UPM/Line Producer Canella Williams Larrabee Shares Tips for Success in the Industry
AD/Director Shawn Pipkin-West takes over as full host in this episode with Canella Williams Larrabee, a seasoned unit production manager and line producer in television.
The episode dives into Larrabee's 20-year career, covering her start in the industry, her extensive credits including Netflix's 'Raising Dion' and 'The Night Agent,' and her leadership roles within the Directors Guild of America.
The conversation also highlights her efforts to promote diversity through the Diversity Coalition New York Film and Television for Diversity and Inclusion (NIFTY). Key topics include budgeting, hiring, and the importance of balancing professional dedication with personal well-being.
00:00 Welcome to Season Six of Sista Brunch
00:58 Introducing Our Special Guest: Canella Williams Larrabee
01:49 Canella's Journey in the Film and TV Industry
04:53 Working on Netflix's Night Agent05:40 Leadership and Involvement in the Directors Guild
08:42 Founding NIFTY and Promoting Diversity
10:35 Understanding the Role of a Unit Production Manager
15:11 The Art Department and Production Design
17:11 Props, Set Dressing, and Costumes
19:13 Financials and Vendor Management
19:44 Exploring Technocrane Rentals
24:35 Understanding Insert Car Work
27:34 The Role of Technology in Production Management
29:46 Signature Question: Advice to Younger Self
34:37 Closing Remarks and Final Thoughts
Transcript:
Shawn Pipkin-West: [00:00:00] Welcome back to season six of Sista Brunch, the one and only podcast that shares the stories of black women and gender expansive people, thriving in film, TV, and all types of media. I'm director Shawn Pipkin-West, your host for today. I'm flying solo without my extraordinary co host Fanshen Cox, but she's here in.
Spirit. We have a great episode with a very special guest. So we are so honored to have her. She's a UPM unit production manager and a line producer in television. She's been a producer's guild member since 2011 and a director's guild member since 2019. Currently, she's the chair of the Eastern AD UPM council, assistant director unit production manager council and alternate on the national board.
Of the DGA, she's also the founder of the diversity coalition, New York film and television for diversity and inclusion or nifty as they call it. sista brunch, please [00:01:00] welcome Canella Williams Larrabee. Yay. How are you?
Canella Williams Larrabe: Good. Good. It's good to be here. Thank you so much. I know you're so busy. Thank you for doing this.
Shawn Pipkin-West: And so I'm going to talk a little bit about your career and then you just add in and talk. So Canela has over 20 years experience in the film and television industry. Her credits include the Netflix series, Raising Dion and the Night Agent. And Rise and Chain Can Dunk for Disney Plus and The Best Man Final Chapters on Peacock.
And she has even more. She did season one of Evil, which is on CBS and Paramount Plus and The Crowded Room on Apple TV Plus. So much to discuss. So Canella, can you start by just giving us an idea of how you got started and how you've been able to really grow and thrive, especially in the last, you know, five years in the industry?
Canella Williams Larrabe: Okay. Yeah. I mean, you know, speaking about how I [00:02:00] got started as a little, can always be a little tricky. It's like, do you go from, it's like the chicken or the egg, right? Yes. So yeah, I've always been an, an artistic person and I've always been into movies and television since I was a small child. But I guess my, my first experience with actually doing like a professional film was.
It's a long time ago since we're already talking about 20 years ago when, when people still got jobs going on Craigslist and I applied for an, an internship on a, an independent feature film. And it was actually legitimate and I sent him my resume and I have already had some like what they call or what we call in the business real world experience.
Well, it's called like, you know, film and television is the land of make believe. Everyone else is like, everybody else is the you know, the, the real world. So I sent my [00:03:00] resume in and then I got a phone call from the production supervisor. And they said, wow, you know, you actually have like real experience.
Like, it's not like you're not just, you're not just some kid that's just like, you know, straight out of college. You actually have done things. And that's back when internships were free and they were like, Hey, how would you like to get paid instead?
Shawn Pipkin-West: May I stop you real quick? So you said this is an indie film. Do we know of this indie film? Did it ever get distributed?
