Hollywood Confessional

The Publishers: Interview with the Creators of July Magazine

• Ninth Way Media • Season 2 • Episode 17

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Nolwen Cifuentes and Dyan Jong had an idea. An independent digital platform celebrating the cinematic achievements of actors, screenwriters, and filmmakers with a focus on diverse voices and perspectives. But as they saw the very people they aimed to uplift locked in a grueling labor struggle, they dedicated their first two issues to highlighting the stories, challenges, and concerns of SAG-AFTRA and WGA union members during the current strikes.

Join us in the booth as we talk with Nolwen and Dyan about their inspiration for creating JULY Magazine and how they've pivoted to show support for the artists they aim to celebrate. From inception to publication, we follow their creative journey and hear how they hope to make Hollywood a happier place! 

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Hollywood Confessional is a Ninth Way Media production, produced by Meagan Daine and J.R. Zamora-Thal.

Sound Effects and Music provided by Zapsplat and Pixabay.

Keywords: filmmaking podcast, film podcast, screenwriting podcast, entertainment podcast, Hollywood, filmmaking, writerslife, actorslife, setlife

Speaker 1:

Inoumine Sinema e TV Espiritu Streaming. Amen. Hello Hollywood, faithful Welcome back to another episode of the Hollywood Confessional. I'm your podcast priest, Jerz Morithal.

Speaker 2:

And I'm Megan Dane, and we are so happy to be back here with this particular news. As everybody knows, the Writers Guild of America got their tentative deal with the A&P TP last week and we have just basically been celebrating nonstop.

Speaker 1:

It's been amazing. We were both at idle hour when the news broke and it just felt so good.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's like your team won the World Series, but it's like it also saved the world.

Speaker 1:

It's like your team won the World Series and your Parley bet hit at the same time. What's Parley? We're all getting paid.

Speaker 2:

Oh, yes, okay, yes, I like this. Yeah, you know, my mom, of course, was like oh, so this means you automatically have a job?

Speaker 1:

And I was like no, but if I get a job, I will be paid.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that's exactly what I told her. I wish it could just be a happily ever after. I mean, you know, the struggle continues or the marathon or whatever, but we're writers.

Speaker 1:

That's what we signed up for, that's right.

Speaker 2:

We need to suffer in order to create our art. And and yeah, there's definitely been such an interesting I mean transformation, I think, in everyone that I've talked to who has been a part of this labor movement and continues to be part of it, by the way, because SAG-AFTRA is still working towards their deal and we are fully supporting them and still out on the picket lines to show our solidarity with them. And you know also, labor, hot labor, summer continues. I guess it's turning into cool labor fall Because, like, there are still many unions on strike that we are also standing in solidarity with. And yet I think this is a huge moment for us all to celebrate as we have. You know, come together to make this thing happen.

Speaker 1:

I mean to go back to the sports metaphor. You know, you celebrate the win and then the next day the work continues. You go back and we are still a union in solidarity with the other unions, with SAG, with the United Auto Workers, with IOTC next year, that's still part of our responsibility to stand with them.

Speaker 2:

That's right. One of the things that we're working on right now is is building that community, continuing to build that sense of community in the days to come. So more on that. And you know, in this spirit of building community, we are so excited to introduce you guys today to July Magazine.

Speaker 1:

July Magazine is an independent, digital-only magazine that celebrates the stories and achievements of talents in film and television. With a focus on diverse voices and perspectives, they aim to amplify actors and filmmakers, shedding light on their creative processes, challenges and accomplishments.

Speaker 2:

The first issue of July Magazine was a series of conversations between actors and writers who were involved in the strikes, which was really fascinating. I ended up doing an interview with a super cool actress from Toronto and just that conversation. It opened my eyes to all kinds of things about how like labor works and the impact that it has on the act of creating. And so they're doing a second issue as well, also featuring stories from the strike from people who have been really involved on the picket lines and beyond.

Speaker 1:

And we have the creators here this week with us Nolan Cifuentes and Diane Jong. Are you ready to get into this? Let's step into the confessional.

Speaker 3:

Bless me, Father, for I have amplified the voices of striking filmmakers.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for coming on the show and we're super excited to share who you are and your project with everyone. Thank, you?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, for our nice photographer. I've been shooting for the last eight years. I shoot all kinds of stuff advertising, editorial and I've been working with magazines for the last eight years.

Speaker 1:

Tell me about how you got your first camera.

Speaker 3:

I got my first camera when I was 12 years old, and then mom bought me a camera. That is not when I started shooting at all. It came very much later, but that is when I got my first camera. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Marino Valley, which is in the Inland Empire in Southern California. It's about 90 minutes, 60 miles, outside of LA. That's where I grew up, but my family's from my mom's from France, my father's from Columbia, they somehow ended up in the arena of LA.

