Episode 9

Filmmakers Amy & Richard Janes - Episode 9

Published on: 3rd April, 2024

Our first pair of guests are Producers, Directors, and accomplished Filmmakers Richard & and Amy Janes!

Annie and Katherine talk to Amy and Richard about how their filmmaking process has changed over the years with the advent of Intimacy Coordinators. The conversation touches on topics like Richard dealing with an inappropriate costume designer as a young man, Amy navigating intimacy with actors before IC's, and how Intimacy Coordinators can help with triggering and emotional scenes, even when the crew themselves are affected.

Richard and Amy Janes are a dynamic husband-and-wife duo making waves in Oklahoma's rapidly growing film and television industry. Amy, an Emmy and Clio-winning producer/editor, is celebrated for her work on documentaries and feature films, including projects like "As Seen Through These Eyes" narrated by Dr. Maya Angelou, as well as HBO's "Crossfire Hurricane" and "Valentine Road." She runs the Oklahoma Film and Television Academy/Film Crew Institute, co-owns Filmmakers Ranch in Oklahoma, and serves as Executive Producer at Fanology in LA, crafting engaging digital content. Richard, an accomplished director, boasts over 100 commercials for major brands and an Emmy for "Behind The Lyrics." He was cast in a variety of different roles as a young actor in the UK before transitioning into directing - leading him to Los Angeles where he met Amy. They quickly realized they both shared a vision of a self-sustaining filmmaking community. Together, they revitalized an abandoned school in Oklahoma City into Green Pastures Studio, a thriving film campus. Committed to diversity, they also launched the Film Crew Institute, a below-the-line training school that seeks to redress the diversity imbalance of our crew base so that it can more accurately reflect the global audiences of the industry.

You can find Amy, Richard, and all of their projects on their two websites, FilmmakersRanch.com and FilmCrewInstitute.com. They're also on Facebook and Instagram @FilmmakersRanch and @FilmCrewInstitute.

You can find us at @RomancingTheScreenPod, RomancingTheScreen.com, and you can email us at RomancingTheScreen@gmail.com.

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About the Podcast

Romancing The Screen
Baring it all with Intimacy Coordinators, Actors, and Crew
A podcast hosted by three experienced intimacy coordinators — Rachel Lee Flesher (they/she/he), Katherine O’Keefe (she/her), and Annie Spong (she/her). Join them in their warm and inclusive conversations as they delve into the intricate world of their craft, and how it interacts with the production process. They'll also share insightful stories from their experiences on (and off!) set working as ICs.

In each episode, they attempt to unravel the standards, culture, and complexities surrounding intimacy and nudity in the entertainment industry, offering their three unique perspectives. As pioneers in a surprisingly new profession, Katherine, Annie, and Rachel aim to demystify the role of intimacy coordinators – addressing the need for ICs and why intimacy coordination is a crucial part of filmmaking. Tune in for enlightening chats from three friends who navigate through nuanced topics with grace and levity.

Join us every Wednesday!

Art by Jim Payne
Music Composition by Arian Saleh
Music Mixed by Adam Avalos

About your hosts

Rachel Flesher

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Rachel Lee Flesher (they.she.he) is an intimacy coordinator for film recognized on the SAG-AFTRA intimacy coordinator registry, an intimacy director for theatre, a SAG-AFTRA stunt performer, a fight director and fight instructor with the Fight directors Canada, a gender and sex educator, actor, teacher, and director.

Rachel is passionately engaged in making safer sets and stages around the world by helping to produce best practices and procedures for Intimate and hyper-exposed content in multiple areas of film, tv, theatre, and education. Currently Rachel is part of the collaboration team advising SAG-AFTRA on their effort to standardize, codify and implement guidelines for on-set intimacy coordinators. You can see Flesher's Intimacy Coordination on HUNTERS (season 2), FARGO (season 4), GLOW (season 3), THE CHI (season 3 and 6), and over 25 other shows on HULU, FX, FOX, CBS, SHOWTIME, NETFLIX, HBO, Apple, and more.

Rachel is a Certified Fight Director and Certified Fight Instructor with the Fight Directors Canada, an Instructor with Tactics on Set, an Intimacy Coordinator, and Intimacy Director with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators. Rachel’s Fight Direction and Intimacy Direction have been featured at Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Shakespeare Dallas, Steppenwolf for Young Adults, and many more.

Rachel has been grateful for the opportunity to travel the world teaching workshops and being on panels on combat for stage and screen, intimacy and consent for actors, directors, producers, writers, production teams, lawyers, educators, dancers, singers, and devised theatre makers. Flesher has also collaborated and consulted with multiple university programs to create consent forward, best practices for intimacy and violence in the classroom and in production. With a deep love for teaching and learning Rachel has mentored many fight directors and intimacy directors and coordinators in the industry today and is excited to continue to do so as the industry grows to be more inclusive. Through studying mental health first aid, trauma, abuse, survival, and healing, and collaborating with other directors, psychologists, and mental health experts, Rachel is developing techniques to help actors safely portray trauma and abuse on screen and stage - Traumaturgy. Rachel specializes in working with trans and non-binary actors, queer intimacy, and telling stories of nonconsensual intimacy. Their goal is to help create safer spaces for actors to do daring work through consent culture.

Adam Avalos

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Adam Avalos is a podcast producer with a background in music production and audio engineering. He works on many different podcasts because he loves to help others share their stories and experiences. Other podcasts he has worked on include From A to Zenon with Jehan Madhani & Avery Suber, Perfume Room with Emma Vernon, The Help Wanted Show with Alex Dobrenko, Howie Mandel Does Stuff, Evolve with John Edward, and StraightioLab with George Civeris & Sam Taggart. He lives in Los Angeles, and his dream job is podcast producer.

Annie Spong

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Annie Spong, MFA Pratt Institute NYC, is an Intimacy Coordinator for TV, Film, and Advertising. She is and multiple award winning seasoned professional in both TV and Film as a costume designer and wardrobe stylist. Now lending her years of production experience to your projects with unparalleled ease in collaboration, easily pivots with creative problem solving, and professionalism.
Intimacy Coordinating has been knocking on Annie’s door for numerous years as the need in this industry went unmet and unchanged. Annie found herself as the first line of defense wardrobing talent for the screen and was called to action to request awareness and safety for talent. In the past several years as the field has emerged and evolved, finding its legitimacy and efficacy through in depth training and experience, Annie has made this seamless transition.
Annie is thrilled to bring her deep breath of experience, emotional intelligence, years of training, and joy of the arts to this arena. In collaboration with multiple aspects of production and within the industry. She is committed to creating a consensual, safe, dynamically creative work space for each of us involved.
Annie is excited for the numerous possibilities the industry of intimacy opens up for advocacy, education, training, and safer work spaces everywhere! Being safe should not be under rated in how it correlates to expression and creativity and what is seen on screen. West coast, Los Angeles based, and available to travel as needed.

Katherine O'Keefe

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Katherine O’Keefe came to intimacy coordinator work with a robust background working in production. She has extensive experience as an intimacy coordinator, having worked on more than thirty productions as an IC. Some of her recent credits include working as the intimacy coordinator on Daisy Jones & the Six (Amazon), Mrs. Davis (Apple TV+), Pam & Tommy (Hulu) The L Word Generation Q (Showtime) and Vida (Starz). She specializes in intimacy in comedy, having intimacy coordinated comedies such Rutherford Falls, I Love That For You, That 90s Show, and many others. Katherine has also spent much of her career focused on LGBTQ representation on screen and has taught numerous masterclasses on writing sex for the screen (Stephen’s College, Stonybrook University, & the WGA East).