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News & Features
From the Idyllwild Town Crier weekly newspaper, 12.24.09 edition.
Film
Festival
spotlights women
By Marshall Smith, Staff
Reporter
By any
reckoning, there is still a glass ceiling in Hollywood for women
feature film directors, according to Idyllwild International Festival
of Cinema (IIFC) Director Steve Savage. “Women have a harder time than
men in the industry,” said Savage, noting that women have established
themselves as documentary producers and directors, in music videos and
commercials, but are a minority in feature directing.
As part of wanting to honor the contributions of women filmmakers,
Savage called upon a number of prominent industry women to speak about
their careers in a key IIFC panel, “Women in Independent Film,” at 5
p.m. Thursday, Jan. 14, at the Rainbow Inn.
Two of those women, Cassie Jaye and Shanah Blevins spoke about what
they’ll bring to the panel. Jaye, a very smart young entrepreneur,
established her own production company, Jaye Bird Productions, in 2008
at the age of 21. Jaye is a documentarian who focuses on social issues
such as abstinence only programs and their effect on teen pregnancy and
poverty. Her feature documentary, “Daddy I Do,” addresses sexual abuse.
Her upcoming documentary feature, “The Right to Love,” focuses on
marriage equality. In one of the wealthiest communities in California,
she documents a hidden hunger epidemic in the short “Faces Overlooked.”
Both “Daddy” and “Faces” will screen as part of IIFC 2010.
When asked why she is drawn to social issues and the documentary form,
Jaye replied, “I think women are hyper-sensitive to human emotions and
see the deeper meaning in the driving forces behind social issues.”
Her production company, headquartered in San Francisco, is comprised of
her family — mother, sister and stepfather. “He’s our money man,” she
laughed. “Everything we do is out of pocket.”
And that is what Jaye will be speaking about on the panel. “I’ll be
explaining how in this economy, documentary filmmaking is a way to
express yourself without the huge expense of having a crew.”
Prior to going behind the camera, Jaye spent five years acting in
independent features, shorts and television. In fact, that’s how she
met Savage — at an audition. “She stuck out as somebody worthwhile who
was definitely going to be a success in this business,” said
Savage.
Jaye will next shoot, in cooperation with the Caine Learning Center’s
Institute for Natural Learning, a documentary about a weeklong film
school boot camp to be held next summer in Idyllwild and funded by IIFC
corporate sponsorships. Ten Riverside County inner-city kids ages 13 to
16 will join 10 Idyllwild kids to learn the basics of
filmmaking.
Panelist Shanah Blevins is an award-winning film, music, video and
commercial producer whose work for major clients McDonalds, Coors and
Verizon has established her internationally. Her work as a producer in
the music industry for artists such as Eminem and Tupac has cemented
her reputation as a driving force in that area of the industry.
“I started from the ground up,” said Blevins who credits that immersion
with her industry success. “You find out what you’re best suited for. A
friend in the commercial and video world hired me as a production
assistant. I loved it. And starting from the ground up, you see all
facets of the business.” Blevins likes producing. “It’s great putting
together a crew of 65 people,” she enthused. “It’s all a puzzle and
solving them is one of the things I like to do most — the creativity of
putting people and projects together.”
Joining Jaye and Blevins on the panel are: IA graduate and actor,
writer, director, producer Amanda Aday, daughter of singer/actor Meat
Loaf, featured in the HBO series “Carnivale,” with guests appearances
on “My Name is Earl,” “Boston Public,” and “E.R.”; director of
photography Tarina Reed; producer, director and writer Galina Leinen;
writer, producer and actor Lesley Paterson; documentary filmmaker
Dominique Leschart; and producer, actor Alisa Schulz.
Festival Director Savage and
featured filmmaker/actor Will Wallace will present a seminar explaining
the intricacies of film acting from a director’s point of view. Have
you ever thought about how many times a director will shoot one scene
from different camera angles? Probably a minimum of five different
camera setups and six shots.
Say the actor has a coffee cup from which she must drink during the
scene. Say there are other people in the scene. Unless the actor
handles the coffee cup in exactly the same way and gives the same
performance each time the scene is shot, she could jeopardize her own
chance of getting her desired performance, not to mention the
performances of the other actors, on the screen. “I think film acting
is so much more difficult [than stage acting],” said Savage. It’s about
the performance but also importantly about the mechanics of prop
handling, head angle, eye line and so much more. Savage referenced
actor Michael Caine’s advice that, as an actor, you have a choice of
getting your performance on the screen or the editor’s.
“The reason I got into this was to work with actors,” said Savage, “and
to learn the rules.” And rules for film actors are what Savage and
Wallace will talk about in their seminar.
See the Web site www.idyllwildfestivalofcinema.com for credits of some
of the panel participants and the location and times of all festival
seminars.
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