Canella Williams Larrabe: It's called Keen and it was starring Damian Lewis. Which you guys will know I'm from Billions, so, and, and, and, yeah Homeland and Homeland. So, but before all that, and so we're starring Damian Lewis and the director was Lodge Kerrigan. So I was the director's assistant on that.
So I did the script changes and I did research for the script so it could be authentic. We filmed in New Jersey.
Shawn Pipkin-West: And you were the director's assistant, but you were technically an in turn.
Canella Williams Larrabe: No, I [00:04:00] actually got paid. They decided to pay. They were like, Hey, you have all this experience. Like, how would you like to be paid instead?
So I was not an intern. I actually did get paid. Nice. And, and so my, my first job out, you know, just straight up because of just having. Real world experience. They were like, oh, this person actually, like, has a brain. So they, they decided to pay me. They were like, oh, this is She's done things. So yeah. Real world experience.
Real world experience. And so that's something that actually counted for once.
Shawn Pipkin-West: All right. So that was started. Yeah. Okay. So you were director's assistant. Okay, great.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yeah. And then, you know, from there I just never stopped working.
Shawn Pipkin-West: I love that. So like right now, I, I mentioned it, but you are not right now working on the very popular Netflix action, political thriller series, night agent.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yeah.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Season two.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Season, actually season three. Season three. Season [00:05:00] three. Yes. Yeah, but we, I was on season two and season two is going to be released next year on January 23rd. That's going to be the premiere. But we're already we already started filming season three. So. Yeah. And,
Shawn Pipkin-West: and so by the, when this airs, it's already going to be, so everybody watch night agent on Netflix right now cause it's going to be out season two season two.
And then you're working on season three right now.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yeah.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Okay. So that's great. So I do also want to talk about your leadership involvement with the guild. If you don't mind, the directors guild of America, right?
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yeah, like before I was a member of the Director's Guild, I was in the IATSE union, which is like, I'm trying to remember, I always try to remember the, the acronym, what it stands for, but it was like the International Alliance
Shawn Pipkin-West: of Theatrical Stage
Canella Williams Larrabe: Employees, employees.
Yes. So I was, An IATSE member or [00:06:00] some people say IATSE and I never really got involved in my, in my local. And so when I joined the director's guild, I was like, I'm not going to do that again.
Shawn Pipkin-West: So Canella, can you tell us what, what your position or title was? What were you doing as an IATSE member? What was your position?
Canella Williams Larrabe: I was an assistant coordinator off in the office and then I was a production coordinator in the office. Okay. So great. Okay. I had done that. That was the other union position and I wasn't, I always had issues with the way things were run, but I never. Got involved and I was like, you know what, I'm going to get involved and I joined on an indie movie because I come from indie film.
So I joined as a unit production manager for the DGA on a, on an indie, on an indie film and that like temporarily shut down. Then I ended up getting the job on evil and the producer on that series was [00:07:00] the, was very involved in director's guilt. And so he was like, Hey, you should come to a meeting. You should come to a unit production manager meeting.
You should come to an assistant director, unit production manager council meeting. And then so I started going and, and being involved. And I also noticed you know, there were at that time, it's a slightly different now. There weren't a lot of people in New York that looked like me when I went to those meetings.
So then I started also going to what year was this again, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2020, before COVID completely blew everything up. So it was only a few months before COVID and yeah, it was at that time and I was like, wow, there's not too many people who resemble. My skin tone and my hair texture. And I was like, Oh, I wasn't expecting that.
And then I got involved in the diversity committees too, to try to find, you know, people who were also [00:08:00] film professionals. And so from there, I just was like, okay, we, I need to get more involved. But then the world shut down with COVID. And then I started my, because of that experience. And because of course, with everything what happened with George Floyd and the world was actually finally listening because everybody was home.
Yes. The whole world was pretty much, unless you were an essential worker, the whole world was unemployed. Mm hmm. And so, I decided to start NIFTY my diversity coalition. Because I was like, all these people who I've met at meetings, all these people that now I'm seeing on Zooms from the Director's Guild will now listen.
And so we were like, Hey, let's change and, and, and make the business more inclusive.
