On the Subject of My Report Subject…
On the lovely day of today, we were set to present our film industry report subjects in a Pecha Kucha-like style in front of the entire class to get started on our research and settle the theme, methodology and structure as soon as possible. From last year, my avid reader will already know the concept of a Pecha Kucha, but for completion’s sake, I will shortly recap the gist of it.
Pecha Kucha™
A Pecha Kucha is a short presentation style in which a topic is presented on 20 slides, each with a duration of 20 seconds. With only 6’40’’ in total, this makes for an efficient way to present a topic in a concise way, forcing the presenter to keep to the essentials instead of waffling on and wasting everyone’s time (I love it!).
Film Industry Report Presentation
So inspired by this technique, our lecturer asked us to create a timed presentation that would contain ten slides with a duration of 20 seconds each, amounting to 3’20’’ in total to present our ideas. Since this form of presentation not only forces us to be quick and concise and present only the most relevant information, but also forces us to think about the structure, sources, methodology etc. of our reports, it was a good measure to get us working.
I thus created the presentation as you can see in the images below with an accompanied text, that I have timed several times in preparation to ensure it would add up to the required 3’20’’. This is the skeleton of the presentation that I held today:
'Hello and welcome! To those of you who don’t know me, my name is Svea, and I am going to present my Pecha Kucha on my report topic today. Since I aspire to become a cinematographer one lovely day, I want to look into possible pathways and challenges of becoming one within the industry. For this, I already laid the groundworks in last year’s report…'
'…when I looked into the general situation and numbers of female cinematographers around the globe. For this, I looked at international sources, such as reports, associations, and surveys. I then conducted my own survey amongst both professionals and laymen with 50 contributors in total… '
'I asked about their perception of female cinematographers, their opinion about their professional situation and possible reasons, as well as solutions for their extremely low numbers in just that department of the industry. Lastly, I wrote a report, containing and presenting the results of my endeavour.'
'This year however, I want to expand my work on this topic by writing an updated and expanded version of last year’s report. As I mentioned in the beginning, I want to look at possible pathways into the industry, as well as challenges and possible solutions for female cinematographers. For this, I will first recap last year’s situation and numbers and compare them to today’s situation to give an updated account on the matter. '
'I furthermore aim to contact female cinematographers, both independently as well as within associations, collectives, and social media, conducting a survey on their paths, experiences, and solutions. Since I already conducted quantitative research on this matter last year, this time, my aim is to make this study more qualitative in its approach, focussing on...'
'… actual biographies and ’anecdotal evidence’ if you will. Also for my personal interest, I want my report to be more solution-oriented by highlighting individual paths and options, thus raising awareness for obstacles, but also informing about solutions both for myself and others. In order to achieve all this, my survey will ….ask the following questions, amongst others:'
'What was your professional path into the industry, and more importantly, into cinematography?
How long did it take you until your first job as a cinematographer?
How do your male colleagues treat you?
Did you feel that male colleagues had been treated differently than you? If so, how?'
'By asking female cinematographers within the industry, I hope that I will be able to gather not only relevant but also helpful information that has been put to the test and proven successful and which go beyond mere assumptions. Thus I furthermore hope to speed up the process by learning from other’s mistakes and lessons without having to repeat them myself. '
'And this is the end of my Pecha Kucha. I hope you enjoyed listening to it. If you have any questions or issues to address, feel free to ask. Thank you for your attention!'
Aaaand, references!
My Updated Report: Topic, Aim, and Methodology
Much like last year’s report, my report this year will settle on female cinematographers and their careers within the industry. My report last year settled on the general situation and (appallingly low) numbers of women cinematographers around the globe – based on research conducted on international sources such as reports, associations, and surveys – and was supplemented by my own quantitative research on the perception of female cinematographers amongst professionals and laymen.
This year however, I want to create an updated and expanded version of my report. This, I want to achieve by re-sketching last year’s situation and figures and comparing them to an updated account of today in order to give an updated overview of the situation. I then want to look at possible pathways into the industry, and challenges, as well as tested solutions that real cinematographers of the female sex have chosen, experienced, and/or applied during their career. In order to be able to add this additional layer to the investigation, I thus want to conduct a qualitative survey with female cinematographers as contributors, asking them about their experiences and recommendations.
Survey Questions
So far, I have come up with eleven questions that will be redefined and condensed further before being entered into a survey and sent out. As of now, these questions are:
What was your professional path into the industry, and more importantly, into cinematography?
How long have you been working as a cinematographer?
How long did it take you until your first job as a cinematographer?
What do you think are the biggest obstacles for women wanting to become cinematographers?
What skill(s) would you say are the most helpful for women in your line of profession?
How do your male colleagues treat you?
Did you feel that male colleagues had been treated differently than you? If so, how?
What strategies or coping mechanisms worked for you and what would you recommend for other women?
What do you think should women wanting to work in cinematography be prepared for?
If this applies to you, how did you cope with unjust behaviour towards your person within the industry?
If this applies to you, did entering a collective help you progress in your career?
Possible Contacts
As soon as the questions are done and dusted and a survey created at SurveyMonkey, I will be sending it out to various contacts around the world. So far, my aim is to address the following sources for contacts:
Cinematographers XX (a collective of female cinematographers based in the US)
Illuminatrix (a collective of female cinematographers based in the UK), and
The International Collective of Female Cinematographers (rather self-explanatory)
My aim (and honestly, my hope) is to speed up the process for myself and for the eventual readers of my report by learning from others’ experiences and/or mistakes without having to repeat them myself. Also, by conducting this research, I hope that I will find additional information on my future path into the industry.
A Bonus Find! Mentorship Programmes
Since I already found out that the International Collective of Female Cinematographers run a Mentorship programme, in which ‘[their] members participate in peer-to-peer mentorship and aim to provide safe and productive mentorships for emerging cinematographers’, I was already intrigued to learn more about this topic and delve deeper into it.
Finally, the only thing left to do is get the survey up and running and send it out as soon as possible. However, I’m already excited at the prospect of getting to know female cinematographers!
References:
Cinematographers XX (2019) CXX [online] https://www.cinematographersxx.com [Accessed on 23 February 2019]
Illuminatrix (2019) Illuminatrix Homepage [online] http://www.illuminatrixdops.com/About-illuminatrix [Accessed on 23 February 2019]
International Collective of Female Cinematographers (2019) About International Collective of Female Cinematographers [online] https://icfcfilm.com/about.html [Accessed on 23 February 2019]
International Collective of Female Cinematographers (2019) International Collective of Female Cinematographers Homepage [online] http://icfcfilm.com [Accessed on 23 February 2019]
PechaKucha (2019) Homepage PechaKucha™ 20 Images x 20 Seconds [online]https://www.pechakucha.com [Accessed on 23 February 2019]
PechaKucha 20x20 (2014) What is PechaKucha? [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq9txHjiRYo [Accessed on 23 February 2019]