Women behind the camera: Right way? Wrong way? Woman’s ways toward to success…

“Gender is not a demarcation of what one can or cannot do."”    --Martha Coolidge

When Martha Coolidge applied to film school she was told that as a woman she just could not be a director. She did not accept that attitude, believing she was choosing the right way to go.  Not only has she directed numerous films ranging from documentary to feature films and movies for television since 1970s till now , she is also the first vice president of the Director’s Guild of America(DGA) 

 

History

 

Back in the 1960s, women directors were nearly invisible in film and television. When people talked about director, a macho white man with authority was the first image to come to mind.  A position like directing/cinematography, or some other technical oriented work for women at that time was the inappropriate position or the wrong way to go. The most acceptable position for women defined by the culture were always related to those “feminine” roles like make-up artists or costume designers.  But Martha Coollidge is just one of the women who broke the myth. Even earlier, before Martha, Guy-Blache, Dorothy Azner, Lupino, the pioneer women directors, all proved that women’s capability to be a director.   With more and more women filmmakers and television programme makers, directors, camerawomen, whose names are heard in the film festivals or television awards, like the Sundance film festival or the Ammy Awards, it seems that women now have more power than ever in the industry, compared with those in the past.  Film school and higher education for television, have also helped change the male dominated phenomenon because more and more women had been trained in the school which provides them with the same knowledge and skill men have to break into the industry.  But still, women somehow have to struggle harder than men to be acknowledged.  Their presence in the festivals does not transfer to opportunities in the industry, because the long-existing sex bias can hardly disappear within a short period of time.  However difficult it is for women to pursuit their career in the industry, we never stop watching the astonishing works done by women filmmakers or programme makers.  For them, it is neither the right way nor the wrong way, they just did it in the women’s way—whatever possible way may lead to success.

 

 

Challenge

 

Though the gender bias in the industry sometimes brought women obstacles, for documentary filmmaker Lois Siegel and Independent filmmaker Yvette Plummer, fund raising, was even more difficult when they first started their careers as directors. “You can learn about film production. You read books on film producing, writing, directing, etc. You can volunteer to work for free or defer pay so you can get experience. But to convince a stranger to invest in an industry that has a track record of losing money, is a hard sell” Yvette used her savings, some credit cards and donations from her mother and some friends to finish her first feature film” A state of mind.”   The cost of the film ended up to be roughly around $100,000.

 

For Lois, getting to the point where she could direct the documentary "Stunt People" was a problem at first because she went through a production company.  “They sent the proposal out to look for funding. No one wanted to fund me to direct. They liked the idea of the film, but they wanted a man to direct it.”   After two years’ trial and going  through several production companies which didn’t work, she said to Marcel Fournier, the head of the stunt family, “let's do it ourselves. I'll supply the equipment and crew, you supply the stunt people and the cars for the stunts."  That’s how “Stunt People was made.  During that time, the Fourniers were also doing lots of stunts for other films. They put in the contract that Lois would be allowed to come along with her crew and film them documentary style, which saved her a lot of money in setting up the stunts themselves.  And “Stunt People” won Lois the Best Short Documentary in 1990 Genie Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.

 

Freelance TV commercial director, Kuo Ya-Shang, faced a lot of resentment while she started her directing career. “I am not a very diplomatic person, it made it even more difficult to get the project from agency or production house.  Because neither do I speak male’s language nor do I understand it.  It’s definitely an old boy’s network. Working with an experienced male DP always gave me a hard time, because sometimes they were very domineering and told me what should I do, and crew took their orders instead rather than mine. But I just ignored them all, I don’t mind it I get the job sometimes, because I am cheaper because I really want to do it, and once I have chance to do it, I just want to do my best.”  Kuo has shot around 30 TV commercials since she graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.         

