Libsyn Directory

From Camera Department to Directing Your First Indie Film

Release Date: 10/28/2025

Casting Director Sherry Thomas (Breaking Bad, Handmaid's Tale, Pluribus) On How to Make it in Hollywood

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Sherry Thomas is one half of Bialy/Thomas & Associates, the casting powerhouse behind Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Walking Dead, The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, Barry, The Righteous Gemstones, Dead to Me, Apple TV+'s Sugar, and Broadway's Jersey Boys. She and Sharon have earned multiple Emmy nominations together across their 25-plus year partnership. Their most recent Emmy nom is for Apple TV+'s Pluribus, which is Vince Gilligan's follow-up to Breaking Bad. It's a full-circle moment: Sherry and her partner Sharon Bialy are the team who first brought Bryan Cranston to...

Writer Dana Ledoux Miller Comes Full Circle with Live Action "Moana"

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Dana Ledoux Miller is a shape shifting scribe. She was PA'ing on Lost and The Descendants when she first said out loud that she wanted to be a writer. A decade later, she's co-written and co-directed Moana 2 and written Disney's live-action Moana, in theaters July 10 — becoming one of the few Pacific Islander writers steering a major Disney IP. In this episode, we trace her full arc: from set life in Hawaii, to landing in Aaron Sorkin's writers' room on The Newsroom, to the surreal call that brought her onto Moana. We talk about what it actually feels like to carry...

Comedy Legends Bob Odenkirk and David Cross Climb Machu Picchu

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

What does it take to hike 26 miles at 14,000 feet with no signal, no Uber, and two of the funniest people alive? We're about to find out. Join me as I sit down with comedy legends Bob Odenkirk and David Cross at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival to discuss their documentary Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu — a film about friendship, mortality, and what happens when Hollywood strips away and the mountain shows you who you actually are. Plus: Why David chose Bob for this — and why Bob almost said no How Bob's heart attack during Better Call Saul gave the whole journey a different...

Colby Day On How Screenwriting is A Career For Maniacs

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Colby Day is a breath of fresh air who refuses to be performative. In an industry that runs on heat and carefully curated perception, he just gives it to you straight. Day is an Emmy-nominated writer whose credits include the Netflix film "Spaceman" starring Adam Sandler and "In the Blink of an Eye," which premiered at Sundance this past year. He also served as a writer and story editor on Apple TV’s For All Mankind season five. He is also the creator of Hollyweird, a Substack where he documents the unglamorous reality of being a working writer in Hollywood with more honesty than almost...

How Bill AB 2319 Could Keep Hollywood Home with Marielle Abaunza

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Post is where a movie becomes a movie. Where a TV show gets it's bells and whistles. The edit, the VFX, the color, the sound mix, the sound design, and everything in between. It's where everything comes together. And yet for years, California has had no standalone incentive to keep that work here. In this episode I sit down with Marielle Abaunza, President of the California Post Alliance and EVP of Business Development at Signature Post, to talk about AB 2319, the proposed standalone post-production tax incentive that could be game changer in helping keep jobs in LA. We get into: How we...

How to Start a Bidding War with Verve Agent and Partner David Boxerbaum

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

built his career the hard way, with no connections, no shortcuts, and a relentless belief that great stories still change everything. He first fell in love with making movies as a young kid growing up in the Bay Area, camera in hand, directing his friends before he even knew what an agent was. After attending , he realized the there was real power in understanding the business behind making movies. So he mailed his resume across town, worked his way through some of the most iconic agencies in the business, and quietly became one of the most prolific spec script sellers in Hollywood. By...

Substack Live: Six Offers. No Rep. No Problem. Indie Filmmaker Carolina Alvarez on Self-Distributing "Sync"

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

This is a recording of a members-only Substack Live I hosted two weeks ago. If you're a paid subscriber, this is exactly the kind of access and conversation you're signing up for! Carolina Alvarez, writer-director and founder of Femme Regard, is the force behind Sync — a self-financed sci-fi feature now streaming on Amazon Prime that received SIX distribution offers. In this special chat, she breaks down what film school doesn't teach you: how she crowdfunded a feature in stages built a festival strategy around genre and community (not just prestige) reached out to 20+...

Personal Update + Listener Questions Answered

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

In this solo episode, I get candid. I open up about losing my father in January, what grief looks like when you can't afford to stop moving, and the complicated truth about showing up anyway — to the meeting, to the festival, to the mic. I also dig into eight listener questions from the year-end survey, covering: how I select guests, whether I'm still producing, how independent producers can find financing outside traditional models, tips for batching scenes on a micro-budget shoot, how to pitch yourself for freelance producing opportunities, where to actually network, how to work...

How Pam Carbonero Built The Directors Community of Her Dreams

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Pam Carbonero is a seasoned Latina director, producer, writer, and first AD with 15-plus short films, a 12-episode mini-series, and a one-and-a-half hour vertical series under her belt. When she's not directing, she's working full-time as a first AD across features, commercials, music videos, you name it. And she is a proud anti-gatekeeper. But the thing I really wanted to bring her on to talk about is what she built from scratch out of pure necessity: the LA Director's Lab. In 2021, she had an idea for a space where directors could simply practice their craft. She started small: six...

How Culture Impacts Craft with Marina Stabile, Producer of Sundance Winning Film "Josephine"

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Marina Stabile is a Brazilian-born, Swiss-raised producer and line producer with over 20 years of experience in film, documentaries, commercials, and digital content. She is also one of my favorite humans and I'm lucky I get to call her a friend. She grew up in São Paulo, moved to Geneva at 10, attended an international school with 118 nationalities, and knew she wanted to produce after watching the Irving Thalberg Award presented at 3 a.m. on an Oscar broadcast. She studied film and international relations at USC, produced documentaries for the United Nations in Geneva, and returned to the...

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*Today's episode is brought to you by InkTip, a trusted cornerstone of the independent film industry, connecting talented filmmakers with visionary screenwriters. Head to InkTip.com to learn more.*

What does it take to transition from behind the camera to the director's chair? In this inspiring conversation, Jihane Mrad Balaa shares her remarkable 20-year journey from Lebanese immigrant to working on major shows like American Horror Story, 9-1-1, and Bumblebee—before finally making the leap to directing her own feature film.

Jihane opens up about:

✨ Why being "normal and pleasant" is her secret to success in Hollywood

🎬 How she found her feature film script on InkTip

💪 The harsh realities of producing your first independent film

🎥 Shooting a murder mystery feature in 10 days

👥 What she learned observing 50+ directors—both good and bad

🚀 How diversity hiring became her "foot in the door" and why she embraced it

This conversation is packed with honest, tactical advice for anyone looking to transition between departments or produce their first project. Whether you're a camera operator dreaming of directing, a PA trying to move up, or a filmmaker seeking financing, Jihane's story proves that with persistence, positivity, and the right partnerships, anything is possible.

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