Shawn Pipkin-West: I love it.
Canella Williams Larrabe: So I went in and did that and, and you know, it, it worked for a while. Things are a little different now as we know world's changing again, but that's no reason to give up.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Hi, [00:09:00] this is Shawn Pipkin-West. Thanks so much for supporting our podcast by following us on IG at sista brunch podcast and engaging with our posts.
Did you know you can also see our guests lovely faces on the video version of the podcast on youtube. com slash TruJuLo Media. And that's TruJuLo Media, T R U J U L O M E D I A. All right, let's get back to our interview with Canella Williams Larrabe.
I, I, I love that you took that initiative, Nifty, and I went to a few of those meetings, you know, and that's when I first got to know you and then we're on the board together and then you know, DJ black and just all that.
But can you tell for, and also one of the reasons we have sista brunch is there's a lot of young people, specifically young women that look like us. You know, an Afro Latina, black African American, you know, that. [00:10:00] Don't know. They want to, they want to get in this business, but they just don't know how they don't know what this is.
So we like to educate people and let them know. So your unit production managers was a line producer. Can you just tell in layman's terms for someone like, say like in high school and college, what a unit production manager or a line producer does on a TV or a feature film?
Canella Williams Larrabe: That's always a loaded question for me because I don't know everything, but some of the things that you do.
Yeah. Yeah. But some of the things, well. I'll start as far as a unit production manager, because I think sometimes they can be unit production manager and line producer, producer can be interchangeable depending on what the project is. But for a unit production manager, one is in the Director's Guild of America, which is something that I would encourage if you have aspirations of being a director or a producer or a unit production manager, assistant director, location manager in New York and Chicago, I would [00:11:00] recommend getting.
getting involved in that. But some of the things that I do is like I deal with the, the budget and that's both as like a unit production manager and a line producer, but I hire all the crew. And I am involved depending, it could be involved in hire and hiring the directors or, or dealing with their, the director's deals.
You can end up doing that as a unit production manager or a line producer or producer. You will deal with casting. And some of the casting deals and approving the cast deal memos for the people who are on screen. But again, it's dealing with vendors that are getting us the equipment for making the movie or the television show.
And one of the things is, is that you have to have, maybe some people don't have a great personality, but you have to be able to talk to people. Yes. And have it where people [00:12:00] will listen to what you say. It's a leadership position. So I guess I was like, that's one of, that's like, that's one of the things that's always hard for me to describe.
But it's like you hire the, you know, the gaffer, which is like the head electrician, the key grip, which is the person that supports all the lighting. Sometimes you are involved in hiring the director of photography who brings everything on the screen, but definitely hiring the camera department or helping that person do that.
Cause the producer will also hire the. Director of photography. That's what I'm saying. Sometimes it's interchangeable depends on what responsibilities you're given based on the job and the needs of the job. You hire in the production office, just the people who are running things. And with this job, you get to kind of be there when things are being developed and sometimes before the scripts are even written.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yeah. So you're there in the beginning as a UPM and [00:13:00] also a line producer.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yeah.
Shawn Pipkin-West: You're pretty much on before now. Are you, you, are you on before the production designer or do you, I mean, do you, how does that?
Canella Williams Larrabe: It depends. So that's another, it's another thing. Sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not in, in respect to the night agent.
I was not on because you also have. You know, executive producers, there's very various different types of producers that also act at that are also line producers, like, like on the night agent where it's like you have executive producers, line producer, the producers, the line producers, sometimes you have a, you have a producing team that deals with the financials, but then you'll have someone on the higher end who is an executive producer also deals a bit more with creative.
Yeah. So I don't deal with creative as much, but my job is very creative because I have to help them with the money, bring their vision to the screen, the [00:14:00] showrunner, the directors. So it actually is, even though it's not considered creative, it actually is very creative in that because I have to know what I'm talking about and I try to say, okay, let's do this and come up with ways to get their vision on the screen.
And to have a finished product, it's so, it's like my boss, my boss is the studio. My boss is the showrunner. I also have a lot of bosses. I have to, again, kind of people pleasing in a way, in a way, in a creative way because that's the end. That's the end product is to get, to get a good product and be picked up again or get another movie and that things look great and come within budget.
