The Wild West of Film

Otessa Ghadar realizes there is an unfulfilled demand for educational tools created for students growing up in the 21st Century digital age, and outdated information being taught in traditional film studies. Now a much-beloved and highly-lauded show, Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden, has been used in film and media courses in schools across the U.K. as a case study of filmmaking in the new media and digital age. Her new textbook, The Wild West of Film, has also been used at American University, and as a guide for a film program run by Global Kids, a non-profit educational organization for global learning and youth development. Ms. Ghadar has also presented on digital media, using this text, for companies such as Saudi Aramco.

Purchase Textbook

The Wild West of Film

$42.85 | Purchase: Paperback

$24.98 | Purchase: Kindle

Only need to dive into one or two subjects? Each standalone chapter is available on Amazon for Kindle.

Reviews

The emergence of Web TV allows anyone with a creative mind the chance to gather a worldwide audience […], Otessa Ghadar is taking advantage of the growing trend.

–NPR

There aren’t many non-reality web series that manage to be creatively, critically and commercially successful, but the teen drama Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden [produced by Otessa Ghadar] definitely achieves the trifecta.

–TV Week

The great personal stories she intersperses as her ‘tales from the trenches’ in the book draw most effectively from her experiences in a place where few had gone before. Whether the Wild West in her title describes her time starting out or the world of online video today is no matter. The book is meant to give notes from an early explorer (think Lewis and Clark), serving advice for would-be filmmakers on scripting, storytelling; directing and cinematography; fundraising; production planning; editing and post-production; marketing and promotion; web analytics; distribution; web design; and more.

–Peter B. Kaufman, Associate Director; Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning

Long before the television networks ever heard the word webisode, pioneer filmmakers like Otessa Ghadar were making those webisodes and posting them on the Internet.

–All Voices

This a really great guide on the script to screen process

–Stephani DeLuca, Digital Media & Film Producer; Gossip Girl, The Amazing Spider-Man

The Wild West of Film is an excellent educational text that provides film students and amateur independent filmmakers with a comprehensive overview of the modern independent filmmaking process. Otessa Ghadar uses her experience as a filmmaker and web series creator to provide unique insight on the realities of being an independent storyteller in the digital age. As a teaching assistant in a directing course that used The Wild West of Film as its primary text, I can say that the book served as a valuable resource for the students, providing them with a strong foundation of knowledge for each stage of the filmmaking process.

–Michael Henry, MFA Candidate and Teaching Assistant at American University, School of Communication

Short Stories

In addition to OJBG and The Wild West of Film, Otessa Ghadar writes fiction stories that explore themes of nostalgia, childhood, and city life. Through her work, she seeks to provide honest and diverse portrayals of American life while being thought-provoking and sincere. Utopia, based on the true events of a mentally unwell woman who finds her way into the lion’s den at the National Zoo, is a short story exploring the final and faint internal moments of a woman's life. A new short story, Green, is coming soon.

Otessa is also working on another young adult science fiction piece called Lemma, which is coming soon.

Published Articles

Spring 2017 - Barnard College Alum Magazine

Photographer Feature Spring 2017

June 2016 - She Owns It

Guest Blogger for She Owns It (a female entrepreneur blog) 

February 2015 - Femsplain

Guest Blogger: "Utopia"

December 2014 - Entrepreneur Magazine

Published piece in Entrepreneur Magazine online: "18 Unusual Habits That Boost Your Energy More Than Coffee." 

2012 - 2013 - CherryGRRL

Guest Blogger

2010 - Slebisodes

Published Piece "How to Produce a Shoestring Budget Web Series"

Amazon Author Page 
Goodreads Profile

Script Book Series

Follow a group of teenagers in DC as they try to navigate life at the cusp of the internet-era with this full collection of scripts from Seasons 1 – 4 of Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden. Seasons 5 – 6 are available as director’s notebooks. Visit the Amazon links on this page to help us receive a commission of all sales!

Buy the Show on Amazon