Direct Action To Help Women Enter the Film Industry

[Guest]

He's an example of what I am doing personally to help women enter the film industry as directors.  Erin Pitt was the 12 year old star of my 2013 film, Against The Wild.  Today she is a student at the film school at York University in Ontario.  I invited her to my set to be the guest director for a full day on, Against The Wild III: The Journey Home, where she took over entirely.  It was a great opportunity for her to direct a large crew.  And she did a great job, as a former child star herself she was really able to relate to the 11 and 13 year old actors she had on set all day.  

Seen below is her directing Natasha Henstridge, and below that her consulting on a set up with DOP, Stephen Whitehead.  The DVD will also include a terrific EPK with Erin as she talks about being a star in the first film, and then coming back to direct the third.  An inspirational story for young women everywhere.

Also on IMDB:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3879377/mediaviewer/rm3714551297

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3879377/mediaviewer/rm3546779137

R,

 

[Justin Hayward]

And yet you won't hire me as a PA on your crew.  You obviously hate men:)

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Justin Hayward said:

And yet you won't hire me as a PA on your crew.  You obviously hate men:)

Ha! I respect you too much to be a PA.  How about director?

R,

 

[Jon O'Brien]

Richard, I respect you and people like you because you generate new projects and you're clearly the energy behind the whole enterprise. In a way, you might be called a primary producer. You generate something new and something needed, creating benefits that spread out into the community. What you do and what you've got to say here is very important. Your views and what you relate about your experiences in the industry are interesting to read because they reveal an actual knowledge of what goes on from the perspective of someone generating jobs and opportunities.

Someone in your position has every right to promote what you do here, and to occasionally make fair and valid complaint against unfair, meddlesome treatment from taxpayer-funded public servants who have never gotten off their bums and taken risks and gotten projects up and running all the way through to completion like you have. They know nothing of the sort of frustration that leaders of such enterprises as you take on must face. Of course people like you are going to encounter obstacles. That's what happens to people who stand out and take risks. People like you actually generate an industry from the ground up, from which technicians and people in associated industries can benefit. You have a financial responsibility, as the leader of a large group of people who rely on you for work and opportunities, to make a profit from what you actually produce, thus promoting what you do here makes complete sense and I'd expect it of anyone in your shoes.

It's great to see in your post how you have given wonderful opportunities to a talented person. Very encouraging that there are people like you on cinematography.com

[Guest]

Jon, your post makes me cry, it will make others sick, starting with my wife, LOL ?

My wife shows up on set and says to the crew, he thinks he's important, you don't have to listen to him, he's just this British blow hard.

Thanks Jon, you're welcome on set anytime.

R,