Featured Member: Zelie Dember Slack

REEL LADIES MEMBER – ZELIE DEMBER SLACK

Zelie Dember-Slack, a transplant from New York, recently became a NAPTE/LATV Diversity Fellow and is currently in post-production with her first feature film, The Sweetest Heir. Zelie, a Writer/Director/Producer and Actress has several other finalist awards to her name including the 2008 Page International Screenwriting Competition, the 2007 Scriptapalooza TV Writing Competition and the OBS Pilot Competition. In 2006, she was accepted into the CBS Directors’ Initiative Program. To date, Zelie
has successfully completed five short films. She also took top honors at the 2003 Hollywood Black Film Festival Storyteller Competition. In 2002, she received a Fellowship from the Guy A. Hanks & Marvin H. Miller Screenwriting Program sponsored by Drs. Camille and Bill Cosby.

THE SWEETEST HEIR

The Sweetest Heir is an award-winning family comedy about
Brittany Thompson, 9, who collects and restores old jewelry boxes.
While restoring one, she discovers a seal inside a locket and a
deed for the Winthorp Estate, valued at $450 million dollars. The
deed clearly states that the bearer of both the locket and the deed
will become the sole heir to the Winthorp Estate. With Christmas
just two weeks away, the Thompson family tries to claim the estate
but Caroline Stone, the late Ms. Winthorp’s maid, has decided to
dig her heels in and fight the only way she knows how…dirty, so shencan become the only heir to the Winthorp Estate.

To find out more about her feature film, The Sweetest Heir, please
visit www.thesweetestheir.com

To find out more about her, please visit www.zslack.com

VIEW HER REEL LADIES PROFILE

Featured Filmmaker: Helene Muddiman

FEATURED FILMMAKER: COMPOSER HELENE MUDDIMAN!

A new film composer, Hélène Muddiman, is yet very experienced in various mediums having provided music for the entertainment industry since she was eighteen. Writing in a style across a wide variety of musical genres, her music can be heard in film, television, radio, and multi-media advertisements. It is her signature, emotional style that brings depth to the score of her latest film, “Skin.”

Classically trained, Hélène Muddiman plays a range of instruments
including guitar, bass, keyboards and piano. She was signed to EMI
Records and Music Publishing as a young adult. Her singing has also
been featured on many of world-renowned composer Hans Zimmer’s
scores, plus various hits for other collaborative artists.
Muddiman’s “Free Me” is the title track of the Gold selling Album
performed by Emma Bunton which reached number 5 in the UK singles
charts and number 7 in the album charts, the dance remix was also a
top5 Billboard dance chart hit.

Hélène Muddiman’s early work consisted mostly of composing under EMI’s library company, KPM. It was her two solo library albums, “Quirky and Curious 1 and 2” that received widespread air play on programs as diverse as “Mr. Bean,” “Ren and Stimpy,” “Eurotrash,” “The Good Sex Guide,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” and “Spongebob Squarepants.” Hélène’s work in cinema includes “Jean,” an Elysian Films production. The film was awarded first prize in category Best Short Film Drama in the I-Film Festival in Los Angeles. “Jean” was directed by Anthony Fabian, who also brought Muddiman on board for his first feature “Skin.”

Hélène Muddiman says that for “Skin”, she “wanted to create a score that was a hybrid if western and African music, which could closely follow the emotion of the story as well as fit the location.” Since the film dealt with the delicate issues of race during the apartheid era in South Africa, Muddiman wanted to take a look at the stereotypes in the music world as well. It was this thought that brought her to using an all black string section and white percussionists. Using the wonders of modern technology, she was even able to record them via the internet. “Innocent Child” is a
featured song from the score with vocals by Miriam Stockley (who also sang on Adiemus for Karl Jenkins). The score for “Skin” was also recently nominated for the Best Film Score award at the Moondance Film Festival, winner to be announced soon.

Currently making several appearances on behalf of “Skin,” Muddiman is also scoring a film called “Santa’s Little Helper” for a Director working at FOX and an independent thriller “360” from Archer Films, the writer of Paperback Hero which starred Hugh Jackman. For more information on Hélène, please visit her official website, www.helenemuddiman.com

LISTEN HERE to Helene on REEL Radio!