their personal lives.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
It wasn't like PR press tours. It wasn't just games, right,
the league was weird about getting us access to games anyway.
Anything shot in out of an arena belongs to them.
We couldn't afford to license all of that anyway, right,
So we're in like their personal lives, in their cars,
in their families. We went to all their hometowns Syracuse, Houston, Bahamas,
(10:12):
and I want to make sure especially for those like
those hometown visits, those like intimate moments. It was always
me and usually the same camera operator, Like we had
the same DP producer in myself the director for I
mean ninety five percent of our shoot days we shot
over the course of like six months. And I think
that matters big time because these women are in front
of the media a lot, which means they're very trained,
(10:34):
but they also can have a wall up because it's
often someone different, and Christina, I'm sure you understand that,
like as well as anybody, Like they see your face
and they think I know her, You're going to get
different answers than someone they've never seen before. So we
did that, and then, like I said before, I made
it very clear in the original treatment pitch deck, act
structure document that all the agents received that I was
(10:57):
not coming with like a narrative art in mind. I
don't think as a documentary filmmaker you can do that.
I think you have to say, like, where's the story
going to take me? I know who I'm covering. I
know why I chose them. You know, I chose archetypes
in the League of Mother Stuie JJ's the hustler, Mecca's
the advocate. I had those archetypes in my mind to
represent the rest of the one forty four at the time,
(11:21):
and then from there it was like asking questions to
get them to talk to me, but not leading questions
unless there was something I knew we'd already shot. I
needed to like have a SoundBite to match it. But
it was never like, well don't you think that people
should know this about the w Never questions like that, right,
That was my approach.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, and filming both of these projects, What was something
that you learned throughout the process of recording, of interviewing
these athletes, of spending so much time with them.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Always have Meka Guamackay on your set. We only had
six hours with them for Power Forward and we shot
three episodes a lot of content. That was a big
set build. I mean we had we had probably seventy
five people on that set between client crew, stage, like
(12:10):
all of it glam and that slows your day down too.
So there were multiple times when I looked at Neck
and I said, Hey, we have to go here next,
here's an idea like a line read for like how
we could get there, and she'd just be like, I
got you, and she would say it better than I had,
and she would always get us to that next point,
Like she's a walking highlight SoundBite machine. So that's that's
(12:34):
I'm both joking and dead ass serious. Always have neca
uh And then I don't know, Like my personality is
one that I like to joke around and try to
build report when the camera's not rolling. That might sound obvious.
I would say like Stuwie was harder to do that
with in the beginning. She's obviously a huge superstar. She's
probably like sick of people like me coming in and
(12:54):
trying to like chop it up with her. Marta helped
on that front, right, Like Marta and I March was
very funny, so we would like we built that rapport.
And then JJ's just like an island girl, right, She's like,
wherever you want to talk about, I'm an open book,
not a problem. So yeah, they were poor building off camera.
You don't get too much time because they're schedules, right,
But spending thirty minutes at the top of a day
(13:17):
a documentary shoot day, just to like shoot the breeze,
I think helped.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Was there any moments while recording that didn't make the
final cut?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, there's a moment we met Neka. We met her
Auntie from Nigeria. She lives in Houston now. She used
to live in like the New York General area, Jersey,
which is where I was living at the time, so
we like connected over that. But she, Mecka had warned us,
she like, we're going over there to check the mail.
We're gonna pop inside to say hi. Just be ready,
like turn the volume down on your like audio headphones.
(13:48):
It's gonna be loud. She's crazy and like I could
tell she mean all in a positive way of course.
Then she was right like her aunt like threw down
like a curtain that was red on the floor, and
she was like the red carpets being rolled out, Mecca's
here them, Kattie is here, Like it was like a
whole thing. She was great in front of the camera.
She tried to send home like gallon bags of food
(14:09):
with us, like I can't take that on an airplane
back to New York, but thank you so much, Like
it was so lovely and it helped me understand where
she comes from even more than meeting her sisters and parents.
And that did not make the final cut just because
like we didn't have something equivalent for the others, unfortunately.
And then let's see for Power Forward. Honestly, not much
hit the cutting room floor because that day was so tight. Yeah,
(14:33):
power Forward.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Is a shorter format and a video a three part
video series. How did you approach that differently as opposed
to making a documentary, which is like a full in
feature film style format.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah, that was cool. I've been calling that lately. My
husband jokes he thinks I have like coined this. There's
no way that's true. But like commercial docu where it
Shattered Glass was just traditional docu, but like we built
a set, we had shot list, storyboards, a plan. We
approached it very much like a commercial. And then once
we had those structures in place, I had to lean
on my documentary experience just having conversations right, getting them
(15:09):
to be authentic, feel comfortable because audiences and you definitely
know this, like audiences see through that immediately, right If
anything sounds staged or scripted, your engagements just like gone, like,
we don't want that anymore as consumers, we want longer form,
authentic storytelling. So Octagon was the agency that hired us,
the production company, and you know, the creative idea was theirs, like,
(15:32):
we're gonna get these three power forwards, We're going to
interview their families, which we did right like they were
on the all the zoom calls. But I connected those
interviews as well, I'd met a lot of them before.
Camera Brig was the only new one to me, and
her family is obviously awesome and like very well versed
with the media. So we did those but it was
(15:52):
nice to have creative partners like them. Through that process.
