Crafts

Emmy Watch: Being Mary Jane

Being Mary Jane is a television series produced by BET that tells the story of an African American woman. Created by Mara Brock Akil, who also served as an executive producer and one of the writers, and directed by Salim Akil, Regina King and Rob Hardy, the series is an interesting glimpse into the work, social and family life of Mary Jane (Gabrielle Union). […]

Crafts

Emmy Watch: Downton Abbey Producer Gareth Neame on the Hit Show’s Final Season

All good things must come to an end, so they say, and that includes Downton Abbey. Production is indeed very close to wrapping up for the sixth and final season of the addictively popular PBS Masterpiece Theater smash hit about the trysts, travails and traumas of an aristocratic British family, the Crawleys, and their loyal cadre of servants, as they find their world and society changing in the period before, during and after World War I. […]

Art Direction

Emmy Watch: The Book of Negroes

BET‘s The Book of Negroes tells the sweeping tale of Aminata Diallo (Aunjanue Ellis), who is kidnapped from her village in Africa and sold as a slave in South Carolina. The series is based on the award-winning novel Someone Knows My Name, by Lawrence Hill. Hill served as a writer, along with producer and director Clement Virgo. Virgo is a Canadian filmmaker who has directed multiple episodes of The Wire for HBO, as well as The L Word and Soul Food for Showtime. He is known for his film Lie With Me, which was featured at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and sold to Showtime in the U.S., and Poor Boy’s Game, which is a boxing drama that premiered at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. […]

Awards

Emmy Watch: Showrunner Michelle Ashford, Masters of Sex

“We are certainly plugging along. It’s always quite the adventure when you have a show up and running,” commented Michelle Ashford, showrunner for Masters of Sex, the Showtime series about William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the pioneering team whose research in human sexuality during the prudish 1950s led to the sexual revolution. […]

Awards

Emmy Watch: Editor Luyen Vu, American Crime

The pilot for American Crime was editor Luyen Vu’s first experience working with Oscar-winning writer and executive producer, John Ridley (12 Years a Slave), who also directed the opener. The pair met a couple of times to discuss the project and Vu was shown the feature that Ridley made right before taking on the pilot, which had an editorial style that Ridley liked. […]

Awards

Emmy Watch: Editor Tony Orcena, Modern Family

In cutting comedy, Modern Family editor Tony Orcena noted, “You have to remember, it always plays best, simple. It’s about finding a way to tell the story in an interesting way, but remember that the joke is king. You have to make sure the joke plays.” In his approach, Orcena admits that he goes through the first cut and takes out half the edits to find the clearest way to present the joke. […]