What am I doing here?
Hello! My name is Jane Scandurra and I’m a filmmaker. Hmm, that sounds an awful lot like an intro at an AA meeting, doesn’t it? Well, let’s be honest. Once you get into it, it’s very easy to get totally hooked on filmmaking. So yes, I admit I’m hooked. And I am not here to change that.
I’m new to moviesbywomen.com…..and I’m also brand spankin’ new to the world of filmmaking. I was very pleased to stumble upon this site devoted to movies made by women and I want to thank Tara and team for offering me the opportunity to share the experience I had in making my very first (but hopefully not last!) feature documentary film “Single,” which I co-produced with Richard Atkinson (it’s a film by Dick & Jane - get it??). :)
[ Side note of shameless self-promotion: Check out the nice film review we got last month at Tin Ape. ]
I’m sure most of you women moviemakers out there actually know what you’re doing — you’ve been trained in the process — from initial concept development through post production, marketing and distribution. Not me. What am I doing here? I’ve been a corporate marketing chick in the technology industry for over 20 years. In fact, before embarking on my filmmaking adventure, I had been working at IBM for 11 years. That’s about as corporate as you can get. During that time, if anyone had told me I’d be producing a feature film, I would have said they were crazy. Go figure. Some people take up knitting on the side. Me? I make a movie. Ahh, life’s little twists.
Everyone has their story about how their film career got started. Mine got started at a marina where Richard and I both keep our boats (his boat is much nicer than mine). Richard too was a corporate guy and decided to take some classes in filmmaking, which had been a passion of his from when he was a teenager. He has since been credited in the production of two documentary shorts — “Pluck” and “Divine Light.” One day chatting at the dock over a beer, I casually told Richard I had a great idea for a documentary film: the issues surrounding the huge growth of the single population (yes, I’m single…and very tired of always being asked why). Happily married for almost almost 25 years at the time, Richard thought about it for a nanosecond and said, “Nah, I don’t think so.” After emailing him articles about singles and a few more discussions about it, he came around to the idea.
Being a traditional corporate capitalist all my life as well as completely clueless about the film business, I naively asked Richard, “so how much money can we make from a documentary??” His reply: ”Assume zero or less.”
Hmmm, ok….I thought about it for a minute and then putting aside any rational judgement I said, “I’m in anyway. Let’s do it.”
And that’s how this amazing adventure began…
More to follow…
Posted in Movies By Women, making films
August 25th, 2008 at 5:46 am
The movie Single is a movie about single women that shows experts commenting about single stats, single behavior and social patterns; interviewing singles at a bar scene of people that look staged and all boringly the same, (where is that group of hot blond chicks every guy at the bar oogles all night?); and “vanilla” looking single people making the obvious comments about the frustrations of being single…like a guy meeting a woman who’s 30 and yikes, she wants kids right away (what,are you’re kidding?). This movie may give current singles stats and have people wearing corporate clothes from work (in NY offices perhaps because no one dresses that nice in NJ offices)that relate to this decade, but is it telling us anything mind blowing about being single in a refreshingly new and edgy point of view? I want this movie to hit home to the core of what singledom is all about for women, but then, I look at the experts talking about single stats like, most of society will eventually get married,and I think, the single experience isn’t about statistics, it’s the bar scene gone wild, it’s about the weight of judgement women deal with from everyone around them, it’s about competing with women outside of the bar world, it’s about meeting really good looking guys with sex addictions, it’s about going on the singles internet sites and obsessing over finding a guy like an addictive drug, it’s about shopping constantly for clothes so you always look good and going to hair salons and nail salons just to try to look perfect, and it’s about being pressured to have sex after the first date…give me a hard hitting documentary on being single, not a homogenized one that looks like an ad for a resort vacation…PLEASE!
September 10th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Thanks for your comment, Lizzie. Although we may not have delivered the movie you were hoping to see, it’s great that your comment confirms a few things that we’ve learned: 1) a documentary about being single in America is a subject of great interest and not one that has been widely covered in the past (if at all), 2) there are many compelling angles from which to present the realities of single life which presents opportunity for documentary filmmakers and 3) “Single” has been able to spark stimulating discussion and even passionate debate among viewers, regardless of age, gender, and even marital status — which was our ultimate goal from the start. Also happy to add that most viewer reviews of “Single” have been extremely positive — which has been both professionally and personally rewarding.
My postings on this blog will continue to focus on my overall filmmaking experience and lessons learned — including the value of all viewer feedback…