We could focus on the logistics of the production. I
could focus on, like you know, refrash wishing my rapport
with the athletes and their agents, and then executing on
the day with which our team was all women above
the line production team except for my husband. Aaron Wesley
was the DPO. Matt She's extremely accomplished. My producer from
(16:13):
chatter Glass, Aaron Gilchrist was the line producer. Our set
designer was a woman. Obviously I'm a woman, so like
that was clicked to focus on like those elements and
like less so on the story. Honestly, I got to
make it look really pretty. I got to make sure that,
like I was drawing on my prior experience with those
athletes and the league, even though the first Projectita was
through the PA. So like that was an interesting thing
(16:34):
for me to think about. I'd love to talk to
you more about that, right It's like cool opportunity to
talk about Charter travel from the point of view of
the PA. That was like one of the biggest issues
that came up in Chatter Glass. We have a lot
of really cool like sequences in the film, like Nekka
explaining how how much of a grind that commercial travel
schedule is and then flipping over to the other side.
Now they've won that battle. The League was never the
(16:56):
villain for Chattered Glass. We're very careful about that, right
The League is growing is the platform. We wanted to
make sure we did both justice. I think that was
a little bit tricky and like makes me unique as
a filmmaker, right, Like I've gotten to tell that charter
travel story from both angles now and now I sit
here thinking about it and I'm like, well, we're in
negotiations again. We tease it in Shattered Glass. So towing
(17:17):
the line between being really glad that Delta provided the
charter travel and the League made that work, and also
knowing that there's a lot left to do. Yeah, I
don't know, it's like an interesting place to be.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
No, it's really interesting how you kind of put together
the through line of in Shattered Glass and you talk
about teasing the new CBA negotiations in last November, the
players in union opted out of that and our current
negotiations a huge meeting supposedly coming up next week in
Indianapolis at WNBA All Star between the players, the union,
and the league. And then you also talked about the
(17:51):
project Power Forward, where now you're telling it through the
lens of a league partner in Delta and.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
The athletes as well.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I want to go back to something that you say
earlier about always counting on using Meca for everything, but
you also use Stewie again for the Power Forward project
as well. How did you see that those two relationships
kind of evolve with both.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Of the projects that you were able to work on.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
And how were you able to bring out a different
side of both of those athletes and the different projects
that you were able to work with them all.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, that's a great question. I mean to be clear,
I very much chose Nekka, Stuey, JJ and Cheryl for
Shatter Glass. That was up to me, and Terry is
wonderful and she was like, whoever you want, like we
will get just like dream Like I said earlier, dream
partner and an endeavor like that for Power Forward, Octagon
had already chosen, so like, I think that's a big
reason why I got to bid on a project was
(18:46):
because they knew I had to report with at least
two of them. And when I say leaning on Neka,
I mean like on the set on the day, like
she just has that presence where it's like I knew
I could look at her and like be like, hey,
I need this right, but you're so like where he
was Stewie Again, was really cool because because it was
commercial docu, like she was a bit different right when
(19:08):
I'm like in her apartment or in her car or
catching her between things, like she's like very chill, very
low key. And then when she walked on to a
set like Power Forward, like she is. I always knew
she was a pro, but like it just hit me differently, right,
Like I had not directed her in that kind of
environment before. And she has several soundbites that ended up
carrying us to the next segment, transitioning us from point
(19:31):
A to point B. And I don't know, it's not
a great answer for you, Christina, but like I don't
know necessarily what I did if it was anything, so
much as it's like she's a professional, she knew me
at least a little bit. You know, she and Eka
have the same agent, Lindsay Collos, who is incredible, amazing
Lindsay Yeah, yeah, I was very like scared of her
(19:52):
during Shattered Glass. She does not mess around. And then
I saw her on Power Forward and she was like, hey,
what's up. But it's like okay, cool, like we've got
you know, she didn't hate the film, so that's good.
I don't know how much of that helped, right, Like,
having made one film, it's out there, it did well,
so we had that capital built. But yeah, I mean
I definitely leaned on I leaned on Necka and study
(20:13):
a lot on that set, more so than camera, not
just not because she's young or anything, just because I
knew them better.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
One of the things that I noticed in Power Forward
was the balance between the storytelling and the emotional gravity
of the athlete story.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
As a director, how do.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
You find balance in that when it comes to storytelling
from that perspective of wanting to tell the story but
also got the emotion of the piece that you're working on.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Yeah, it's funny because like as filmmakers or even like
commercial directors, like we can sound kind of gross. So
we want someone to cry right. It's like, that's if
you go in with that intention. I think just like
a like a consumer audience when they watch your final
product can see through it. So can the talent if
you're doing that. On the day, Cameron when she saw
(21:11):
her parents begin talking, like instantly felt emotions because she's
very tight with her family. So we got lucky there.
I didn't know that that would that that's how that
would go. So then my task actually became like, let's
make sure that Cameron is not feeling like too vulnerable
and too emotional. She's sitting with two of the goats
at her position to like very well established players with
a lot of wins, a lot of accolades, and she's
(21:32):
got those too, She's has fewer years under her belts.
So I don't want to I don't want her to
feel embarrassed, right, So pivoting away from talk tracks with
her every once in a while, letting neckas sort of
like be the mama bear, like she just naturally is.
As an eldest sister, I think it's it's like it's
it's instinct maybe like I'm a I'm an older sister
by like a lot of years. I was a teacher
(21:53):
for a lot of years, So I think that like
bringing those skill sets to a set is really helpful
being worried less about the logistics around me once we've
done the pre planning right, Like you hire pros, you
hire people who are good and kind, you build a
set that feels good and kind, and then from there
like you just kind of like have a conversation. It's
why I prefer documentary to commercial scripted, as different actors
(22:16):
are different but real people. And then the athletes like
take up this like weird hybrid range rerect is. They're
real people, but they are celebrities with media training. So
it's kind of like the best of all the worlds
because you don't have to over coach them. The only
time you find yourself to over coach them, is it
fy a little bit too polish, Like Okay, that was
a great answer for like a press release, but can
(22:36):
I get a real one now? Just kind of like
do it with like a little bit of a smirk
or they're like, all right, fine, Or did you.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Learn about the WNBA while creating both Shatter Class Or
I'll trase that, what did you learn about the WNBA
while working on Power Forward?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
That you maybe didn't know or learn while working on
Shatter Class. I would say I might have learned more
at the premiere than through the making of it, right
because Octagonists who hired us and Delta as their client,
I didn't interface with the League during the making of it.