Shawn Pipkin-West: And you mentioned, I, I mentioned like production designer. So can you just tell our audience, like what a production designer does?
Canella Williams Larrabe: Well, production designer designs the film or TV show. So they have that creative vision where if you, if you ever look at a film or television show and you [00:15:00] notice like the, the different colors and the paints and just like, oh, wow, that's a really nice looking.
I guess you're not thinking it's a set because that's the whole point, right? You're, you're listening to everything, but it's the person that designs the look of the, of the show or the, or the movie. So they run the art department, which consists of like an art director that also helps they do their budget because everyone else does their own budgets.
And then, so I oversee the big budget with their, with their smaller budgets.
Shawn Pipkin-West: And it's one of the biggest departments.
Canella Williams Larrabe: It's a pretty big department, because you have assistant art directors, you have drafts people, you have graphics, which is like what all the stuff that you're putting, putting on the screen, if you have If you have like a television running in the background that comes from the art department, graphics department, but then you also have the video department that puts it up on the screen.
And that's also a different union. So there's also various different unions of property is under art department. There is also set dressing. So that's the furniture that [00:16:00] you see on the show. And sometimes the light fixtures too. That's also art department. It's not necessarily the lighting department, which is the electric department.
And set decorating, yeah, it's like all those little, so yeah, props. So it's all those, all those little things that go on screen that help, that help the picture together with the director's vision.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yeah, it's a very, it's a very, very important department head, you know, and again, like I said, it's a, it's a really huge department to run.
And and I know we've talked about props and then we talked about set dressing. So for our audience members, just so everybody knows props, property department, everything that an actor touches.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yes. Everything that an actor touches and eats too.
Shawn Pipkin-West: And eats. Yes. And drinks. And drinks.
Canella Williams Larrabe: That is also the property department or we say props.
And the person who runs that is The prop master or sometimes now people say prop mistress
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yes, yes [00:17:00]
Canella Williams Larrabe: But a lot of a lot of the terms have masculine terms, so yes, we're working on gender neutrality exactly with that like they have In central and lead man. Yeah, best boy was a best person or leave. Yeah, it'll be Lead person.
Yes. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I feel like, like prop master, I was like, no, no one's really done anything. They'll say, maybe it's just prop master or Prop Prop mistress.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yeah. I just say props. Props. I don't say .
Canella Williams Larrabe: Props, I just say props. Prop head department, property, property, . But, but even with, even with that, like props will deal.
So the things that actors don't touch, that set dressing. Right. So if there's inanimate objects or little things like clocks and stuff, if the actor is not touching it, so, and then the things they touch, like, let's say a gun or like I said, like we said before, drinks or food, but then sometimes you also have jewelry that can be props or it can be costumes.
[00:18:00] Yeah. The costume department was the people who get the actor's dress.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yes.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yes.
Shawn Pipkin-West: And sometimes, and I've been on shows where purses, it's been like, wait, is purses props or is it bags or props or are they wardrobe? Like it's like literally, I always ask that question. Okay. Who's in charge of the purses? Who's in charge of the bags?
Canella Williams Larrabe: You know, that's like another thing you say, you said wardrobe. So it's like costumes are the ones that design and then wardrobes are the ones that get everybody dressed. Yes. So there's like two departments that deal with the clothing, but yeah, exactly. It's like purses. Oh no. That's the, that's the property department department.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yeah. And you know, and in talking about what a UPM and line producer does, you're talking about vendors, right? So vendors is very important cause it's that, you know, you rent a lot of equipment and you buy a lot of equipment. So now we've come to the segment we like to call financials. So. You have to sign most of the P. O. s or purchase orders, right? For equipment. And sign the checks, the [00:19:00] payroll, and the accounting.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yes, all that stuff. To get people paid and everybody paid.
Shawn Pipkin-West: So, let's just and again, very broadly, let's talk about one of the most I guess rented items on a set. So I'll just for right now, think of like technocrat and always comes.