 

 

Myth & Equal Opportunities  

 

Most of the prejudice in the industry comes from the myth men have about women that women do not have the physical upper-body strength that men have and therefore can not do the “heavy jobs’ and ‘women don’t have the stamina that men have an therefore can’t put up with the long hours of production.  The worst myth is that women are emotional and will flip and so can not handle the big budget, says Pamela Jay Smith, who has over 20 years experience as writer, producer and director in Hollywood. “But people gradually found out it’s not true as some men are emotional and flip as well”

Woman filmmakers in Taiwan are extremely resented in the studio.  Sometimes the only way to earn men’s respect is to prove that you can do the same dirty and heavy work as they do. And it is common to hear men tell the new women crew :Just remember, never ever sit on the black box or camera case because if women sits on it is believed to bring bad luck to the whole production.”  Men believe this is the only thing women should know in the studio.

David Steiner, Projections Multimedia, where Lois worked on corporate video with, expresses his opinion about this issue “ Though the film crew of younger males may be just as blue-collar in their attitudes as the older generation, they are highly professional and are paid to do a job regardless of the boss's gender.  They may go have a beer at the end of the day and bitch that "the broad doesn't know what she's doing", but what can we do? Because most crew, young and old, are high school dropouts from blue-collar families.  But on the set, all is professional. “  

 
But the background of the film crew should not be used as a legitimate excuse to explain men’s general attitude towards women.  Because the individual can adapt to carry out a role and is not limited by his or her physical sexual characteristics. And regardless of sex, the inappropriate behaviour of each person, no matter whether is male or female, can never be either predicted or excused by gender.

 

“When I started working on "Baseball Girls," I had already won an award with "Stunt People," but most of the people at the film board hadn't worked with me as a director, so I still had to prove that I could direct.” Lois Siegel recalled. “ Once you prove yourself as a director, the directing gets easier, if you are working with people who know you.  When you work with a new crew, there is always that initial stage of getting them to trust your judgment.”   The first day of shooting was very difficult. The cameraman was nervous and the last time she had worked with him she was a 2nd assistant cameraman, just starting out....many years before. “It took about a day for him to calm down. There were a few shouting sessions, but eventually the crew became like a family,” said Lois.  

 

In the 60s, many camerawomen started out either shooting documentaries or with a television station for broadcasting news reports. But it was still a tough time for women operators as they were regard as weaker and unable to handle the equipment.    It is much easier for women directors to work on documentaries, because they have small crews and less people to deal with.   In the UK, the launch of Channel 4 helped to produce lots of women and young directors at the time, because it was intended to be innovative, to reach minorities and to do so at a modest production cost.  Therefore, women directors have appeared making programme regarding issue about women or minorities and they are also hired because women and young director sometimes tend to be cheaper.

                               

Hollywood is still somehow a closed shop and companies producing corporate videos and commercials can sometimes still be old boys clubs.  And In Canada, when Lois directed her first corporate video, the old boys club (the client) was a bit shocked that their new PR guy wanted her to direct.  “They were used to well-known male directors who looked like directors to them. But I think when they found out that I would be paid much less, they kept their mouths shut, although I did hear about some rumblings”   

 

Women directors also tend to be categorized as not suitable to direct certain kinds of genre either in TV drama or feature film, like action movies, sport and western movies.   “I think it’s not fair, I don’t really want to direct certain types of drama like action, but I thought at least women should have the rights to say yes or no, but we are not given this right as men have ” Nancy Malone[1], the Ammy Award winning director who is also one of the founder of WIF(Women in Film) pointed out the problem has existed in both film and television for a long time.  

 

Also, the equal opportunities promoted for women sometimes turned out to be the game of number only and nothing else; that is, women were hired just because the companies were afraid that if they did not do so , they would be fined with higher tax or some other penalty.  Nancy also addressed the ineffectiveness of Equal Opportunities as people were very conscious about it at the very beginning, but later they did not care about it anymore.  So it ended up being useless and women still got fewer opportunities to compete for the same position with men.  “The union used to have the report to point out how bad this phenomena was but there was nothing done to improve it! ” Nancy Malone further pointed out.   

 

Yvette, however, stated that Equal Opportunities was necessary, as in the United States "affirmative action" was crucial because of the inequality of jobs and opportunity to non-white males and females.