The only thing I was able to sort of offer
from Afart was, you know, footage licensing. Like I had
a lot of conversations as one of the eight piece
(23:14):
of Shatter Glass with the team over there about like
what can we license? What counts against us all of that?
You know, you can only use ten percent of your
total run time can be League footage? If you go
over ten percent, they own the content. We can't cross
that line, right, So, like I knew stuff like that already.
They were great and flexible with us in the end
with Shattered Glass, and I think that they did the
same thing for Power Forward because Delta such a huge partner.
(23:36):
But when I listened, you know, the FQ Female Quotient
and put on the event, the premiere event for Power
Forward and listening to that panel that Chiney moderated and
Stewie was on and Delta CMO and the w's head
of partnerships. We're both in that panel. Like hearing them
talk about how interested they are in partnering with these
brands who have money was cool to meet because from
(23:56):
the PA's point of view, we don't hear those conversations, right,
it's more about the players need this, deserve this, how
do we get it? That's correct and righteous and like
those conversations should be happening. The other side is the
more business and like I said earlier, like I'm not
a business person, I've learned a lot about I've thought
a lot about ROI. So hearing them sort of discussed
like all right, this partner's good. We know they're good
(24:19):
because you know, I'm not going to remember what they
said right now, but it's like it's good to think about.
It's good for me as a filmmaker, having been so
embedded with the PA for so long, to like hear
the league talk about like, no, we want these things
for the players too. I think that what all of
us who want to be player advocates want is like
is maybe some more transparency about like okay, well how
(24:41):
are you going about getting it?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
You know, I think that we spoke about this before
on previous conversations. But you know, in order to appreciate
where the league has grown, we have to kind of
appreciate how we got there. And I feel like in
women's basketball and in women's sports specifically, so much of
the history and archives get lost or it's really hard
(25:02):
to find. So what does it mean to you to
be creating this kind of archival work where years from
now people will go back and we'll get your work
and be able to capture this moment in time.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
And thank you for that question. I my like, my
dream as a filmmaker, as a former athlete, as a
woman who loves sports, is to affect that like archive
of stories as much as I possibly can, to tell
as many of them as I can. And like I said,
like my mission with Shaddar Glass was like I don't
want to come with a narrative. I want it to
(25:35):
be you know, like a like a as much like
a journalist as I can. Right, it was like, this
is what happened, this is the context of the time.
It's one of the beginning of that film. I said, like, hey,
it was the summer of Beyonce and Taylor Swift to
Cocoa GoF like women were experiencing a crazy resurgent summer
of twenty three and to so if I can like
provide a storical context and and also just like put up,
(25:56):
you know, give a platform to the women who are
doing it here and now, knowing that in twenty years
they're the Cheryl swoops. That's I mean, I would I
would die happy if I could do only projects like
that from here on out. I think if you look
at a debate, like you're like the I'm sorry everyone
talks about this, right, but Kaylyn Clark aindel Reese, right,
or Kaitlin Clark versus OG's, let's go there, right, Like,
(26:17):
so you look at Kaitlyn Clark versus the OG's and
we have half of the of the consumer base saying like, well,
you know, the w wouldn't be here without Kaylyn Clark,
and the other half saying like, no, they wouldn't be
here without Cheryl Miller. And it's like, well, both things
are true, right, Like Cheryl put up goat numbers, but
didn't have the platform, right, Like the league is in
a place now that it wasn't when she played. So
(26:37):
Caitlin did not come into a league that was dying
or dead or like no one was interested in she
came in, it was already on the upswing. Give her
her flowers because she's just like enhanced it. And you
can also give the ogs their flowers because they built it.
Like I don't I don't know why we got stuck
in this like either or thing and hopeless. My my
storytelling can help us all realize that, right, Like, hey,
(27:00):
the infrastructure was there, they built something very impressive in
record time, Like it's been twenty nine years of the league,
and like if you look at the growth in that
short period of time, like that's competing with the rise
of men's leagues too. You know, it's like the NBA.
I saw one stat a while back, the NBA was
getting outperformed by professional bowling at the twenty five year mark.
It's like, way we forget that, right, So if I
(27:21):
can put stories out there that remind people of that, like, hey,
they've done something really cool and all of these women
were a part of it, not just one I don't know,
then I've done something good, I think.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
And lastly, before we let you go, what's next for you?
And where do you hope to see the future of
storytelling from all aspects? Not only as a director, but
just from all aspects.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yep, what's next for me? I'm curly in development on
a while post production actually on a feature film about
twelve military veteran runners. They ultra marathoners. They ran NonStop
from San Diego to Washington, DC back in May, carrying
a flag as a play for health and wellness in
that community. Obviously, that's sports. My husband is a veteran,
(28:02):
so that story's near and dear to me. And there's crossover, right,
Like it's not women's sports, but it's a lot there's
a lot of similar things right in the veteran community.