Cause very few people will carry a technocrat unless you're on like a 200 million film, right? Exactly. So. How much of, you know, just approximate, like does it take for a techno crane? And first of all, why don't you explain what a techno crane is and then tell us, tell us like for a weekly rental of a techno crane, which is something that camera and grip department both works with work on.
Yeah.
Canella Williams Larrabe: And so the techno crane is something that you would put a camera on a, a filming camera on to Move it around a certain way to get a certain look, but you have this department, [00:20:00] the grips, which support the lighting department and also support the camera department that also help operate it. But yet it's also operated by the camera department.
So it's a little confusing, but I wish we could like pop up a picture of it. It's this giant machine that you put a camera on there. Yeah. And just, and, and, and it's this thing. And then, and you have someone who's operating or multiple people who operate it and they move it around. It's a very, very expensive piece of equipment.
A lot of times it's, it's used to get a certain look, but also sometimes save time. Well, sometimes it adds time, so it's not, again, like, like you said, unless it's like a 200 million movie, it's not used as much, but it's something that easily can be with labor and everything could be, you know, 10, 000, 15, 000.
Shawn Pipkin-West: And it usually comes with two people, right? Two technicians. Two [00:21:00] technicians.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yeah. So including the actual. The camera department.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yes. Okay. And so in including the actual equipment, which is the technocrane plus the two labor, you know, the two camera operators. So that's, you're about 10,
Approximately
Canella Williams Larrabe: or it could be, no, it could be a day and the, and the labor is it would be for the day.
Or sometimes you can get a deal of like a three day week and the labor is daily, but it is also hourly. Like it'll be like, let's say. 650 for a 10 hour day and then it's overtime after that.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yes. Got it.
Canella Williams Larrabe: So what we also try to do is say, okay, well, how many hours do we need this? Okay. Let's wrap them within their 10 hours.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yes. And also like, you don't need this first up, right? Like that kind of thing.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Oh, do they really need it? Do they really need a pre call? Which is like having them [00:22:00] called in before are everyone else is in for the filming of the day.
Shawn Pipkin-West: And that's where the communication and the planning of the director and the DP and the first AD, like you really have to work, like if it does not need to be there at crew call, please don't have that thing come in and crew call.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Like, you know, it's just one of those things, right? And then when the UPM is looking and like approving the call sheet too, it's like, wait, wait, wait, why is it, why is it there at this time? Or why do they need a pre call? It's not needed until the second scene of the day. Oh, well, they need all this time to set up and I was like, okay, well, how long that, that AD will do the timing, you know, and it'd be like, okay, I think we can get this done within this time and not have them in it, at least in a pre call and they come in at call and they need two hours to set up and then by that time.
We're ready to start rolling at least on one portion of the scene.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Okay. Got it. Hi sistas and siblings. Yes, we know our guest [00:23:00] is amazing, right? If you love what you're hearing, please do us the big favor and subscribe to sista Brunch on your favorite podcast platform. And while you're subscribing, head over to our YouTube channel, YouTube.
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We also appreciate your reviews. And sharing the podcast with a friend or colleague helps support us too. And without further ado, let's get back to this conversation. So here's another thing. Insert car work, picture car work. Now I know that's kind of, kind of going away because of. You [00:24:00] know, the led walls and just how VFX has been able to just put a car in a three walled set and, you know, and all that stuff.
But yeah, you know, some people still like the realism, right. Of, of an insert car agent.
Canella Williams Larrabe: We don't do we. We do the realism part. We don't do the led walls. We don't do the green screen. It's all actual action.
Shawn Pipkin-West: So, so for something like that, insert car work, picture car work, which is you know, we'll want you if you want to just tell real quick what that is driving scene.
Yeah, go ahead.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yeah. It's driving scenes where you'll just have a, a A little car that kind of follows the action to in when an actor is also in the car. So they'll be driving and you'll have another car that is and we don't do insert cars as much. We do pod cars instead, actually over a night agent, but that car will either be followed following the action, be in front of the action.
So there's different [00:25:00] ways so that it's, it's, again, you, you're not, it's just not the screen and you're just like, that's a fake background in the background. It's distracting or it looks bad. That's something that I always notice. And then you have pod cars, which are used for stunts, which is something that's not used in New York as, as much.
