Perspectives: How do leading female creatives experience the film industry?

by Ivar Laanen

We have a secret weapon at Popcorn Brain: Sophie Friederichs, our Lead Editor and Head Art Director.

As a writer focused on text, I’m always in awe of Sophie’s ability to tell a story through her own particular aesthetic language. She has a superhuman eye for texture and color, summoning shades and tones that seemingly fall out the visible spectrum. The artistic and emotional DNA of every project starts with Sophie, but what makes her a real modern renaissance woman is that these projects end with Sophie too when she assumes the role of editor. Both these roles require swift decisiveness and that’s exactly what Sophie has. If there’s even a slight bit of dissatisfaction with a shot, she will cut it out ruthlessly. That lack of creative bureaucracy has seeped through the company and become a signature of the Popcorn Brain way of working.

That Sophie is a woman is something we do not think twice about, but we do recognize that she holds a powerful creative role in an industry that is statistically male-dominated. Now that International Women’s Day is upon us, we’ve taken a moment to interview Sophie and a number of female creatives that inspire us everyday at Popcorn Brain to hear their thoughts about working as a woman in the film industry.

Four of the interviews you will read are with contemporary creatives. The other is with a prominent film editor from the pre-digital era, giving us a particular perspective on how it was to work as a woman in the film industry then and how it is now.

Sophie Friederichs

What inspired you to become an art director / editor?

Since I can remember I was making collages, decorating my room with them, and collecting images I liked. It was a very obvious route then for me to go study graphic design. I loved the study and went on to find a job as a graphic designer. Of course, you go on to meet new people and work together with people from different fields–and I always was kind of jealous of the editors. I felt like there was more out there than just graphic design and decided to apply to The Rietveld Academie where I mainly focused on video.

During this time I met Aam Solleveld. She's an artist who makes amazing graphic installations. It was a pure joy to work with her and an amazing learning experience. She taught me that every inch is important. After I graduated I ended up here, at Popcorn Brain. I guess every collaboration and every step took me to where I am now.

What is this particular field like for women creatives?

I can't really speak on behalf of all women creatives, but I think that is really something we should talk about!

How is it for me? Every project is a new adventure and needs its own approach. I guess the same counts for people. Whether it's a woman or a man, you're dealing with a person.

If that person is nice, good for me. If not, that sucks but let's make the best out of it. There can be a ton of reasons why things don't work out or do work out. I guess I don’t see my gender as being one of those reasons. But like I said, I can’t speak for other women creatives. I’m often holed up in the editing room so I don’t have too many workplace interactions outside of here.

As a female editor, were you ever treated differently or face barriers working in the film industry? If so, how did you deal with that?

Barriers? I don’t think so but I do feel I get treated a bit differently.

I try to be myself as much as possible. If I feel like wearing pink heels to work, I do. If I feel like wearing no make-up to work, I do. Of course I'm self conscious and I'm working

on being the strongest version of myself. I don't always succeed. Like, for example, sharing a room with only guys. “Hey guys!” is the thing I always hear. Then I'm doing an inner eye roll. For some guys it is much easier to talk from one guy to another. But I can't change them. I can only change the way I'm dealing with a situation like that.

Since starting out as an editor, do you feel there are more opportunities for women within this field?

I don't know. I hope people hire me as an editor because they like my style–because they like to work with me as a person. Not because I'm a woman. If that’s the reason they want to hire me, I think that would make my work quite awkward.

Who are some female creatives that inspire you today?

There are so many. I enjoyed working with Emily McDonald a lot. We've never met in real life because of Covid, but I really appreciate her vision. She knows what she wants, has a beautiful eye and is a pleasure to work with. Kelly Wearstler is someone I truly admire as well.

Emily McDonald (Director)

Emily McDonald is an award-winning director that we’ve collaborated with on campaigns for Nike and more recently Jagermeister. We are big fans of her unapologetic style and the gritty, rawthentic feel that she infuses in her films.

