Women
behind the camera: Right way? Wrong way? Woman ways toward to
success?o:p>
?/SPAN>Gender is not a demarcation
of what one can or cannot do."?SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes">
--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 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 eminine?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 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 wayhatever 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. ou 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.?SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 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. hey 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.?SPAN style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> After two years?trial and going through several production companies
which didn work, she said to Marcel Fournier, the head of the stunt family,
et's do it ourselves. I'll supply the equipment and crew, you supply the stunt
people and the cars for the stunts."
That how tunt 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 tunt 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. 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
language nor do I understand it.
It definitely an old boy 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 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.?SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 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 eavy jobs?and omen don have the stamina that men have an
therefore can 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. ut people gradually found out it 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
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.?SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
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 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.
hen 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.?SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 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. t 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. hey 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?SPAN style="mso-spacerun:
yes">
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. think it not fair, I don
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. he 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 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 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 filmmakersess 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 acho?film and video editors of the past who would not easily take
suggestions from a woman director are rapidly declining. robably 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 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. f 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 aper 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 aseball Girls ?A title="" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3" name=_ednref3 href="#_edn3">[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 arga 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]
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 hire more women directors because there were none at that time. ?I don 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, here is definitely something we women can learn from men, such as their mentoring system.?SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> And recently it 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 ashing?men constantly and blaming them for women not getting jobs can not accomplish anything, because men can be women 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 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 pecialization?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 always good to be known as ne 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 youe 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 on let anything get in your way, as you have to 100% percent concentrate on the thing you would like to do ?
Women 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 way, which is a luxury that most men in the same positions doesn 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: never felt that I got a job because I was a woman, or didn get one because I was a woman. ?A title="" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5" name=_ednref5 href="#_edn5">[5]
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