Speaker 1:

So if you didn't start shooting when your mom got you your first camera, how did you make the jump to actually working as an editorial photographer?

Speaker 3:

I mean, basically I started building a portfolio using, yeah, just like going and modeling him and shooting people on my own. I remember like I went to FYSS.

Speaker 1:

Oh, hell yeah.

Speaker 3:

Maybe you can use the data, and I brought this little camera and I just took a bunch of photos there and I don't know the photos and they're being really cool and I was like whoa, I feel like make a website for season. I also, like went to Paris. I had family with her and I went to see my grandmother this is like a couple of years before she passed away and I just spent like a few weeks with her at her house, just like us two, and I took like so many photos of like the house and her and the house Kind of just started taking photos of things that I liked more. I guess that I was like more drawn to I did all kinds of weird.

Speaker 3:

I did another photo series where, like I just photographed a bunch of naked men. Like I just kind of spoiled, I just like went to her house for myself and then they would get naked and I would take photos of them, or they would come over to my place and I would take photos of them. I was just like shooting all kinds of stuff. But basically I built a portfolio and like made a website based on that and then just started reaching out to photo editors and eventually got one job, another job and, yeah, just kind of built from there.

Speaker 1:

It sounds like you've got a really wide range of interests. How did you settle on actors for July?

Speaker 3:

Basically. Yeah, so this is all of these photo series that I just mentioned. This is probably back in like 2015 or something like that, and I was more just experimenting and like finding my own voice and understanding what I like to do and shoot. So it was a lot more than what I'm doing now, which is a lot more honed in and focused. I don't know. I mean, part of it was I was like I well, I always been fascinated by I still am. I'm actually writing a screenplay right now one and getting into directing as well, and that's just something I've always been into.

Speaker 3:

I'm married to a cinematographer and we always talk about like movies and watching movies together. It's just something I've always been fascinated in since I was a kid. And then, in terms of photography, I just started shooting more entertainment. I was like, wait, I love shooting and I love just meeting these actors, like people that I'm a fan of, and like working with actors and shooting actors. I feel like there's just more of more of like an artistic collaboration there. I just feel like you can push the talent more in certain directions that feel good to me. So, yeah, I just kind of niche into like, okay, I want you know what I want to do? Celebrity and advertisement.

Speaker 3:

I do a lot of advertising too, because it makes a lot of money within the community as well, it's always good.

Speaker 3:

So basically, kind of through the last few years, just honed in a lot more on my style, understood like, okay, this is there's so much that you can do in photography, there's so much we can shoot, but like, what is it that I actually enjoy? Like what is it that I like, that I'm like having fun doing, and it just felt a lot more like okay, it feels more like just stylized, something where I have a lot more control. Oh, another thing I did for like a couple years was unit stills I worked on. I've worked on a lot of indie movies and do a ton of unit stills, which I also was like I don't really like it was cool, it was really cool to be on set, but I didn't like doing it actually because I just want to be in control of the set, like I want to be able to light things my way.

Speaker 3:

I want to have like a more intimate connection with the talent, kind of honed in and realized like this is what I'm into is and not only entertainment. I mean I really like shooting actors and celebrities because I watch some of the movies that I stand girl on a lot of people. So I basically just decided there's a lot of actors that I wanted to photograph and I would reach out to different magazines and pitch these people to them and it would take forever either they would pass on it or it would take so long to get anything done. And I was like I could just be doing this myself, like I could just be pitching. I could just like you know, it's really easy to find actor PRs on like IMDbPro Like I could just be emailing these people and like shooting them myself if I had my own magazine to do it.

Speaker 3:

And also, I just know so many talented people. I know so many other talented photographers. I'm like I want to collaborate with them and I know so many like stylists and hair and makeup and set designers and just so many people that I've collaborated with throughout the years and I'm like I just want to bring all these people together. So originally, as I mentioned, the idea behind July was like okay, let me make like a very neat magazine where it's just about actors, a little bit of filmmakers too, but like mostly actors. You know, a lot of other magazines feature like fashion and music too, but I'm like, for me, my, I'm not super into music. I mean I like music but I'm not like. Just my passion has always been like cinema and filmmaking and television and the piece, especially like the actors that are in it and filmmakers that make that. So I was like, let me, I'm going to make like a nice magazine about that.

Speaker 1:

Tell us about the mission of July.

