We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carolina Alvarez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Carolina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

I’ve always held a full-time job while pursuing my creative projects. I feel it’s a misconception that creatives feel that they have to choose one (the full time job) or the other (creative venture). I started my professional career working in customer service/showroom sales for a plumbing company. Sounds sexy right? I would help people remodel their homes and had to be a liaison to the clients, contractors, and designers. I developed crucial project management skills as well as budgeting and selling. I didn’t know at the time that working these various muscles would lend a hand when it came to film producing. These are all necessary traits when it comes to producing and selling your film! During that period of time I launched my own production company, Femme Regard Productions with a partner and set forth our first big film project, Desert Flowers. By both of us having our own full time jobs, we were also able to self-fund the project! Producing films is now a strong skill set of mine and I’m grateful for my humble beginnings.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

After moving to Los Angeles and graduating with a degree in Musical Theatre from AMDA in 2015, I realized that the roles on stage were limiting to me and felt that it wasn’t giving me the types of opportunities to express myself as a performer. I started taking acting for the camera and quickly learned that if I wanted to work consistently in this industry I needed to start creating my own work. Another important discovery and unpopular opinion for an actress is that I didn’t like auditioning. The casting submission roles for Film/TV were stereotypical when it came to individuals such as myself with mixed, ethnic backgrounds. Agents would most of the time put me up for Latina roles and here I would show up as this white girl who wouldn’t stand a chance. I finally decided I needed to take control over my career and be the producer talking about my work not the actor looking for work. When my co-producer Tessa Markle and I embarked on our first project, Desert Flowers, reinventing the classic American Western. Working on this without really knowing anything about filmmaking and just by doing extensive research ourselves, we essentially launched our film careers without us even really knowing it. So the short answer is, I didn’t really intend for any of this to happen but just through trying to empower myself as an artist, and by just doing, I found my path, my passion, and my community.

When my co-producer and I launched Femme Regard Productions, we were dumb-founded by how hard it was for us to network and find women to collaborate with. We set-out with a mission to empower women in front of and behind the camera. It wasn’t just about telling stories through the female lens but having it done by the women on our set! So we launched a podcast in 2019, Femme Regard Podcast, to help educate independent filmmakers such as ourselves, share our filmmaker journey, and bring on industry guests who primarily were female filmmakers. We are proud to say we just wrapped filming our first feature film, SYNC, and my directorial debut with a crew of female filmmakers that we have built relationships with over the years from our show. We are striving to continue to grow our diverse and empowering community, launch our 16th season of Femme Regard Podcast, and finish our film! We are not about gatekeeping information and excited to share more on how we successfully made a low-budget indie film and filmed it in just 11 days!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We established our social media presence through our podcast, Femme Regard Podcast. We quickly realized that filmmaking is a process that unfolds over time, and we saw that a podcast could serve as an excellent means to maintain an ongoing conversation while organically growing an audience of filmmakers and film enthusiasts. As previously mentioned, our guests transformed into cherished friendships and valuable connections, with some even forging relationships with each other on social media platforms. You might wonder, “How does a podcast relate to social media?” Well, it’s not merely about hitting the record button and releasing episodes. I played a role in creating custom social media posts that introduced our guests, shared highlight reels, and featured inspiring quotes. Always keeping in mind how these posts would engage listeners and offer either motivation or valuable insights. Here’s a piece of advice: think about what interests you or what you’d like to learn about. If it doesn’t excite you, why would it excite someone else?

For my fellow filmmakers, I urge you not to overlook the opportunity to build an audience on social media. This represents FREE public relations and a cost-effective method to cultivate an audience and fan base for your work. We launched the social media account for our feature film, @syncthemovie, which not only helped us secure funding but also led us to an audience eagerly awaiting the final product. Trust me, as someone who simply wants to concentrate on the creative aspect, such as crafting a compelling script, this is equally essential. After all, who will read or view your work if you don’t take proactive steps to build your brand and audience? Consistency plays a vital role in social media marketing. If you’re concerned about sharing your work or your ability to create captivating content, remember that the more you do it, the more proficient you’ll become. Just like anything else, it’s about getting started and maintaining a consistent presence.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I believe that if you ask any filmmaker or creative individual out there, it ultimately comes down to being able to pursue your passion full-time alongside the people you cherish. Since completing my first feature film, the impact of our dedicated production work in creating a magical on-set experience with our team has become an even greater motivating factor to embark on this journey once again. It’s all about continual improvement and providing more resources to the team that helped build this dream. In essence, I aspire to further develop Femme Regard Productions into an internationally recognized independent filmmaker brand, akin to A24, which actively supports established but smaller artists. Furthermore, I aim to establish a brand that champions women in the film industry.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.femmeregardproductions.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/lafemmecarolina
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/carolina-alvarez-the-producer

Image Credits
Sync Unit Stills – Bahareh Ritter