There are all these misconceptions about veterans and and they're
thriving in a way that people don't often realize. So
that story is cool. We need to finish funding on
that so we can finish the film and get it
out in the world. So that is tangibly the next
(28:24):
thing on my plate. And then in terms of storytelling
as a whole, I think it really just does go
back to, like I want more storytellers to go in
like neutral right, not to say like, oh, I want
to make sure like my opinion gets out there in
the world so people agree with me. I don't think
that that's a worthy goal. It's not something I'm interested
in doing. And I think it actually hurts whoever it
(28:45):
is you're telling the story about. It hurts it hurts
that population because the theme has been like people see
through that, And I think I think you have to
find the right brand partners to get there, right, Like
Gamebridge is one that when I talked to them a
couple of weeks ago, I was, Man, you guys get it,
Like you just want to give the platform. You know,
Puma got it, Delta gets It's like finding those brands
(29:05):
to fund the story so I get to do the
fun thing, the the fun part of like telling the
stories and talking to people like you. Meeting people like you,
that's the goal, right. So I don't know any brands
out there listening, Like, let's chat because we can tell
some cool stuff together.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Andrea, thank you so much for joining us this week
on In Case You missed It with Christina Williams, and
I'm wishing you a safe and.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Healthy delivery this week.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Congrats on your newest addition to your family, and I'm
super excited to see what's next for you in the
film directing space as well.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Thank you so much for having me. All Right, y'all,
that's gonna do it.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
For this week's episode of In Case You Missed It
with Christina Williams. As always, don't forget to rate, review,
and subscribe to the podcast. And next week we have
our WNBA All Star Preview episode and we'll have some
content exclusively live from Indian Out app, so you don't
want to miss it. Make sure you subscribe so that
(30:03):
you don't miss any of that that's happening for next week.
We'll see you next time. In Case You Missed It
with Christina Williams is an iHeart women's sports production in
partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find
us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts.
In Case You Missed It with Christina Williams is an
iHeart Women's Sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports
and Entertainment. Welcome back to another episode of In Case
You Missed It with Christina Williams here on Iheartwomen's Sports Network.
And I'm super excited for today's guest because I am
(00:24):
a huge advocate for storytelling and amplifying the stories of
women athletes in sport, and today's guest is one of
the people who are really laying the blueprint for how
women athletes stories should be told. And I'm super excited
to dive into this conversation. So, without further ado, I
(00:46):
want to welcome Andrea Bucella to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Thank you. You said it right too. No one ever
does well done. Yes, it's the journalist. You nailed it.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So the last time I saw you was at the
Power Forward premiere, and I know that this is a
huge week for you because something big is happening in
your life.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So how have you been and what's the latest. I've
been great. I'm having baby girl number two this week.
I have a five year old girl named Aila. She's
very excited, maybe the most excited because she well, she
didn't want to admit that she did not want her brother.
We all know down deep that she really did not
(01:29):
she wanted a sister. So she's like, she's very much
like me. She's like a tomboy but had a little
more girly girl. So two girls. My husband excited to
be a girl dad. And yeah, as of next week,
I'll be out of pocket for a little bit. That
must be.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Super exciting for you to have a new addition to
your family.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And I love that you're still hustling even in the
final stretch, leaking up to you know, the delivery. But
I want to get into Yeah, I got to filmmaker.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
What inspired you to pursue to directing and how did
your background as a former college athlete shape your storytelling voice.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, so I played college golf at Ole Miss and
while I was there, I studied journalism, but print journalism. Actually,
I wasn't really interested. In my mind, broadcast journalism would
have meant being in front of the camera. I am
much more comfortable on the opposite side of the camera.
So after that I did not really pursue journalism. I
went into education for ten years, taught middle school English,
(02:29):
worked in school operations schools in Mississippi and Brooklyn, and
then towards the end of my time there, my husband
and I he studied screenwriting after he got out of
the military, and we were just doing indie films around
New York, like usually in our apartment, I'd help him write.
I got the creative juices flowing again. Of course, like
writing was a big part of my life as an
English teacher, but thinking about it visually was pretty new,
(02:50):
and I realized after like a year of doing that, like, man,
I love this a lot more. So I applied to
like every ad agency job around New York that I could.
One place was willing to take a risk on me.
They were really interested in people from non traditional backgrounds,
and they said, you know, like, okay, you've directed a
couple of indie films, you can write, Like my cover
letter was a screenplay. So I tried to be creative
(03:10):
and they liked people who hadn't like climbed the traditional
ranks and advertising, so that really worked out for me.
I spent two years there and then jumped over to
another company called Malchamedia, where I directed my first feature
for the WNBPA. Now it means to fast forward through.
You know, it did happen fast, but I poured myself
in a lot, and I think that like having had
a career before, someone told me like, oh man, you're
(03:31):
like you're an adult in the room because you switched
careers at thirty helped me big time. I got connected
to Terry Carmichael Jackson and the PA through my coep at,
Jessica McCourt, and we had to make that film, which
was like such a crazy experience. I got plugged into
this women's basketball world. Like I said, my background was golf,
but I sort of got I did get very lucky
because when I got to make that film, it was
(03:53):
not the very beginning of this boom we're seeing women's basketball,
but it was like in the beginning stages, right, it'd
begun for sure, And I got to just be a
fly on the wall and tell the story through the
perspective of the players, not the league, not a team,
not a network, not a brand evenly like Puma came
in and funded that primarily, but they were wonderful as
a brand because they said, like listen, not a Puma story,
(04:15):
Like we sponsor Stewie. That's cool. You can shoot a
couple of events and we get some private placement in there. Great,
but we just want to support the cause. So like,
as a first time feature film director, it was a
dream scenario. And then from there, like you know, you
and I have talked, it's like now I have to
leverage it and try to do more of these, and
Power Forward is the next like big thing that I've
gotten to do. I've done a handful of you know,
(04:35):
thirty second commercials and one with Kelsey Plumb for a
brand called Zip, done some golf stuff. But yeah, like
the goal is to do is to do more of that.