 

David Steiner addressed the possible solution where equal opportunities might become evident; as the upper management and executive ranks of major corporations (and it is worth noting the ultimate purchasers and sponsors of film and TV production are major corporations) retire or die off, they will be (and are presently being) replaced by his generation of "enlightened males" and, presumably, an equal number of women. The "glass ceiling" is coming down as surely as the Berlin Wall.   

 

New Opportunities? Woman’s way?

For a long time, much of the power and control in filmmaking and television has been based on technical expertise. But with the revolution in new technology such as the light- weight digital camera and the software which makes post production affordable to the filmmaker and programme maker, and more and more media like the internet and festivals to promote an individual’s work, women now certainly have more opportunities than in the past to be free from the gender barrier.      

In the past, beyond 16mm productions or digital video camcorders suited to low-budget work, we can hardly find many camera-women because a 35mm Arriflex camera or a broadcast-quality Betacam camera can weigh 60 to 110 pounds (25 to 50 kilos).  Technological improvements like the current DV camera have provided opportunities for all filmmakers—less cumbersome equipment needs. The fact it is lighter and can be used in a tight situation better than the bulkier 35 mm camera, allows greater flexibility in getting the shot. Although this is not only a benefit for women, it does mean that more women are able to experiment with the position of a camerawoman, which they never had the chance to do before. There is also a modification made to the steadi-cam body harness, which is specifically designed for the comfort of the woman operator.

The numbers of “macho” film and video editors of the past who would not easily take suggestions from a woman director are rapidly declining. “Probably half to two-thirds of all film and video editors are currently under the age of 30 due to the computer-based editing systems that have in the last 10 years replaced the "garage-mechanic" analogy systems of the past.  Of this new generation of editors, I would venture that fully 1/3 are women.” Says David Steiner.  Pamela Jaye Smith also expressed the reason for there being more and more women editors than ever before, as computer based work is certainly not gender-specific, and requires more patience and mental work. 

Yvette Plummer used another way to get her film “A State of Mind” shown to the public. Rather than promote it theatrically, she decided to have her film go straight to video after spending $100,000 of her own money on making it. “If you decided to go for the route of theatrically distribution, your distributor will pass on the cost of marketing it and licensing it to theater bookers, prints and so forth to you.  They will do the same with 

direct to video but the costs are not as huge as theatrical distribution costs.” [2]After the successful distribution of her film to video, Yvette worked as a producer and 2nd Unit Director on a film that will come out this winter or spring of 2002, called “Paper Chasers,” which was shot digitally. A group of nine of them went across country in an RV to interview Hip-Hop entreprenuers and to tape behind the scene footage as they went on a journey of discovery. And she is now working on the most important production of her life, the one of her baby-she is 6 months old pregnant. 

Lois Siegel’s “Baseball Girls ”[3], which was produced by the National Film Board of Canada premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival in 1995 and later shown in the 1996 Athens International Film and Video Festival(Ohio) and “Targa Citta Di Palermo” at the international sports Film Festival(Palermo, Italy), selected as one of the Best Documentaries in Canadian Cinema for 1996 by "Take One" film magazine. She has recently shot several corporate videos, has also worked on the ESPN sports golf tournament and is also working on her new project which is a documentary about identical twins. 

While women have had their films made and shown to the public in their own ways, in Hollywood or the main-stream media, there are still just a handful women directors and camerawomen each year who can get the opportunities to produce their work, although there are more women executive producers nowadays. [4]    

“I wish I can have a studio of my own, then I can hire and help as many women as possible,” says Nancy Malone.  She hired a lot of women editors, writers and producers while she was the Vice President of Television in 20 Century Fox, but she can’t hire more women directors because there were none at that time. “ I don’t think women in the industry are supportive to each other like men are, because in such a competitive environment, everyone always want to be the one and the only.” She said in addition, “There is definitely something we women can learn from men, such as their mentoring system.”  And recently it’s obvious that many men have helped to mentor, nurture and guide women, recognizing their talents and giving women more opportunities to aspire to high career positions, said Kathy Mazza, the marketing manager at Kodak's Hollywood office and a WIF board member.  And it is believed that “bashing” men constantly and blaming them for women not getting jobs can not accomplish anything, because men can be women’s biggiest allies, and finding those individuals, whether they are men or our fellow women filmmakers and programme makers, is important for up & coming directors/camerwomen. 

