She was also a very feminine woman who socialized with her predominantly male crew without attempting to be "one of the guys." To be honest, though I've seen a handful of women directors on film and TV sets before, I've never before seen all these qualities in one female director. Whether it's because they're working with an almost all-male crew and that affects their confidence or style, or because female directors are more likely to come from theater backgrounds than from film school and so tend to lack the technical training, or for some other reason, the female directors I've watched firsthand tend to either rely very heavily on their First Assistant Director and Director of Photography for decisions other than acting notes or tend to be so quiet on set and work so much behind the scenes that it's almost impossible for an observer on set to tell who the director is.
While I'm sure great work can be achieved those ways and there are many different effective directing techniques, it was wonderfully refreshing to see a female director leading her set the way most male directors do, while remaining unfazed that she was leading a mostly male crew and remaining confident in her femininity.
On
the other hand, what was absolutely shocking to me was the way her female First Assistant Director behaved. I can't imagine an AD behaving this way to a male director,
and were she to behave this way regularly to her directors, she wouldn't work
regularly, so I chalk this up to an appalling example of women being catty to
other women rather than supporting them.
What
I saw and heard, most of which the director did not:
~
When the director announced she wanted to do a camera rehearsal on a scene, the
AD loudly told her she hadn't yet rehearsed a section of the scene.
"That's right," the director said. After a few beats of staring
at her, the AD said (for the whole set to hear), "So you'll want to
rehearse it first before you do a camera rehearsal." The
director repeated what she wanted, and the AD responded with a look on her face
(which the director did not see) that showed she thought the decision was dumb.
~When
the director said she wanted to standby to go again right away, the AD replied
in a tone dripping with teenage "that's so dumb" attitude,
"Uh....Okay."
~After
the director gave the background actors a note, the AD walked over, dropped her
voice to a low tone, looked over her shoulder to make sure the director wasn't
within earshot, and said she knew the direction was "kind of weird"
(accompanied by an eye roll) and explained the director's reasoning behind it,
with a tone that indicated she didn't agree with that reasoning. I
thought the direction was unusual too, but it's not the AD's place to question
it to anyone but the director privately.
~ She yelled a suggestion to the director, who was at least
30 feet away.
~
Late in the evening, when her expression and body language were broadcasting
that she wanted to be done with this day and go home, she showily approached the DP faux-furtively (in a wide open set in front of the entire crew and cast and
background actors) and whispered something in his ear while he was in the middle
of giving instructions to his crew. He ignored her, as she clearly
expected him to. Given her behavior up to that point and her expression
and manner when she did it, it came off as her whispering something about the
director behind her back.
Whenever
I work a set and see that the director is female, I have two thoughts:
One is excitement that a woman is at the helm in what is still an
industry very heavily dominated by men; the second is curiosity over
whether she will manage her set with the confidence, decisiveness,
knowledge, communication skills, efficiency, and leadership that one
would hope any director would, regardless of gender. It was wonderful
to see the first female television or film director I've personally
observed demonstrate all these skills on set, and even more of a delight
to see that she did so while retaining her femininity and being at ease
in her own skin. Yet at the same time, it was an enormous
disappointment to see how the second highest ranking female on set chose
to undermine her at every opportunity rather than to support the
inroads this director is making in breaking down barriers and
expectations leading an otherwise male crew in a male-dominated
industry. That's not to say that women should be granted breaks
specifically because they are women -- quite to the contrary, I do not
support women being given high-profile directorial jobs for
which they are unqualified. But when a qualified woman does quality
work and another woman undermines her and disrespects her and makes her
leadership role even more difficult, it speaks to all of the negative
stereotypes about women being catty and jealous and overly competitive
and holds us back even more.
I hope the
female director I watched goes on to even
bigger and better projects, and I hope the next time she finds a female 1st AD, it's one who chooses
to support her and contribute to her success rather than choosing to
keep women bogged down by disrespect and prejudice in an environment in
which we're far too much of a rarity.