What inspired you to become a film director?

I never really set out to be a film director—I never went to school for it or even intend to work in the film industry. I fell into a job at Weiden + Kennedy as a runner and then eventually an editor. Then around 2016 I met a guy named Tim who was sleeping rough. He had such a big personality and so I decided to make a short doc about him and loved it.

As a female film director, were you ever treated differently or face barriers working in the film industry? If so, how did you deal with that?

For sure the industry is still very male dominated—sadly that’s probably not a shock to anyone. For me I notice it the most when I travel for work with a predominantly male crew and even if they’re the nicest guys, there is still always a barrier. I deal with it by being very vocal with producers about diversity within the crew.

Since starting out as a director, do you feel there are more opportunities for women within film?

There are definitely more opportunities for women now. People are more aware of diversity in both cast and crew but that doesn’t change the culture overnight. It’s one thing to have women on set but it’s another thing for the men at the top to respect the opinion of those women.

Who are some female creatives that inspire you today?

I have a lot of respect for directors who are able to make the mundanity of life and build an engaging world around that. For me, directors like Chloé Zhao and Andrea Arnold sit at the intersection of narrative and documentary because they’re taking real people and believable stories and pulling out the human nuances. Jess Kohl and Hollie Fernando are also two people whose work I really admire.

Shay (Film editor)

For this piece, we also wanted to interview a female director or editor from a different generation–someone who has experienced the film industry decades ago when it was far less common to see a woman in a leading creative role. We ended up speaking with Shay (pseudonym), a film editor who had grown up outside of the so-called Western world and who worked on big-production films under prominent directors. For contractual and reputational reasons, Shay made it clear that she wants to stay anonymous. Nonetheless, the stories from her time show us how film has changed over the years.
Shay

I was doing all kinds of assistant work in the film industry when, by extraordinary coincidence, I met a director who understood the value of a foreign view and hired me. The funding for the first film we worked on collapsed before we finished, but I got the opportunity to carry on working with that particular director. Unfortunately, although he regarded me as his secret weapon and valued my input, he never acknowledged me publicly. And this is very typical in the film hierarchy terms. Unless you're Martin Scorcese, who always publicly acknowledged Thelma Schoonmaker as his editor, editors just get ignored. They’re invisible.

The other thing that was very difficult for me as a woman in that era (1980s) is that the editing job was seen as a technical job done by boys. Now I’m not a technical person–it was a miracle if I could actually lace the footage on the editing table. I mean I could manage, but I was a content editor and that was unheard of. The reaction I would get when doing my work was similar to how Black people in America experienced life when they wanted to move up and take on better careers. Horrible people would tell them that they ‘should know their place.’ And this is what I would hear when giving content opinions. ‘What are you doing girl, know your place.’

Over time I worked with other, less misogynistic directors but even then they would never give me acknowledgement publicly, which would have of course have helped my career. I was always having to fight for my place. Eventually, I experienced burnout and took some time off to recover my physical and mental health. After some years I thought it was time to have another go at editing, but in the time since I had last worked, almost everything had switched to digital and I was up to speed digitally. At that time, editing hardware was very expensive so groups of male editors formed groups to share the costs to buy it and took turns sharing it. So yet again it was me fighting my way into these groups of men who didn’t want to let me use the equipment. It was a losing battle.

I remember there would be many heated discussions in the editing room. Like, for example, about how a particular scene, a love scene, should be edited. But the power balance in the editing room was ‘the guys vs. the gal.’ I thought the way they kept proposing to do the scene was quite vulgar and out of touch with the tone of the film, which is what I told them. I have a very specific taste, but they felt I only made that comment because I was a woman and ganged up on me. It was unfortunate moments like this that made me eventually walk away from editing, which is a shame.

Has the industry changed for women? I hope so.

Nina Aaldering: Director (CAKE)

We first collaborated with Nina a few years ago while creating short films for the Pluk de Nacht campaign. Since then, we’ve been watching in awe at the way her style has developed over the years. This interview took place over the phone, hence the change of format. Regardless, Nina’s perspective gives us great insight into how it is to be a female director today.

