My thoughts on being a female cameraperson and a director
The lighting is perfect, which I set up myself and compliments the natural lighting in the background. The cameras are rolling and I make eye contact with my talent. What surrounds her is the beautiful architecture of one of the most famous buildings in our city. In this shot, my talent is a woman who is being interviewed. She is one of the most well-known artists in Edmonton, and she is ready to share her story about why she creates. I also have a female makeup artist who was doubling as my grip on set ready to spring into action in case she needs to do anything. As a low budget production, everyone on set, except the sound guy, has to take on many roles. My host/interviewer is also my co-producer and helps me with any additional tasks as they arise. Which can be a lot, on some days, because of my disabilities. But he almost never operates a camera or directs a scene.
I ask everyone if they are ready and my grip clicks the clapboard together so I can line up the sound and video during the editing process.
My host asks “where are you from?” and then that’s when we hear it. A cacophonous noise of yelling, feet stomping, chatter, beeps and other mechanical noises. My co-producer and I look at each other confused. We have the place scheduled for our use for several hours. There must be a group of kids going on a last-minute tour of the building that were double booked in .
Then we see the group and they are not a group of kids. They include a woman leading a group of 12-14 adults. Their leader looks at me, looks at the respected artist and looks at my makeup artist. Puts her nose up and walks through my set and commands everyone to walk through as well. People look nervously at the host (who is sitting) and the sound guy, then to me behind the camera and stomp through. I’m in shock, unable to react. The person being interviewed asks them to be careful of the cords and the cameras.
I rush to the cords plugged into my new camera to keep them in place in case they snag a cord and damage plug in as they charge by. I had only saved and scrimped for that camera for 4 years.
No big deal.
I have my other camera sitting off to the side and I give it a sad look, hoping that my other baby won’t end up on the floor. I spent that morning carefully polishing the lens and the viewscreen, remembering all the great places we have been together. But I’m only able to help one.
Would this have happened if 3 of the 5 people on set were not women? No, I don’t think so.
I had to look it up and see how often there were women in this type of field. It turns out it’s a pretty rare thing.
An article from 2018 by Emily Geraphty, writes about this exact thing, about the lack of seriousness she receives on set as a female camera person.
I’m always one of those hopeful people that just think, “well maybe they didn’t notice the cameras, lights and the sound guy holding a boom stick over the person being interviewed. It has nothing with me being a female in charge on a film set.”
But, when my co-producer even holds my camera, whether it’s off or on, in the 100 or more times we have been out filming for YouTube, our other docu-series, short films, personal projects or any photo shoots people are careful to stay out of his way and even go to him to ask if it’s okay if they walk in front of the camera while promising they will be fast.
The moment I hold or am touching a camera. I get eye contact as someone stomps through my set. Perhaps it’s an unconscious bias such as I’m just holding the camera for someone else like my co-producer.
As of September 2022, an article from Vanity Fair stated only 20% of cinematographers were women in both narrative and documentary films in 2021–2022.
I have seen no other sets where filming and directing have been done by women, or a set where the women outnumber the men behind the scenes, to see if this happens to them as well. But that’s the problem. There are few places to see if they are treated the same. I’m hoping in the future there will be a significant amount of women who decide to enter these careers, because the industry at all levels is missing out on a portion of talent who can give a different perspective at all levels of creation and have their voices heard and, perhaps resonating to the women taking part as viewers as well. Places
I’m excited to see, though, that there are companies who support emerging and established creators. These companies are taking this issue to heart and making a positive changes in the industry, by encouraging and actively seeking inclusiveness. Communities like STORYHIVE who is creatively connected by TELUS. This is why I am grateful to STORYHIVE, who actively engages with people of diverse backgrounds and skill levels, and I’m grateful to be included in their community as one of the funded creators. By having these types of supports in the community it allows women to explore what they thought wasn’t possible and to try something they thought may have not been attainable because of biases from others.
copy and paste
article https: //www.glamour.com/story/this-is-why-you-dont-see-more-women-behind-the-camera
Want to know more about female filmmakers and the importance and history of women in film? you can check out this great article here.
https: //www.rockandart.org/female-filmmakers-importance-history-women-film/