Interviews: Women in Film Chicago at the 2013 Focus Awards

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CHICAGO – Women in Film Chicago is one of the greatest Midwest advocates for women filmmakers. Every year, they present “Focus Awards” to honor notable female breakthroughs in the film and television business. Last October, they awarded their 2013 Focus Awards to Ky Dickens, Katy Mindeman and Lisa Wiegand.

Woman in Film Chicago will have their 2014 Kick-off Party on January 23rd, 2014 (details below). HollywoodChicago.com was at the Focus Awards last October at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, and got interviews with each of the honorees.

StarKy Dickens, Director of “Sole Survivor”

2013 was a great year for Ky Dickens. She released her documentary “Sole Survivor” – a meditation and reflection that profiled a few single individuals that have survived a plane crash – and the film was picked up by CNN Films. She also won Best Picture at the recent Best of the Midwest Awards. Ms. Dickens has been a filmmaker since her vital documentary debut, “Fish Out of Water” (2009), which deconstructed the seven Bible verses used to condemn homosexuality.

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the genesis of ‘Sole Survivor,’ and was the approach you took to bring it to fruition?

Ky Dickens
Ky Dickens at 2013 WIF Focus Awards
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Ky Dickens: The genesis of it was personal. In high school, I switched places with a good friend of mine before I got into a car, and he ended up dying in an accident in that car. I was always interested in survivor stories. When I turned 28 years old, I had this nagging feeling to do something important all the time, and I realized that was my survivor skill.

I wonder how people healed from this, and in my research of survivors of all types, I read about the sole survivor of a plane crash. I became interested in that topic and then it became ‘it’ – the subject of my new film.

HollywoodChicago.com: Obviously a documentary story needs to find itself. What plan if any is there in pre-production?

Dickens: I try to come in with an idea as to where I want the story to go, even having a general shot list. But the fun of documentaries for me is never knowing how it will eventually turn out. It’s a fun escape, because I get to follow the story as it eventually comes out. In narrative feature films, you are taking something that’s fictional and trying to make it real. In documentaries, you’re taking something that’s true, and trying to tell a compelling story like fiction.

HollywoodChicago.com: When you talk about your love for filmmaking, what is the first thing you talk about?

Dickens: Since I’ve worked primarily in documentaries, the subject has to be a passionate personal interest. You cannot dedicate that time and money unless it becomes that way. I’ve always been interested in films that challenge our sense of the status quo and makes us curious about people outside our own life. When you do a documentary correctly, the camera can be the tool for healing someone or changing something.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is the best piece of filmmaking advice you’ve ever received and how do you apply that to your productions?

Dickens: Somebody once told me if you have a great idea as a director, you can shoot that idea on a cell phone. The reason I took that advice is because when I was a young filmmaker I was obsessed with having the best equipment. It wastes time and money in acquiring that stuff. If I have a great story, it will shine through. Especially on a documentary. That was very freeing advice.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is the greatest truth you personally learned in producing ‘Sole Survivor’ – both as a personal survivor as you mentioned and as a forum for the individuals in the film?

Dickens: I learned to stop asking the ‘why question.’ That question is the reason I made that film in the first place, and by the end of it I felt so much sympathy for the survivor’s burden of guilt that all I wanted to say to them, all the time, was ‘just live.’ Just be, that’s all we’re here to do. You can’t answer everything.

StarLisa Wiegand, Director of Photography for “Chicago Fire”

The Director of Photography (DP) has different responsibilities in television over feature films – shooting over 20 hours of programming versus the two or so for a movie creates that distinction. Lisa Wiegand is a veteran television and film DP who currently fulfills that role for the NBC TV series, “Chicago Fire.”

HollywoodChicago.com: What was your first reaction when you heard the news that you would be shooting a basic element like fire?

Lisa Wiegand
Lisa Wiegand (left) at 2013 WIF Focus Awards
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Lisa Wiegand: I was very excited, and the weirdest thing was in the TV program I had finished just previous to ‘Chicago Fire’ there was an apocalyptic episode, and in it were fire elements. I turned to a guy in that crew and remarked, ‘Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had fire in every episode?’ Literally, within a month, I got a call for ‘Chicago Fire.’ I can shoot in Chicago and shoot fire? Awesome.

HollywoodChicago.com: As a veteran cinematographer, what do you feel you bring personally into the look and feel of ‘Chicago Fire’?

Wiegand: One thing is I like to have a lot of energy in the show. It’s important to keep people engaged, and the camera operation and lighting has a lot to do with that. The fire element helps us to do that, because it’s a moving light. It lives and breathes, I like that about it.

HollywoodChicago.com: When you talk about your love for cinematography, what do you talk about first?

Wiegand: It’s about finding the right look to tell a specific story. In a visual sense, it’s about what is there to make an audience feel closer to the narrative elements and the truth in the story.

HollywoodChicago.com: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received regarding the art of cinematography?

Wiegand: It has come from many DPs I’ve worked for – know when to be done with something. It’s like the dilemma of the artist and canvas, when does the last brush stroke occur? You have to know when to move on.

HollywoodChicago.com: What film in the history of cinema would you have liked to tackle as a cinematographer?

Wiegand: Since I’m now so involved with television, what immediately comes to mind is ‘Battlestar Gallactica,’ the recent incarnation. I love that show so much. It’s been so inspirational, thematically and visually.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, you mentioned your mother in your acceptance speech. How has her legacy informed your own journey?

Wiegand: I think my mother is a strong person, and I never realized that until later. When I was younger, we were adversaries, so maybe the strength she gave me what in the stubbornness that came out of our fights. [laughs] She is a good argument master, that is for sure.

StarKaty Mindeman, Sound Designer

Ms. Mindeman is the lead engineer at Particle Audio, where she creates the sound design and mixes for national brand advertising campaigns.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is the personal element in your style, that sets your sound design apart from others?

Katy Mindeman
Katy Mindeman at 2013 WIF Focus Awards
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Katy Mindeman: Well for example, I have done commercial work in which I created a sound atmosphere for a mountaintop. When I was recently in Ireland, I found I was on a mountain and I was taking it in, because there isn’t many opportunities to do so without the noise of traffic or nearby towns. I remembered the random effects surrounding me, like a fly buzzing by. I thought to myself, I need to remember these moments, to apply them to what I do. That’s what sets the design apart, and that’s how I keep learning.

HollywoodChicago.com: When you talk about that love for sound design, and how it affects you personally, what’s the first thing you talk about?

Mindeman: Every time I do a different project, there is always something that will come out of it. I know that even if I’m doing something very surreal, there will be that moment where I put the one sound effect in there, and it clicks and comes together. In more realistic design, it’s the mix between music and sound, when I create an atmosphere where I believe it’s actually happening. It’s from experience to experience, and in each one doing what I love.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received regarding your particular profession, and how do you apply it in your work?

Mindeman: There are so many that have helped me along the way, but years ago I interned for a guy at Chicago Recording Company, named Michael Coyle. He told me when he was teaching at Chicago’s Columbia College, a student he had didn’t use a sound effects library for an engine project, but recorded a vacuum cleaner. The lesson for him was that he constantly learns, even from the younger and less experienced, because they can find ways to manipulate sound that he would never think of – there are always times that no matter where you’re at in this profession, you can always learn a new way.

Women in Film Chicago will have their 2014 Kick-Off Party on Thursday, January 23rd, 2014 – from 6pm to 9pm – in Leviathan Studios at 327 N. Aberdeen, Chicago. For more details and to order tickets, click here.

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2014 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

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