I think it's used in LA more, but we use it in New York on The Night Agent, where you have, you, you take a car and you have the special effects department, the practical effects. put a whole seat together, change the whole mechanism. You have a stump person. Driving on the top of the car, you have the actor in the front, but the person on the top is the one driving.
Shawn Pipkin-West: It is, and we are, hopefully we'll be able to put an image of that. It is wild. Yeah, it is wild. It's completely, you know, it's completely wild.
Canella Williams Larrabe: And I was just like, it's not something that's used in New York often. And so I was like not familiar with it until doing the, the night agent, and I was like, oh, this is, oh, okay.
[00:26:00] Yeah.
Shawn Pipkin-West: And in Europe, and in Europe they use it all the time just because you, you know, Europe has these small, you know, roads and stuff and insert car doesn't fit
a lot of times. So that's all they do. This little pod is so, it's so great. That's another thing
Canella Williams Larrabe: too. And so it's like the insert car, sometimes it's the pod car.
Yeah. So we don't really, we don't really do insert cars on, on our show.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yes.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yeah.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Well,
that's good. Cause we, you know, little streets,
we're here to like, I just love it. Because I want everybody to like just learn something about our industry, you know, all these terms. So hoping, you know, it gets people more interested in getting in a, our industries, especially a young black women.
So let me ask you. So now we're going to technology.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yeah.
Shawn Pipkin-West: So now is there like a phrase or a particular software or piece of equipment that you use as a unit production manager or producer that has helped you in the [00:27:00] field, whether it's for efficiency or it just makes things easier for you or, you know, is there anything that you can think of?
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yeah. Movie magic budgeting.
So that's, that's something where I'll do budgets to see how much things cost or do something for, you know in, in between jobs or like when we had the, the big strike that happened where that's my tool where I need to also know how to use that because when I am doing the budget with the accountant.
Because we also have a whole huge accounting department and answering to finance at the studio. I need to know where everything is hidden. I need to know and check, be like, okay, are the fringes okay? Which is, that's the part that is like, you know, our, our pension and our health, they're like little, little things about the budget.
So that's the, the tools that I use other than the person's rate. So that's one big thing that [00:28:00] I use. Yeah. Sometimes I will break down a script as a unit production manager to help me away from the assistant director to be like, okay, these are the little things that we're going to need. This is happening.
This is a stunt, which is something that normally the assistant director does, but I do it for myself because I'm like, okay, I'm looking at that. I'm going to, and then you can have it in, in final draft and then have it break down the script. That I have so that I can realize, okay, this is how much these things are going to cost.
If I have to do that, if I'm not having like an, an, an AD do a shooting schedule for me, sometimes I'll do that as well.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Movie magic budgeting. And now this is
Canella Williams Larrabe: scheduling.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yes.
Canella Williams Larrabe: As well. Scheduling.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yeah. All right, there we go. So now on a sista brunch podcast, we have a signature question and we like to ask all of our guests.
And [00:29:00] that is. So imagine you're sitting down to a sista brunch, right? With all of your colleagues and you're with your younger self, we're going to say younger like early twenties. All right. You, you can drink, let's say you're, you, you're drinking age. What are you both eating and what are you both drinking?
And then also what do you tell your younger self?
Canella Williams Larrabe: Okay. What are we both eating? I would say that my younger self. is probably having something like a veggie burger. Okay. Okay. Am I? Oh, I'm a vegetarian. And in my older self, Is probably having something, you know, super yummy and, and, and healthy, like some, some, some sort of veggie stir fry.
And I'm drinking, older self's drinking a glass of wine. Okay. And my, and my younger self is probably drinking a soda.
Okay. A soda.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Like [00:30:00] what kind of soda? Like a Coke or something?
Canella Williams Larrabe: Like a, like a, like a, I'm a Pepsi girl.
Shawn Pipkin-West: You're a Pepsi girl. Okay.
Canella Williams Larrabe: I'm a very rare, I know it's very rare. Everyone likes Coca Cola.
Shawn Pipkin-West: And the last question was, what do you tell her? What's some advice, or what's something that you would tell your younger self right now that you wish you had known back then? About life or the industry? Anything, you know?