Nowadays, people in advertising are looking for more diversity. Directors are no exception. We regularly get a brief asking specifically for a female director. You could almost argue that being female is trendy right now. Of course, this can be challenging sometimes, as you’re not entirely sure if you’re being asked because of your direction skills or your gender.

Some say you shouldn’t ask people to be in your production just because they are female. And in an ideal world, I’d be inclined to agree with them. In an ideal world, there’d be just as many women working in the film industry as guys and we wouldn’t have to think about these issues. But the thing is, we don’t live in an ideal world.

So, I think it’s a good thing to try and improve the employment of women in this male-dominated industry. I’m talking about gender now, but the same goes for race, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and so on. It’s sad that it’s necessary, but how else are you going to change things? You have to start somewhere, right?

Having said that, there are limits. Not too long ago I had a pre-production meeting where the cover of a document read “Directress Nina Aaldering.” I called production and asked them politely to change it to “Director.” Yes, I am a woman, but that doesn’t mean you have to emphasize it on every occasion possible. It’s a double-edged sword really: on the one hand, I want more women to be encouraged. On the other hand, I want to be treated the same as everybody else.

I get the feeling things are starting to shift in my generation. At least I like to think so. When I look at my competition, I see a lot of talented women. Diana Kunst comes to mind. I don’t know her personally but I love her work. Caroline Koning’s work is amazing as well. And then there’s super talent Emma Westenberg, who’s currently working in the United States. So yeah, fingers crossed we’re on the right path. Let’s hope that when I’m old, my future daughter can have loads of female colleagues when she decides she wants to be a director.

Marloes de Rijke: VFX Producer (Media.Monks)

Our sister company Dead Pixel worked with Marloes de Rijke last year on a beautiful and emotional campaign for Victoria titled Cempoalxóchitl. Marloes has an expansive knowledge of all sides of production and her work is consistently quality: We couldn’t have asked for a better VFX producer to work with.

What inspired you to become a VFX producer?

Ever since I was a child I loved movies and the magic of sets. My strength was organizing and facilitating, and I was lucky enough to be admitted to film school to combine what I was good at with what I loved. One of my graduation films was a VFX film, so this introduced me to the challenges and possibilities of this field. I fell in love and pursued this career ever since.

As a female VFX producer, were you ever treated differently or face barriers working in the film industry? If so, how did you deal with that?

For sure! I’ve had comments from men that definitely weren’t professional. I was a lot younger back then and unfortunately I didn’t respond to it the way I would now. One of the things I’ve learned throughout the me-too era and after is that I have a lot to learn about this topic as well. I realized that I, as a woman, have to relearn what is appropriate behavior or an acceptable way to live/work because we grow up with a certain (distorted) standard of “what is normal”. Only after learning it actually isn’t normal did I realize how, at the start of my career, I would adapt to the environment that I was in rather than set my own boundaries. I mainly tried to be accepted in the male-dominant environment, instead of being myself or standing up for myself.

I do think it can be more challenging for women to be seen in a tech savvy or leading role, or for women to integrate in a mostly-male team. But I think this is improving a lot as well.

Since starting out as a VFX producer, do you feel there are more opportunities for women within this field?

For sure, compared to my early career there are definitely more women at work in the industry than before. It would be great to see more women in leadership positions, though. I think we still have some room for improvement there.
For aspiring women who want to enter the world of VFX, do you have any advice?

My advice would be to make sure you have a mentor or some more senior women who you can turn to or talk to. Make sure you don’t navigate this alone so that you can spar with people about your experiences and career.

Part of me adapting to my environment meant I thought I had to be able to do everything on my own. Be a tough woman. When actually I’ve noticed through the years that opening up and speaking my truth has made me a stronger person and a better producer.

Popcorn BrainMarch 9, 2022