Minoti Vaishnav

Minoti Vaishnav
Born	1987/11/19 Mumbai, India
Nationality	Indian
Years active	2008–2016

Minoti Vaishnav (born November 19, 1987) is an Indian–American songwriter, screenwriter and entertainment producer.^[1] Born in Mumbai, India, she moved to Los Angeles at the age of 19, leaving her family back in India. At 22 she produced her first album "The Fictional Truth", with her first single "Psychologist" getting several thousands of downloads online. In 2012 she graduated from California State University Northridge and released her second album "Secret Garden" in 2013. In spite of not being signed to a label, the music video for her single "So Will You" went semi-viral on YouTube with over 100,000 views^[2] and her songs have played on radio stations across the U.S, U.K, Canada, Singapore and Denmark.^[3] In 2015, she released her third album "Mix It Up". All three albums were self-produced, written, and released by Minoti.

On the film and television front, Minoti got her start working as a producer and co-host on 17 episodes of a television review podcast called TV Weekly. Since then she has worked for the International Documentary Association, in social media and outreach on HBO's Emmy nominated® documentary American Winter (2013), directed a short called R.I.P (2012), and worked in music licensing and composing on Alexis Krasilovsky's Prestige Gold Award winning documentary Let Them Eat Cake (2014). She also wrote, executive produced and directed the 11-minute pitch pilot for 3 Orbs of Light (2011),^[4] directed a documentary short called Being Independent (2015),^[5] and has won "Best Screenplay" and "Best Teleplay" awards at several script contests and festivals. In 2013, Minoti founded Prophecy Girl Films. Through her company she has worked in publicity for films like My Guardian Angel (2015 Festival de Cannes Short Film Corner selectee), Dispossessed ("Best Short Film" Award Winner at several festivals), Women Behind the Camera (Winner of Five "Best Documentary" awards at festivals) and many more.^[6] She has also been tapped in to adapt Vanta M. Black's horror novel Oubliette: A Forgotten Little Place into a television series.

Early life

Minoti grew up in Mumbai, India and attended Jamnabai Narsee School. She graduated from Jai Hind College, Mumbai before moving to the United States at age 19. She studied at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, CA, then transferred to California State University Northridge in 2010 and graduated with a Cinema & Television Arts degree and a minor in Creative Writing.

Music career

Minoti began writing songs at 11 years old and recorded her first professional demo at age 13. She also learned how to play the guitar by ear at this age and went through professional vocal training.^[7] At age 16, she bought a keyboard and started taking professional vocal training as well as theory and ear training classes. With much help from her father, she started recording demos at home. Her first unofficial CD included the songs "Keep Track", "Promises" and "This is How I Feel" which were minor hits on stereofame.com in 2008.^[8]

Promo Photo from "Mix It Up"

In 2010, Minoti released her first album, "The Fictional Truth" and dropped her last name as an indie-artist. The album is a raw indie-pop album with mostly live, acoustic songs. The album was released on August 1, 2010. Minoti wrote and composed every single song on the album, with writing help from her cousins Farah Sheth and Vivek Vaishnav on the songs "Coffee" and "Tin Man".^[9] Seven out of eight of the songs were recorded in a home studio and were released with virtually no sound tweaking or editing.^[10] The only studio-produced track on the album, Psychologist, was an instant hit on Stereofame.com.^[11] The song is still played on radio stations throughout the world, most widely on EDA Music Radio.

Minoti crowdfunded her second album on Kickstarter and raised $3700 to record it.^[12] The album, "Secret Garden", is also raw indie-pop album, but includes a 90's alternative vibe. The album was released on March 4, 2013. Songs from the album – particularly "So Will You", "Nothing Inside" and "Secret Garden" have been played on radio stations all over the world – from the U.K to Singapore.^[13] The music video for the first single, "So Will You", received over 100,000 video views in its first few weeks of release.^[14] Indie critical reception was favorable. Music blog RippleMusic called "Secret Garden" "as catchy as the ebola virus" and stated that "Minoti's voice is understated and the music moves with a clever coolness".^[15] The album entered the Top 10 on Gashouse Radio in the #9 spot, and was featured on the "Next Big Thing" segment on KALX Berkeley.

On September 8, 2015, Minoti released "Mix It Up".^[16] The album features remixes of old favorites, two collaborations with Erik McCall as well as new original material.

Discography

Film and writing career

Minoti has a B.A in Cinema & Television Arts with a Screenwriting concentration and a minor in Creative Writing from California State University, Northridge. Additionally, she has an Advanced Screenwriting certificate from the University of Southern California through Black Coffee Films. She worked for the International Documentary Association right out of college and assisted with the script for the 29th Annual IDA Documentary Awards. In 2012, she landed her first directors gig on the short R.I.P (2012). She then worked in music licensing and composing on the Prestige Gold Award winning documentary Let Them Eat Cake (2014), and wrote and directed the 11-minute pitch pilot for 3 Orbs of Light (2011).

Minoti in a 2015 promo photo

In 2013, Minoti started Prophecy Girl Films. The company is described as "a hybrid between a marketing company and a production company".^[17] Company services include script development, marketing, social media, public relations and on site production for film, television, books, and music. Some of Prophecy Girl Films' clients include the documentary film Let Them Eat Cake (Prestige Gold Award Winner), the documentary film Women Behind the Camera (winner of 5 Best Documentary Film Festival Awards), narrative short film Dispossessed (Winner of 7 Film Festival awards for Best Short), narrative short film My Guardian Angel (selected at the 2015 Festival de Cannes Short Film Corner) and The IDA Screening Series, The IDA Awards, and DocuDay Los Angeles for the International Documentary Association and "Oubliette: A Forgotten Little Place" for Black Chateau Enterprises.^[18]

In 2013, Minoti signed on to direct the documentary short Being Independent. Shot in Germany, the UK and the US, the film focuses on independent artists all over the world and the struggles they face as they try to make it.^[19] The series is co-produced by Erik McCall and Kitty Kalkbrenner. The series initially faced financial difficulties and put together an IndieGoGo campaign which only gathered $160 in funding.^[20] In spite of this setback, the project was produced in 2015.^[21]

Besides writing for 3 Orbs of Light and Being Independent, as well as developing projects through Prophecy Girl Films, Minoti has also won several awards at small to mid-level festivals and contests for her screenplays and teleplays written on spec.

Festivals and awards

Other work

In June 2016, Minoti was elected President of the Alliance for Women in Media Southern California for the 2016-2017 term. She served on the AWM So Cal Board of Directors as their Events Director for the 2015-2016 term. Through AWM SoCal as well as through Prophecy Girl Films, Minoti programs and produces high-profile events, often on studio lots like 21st Century Fox and Paramount Pictures and with sponsors like SAG-AFTRA and CBS. She moderated, produced and programmed the panel "Women Leaders in Media" featuring executives from Paramount Pictures, Disney, CBS and more. She also hosted "Inside The Writers Room" with writers from Pretty Little Liars (TV series), Transparent (TV series), Reign (TV series) and Galavant (TV series), and hosted "Genre Writing and the Art of the Novel" with author Vanta M. Black. She moderated Q&A's at IDA's 2012 DocuWeeks with several Academy Award nominated documentary filmmakers, and continues to host, program and produce entertainment panels and events in partnership with various media organizations.

Minoti is a member of The Recording Academy and the Alliance for Women in Media.

Minoti has also written articles for documentary.org, IndieScene Magazine, and Verve Magazine. She is a member of the Phi Beta Delta International Honor Society.

References