5Q's w/Vickie Sampson "Reflections" Director

#1: Can you describe your movie and why somebody should see it in less than 140 characters?

REFLECTIONS explores issues of identity, love, acceptance and coming to grips with who you are at your core, no matter what the cost.

#2: What do you want the Borrego Springs Film Festival audience to know about your film that isn’t obvious from its title?

As the title suggests, what do we project to the world about who we are versus who we really are? It’s also about how we reflect off each other in the world and the reverberations of how we all affect each other, like a pebble thrown in a pond creating ripples. Things aren’t always as they seem.

#3: What is your movie making background? Tell us about yourself.

I’ve been a feature film sound editor for 40 years on over 200 features, including Return of the Jedi, Donnie Darko, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Speed. All my life I’ve wanted to be at the helm of my own stories; writing, directing, editing them. In 1987, I got into the prestigious Directing Workshop for Women at AFI where I was one of 12 out of 600 who got to direct their first short film! It was exciting and I thought, this will now propel me into my directing career. It didn’t. But I kept plugging along making films as much as my post-production career would allow. I’m a member of AMPAS and also a reader for the Nicholls Fellowship program. I teach Post-production sound for filmmakers and have taught Sound Design classes at Cal State LA, USC, UCLA, AFI and Video Symphony. I’m an Emeritus on the Board of the Alliance of Women Directors. I learn a lot about directing from each movie I’ve worked on as a sound editor and on each of my own sets. I still have a lot of movie-making to do!

#4: What was the biggest lesson learned in getting your film made?

Besides the usual lesson of getting enough money to shoot a film, which I did via friends donating to me on facebook, and a few “angel” investors, I found the challenge presented in this film was how can I make a dynamic, compelling story with just one character in the room? I used different angles and editing techniques to imply that the “other” voice in the room is also a character, cutting to different angles, back and forth, as if a “real” conversation were taking place. I learned that each actor has their own technique of channeling the character they are playing and I was impressed with the young woman who plays Cory (Jenny Trevino) in how she created a song playlist for her character and listened to it between set-ups.

#5: What does the future hold for your film and you?

My future is always looking for ways to get a movie made! This past year has been difficult for everyone, of course. I did not shoot a film this year but am gearing up to shoot something this year. This was supposed to be the year of festivals for REFLECTIONS but it only had one live screening and the rest were virtual. For a film like REFLECTIONS, it really needed audience interaction and discussion. For a filmmaker, my joy comes in sitting in a theater with people watching and reacting to my film. I don’t get that “feedback” from virtual screenings or drive-ins. But the world is as it is for now and we just have to accept that our films still touch people even though we may never know how they impact a person.

It was our goal, Wendy Fishman, the writer, and I, to reach people with the message of “it’s not just okay to be yourself, you HAVE to be yourself.” We were hoping to take it to schools, colleges, Gay and Lesbian Centers etc. And that can still happen, of course!

I’m also still hoping that my body of work can serve as evidence that I can make a good film and that people can invest in me with confidence. I learned that at Borrego Springs last year at one of the panels – that investors may invest in a particular film but the reality is, in the independent world especially, investors invest in the filmmakers, no matter what the film is about! That’s what I’m hoping for.