And I don't know what's going to compare to Shatter
Glass in terms of like the access that Terry and
her team gave me, But man, that was a dream
first one.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I will say, would you say that was your first
introduction to the w NBA or had you been wanted
to tell stories in this space for a while prior
to the Shatter Glass project?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
That was not my first introduction. Like I was born
in eighty eight, right, So like I was, I was
a kid playing sports when the w started. I had
a Cheryl Swoops poster. I was very much a tomboy.
I played every sport, and so when it came to
like getting a retired voice for Shattered Glass, like Cheryl
was my choice, I caught a lot of grief locally.
I'm from Columbus, Ohio, and a lot of folks were like, well,
you should have had Katie Smith on, or you should
(05:23):
have had this person or that person, and like, Cheryl
was it for me, and she was awesome. So we
went to her place outside of Houston interviewed her. But
it had definitely been like if you look at the
beginning of that film that we had Holly Row, she
wrote a script that we wrote just sort of like
about the trajectory of the w how it started like
Gangbusters selling out NBA arenas, and then I had this
fall off, like I definitely fell off to as a fan,
(05:47):
got distracted with my own sports. I'm five foot five,
did not play basketball. That was never in the cards
for me. And then the film Opportunity coming into my
lab is what got me back into it. I can't
pretend that I was like already becoming a fan again
and then the film happened. It did not happen like that.
I very much like organically had to learn through Neca Stewey,
(06:07):
JJ Cheryl the PA and learned a lot. And I
did make a conscious choice, like not to go deep
in research on several things because I didn't want to
come in bias. I didn't want like anybody else's biases
to inform the story that we told. I wanted to
like put these women on display for the world for
a high sports IQ audience and let them decide, let
them see for themselves. Where I was learning at the
(06:29):
same time, which is like these women have star power.
They do have a lot of fans. The narrative that
no one watches women's sports is not true, and I
think that I think the film did that at least right,
Like I think that people watch it men in my life.
Sports fans who followed other sports NBA, college basketball, non
basketball would watch it and say like, oh my gosh,
(06:50):
I didn't know this. I didn't know that, or like wow,
all start weekend in Vegas looked crazy, like there was
a lot of media there. I'm like, yeah, that surprised
me too, Like these women are superstars. When I often
talk to some.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Of the athletes and they say, like we want our
stories told, I feel like investors are not quick to
pour money into telling these stories. And as a woman
who is in a male dominated industry, do you face
those similar challenges when it comes to creating these projects
(07:21):
to amplify the stories of these athletes.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, I mean I run into that all the time.
My husband and I now have our own production company
called Veteran Made, so Power Forward. The Delta WNBA series
was made under that umbrella, and again we got lucky,
like in the same way we did with Puma, where
Delta the partnership already existed. Delta had already agreed to
put money behind the cause and they funded the three
(07:44):
part series, which is great, But that's in my experience,
pretty rare because like the way that I've talked to
people about it is, like my impression only right is
brands who are going to invest in men's sports know
that they're going to get an ROI right, and in
the beginning stages of leagues like the NBA, the NFL, whatever,
they were willing to delay their ROI a little bit
(08:04):
because they knew that men's sports would have an audience
down the road, and they were right. For women, it
seems like brands are less interested, less willing to take
that risk, even though the Women's League, the w in particular,
like continues to show the ROI is huge. And I
directed like a small branded doc for Gamebridge a couple
weeks ago because they're the new title sponsor for the
(08:26):
game Bridge Super League Women's Soccer and talking to their
partnerships team, they're like, it makes so much more sense
to invest in women's sports now because there's not as
much noise. The barrier for entry is lower, right, we
could give less money at this stage, attract more brands
being on the ground level and grow the brand. And like,
I'm not an economist or a business person, I'm a creative,
(08:47):
but that makes so much logical sense to me. You know.
It's like, if if you want to invest in the NBA,
there are gonna be thousands of other brands that you're
competing with. Investing in women's sports, you can be the
big fish. You can make a real difference. So you
have that brand equity play, like, hey, that brand cares
about women's sports. Also it makes business sense, and I
think that finally brands are getting that. But I mean, gosh,
(09:10):
I've got five really good ideas for docuseries or features
to make and the idea of getting in brand funded
is so daunting. So when it comes to.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
The projects that you've been able to work on in
the last year, you said you have the journalism background,
but how did you approach building trust with the athletes?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
So in terms of building trust, you know, like, I'll
start with production logistics, don't You don't want to have
a revolving door of teams production crews coming into their homes, right,
Like for Shattered Glass, the women and their agents agree
to allow us into their personal lives.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
It wasn't like PR press tours. It wasn't just games, right,
the league was weird about getting us access to games anyway.
Anything shot in out of an arena belongs to them.
We couldn't afford to license all of that anyway, right,
So we're in like their personal lives, in their cars,
in their families. We went to all their hometowns Syracuse, Houston, Bahamas,
(10:12):
and I want to make sure especially for those like
those hometown visits, those like intimate moments. It was always
me and usually the same camera operator, Like we had
the same DP producer in myself the director for I
mean ninety five percent of our shoot days we shot
over the course of like six months. And I think
that matters big time because these women are in front
of the media a lot, which means they're very trained,
(10:34):
but they also can have a wall up because it's
often someone different, and Christina, I'm sure you understand that,
like as well as anybody, Like they see your face
and they think I know her, You're going to get
different answers than someone they've never seen before. So we
did that, and then, like I said before, I made
it very clear in the original treatment pitch deck, act
structure document that all the agents received that I was
(10:57):
not coming with like a narrative art in mind. I
don't think as a documentary filmmaker you can do that.
