Reflection

The primary question the Gender Matters report (Screen Australia, 2015) is concerned with, is whether women are properly represented within the Australian film industry. Throughout the Women Beside the Screen studio, I have come to meet some great emerging filmmakers within our class as well as some incredible Australian women already working within the film industry. It is clear there are plenty of Australian women who love film – who want to work, who have the skills, education, and the drive to do so. As Lisa French put it, “So why are women earning less than men and why do women make up only 29 per cent of producers of feature films, 20 per cent of writers and 16 per cent of directors?” (2015).

Although there is a demand for films created by women and plenty of talented women who are capable of doing so, there are still barriers for those attempting to break through the industry. Australian women filmmakers have proven their talent – garnering accolade after accolade within the Australian and international spheres (p. 11), yet they remain underrepresented in key creative roles despite performing “above their numerical representation” (p. 3). There is an implication of the idea that women filmmakers must be remarkable to even be considered – unlike for many male filmmakers, there is no room for mediocrity. Linking to this idea is the lack of trust key decision-makers and stakeholders have in giving women filmmakers bigger budgets. For example, documentaries (which are often cheaper to make than narrative films) usually involve a larger proportion of women in key creative roles than in narrative features – from 1970-2014, only 16% of narrative film directors were female, while from 1988-2014, women made up 34% of directors in the documentary field (Screen Australia 2015, p. 5).

This lack of diversity can often result in content that is geared towards and decided by a particular group in society – leaving minority audiences possibly feeling disconnected from what they are watching. Diversity is significant for the film industry to flourish. Stories told from a variety of perspectives made by a variety of people allow for a rich and ever-evolving film sphere. This is why it is so important to encourage women to enter the film industry – our unique perspective opens up many avenues in film’s potential, “Women naturally tell stories linked to their (female) experience of the world, and these are not stories that men would necessarily be likely to tell or be able to tell from an authentic female perspective” (French 2015, p. 7). Heterogeneity is detrimental when it comes to film. As more women are recognised for their talent in filmmaking, more women will follow in their footsteps. As a historically marginalised group, having female perspectives authentically represented on screen allows for more authentic connections to be made with audiences – a connection that is often reflected in the reception of films. Once the demand for women’s perspectives in film and women-centred stories is fully realised, the supply must follow. Having women in key creative roles, such as director, writer, and producer, also acts as a catalyst for more women to participate in other creative roles, “in both film and television there is a correlation between women in key creative roles and the number of women on the crew as well as in front of the camera—so having more women in these key roles increases female participation in the industry, and increases the female stories told there” (p. 4).

For my profile film, I got in touch with film editor Johanna Scott. Her work includes Have You Seen the Listers (2017), I Used to Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story (2018), and H is for Happiness (2019), as well as advertising work through ARC Productions. She was a delight to speak with and had lots of great insights into the editing craft and how someone might break into the industry. Although she is a woman working in the Australian film industry, in her experience, she felt she had no barriers explicitly relating to her gender that got in the way of her career progression. She spoke of this progression as a “slow slog”. She went to film school in Perth and saved enough money after university to go to the UK where she got in touch with a director of photography and eventually landed a job as a receptionist in a post-production house. From there, she had to make her way up, slowly gaining more and more experience going from a runner, to an assistant editor, and finally to the role of senior editor. She said she felt she had gone through the same obstacles all her peer editors had to go through too – male or female. Our conversation afterwards was more focused on the editing craft itself. I do feel her story coming up as an editor is just as important as other women filmmakers, especially since it propagates the idea that anyone can do it as long as the drive and the hard work is put into it. It could encourage aspiring women film editors, like myself, that there is sometimes a level playing field which is so important for the future of women filmmakers. Additionally, I find it difficult to find any reporting or statistics relating to women film editors in Australia and how they fare in terms of representation. Much of the focus in gender representation seems to fall on the key creative roles: director, writer, producer.  The film industry would greatly benefit from carrying out more research on the ‘below-the-line’ film workers.

For my profile film, I wanted to establish an uplifting, playful tone – and play with form, echoing the editing craft. According to Karen Pearlman, editing plays an integral role to the establishing of a film’s style, and “style choices are choices about the shaping of a film’s time, space, and energy…core components of rhythm” (2009, p. 180). I often struggle finding rhythm with my editing, and so I used some of Johanna’s advice to guide me within the film as well as through its editing. The structure involved a cold-open, using Johanna’s charisma to engage the viewer, and to help establish the playful not-so-serious tone. I cut together bits and pieces of Johanna’s advice to aspiring editors with small voice-over asides by me, either bouncing off what she says or summarising key points. During these narrations, I used the montage technique – cutting together different student films as well as films Johanna has edited and linking them to show the importance of editing.  I used quick cuts, the collision style and montage editing to keep the viewer engaged and to energise the film (p. 162). For the opening, I was directly inspired by uplifting, often teen films which utilise a ‘freeze-frame’ and narration technique to emphasise a sense of personality and direct connection with the audience. Films like Holes (2003), and Spider Man (2002) use this technique. I also appreciate the retro aesthetic of the VHS tape and its sounds. I used a VHS overlay, freeze-frame, and VHS sound effects to lean into the low quality of the webcam Zoom interview. The pauses and overlaid narration also made sense in this context.

If I were to make the profile film again, I would love to make it purely about Johanna. While I do think its important and love when documentaries implicate the filmmaker, I do not enjoy being on camera and listening to my own voice. I would love to be able to interview her in person, and film her at her workstation, fully immersing the viewer in a ‘day-in-the-life’ aesthetic of a film editor. I would also like to include more of her own work, to really showcase her editing, and perhaps focus in on a particular scene and how it was edited. It would be great to get a real behind-the-scenes look at the post-production process, for example, seeing her edit and talk through her process in real-time, and how she collaborates with the director. Overall, I did enjoy the process of creating this short film despite its challenges. It put me directly outside of my comfort zone, but I definitely learned a lot, both from my interview with Johanna, and from the actual editing process. I look forward to furthering my editing skills through many, many hours of practise.

 

Words: 1385

 

References

French, L 2015, ‘Does gender matter? Women and Australian film and television now’, Lumina: Australian Journal of Screen Arts and Business, No. 14, pp. 139-153.

Pearlman, K 2009, ‘Style’, in Cutting Rhythms: Shaping the Film Edit, Taylor & Francis, UK, pp. 153-180.

Screen Australia 2015, Gender matters: women in the Australian screen industry, Screen Australia, Australia.