Tips for rising film and programme makers 

To sum up all the interviews and contacts from Nancy Malone, Yvette Plummer, Lois Siegel, Pamela Jaye Smith, Kathy Mazza, Kuo Ya-Shang, David Steiner, their comments and advice to future filmmakers or programme maker can be summarized as follows:

(1) You have to love it to do it.  If you're doing it to get rich, there are better ways of getting rich than filmmaking.  If you're doing it to be famous, the odds of that happening to you are close to nil. But if you can tell yourself that you would do this for free if all your necessary financial cares were taken care of, then it's for you.

(2) Advice for directors: to know what you want and be able to communicate what you want to your staff, crew and actors.  Knowing what you want is 90% of it.  Be able to make decisions quickly, even if that decision is to get back with someone later.  That was a decision. And even if you don’t know the answer, you have to make decisions. 

(3) Diversify: Because of the shift in technology more and more media production will be done with digital technology.  There are more and more independent products out there and this will only grow given the expansion of broadband and the Internet as possible markets for products.  Anyone who wishes to remain in media would be well advised to turn away from the former wisdom of “specialization” and diversify so that they have two or more highly-hone skills in different arenas, and it applies not only to the trend of the television industry but the future film industry.  

(4) Intensify: Building connection. It’s always good to be known as ”one of the best” in a field.  Submit your work to contests. Volunteer to work with organizations promoting quality and egalitarianism in the media and in your field.  Network with others and keep yourself out in the arena so you’re seen as an active participant in media.   

These pieces of advice are good for anyone whether it is male or female, who wants to pursue a career in the industry, and for up and coming women film and programme makers, the most important thing is to bear in mind “Don’t let anything get in your way, as you have to 100% percent concentrate on the thing you would like to do ” 

Women’s role behind the camera is certainly making progress, but at a very slow pace. There is no doubt that sometimes women have to work twice as hard as men for the same jobs, and the situation is not going to change very soon. But women in the industry are constantly proving themselves, whether in a right or wrong way, experimental or women’s way, which is a luxury that most men in the same positions doesn’t have to do necessarily.  

And the ideal situation for the media is that the best people for the jobs get the jobs, regardless of the gender, race, culture, age, and background.. And one day, every woman behind the camera can loudly say that: “I never felt that I got a job because I was a woman, or didn’t get one because I was a woman. ”[5]     

Note

[1] Nancy Malone's career highlights her Best Actress Nomination for "Naked City," her Best Actress Award/American Cinema Editors for "The Long Hot Summer," and she is the first woman vice president of television in 20 century fox. After Attending DWW(Directing workshop for women) in AFI (American Film Institute ), she started her career as a director for television drama in 1980s, She received Emmy Awards for "Bob Hope, The First 90 Years" and "Community of Caring," as well as Emmy nominations for "Sisters" and "The Trials of Rosie O'Neill."  “The most difficult hurdle was to be taken seriously as a director. Because of my background as an actress some assumed my becoming a director would be a passing fancy” Says Nancy.

[3] 

The research of “Baseball Girls” was on-going for at least 3-4 years.  The first stage was to introduce the idea to an executive producer, then get a producer on board. Lois hired a student (female) to do research in the library for her.  Then she hired the catcher on her baseball team to do research by phone across Canada.  She was also a filmmaker, so that helped Lois a lot.  Then they traveled for two weeks across Canada interviewing people they thought might be good to include in the film. When she returned, she had to write a research report. They started shooting the summer of '92 and shot for two more summers. Lois was reading books and doing research all those years.  They hired a lady sports writer from Toronto to do some specific historical research and they also hired a consultant lady who wrote a book about women and baseball/softball (from Chicago). She went over the narration.