I think you have to say, like, where's the story
going to take me? I know who I'm covering. I
know why I chose them. You know, I chose archetypes
in the League of Mother Stuie JJ's the hustler, Mecca's
the advocate. I had those archetypes in my mind to
represent the rest of the one forty four at the time,
(11:21):
and then from there it was like asking questions to
get them to talk to me, but not leading questions
unless there was something I knew we'd already shot. I
needed to like have a SoundBite to match it. But
it was never like, well don't you think that people
should know this about the w Never questions like that, right,
That was my approach.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, and filming both of these projects, What was something
that you learned throughout the process of recording, of interviewing
these athletes, of spending so much time with them.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Always have Meka Guamackay on your set. We only had
six hours with them for Power Forward and we shot
three episodes a lot of content. That was a big
set build. I mean we had we had probably seventy
five people on that set between client crew, stage, like
(12:10):
all of it glam and that slows your day down too.
So there were multiple times when I looked at Neck
and I said, Hey, we have to go here next,
here's an idea like a line read for like how
we could get there, and she'd just be like, I
got you, and she would say it better than I had,
and she would always get us to that next point,
Like she's a walking highlight SoundBite machine. So that's that's
(12:34):
I'm both joking and dead ass serious. Always have neca
uh And then I don't know, Like my personality is
one that I like to joke around and try to
build report when the camera's not rolling. That might sound obvious.
I would say like Stuwie was harder to do that
with in the beginning. She's obviously a huge superstar. She's
probably like sick of people like me coming in and
(12:54):
trying to like chop it up with her. Marta helped
on that front, right, Like Marta and I March was
very funny, so we would like we built that rapport.
And then JJ's just like an island girl, right, She's like,
wherever you want to talk about, I'm an open book,
not a problem. So yeah, they were poor building off camera.
You don't get too much time because they're schedules, right,
But spending thirty minutes at the top of a day
(13:17):
a documentary shoot day, just to like shoot the breeze,
I think helped.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Was there any moments while recording that didn't make the
final cut?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, there's a moment we met Neka. We met her
Auntie from Nigeria. She lives in Houston now. She used
to live in like the New York General area, Jersey,
which is where I was living at the time, so
we like connected over that. But she, Mecka had warned us,
she like, we're going over there to check the mail.
We're gonna pop inside to say hi. Just be ready,
like turn the volume down on your like audio headphones.
(13:48):
It's gonna be loud. She's crazy and like I could
tell she mean all in a positive way of course.
Then she was right like her aunt like threw down
like a curtain that was red on the floor, and
she was like the red carpets being rolled out, Mecca's
here them, Kattie is here, Like it was like a
whole thing. She was great in front of the camera.
She tried to send home like gallon bags of food
(14:09):
with us, like I can't take that on an airplane
back to New York, but thank you so much, Like
it was so lovely and it helped me understand where
she comes from even more than meeting her sisters and parents.
And that did not make the final cut just because
like we didn't have something equivalent for the others, unfortunately.
And then let's see for Power Forward. Honestly, not much
hit the cutting room floor because that day was so tight. Yeah,
(14:33):
power Forward.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Is a shorter format and a video a three part
video series. How did you approach that differently as opposed
to making a documentary, which is like a full in
feature film style format.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah, that was cool. I've been calling that lately. My
husband jokes he thinks I have like coined this. There's
no way that's true. But like commercial docu where it
Shattered Glass was just traditional docu, but like we built
a set, we had shot list, storyboards, a plan. We
approached it very much like a commercial. And then once
we had those structures in place, I had to lean
on my documentary experience just having conversations right, getting them
(15:09):
to be authentic, feel comfortable because audiences and you definitely
know this, like audiences see through that immediately, right If
anything sounds staged or scripted, your engagements just like gone, like,
we don't want that anymore as consumers, we want longer form,
authentic storytelling. So Octagon was the agency that hired us,
the production company, and you know, the creative idea was theirs, like,
(15:32):
we're gonna get these three power forwards, We're going to
interview their families, which we did right like they were
on the all the zoom calls. But I connected those
interviews as well, I'd met a lot of them before.
Camera Brig was the only new one to me, and
her family is obviously awesome and like very well versed
with the media. So we did those but it was
(15:52):
nice to have creative partners like them. Through that process.
We could focus on the logistics of the production. I
could focus on, like you know, refrash wishing my rapport
with the athletes and their agents, and then executing on
the day with which our team was all women above
the line production team except for my husband. Aaron Wesley
was the DPO. Matt She's extremely accomplished. My producer from
(16:13):
chatter Glass, Aaron Gilchrist was the line producer. Our set
designer was a woman. Obviously I'm a woman, so like
that was clicked to focus on like those elements and
like less so on the story. Honestly, I got to
make it look really pretty. I got to make sure that,
like I was drawing on my prior experience with those
athletes and the league, even though the first Projectita was
through the PA. So like that was an interesting thing
(16:34):
for me to think about. I'd love to talk to
you more about that, right It's like cool opportunity to
talk about Charter travel from the point of view of
the PA. That was like one of the biggest issues
that came up in Chatter Glass. We have a lot
of really cool like sequences in the film, like Nekka
explaining how how much of a grind that commercial travel
schedule is and then flipping over to the other side.
