When Andie Walla was in school studying video production, she can remember being one of the only girls in her classes.
“I can think of specific classes in general at the undergraduate level where I was the only women in the class,” Walla, a lecturer of video production at Ohio University, said. “Most of the instructors were male. I don’t think I actually had a woman ever teach me production, so to say.”
In a study conducted by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, women held 24 percent of producing jobs, 17 percent of editing positions, 17 percent of executive producing jobs, 13 percent of writing positions, seven percent of directing jobs and five percent of cinematography positions in the top 250 films of 2016.
With not many women in high positions on film sets, women seek mentorship to make it into the film industry.
Because Walla did not have many women to look up to when she was going through school, she's made it her mission to mentor women who want to go into the field. She wants to show women they can do the same jobs a man can and they do not have to stray away from taking technical jobs, she said.
Walla likes working with the grad students who teach film production classes, she said. She hopes seeing women in teaching positions serves as “inspirational to the next generation.” Walla teaches classes that have a lot of women in them, she said. In the fall, she taught a production class where the women outnumbered the men.
When women are in those powerful positions, it can serve as inspiration for young women, Sami Edelstein, the president of Films and Stuff, said. Edelstein thinks there should be more female directors in particular because directors are more at the forefront of movies.
“It’s like the same thing where a little girl will stop wanting to do something because they only see men filling the position,” Edelstein, a senior studying screenwriting and producing, said. “It’s cool to have people similar to you to look up to.”
When women work behind the scenes of films, it offers a new perspective, Emma Jarvi, a junior studying special education, said.
“Generally (movies) are directed by men, so it’s a different way to look at scripts and stuff like that,” Jarvi said. “More things women can get involved and be successful at is a win for women in general.”
Edelstein has not faced many difficulties as a woman working on films but had one experience that made her think about women in the industry.
When she approached a faculty member to discuss forming the organization she runs, the adviser had a script for a film that would be cool for a “group of women” to make, she said. The experience was positive, she said, but it made her think about how they were a group of women filmmakers.
“We’re just a group of friends that want to make stuff and share stuff, not a group of women that really want to make a statement,” she said. “When you’re kind of in that position to make a difference, sometimes you have to use it.”
When it comes to forming a good crew, Walla said it is not based on gender, but on the skills the crew members possess and how they work with others.
“At the end of the day, the person that is going to get the job is going to be the person who can work well with others, work under pressure and be able to really think about the big picture,” Walla said. “I think that women are just as capable of doing that as men.”
