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news:
Breaking the action
movie glass ceiling
By Jeanne Hoffa
Online Forty-Niner
The list of famous
female action-adventure film directors is pretty short.
There is Gale Anne
Hurd, and, um, OK, it is really short, but hopefully it will
not be for long. Cal State Long Beach film student Farnaz
Samiinia is busting through the glass ceiling. She is going
to knock down doors and take no prisoners on her quest to
blow Hollywood away with her kick-butt action adventure movies
-- just as soon as she graduates.
Inspired by the
work of John Woo ("Mission Impossible II") and James
Cameron ({Terminator II" and "Aliens,") Samiinia
concluded that action-adventure movies are the most exciting
things on the planet. She became enraptured with film after
film, noting each element: how the director created suspense,
enticing the audience, drawing them in, scaring them. Her
mind flooded with ideas and stories; she just needed to learn
how to get one up on the big screen.
The movie bug bit
her during a stint working for a television station in Germany,
where she had lived since she was five. Clerical work led
to more creative input, such as editing. She wanted to learn
more, but the closest film school was in Munich; too far,
her mother said, to send a teenage daughter away from her
family. Besides, they would be moving to California soon.
Samiinia had to wait.
Although fluent
in Persian-Farsi, German and schooled in French, Samiinia
had to spend her first year in Orange County mastering English.
She found Santa Ana College offered television production
classes, so she enrolled. After two years she felt they had
taught her everything they knew, but it was not enough. Samiinia
discovered television production was considered by some to
be small potatoes -- the big boys were studying film.
"I found TV
was like being a doctor; Film was like being a surgeon,"
Samiinia said. "I always wanted to do something bigger."
It has been three
years since she plunged into CSULB's film and electronic media
program. She has learned production techniques by making films
lasting 2 to 3 minutes. scriptwriting, pre-production planning,
camera-work, casting, producing and editing had to be mastered.
Now she is putting the finishing touches on her first 10-minute
film.
"I couldn't
believe how much work it takes to make even one minute of
film," she said. "I've shot 6,000 feet of film.
Twelve hours of shooting to get ten minutes of story. It's
a little bit scary. You see a film and think, 'It's great,'
but you have no idea what it takes to make it happen."
Samiinia's film,
"Butterfly," is about a girl who discovers her boss
is involved in an evil scheme and must deceive him then flee
for her life. A wild chase scene through several cities ends
with murder.
"I have so
many ideas in my head," Samiinia said, "I can imagine
things really well. I know how I want things to look. I like
being in control. I can be a control freak."
Ten to 15 advanced
film majors pool their talents each semester. Each writing
and directing their own film. One project is shot per weekend,
with fellow classmates acting as the crew.
They rotate jobs
on each successive project, so everyone learns different skills
and positions, such as assistant director, gaffer, and production
supervisor. Samiinia has helped make 11 films this year, an
enormously time-consuming task.
"I'm here
six or seven days a week," she said. "There's no
time for anything else."
While she has a
specific vision for her stories, she found herself incredulous
at how different they usually turn out.
"Sound can
make or break a film," she said. "A movie I made
didn't work out the way I'd imagined it, but a composer came
in and he wrote something for it and that fixed it -- that
made it more effective."
Her determination
impresses classmates.
"She's always
here. Midnight 'til 8. Twenty-four-seven," said Adam
Camacho. "(She is) Always working on something: editing,
sound, music. She's a perfectionist."
Film student Bryan
Van Dyk laughed when asked to describe Samiinia.
"She is one
of those few people who has the determination to make it happen,"
Van Dyk said. "It's hard to find someone with that much
passion about something. If anyone can will it to happen,
it's her."
Her project work,
job experience and an internship on the Bold and the Beautiful
have made her hungry for bigger projects and more responsibility
-- just ask her mother.
"Her mind
is on film and studies and nothing else," Mrs. Samiinia
said. "No life, just movies and books and computers and
school. She's done with her one film, now all she talks about
is making the next one."
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