Speaker 3:

I mean, it's basically the profile actors and filmmakers mostly actors, but also directors, writers, people who are in film and television to give them a place to celebrate what they're doing, to learn more about their background and their process and what excites them. And also, you know, I obviously I'm a photographer, that's my background. So just creating really beautiful imagery with them that feels intimate and retentive, being like an intimate portrait of these people that I'm personally so fascinated by and for an audience that feels the same way about film and television.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, and so what are you going to talk about in this first issue of July?

Speaker 3:

This is not our original goal. For the first issue. We actually had a whole different group of talent lined up originally and you know we were just going to do you know kind of what I said, just like learning about the background and the process and like what they're working on. And so then the strike happened and I mentioned that I was working on this to Diane and I kind of thought, well, I guess I'm not going to do it there. I mean I'm going to do it but like not until next year. I'm also like having a baby in a couple months. So I guess I kind of just took this on pause for a while.

Speaker 3:

And Diane was when she was like why don't you do an issue about the strikes and like, really show support? You know these are the people you want to profile and you want to talk about it. You know, learn about their voices, like don't pause. Right now. This is the time to, like you know, support them and see this is like a huge, pivotal, historic moment and like this is a moment that we could be a part of and profile and talk about. So that is genius and let's do that. That's pretty much the goal behind the pre launches and we have six talent now that we're going to be launching list and we'll see. We'll kind of see what the deal with the strike throw once we launch. If it's still going on for a while, we might do a second issue with more people. So, yeah, we kind of just taking the day by day at this point.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. Now, Diane, what opportunity did you see? What did you want to get out of this first issue by pivoting to talk about the strike?

Speaker 3:

I mean honestly, like I've been really pro later. It's just really frustrating to see people who love what they do Like I'm included in that. Like you know, I do photography in clear direction and like you feel like you're doing all this creative work to like make your portfolio to get the commercial jobs and then, once you get the commercial job, get the pizza job and you're fairly making it up to get by, and I can see that happening like in all industries everywhere. Like you're similar to whole labor movement across America and you know, for me, like I'm part of that, I was just like tired of this shit, you know. So it's kind of like like why you know pause now, and I think the people need to be heard, like their stories need to be heard, their experiences, especially since you know there's so much like long radio, like independent media, like we can talk about whatever we want and there's no one here to you know edit it out.

Speaker 2:

Yes, we love that. So then, can you talk a little bit about what the process was? I mean, you decided to pivot. You're like, okay, we're gonna do this. And then what? Like what? How did you decide on how you were gonna approach the issue? And then how has the process been working out?

Speaker 3:

We kind of worked on it together. Like no one and I do a lot of these like work days at like a you know community work space. We called our spaces days. That was where we had the original conversation. Well, she was telling me about you know, our magazine and how she might have to postpone it and then, on the spot, like I kind of just like brought up the, I brought up a question and we ripped on it and kind of developed the whole idea for an issue together, right there.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's awesome. And what? How would you like characterize the idea in a nutshell? Could you like pitch it the way that you pitched it to her?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, basically what no one said, which is you know, this is a magazine that's meant to uplift actors and filmmakers, like isn't this like the literal definition of uplifting? You know, just like it was kind of hard to like pick the idea at first, it was hard to explain like we're not doing crap, for you know you're right, moving anymore. So you know, we're really focused on the strikes, we ended up getting six whole new talent. A lot of them were through word of mouth, like friends of friends, people we shot before we actually met. We went to the strikes and we met a manager out there who she managed a couple actors. She brought a few actors for us.

Speaker 3:

So it's a lot of the new issue. A lot of it's just been through kind of bringing on work, people from word of mouth. But yeah, I mean the idea behind the new issue is just talking about concerns in their industry, talking about how the industry has changed. We have people actors that are newer in their career. We have actors that are like 30 years into their career and it's really interesting to hear the different perspectives of how this is affecting them. We have the actors from Canada. That may be an interview that will be on the issue as well and just hearing, like all, how it's affecting so many different people across the board in terms of the film industry. You know not just how the strike is affecting them, but just how all of these issues that are being brought up in the strike is affecting and changing the industry a lot.

Speaker 1:

Have you learned anything that surprised you about what actors are going through during the strike?

Speaker 3:

I learned something really interesting that I didn't know. So I have, like my husband's brother he's in 728, he does lighting, so I know a lot of people who are in IOC and I know that they get paid for their games. I didn't know. I learned this in one of the interviews that actors and writers get paid for episodes, which is kind of wild to me. They were one of the writers who was saying, yeah, like he's been working for writing for 30 over 3 years and he was like when I was writing for television at the beginning of my career, you get 26 episodes and there's just more writers in the room and that now these shows are 6 episodes and they're also way longer. Each episode is 45 minutes an hour long, sometimes even some of these shows are longer than an hour and you're getting paid the exact same amount and that was really so. You're actually doing a lot more work, you get less episodes and so less pay. That was really surprising to me. I did not know that at all.

