A guide to becoming a female filmmaker
The Arkansas Cinema Society is, through March 10, welcoming applications for its Filmmaking Lab for Teen Girls.
This isn’t Intro to Filmmaking 101, a decades-ago class at Cleveland State University where students were grudgingly allowed to check out an often malfunctioning hand-held Super 8 camera to put together a brief series of flickering, semi-focused moving images, accompanied by whatever rock music seems to suit, that will somehow indicate their ability to become the next Cameron Crowe or Jane Campion.
That was my experience at the time; others with bigger imaginations and better skills had more success, but so what? I got a B in the course. (Lucky for me, I caught on a lot quicker when studying film criticism.)
FL4TG, coming to the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in July, gives junior and senior high school women ages 16-18 a chance to experience hands-on screenwriting, directing, cinematography, editing, production design, lighting, and sound recording. And, with the aid of in-person mentoring, they can get the inside story about careers in the male-dominated world of cinema.
The eight-week lab is taught by working film professionals from Arkansas and beyond. Each session begins with the students developing a three- to five-minute short story concerned with women’s empowerment and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math), followed by filming and editing a five-minute short.
Past films include “Justitia” and “Ensemble” (2019), “Super Human” (2020), “Drop it” (2021) and 2022’s “A Period Piece.”
Filmed at Central High School, “A Period Piece” concerns Tampon 2.0, an eco-friendly herbal remedy for menstrual cramps (dysmenorrhea) that student Charlotte (Ana Brandon) creates and enters in a science competition.
When she earnestly explains her project to teacher Mr. Adams (actor Ed Lowry; you’ll recognize him) who’s one of the competition judges, he deprecates her: “Charlotte, are you serious? … This topic isn’t even appropriate. … Get this ugly and gruesome project out of my face.”
Then, adding insult to injury, he tells her to don her jacket over her sundress; “you’re just asking for detention.”
Charlotte is disheartened, but not dissuaded; with the help of other women, she puts together a presentation that shows periods can be something beautiful. It wows the judges.
The lab members got hands-on experience in all aspects of making “A Period Piece,” including direction, production, hair, makeup, wardrobe, photography, sound mixing, lighting, and auditioning actors.
Mentors included Kathryn Tucker (director), Gabe Mayhan (photography), and Christina McLarty Arquette and David Arquette (producers), with help from director and screenwriter Jeff Nichols, producer and writer Josh Miller, and visual effects artist and editor Les Galusha.
“How awesome do our girls look on the Filmland red carpet?” said Tucker, executive director of ACS, on Facebook following the screening of “A Period Piece” in early November
on the last night of ACS’ Filmland festival. “The crowd had such a loud applause following the premiere, and we are so proud of how hard these girls worked over the summer.”
These girls learned all the different roles, said Tucker (a 1996 graduate of Central High) in a story about Film Lab that appeared in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 2019.
“A coed crew might have made that more difficult, with boys leaning toward jobs like grip [maintaining and making rigs for camera support]—and girls gravitating to hair and makeup artist jobs or producing. I’m trying to encourage girls to consider all the possibilities in a non-gendered situation. That’s part of our mission, to give a venue and a voice to new filmmakers.”
The percentage of women working as directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers increased a scant 7 points from 17 percent in 1998 to 24 percent in 2022, according to “The Celluloid Ceiling: Employment of Behind-the-Scenes Women on Top Grossing U.S. Films in 2022” by Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, published on the website of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film (https://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/research/).
This represents a decline of 1 percentage point from 25 percent in 2021. By role, women comprised 18 percent of directors, 19 percent of writers, 25 percent of executive producers, 31 percent of producers, 21 percent of editors, and 7 percent of cinematographers last year. Films with at least one woman director employed substantially more women in other key behind-the-scenes roles than films with exclusively male directors.
“There’s a tremendous deficit of trained females in the industry,” Tucker says. “A lot of people look to Hollywood to lead in that progressive, diverse way, but it’s so behind the times.”
Applicants are asked to fill out a form (https://form.jotform.com/230034694251147) and answer three essay questions. Those selected will move on to an interview. Those chosen to attend will be notified and must confirm attendance within one week.
Arkansas has developed a talent pool for film and TV, Tucker says, and Film Lab girls can be included. “There is a thriving film community here. That’s why the girls’ short films will be screened at Filmland, so they will be in the same room with other Arkansas filmmakers. That’s where it all begins.”