Now they've won that battle. The League was never the
(16:56):
villain for Chattered Glass. We're very careful about that, right
The League is growing is the platform. We wanted to
make sure we did both justice. I think that was
a little bit tricky and like makes me unique as
a filmmaker, right, Like I've gotten to tell that charter
travel story from both angles now and now I sit
here thinking about it and I'm like, well, we're in
negotiations again. We tease it in Shattered Glass. So towing
(17:17):
the line between being really glad that Delta provided the
charter travel and the League made that work, and also
knowing that there's a lot left to do. Yeah, I
don't know, it's like an interesting place to be.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
No, it's really interesting how you kind of put together
the through line of in Shattered Glass and you talk
about teasing the new CBA negotiations in last November, the
players in union opted out of that and our current
negotiations a huge meeting supposedly coming up next week in
Indianapolis at WNBA All Star between the players, the union,
and the league. And then you also talked about the
(17:51):
project Power Forward, where now you're telling it through the
lens of a league partner in Delta and.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
The athletes as well.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I want to go back to something that you say
earlier about always counting on using Meca for everything, but
you also use Stewie again for the Power Forward project
as well. How did you see that those two relationships
kind of evolve with both.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Of the projects that you were able to work on.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
And how were you able to bring out a different
side of both of those athletes and the different projects
that you were able to work with them all.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, that's a great question. I mean to be clear,
I very much chose Nekka, Stuey, JJ and Cheryl for
Shatter Glass. That was up to me, and Terry is
wonderful and she was like, whoever you want, like we
will get just like dream Like I said earlier, dream
partner and an endeavor like that for Power Forward, Octagon
had already chosen, so like, I think that's a big
reason why I got to bid on a project was
(18:46):
because they knew I had to report with at least
two of them. And when I say leaning on Neka,
I mean like on the set on the day, like
she just has that presence where it's like I knew
I could look at her and like be like, hey,
I need this right, but you're so like where he
was Stewie Again, was really cool because because it was
commercial docu, like she was a bit different right when
(19:08):
I'm like in her apartment or in her car or
catching her between things, like she's like very chill, very
low key. And then when she walked on to a
set like Power Forward, like she is. I always knew
she was a pro, but like it just hit me differently, right,
Like I had not directed her in that kind of
environment before. And she has several soundbites that ended up
carrying us to the next segment, transitioning us from point
(19:31):
A to point B. And I don't know, it's not
a great answer for you, Christina, but like I don't
know necessarily what I did if it was anything, so
much as it's like she's a professional, she knew me
at least a little bit. You know, she and Eka
have the same agent, Lindsay Collos, who is incredible, amazing
Lindsay Yeah, yeah, I was very like scared of her
(19:52):
during Shattered Glass. She does not mess around. And then
I saw her on Power Forward and she was like, hey,
what's up. But it's like okay, cool, like we've got
you know, she didn't hate the film, so that's good.
I don't know how much of that helped, right, Like,
having made one film, it's out there, it did well,
so we had that capital built. But yeah, I mean
I definitely leaned on I leaned on Necka and study
(20:13):
a lot on that set, more so than camera, not
just not because she's young or anything, just because I
knew them better.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
One of the things that I noticed in Power Forward
was the balance between the storytelling and the emotional gravity
of the athlete story.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
As a director, how do.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
You find balance in that when it comes to storytelling
from that perspective of wanting to tell the story but
also got the emotion of the piece that you're working on.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Yeah, it's funny because like as filmmakers or even like
commercial directors, like we can sound kind of gross. So
we want someone to cry right. It's like, that's if
you go in with that intention. I think just like
a like a consumer audience when they watch your final
product can see through it. So can the talent if
you're doing that. On the day, Cameron when she saw
(21:11):
her parents begin talking, like instantly felt emotions because she's
very tight with her family. So we got lucky there.
I didn't know that that would that that's how that
would go. So then my task actually became like, let's
make sure that Cameron is not feeling like too vulnerable
and too emotional. She's sitting with two of the goats
at her position to like very well established players with
a lot of wins, a lot of accolades, and she's
(21:32):
got those too, She's has fewer years under her belts.
So I don't want to I don't want her to
feel embarrassed, right, So pivoting away from talk tracks with
her every once in a while, letting neckas sort of
like be the mama bear, like she just naturally is.
As an eldest sister, I think it's it's like it's
it's instinct maybe like I'm a I'm an older sister
by like a lot of years. I was a teacher
(21:53):
for a lot of years, So I think that like
bringing those skill sets to a set is really helpful
being worried less about the logistics around me once we've
done the pre planning right, Like you hire pros, you
hire people who are good and kind, you build a
set that feels good and kind, and then from there
like you just kind of like have a conversation. It's
why I prefer documentary to commercial scripted, as different actors
(22:16):
are different but real people. And then the athletes like
take up this like weird hybrid range rerect is. They're
real people, but they are celebrities with media training. So
it's kind of like the best of all the worlds
because you don't have to over coach them. The only
time you find yourself to over coach them, is it
fy a little bit too polish, Like Okay, that was
a great answer for like a press release, but can
(22:36):
I get a real one now? Just kind of like
do it with like a little bit of a smirk
or they're like, all right, fine, Or did you.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Learn about the WNBA while creating both Shatter Class Or
I'll trase that, what did you learn about the WNBA
while working on Power Forward?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
That you maybe didn't know or learn while working on
Shatter Class. I would say I might have learned more
at the premiere than through the making of it, right
because Octagonists who hired us and Delta as their client,
I didn't interface with the League during the making of it.
The only thing I was able to sort of offer
from Afart was, you know, footage licensing. Like I had
a lot of conversations as one of the eight piece
(23:14):
of Shatter Glass with the team over there about like
what can we license? What counts against us all of that?
You know, you can only use ten percent of your
total run time can be League footage? If you go
over ten percent, they own the content. We can't cross
that line, right, So, like I knew stuff like that already.
They were great and flexible with us in the end
with Shattered Glass, and I think that they did the
same thing for Power Forward because Delta such a huge partner.
(23:36):
But when I listened, you know, the FQ Female Quotient
and put on the event, the premiere event for Power
Forward and listening to that panel that Chiney moderated and
Stewie was on and Delta CMO and the w's head
of partnerships. We're both in that panel. Like hearing them
talk about how interested they are in partnering with these
brands who have money was cool to meet because from
(23:56):
the PA's point of view, we don't hear those conversations, right,
it's more about the players need this, deserve this, how
do we get it? That's correct and righteous and like
those conversations should be happening. The other side is the
more business and like I said earlier, like I'm not
a business person, I've learned a lot about I've thought
a lot about ROI. So hearing them sort of discussed
like all right, this partner's good. We know they're good
(24:19):
because you know, I'm not going to remember what they
said right now, but it's like it's good to think about.