Speaker 3:

It also tells that they're now trying to outsource the cost of casting onto actors by doing those self-paced like. I didn't realize that. I think self-paced was such a costly endeavor and you know it definitely doesn't even the playing field the way that casting does, you know, by providing the same environment for all the actors to perform in. Now there's a lot of external factors that could play a role, like lighting and sound, and now, you know, actors might have to rent those self-tape studios and it's just like yet one more thing for studios to kind of like offset the cost in their own pockets. I also learned about the practice of, you know, re-naming or rebooting shows, like around the third season, so that they don't have to pay residual.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's so many little things and I am really, really excited to see this first episode, this first issue of July, just even having had the opportunity to interview one of the actors, which was super fun.

Speaker 2:

And also I learned something there, which was the extent to which people from other countries are impacted by the strikes that are going on here. So Carolina, the actress that I interviewed was not she, you know, pointed out, I'm not even a member of SAG-AFTRA because I'm Canadian, but because it was an American production that I was working on that went away with the strikes. And you know, she talked about how closely people in Canada are following every little moment of the news of what's unfolding here, because it impacts them and they can't really influence it, and that was something I had never thought about before. So, thank you guys for doing this project. I mean it's going to be, I think, really interesting and enlightening, and I mean I've seen, we've seen your photography, so we know it's going to be beautiful, so we're really excited to see it. When is it going to come out and how can we find it?

Speaker 3:

Well, I'm hoping so. We just talked today actually the last two of our talents. We're getting an interview soon, so I'm trying to get it out as fast as I can because it's so relevant right now. So I'm hoping in the next, like basically by the end of the month. It's the goal. You can find it. It's a digital magazine, so it's all free online. It's just july-magazinecom.

Speaker 2:

And are you guys on socials? Should people be following you?

Speaker 3:

We have Instagram. It's july-mag. So far we just had Instagram, but eventually we're going to get TikTok. Oh, we've got threads too, which I think you can just go to the Instagram and click the thread and oh yeah, diane is a big TikTok work, so feel probably good to do TikTok work. Yeah, I was thinking a lot of the strikes of sports on TikTok actually. Well, that was kind of why I had the idea ready to go.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's so funny. Yeah, that is great to know. Okay, so, july-mag, I just followed you. Yay, can't wait to see the first issue. God, can I not say the word issue?

Speaker 3:

We can even call it an episode. That's what we should call it. That would be cool.

Speaker 2:

And then you know. One last thought. I'm really curious. Thank you so much for everything that you guys are doing. It's really awesome. And how do you feel about proceeding after the strike is over? You know, hopefully this first issue will be the only one that comes out, and then it will be done. And yeah, we get to all move on with our creative lives. How are you feeling about that?

Speaker 3:

I'm facing it day by day. I mean, I've heard people saying you know all the strikes will be over in September. Someone recently told me no, it can be over in May.

Speaker 1:

Like you know, it's going to happen.

Speaker 3:

Oh no, who's that person? Stop. I'm like, oh wow, Stop them. My hope is that, yeah, it can go with tune and that you know, the action could occur no-transcript and that the industry moves forward in a very positive way when this is over, and then we'll go back to our original idea, which is, you know, we're going to talk to actors about what they're working on, we're going to talk to them about the background, the process, and kind of get more into the craft of it.

Speaker 2:

Hey you guys. This was awesome. Thanks for taking the time to share with us and we are really excited about your magazine and thank you for doing everything that you've done to make Hollywood a happier place and, yeah, we'll be looking forward to it, Hopefully at the end of this month.

Speaker 2:

That's all we've got for you this week, guys. Thank you again so much for joining us. Make sure that you check out July magazine. It's July dash magazinecom. We're also on social media beautiful posts on Instagram so check that out and we will be back in a couple of weeks, and we are really looking forward to getting back to our usual format of having some behind the scenes confessions with amazing voice actors who are like way cooler to listen to than me and JR.

Speaker 1:

And as soon as SAG-AFTRA has a deal, we're going to bring those voice actors back with open arms.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

So we will hopefully be seeing that happen very soon. In the meantime, you guys hit us up on Twitter, instagram or whatever. X, you know that thing. We should probably set up a blue sky, too At FESUP Hollywood, and let us know if you have a shout out, a story to share. We would love to connect with you.

Speaker 1:

But until then, go create in peace. The Hollywood Confessional is produced by Megan Dane and JR Zemorethal, special effects provided by Zapp Splat and Pixabay. Hollywood Confessional is a ninth way media production. Follow us on socials at FESUP Hollywood.