Canella Williams Larrabe: Don't take what you do too seriously.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Hmm. Now why? Okay. Let's, let's, let's dig deeper into that.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Cause at the end of the day, there are more important things. It's
like, there are more important things. My younger self, so serious, everything had to be perfect. And myself now realizing that I'm only human and I will always do my best. And I will always go above and beyond, but to err is to be human [00:31:00] and to just remind myself of that and to not be so serious about things, which is hard, I think.
Yeah. And you know, and especially as us as women of color, black women, you know, like, and at our levels, that's how we got to where we are. Exactly. We did so much above and beyond. Cause we have to, right. But you know, you're talking about there's other more important things. So like, what are you talking about?
Family, your health, or like, you know, what health, health, health. Yeah.
That's a big thing. Get sleep, sleep, sleep, drink water, work out, work out and you can't work out, which I definitely worked out more back then, but continue to work out. Yes. It is important to make that time for your family and your friends.
You know, your loved ones and, and to, and to be there, be there for others as long as it doesn't take away your peace. Like you have to kind of find, find some sort of a sort of balance. And I'd [00:32:00] also tell myself that everything's going to be okay.
Shawn Pipkin-West: It will be. And you know what? It will be. It is going to be okay.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Yeah. We win in the end. Yeah. It's like some, somehow you survive this. It's going to be okay. Even though it seems tough now. But it'll be okay. And if you didn't get to where, for what I would tell my younger self, if I didn't get to, I'm having a, a, a, a dark night of the soul and I feel like things aren't going my way to tell myself, you are doing all you can.
Yes. It is not your fault. Other things are at play. And you will realize what this means. we can do this in a few years.
Shawn Pipkin-West: There you go. Yes, yes. We take stuff on that we necessarily don't need to take on. It's just
Canella Williams Larrabe: take on. And sometimes no matter what you do, the outcome is still going to be the same.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Exactly. Oh man, that is such good advice. And yeah, all [00:33:00] you youngsters, not even young people, just, you know, think about that. What's really important? Family, friends. Your health, you know, sleep, drinking water.
Canella Williams Larrabe: Health is a big thing in our industry.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yes, it is. You know, we, very stressful. We recently had a, you know, a first AD, a big time first AD.
He passed away in his fifties, which is not old people. It was not old 56 or 57. I
Canella Williams Larrabe: think like, yeah, 57.
Shawn Pipkin-West: Yeah. So take care of yourself. Cause this business is, it is not easy. Take care of yourself. And on that note. All of our audience members, thank you so much for watching and Canela, thank you so much for blessing us with your presence and all your knowledge.
And I know I'll see you at the next national board meeting. I
Canella Williams Larrabe: was like, I don't know, I might be filming, but yeah, that is the plan.
Shawn Pipkin-West: This has been so great. And I know we missed. It's [00:34:00] Tasha. I mean, and Tasha, our producer is not here and also Fanchon's not here, but so it's just little old me y'all. So I hope you guys enjoyed it.
Thank you so much and we'll see you next time on sista Brunch Pie. Thanks for joining us. for another episode of season six of the sista brunch podcast. Remember to support us by subscribing, reviewing, commenting and sharing with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate your follows on Instagram at sista brunch podcast, where you can also find your community of black women and gender expansive people.
We post different industry opportunities and keep you updated on past guests. Watch, comment, share, and subscribe to our videos at youtube. com. Slash Trujillo media. And we're also on Tik TOK at Trujillo media. And again, that's at T R U J U L O M E D I A. sista Brunch is brought to [00:35:00] you by Trujillo Productions and was created by Anya Adams.
Christabel Nsiah_Buadi and Fanshen Cox. Our producer for season six is Ms. Tasha Rogers. sista Brunch is recorded on the unceded territory of the Tongva and the Chumash people in Los Angeles, California. Thank you so much for listening. We really appreciate it. Thanks for following, reviewing, and subscribing.
Tell all your friends and family members and colleagues and co workers. Listen and watch sista Brunch podcast and we will see you next time and talk to you next time.