It's good for me as a filmmaker, having been so
embedded with the PA for so long, to like hear
the league talk about like, no, we want these things
for the players too. I think that what all of
us who want to be player advocates want is like
is maybe some more transparency about like okay, well how
(24:41):
are you going about getting it?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
You know, I think that we spoke about this before
on previous conversations. But you know, in order to appreciate
where the league has grown, we have to kind of
appreciate how we got there. And I feel like in
women's basketball and in women's sports specifically, so much of
the history and archives get lost or it's really hard
(25:02):
to find. So what does it mean to you to
be creating this kind of archival work where years from
now people will go back and we'll get your work
and be able to capture this moment in time.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
And thank you for that question. I my like, my
dream as a filmmaker, as a former athlete, as a
woman who loves sports, is to affect that like archive
of stories as much as I possibly can, to tell
as many of them as I can. And like I said,
like my mission with Shaddar Glass was like I don't
want to come with a narrative. I want it to
(25:35):
be you know, like a like a as much like
a journalist as I can. Right, it was like, this
is what happened, this is the context of the time.
It's one of the beginning of that film. I said, like, hey,
it was the summer of Beyonce and Taylor Swift to
Cocoa GoF like women were experiencing a crazy resurgent summer
of twenty three and to so if I can like
provide a storical context and and also just like put up,
(25:56):
you know, give a platform to the women who are
doing it here and now, knowing that in twenty years
they're the Cheryl swoops. That's I mean, I would I
would die happy if I could do only projects like
that from here on out. I think if you look
at a debate, like you're like the I'm sorry everyone
talks about this, right, but Kaylyn Clark aindel Reese, right,
or Kaitlin Clark versus OG's, let's go there, right, Like,
(26:17):
so you look at Kaitlyn Clark versus the OG's and
we have half of the of the consumer base saying like, well,
you know, the w wouldn't be here without Kaylyn Clark,
and the other half saying like, no, they wouldn't be
here without Cheryl Miller. And it's like, well, both things
are true, right, Like Cheryl put up goat numbers, but
didn't have the platform, right, Like the league is in
a place now that it wasn't when she played. So
(26:37):
Caitlin did not come into a league that was dying
or dead or like no one was interested in she
came in, it was already on the upswing. Give her
her flowers because she's just like enhanced it. And you
can also give the ogs their flowers because they built it.
Like I don't I don't know why we got stuck
in this like either or thing and hopeless. My my
storytelling can help us all realize that, right, Like, hey,
(27:00):
the infrastructure was there, they built something very impressive in
record time, Like it's been twenty nine years of the league,
and like if you look at the growth in that
short period of time, like that's competing with the rise
of men's leagues too. You know, it's like the NBA.
I saw one stat a while back, the NBA was
getting outperformed by professional bowling at the twenty five year mark.
It's like, way we forget that, right, So if I
(27:21):
can put stories out there that remind people of that, like, hey,
they've done something really cool and all of these women
were a part of it, not just one I don't know,
then I've done something good, I think.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
And lastly, before we let you go, what's next for you?
And where do you hope to see the future of
storytelling from all aspects? Not only as a director, but
just from all aspects.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yep, what's next for me? I'm curly in development on
a while post production actually on a feature film about
twelve military veteran runners. They ultra marathoners. They ran NonStop
from San Diego to Washington, DC back in May, carrying
a flag as a play for health and wellness in
that community. Obviously, that's sports. My husband is a veteran,
(28:02):
so that story's near and dear to me. And there's crossover, right,
Like it's not women's sports, but it's a lot there's
a lot of similar things right in the veteran community.
There are all these misconceptions about veterans and and they're
thriving in a way that people don't often realize. So
that story is cool. We need to finish funding on
that so we can finish the film and get it
out in the world. So that is tangibly the next
(28:24):
thing on my plate. And then in terms of storytelling
as a whole, I think it really just does go
back to, like I want more storytellers to go in
like neutral right, not to say like, oh, I want
to make sure like my opinion gets out there in
the world so people agree with me. I don't think
that that's a worthy goal. It's not something I'm interested
in doing. And I think it actually hurts whoever it
(28:45):
is you're telling the story about. It hurts it hurts
that population because the theme has been like people see
through that, And I think I think you have to
find the right brand partners to get there, right, Like
Gamebridge is one that when I talked to them a
couple of weeks ago, I was, Man, you guys get it,
Like you just want to give the platform. You know,
Puma got it, Delta gets It's like finding those brands
(29:05):
to fund the story so I get to do the
fun thing, the the fun part of like telling the
stories and talking to people like you. Meeting people like you,
that's the goal, right. So I don't know any brands
out there listening, Like, let's chat because we can tell
some cool stuff together.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Andrea, thank you so much for joining us this week
on In Case You missed It with Christina Williams, and
I'm wishing you a safe and.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Healthy delivery this week.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Congrats on your newest addition to your family, and I'm
super excited to see what's next for you in the
film directing space as well.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Thank you so much for having me. All Right, y'all,
that's gonna do it.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
For this week's episode of In Case You Missed It
with Christina Williams. As always, don't forget to rate, review,
and subscribe to the podcast. And next week we have
our WNBA All Star Preview episode and we'll have some
content exclusively live from Indian Out app, so you don't
want to miss it. Make sure you subscribe so that
(30:03):
you don't miss any of that that's happening for next week.
We'll see you next time. In Case You Missed It
with Christina Williams is an iHeart women's sports production in
partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find
us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Host
Khristina Williams
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