Good For The Plot – Details, episodes & analysis

It's not every day you get to sit down with an indie filmmaker and have them shed all their secrets—but Sarah Moshman is here to spill the beans! We covered a lot of helpful information in this episode, so settle in!

In this episode we cover:

• Is film school worth it? 
• How to pick a film school
• What it's like to work on Dancing with the Stars
• How to decide when to move on to the next thing
• How to make your first film
• How to crowdfund (Sarah's an expert!)
• How to balance being a mom and being an ambitious filmmaker
• Directing documentary vs. narrative film

This episode was brought to you by B&H, your one-stop shop for everything photo + video.

Links:
Sarah's Website
Sarah's Book (Empowered Filmmaking)
Sarah's Films
Sarah's Instagram
Erin's Instagram

Sarah's Bio:
Sarah Moshman is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and TEDx speaker whose work has been featured on Upworthy, Marie Claire, PBS, Hulu, CNN, Netflix, and Good Morning America. After directing two short documentaries about female empowerment in young women, (Girls Rock! Chicago (2010) and Growing up Strong: Girls on the Run (2012)) she set out to direct her first feature doc The Empowerment Project: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things (2014) which has been screened over 700 times around the US and around the world in schools, groups, organizations and corporations starting conversations about gender equality. With Indieflix as the distributor, the film has been sponsored by major brands like Nordstrom, American Girl and Microsoft to spread this message far and wide. Sarah's second feature doc, Losing Sight of Shore follows the incredible journey of four women who rowed across the Pacific Ocean. The film was released globally in 190 countries on Netflix in May 2017. NEVERTHELESS is Sarah’s third feature documentary which takes a look behind the headlines of #MeToo and Time’s Up to shine a light on the sexual harassment crisis and use the power of cinema for change. Most recently Sarah brought her talents to the narrative realm and directed an award-winning short fiction film UNBOUND about the first mother to go to space starring Lauren Lapkus (Orange is the New Black). In 2022, UNBOUND won First Place at NASA’s CineSpace Global Short Film Competition and is set to screen on the International Space Station! 

Prior to focusing on documentaries Sarah worked as a field producer on the hit ABC show Dancing with the Stars for 10 seasons as well as shows on NBC, MTV, Lifetime, Bravo and the Food Network. She often jumps in to story produce for premium doc series on A&E, HBO and Showtime. She also directs branded content for EllenTube, Tastemade, Mattel, AT&T, Samsung, Stayfree, SPANX, and more.  Sarah is an inspiring public speaker, author, and an adjunct professor in documentary film, passionate about empowering the next generation of storytellers. Sarah is dedicated to telling stories that uplift, inform and inspire as well as showcase strong female role models on screen. 

Sarah is LA based and Mom to two kiddos, a 5 year old daughter and a 2 year old son. 

Ever wondered who manages all the props you see in movies and tv shows? All the bowls, cups, pencils, car keys, phones, and on and on? Well, that's a Property Master or, for short, props master. Seasoned props master, viral content creator, and Texas-native Scott Reeder is here to tell us about his journey to a career in film/tv props. 

In this episode we cover:

• Scott's upbringing, growing up in a small town in Texas + college journey
• How Scott wiggled his way onto film sets while majoring in Anthropology
• How Scott built a sustainable career, and how he continues to get jobs
• How unions work (Scott is a member of IATSE)
• Scott's reaction to the accidental fatal shooting on the set of RUST in 2021
• How Scott balances family and work 

This episode was brought to you by B&H — your one-stop shop for everything photo + video (and podcasting!)

Links:
Scott Reeder TikTok
Scott Reeder Instagram
Good For The Plot IG
Erin McGoff IG

Ever wondered how a film score composer becomes a film score composer? Well, Emmy-award winning film and tv composer and sonic artist Jeremy Zuckerman (Avatar: the Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, Scream: the Series) is here to talk about his journey to success.

This episode is extra special to me because Jeremy's music is one of the first things that inspired me to work in the film indstury. And when I grew up, I asked Jeremy to score my first feature documentary, This Little Land of Mines, and he did! Listen to the soundtrack here. 

In this episode, we cover:

• Jeremy's upbringing and Berkeley/CalArts education
• How Jeremy overcame pursuing a competitive career path
• How Jeremy fell into score composing
• Why Jeremy debated not doing Avatar: the Last Airbender
• Jeremy's tips for aspiring composers
• How to say "no" to balance work + life

This episode was brought to you by B&H — your one stop shop for everything video + photo (and podcasting!)

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Erin McGoff's Instagram
Erin McGoff's Career Advice Instagram
Jeremy Zuckerman's Instagram
Good For The Plot Website (+ newsletter signup)

Welcome to the trailer for Good for the Plot: a podcast where we interview seasoned film and TV industry professionals and have them take us through their career journeys in the hopes of demystifying a very gatekept industry. 

I'm your host, Erin McGoff. I'm a documentary filmmaker, director, and editor living in New York City. I'm also a content creator with over 2.2m followers on TikTok where I post career/life/film industry advice.

I started this podcast for one reason: I wanted to listen to a podcast like this, but couldn't find it anywhere.

There are podcasts that interview filmmakers about their craft, and then there are podcasts that discuss the industry as a whole. But I couldn't find one that specifically talked about film industry career journeys.

On TikTok, I get a lot of questions, but the most common one I get is:

"Erin, how do I become _____?"

And I always answer the same way:

"Find someone who already that and ask them how they got there."

Well, that's exactly what I'm doing with this podcast.

I'm going to interview film industry pros & creatives who have reached a summit of success in their career, and ask them to break down step-by-step how they got there.

We're going to talk to everyone — cinematographers, directors, actors, screenwriters, hair and make-up, animators, editors, set designers, executives, SFX, costume designers, producers, film festival curators, score composers, prop masters, documentary filmmakers, marketers, graphic designers, etc. 

The film industry is notoriously opaque, gatekeep-y, and nepotistic. It's all about who you know — which makes sense, it's a relationship-driven, competitive, and wonderful industry.

The goal of this podcast is to pry open those gates and make the film industry a bit more transparent and accessible to all people. 

So if you're someone who's looking to get into the film industry, but you're feeling intimidated and overwhelmed, or maybe you're already working in the film industry and you just need to get some inspiration — you've come to the right place. I sincerely hope you enjoy the show. 

Thanks for joining this episode of good for the plot. This episode was brought to you by B&H your one-stop shop for everything photo and video.