She's the FilmmakHER: an Interview with Filmmaker Scarlett Turner
[UNPUBLISHED:] Tell us about yourself.
[SCARLETT:] My name is Scarlett Turner, I’m from Southern California. I graduated from Chapman in 2019 and ever since then I’ve been working at a production company. I’m a producer’s assistant but I’m the executive assistant in the office so I assist everyone. In my own time, I’m a filmmaker. I’m learning so much from this production company, it’s really cool to be involved in the development and see what goes into pitching a TV show or a movie and how everything gets made. I feel really lucky. It’s a great foundation for what I want to make which are diverse, women-driven films. My thesis film at Chapman had a 95% female crew, we only had 3 men on set which was really cool. I really love coming of age, I think that is that’s where my strengths lie at the moment. That’s what I want to do, I want to tell more stories about teenage girls because I don't think that’s really depicted in our media in an empathetic way very often.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How did you get into filmmaking?
[SCARLETT:] I had a YouTube channel all through high school and middle school. I definitely tapered off when I got to college because film school is rough. I don't make videos anymore because I've had my own film career that started and I don't have time. That's how I started when was 13. My mom's an actress so I have always loved movies and realized when I was applying to colleges that I wanted to try my hand at making a career out of it because I love to tell stories.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Is there a specific film that you've made that is your favorite?
[SCARLETT:] It's hard to say because they're all really different. I am such a perfectionist that if I was making my thesis now I would do it completely differently, even if it was the same story. My favorite film that I've made is “Brace Face” which was my AP. They've all brought me to different places. “See You Next Summer” – which was my thesis – Chapman screened as a part of their recruiting for new film students over the past year. We went to Seattle, Chicago, and New York. I was able to do Q&As with potential film students and screen our films. I was flying out late Friday nights and flying home on Sunday to make it back in time for work. It was a whirlwind.
[UNPUBLISHED:] You mentioned that your mom is an actress. How has that influenced you to want to go into the industry?
[SCARLETT:] I was always around it with my parents, friends, and I went to an elementary school that a lot of actors kids went to. Growing up in LA, I feel like it was something I always knew that I would be a part of because I admired it so much. Seeing her career, I understand that it's a difficult thing to get into but I think it's worth it if it actually does pan out.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What made you want to go to film school?
[SCARLETT:] When I went to film school I was super unprepared in the sense of the first week at Chapman. Everyone was talking about doing all these things, I genuinely had no idea what it meant. When I applied to film school I had the skills of editing on Final Cut, but I didn't actually have the onset experience that some Chapman people or film school people pretend that they have before they go. I started film school wanting to be a production designer and costume designer, but I realized midway through my sophomore year when I was studying abroad and did an internship at an actual art department that it wasn't for me. I wanted to learn about all the different aspects of storytelling and how you make movies because that was something I had no experience in doing.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How was your overall experience in film school?
[SCARLETT:] I debate, even now, whether or not I actually had to go to film school to pursue this path. It definitely helped to get internships but it was difficult to balance being on set and doing an internship and taking classes with homework. It was definitely more difficult than I expected it to be. It's a workload that you don't necessarily expect. I don't think you need to go to film school to be a filmmaker or to be a director. People come from all different backgrounds, and you could really have any sort of perspective going into it, as long as you just have a good story to tell. I think it was worth my time because one of my internships that I did my senior year turned into my job.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How do you feel being a woman going into a male-dominated field?
[SCARLETT:] One thing I learned in film school was that 90% of my peers were men, and it was very rare to have multiple female voices whether that was professors or other students in each of my classes. That's why I was really adamant about having an almost all-female set. We selectively handpicked the men that were allowed to be on set. There's a push right now for more female voices in Hollywood and definitely more people of color so it’s cool to see and be a part of that. Me and my coworkers purposefully add more women and more people of color to the list of potential hires because these lists are what get people jobs.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What was your inspiration for your thesis film, “See You Next Summer”?
[SCARLETT:] “See You Next Summer” was based on my own experiences going to summer camp. I went to summer camp for seven years as a kid and it was definitely the most formative time. I went for a month every summer in Connecticut and my parents were in California, so I got to be whoever I wanted. I started to realize my own sexuality wasn't necessarily what I thought it was so I just wanted to tell a story of something small and intimate about those emotions of being 13 years old and not knowing who you are. Something I really wanted to highlight was LGBTQ+ stories.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How was working with a mostly female cast and crew?
[SCARLETT:] It was amazing! My producer and I lived together our first year out of college and it was such a nice bond of collaboration and trust. I always say my favorite part of filmmaking is the collaboration because you watch a movie and you see the credits at the end and it's so many people who worked on this one thing to make something much bigger than themselves. Working with a talented crew like my production designer Blake Hilton was so incredible. She would take my ideas above and beyond, and the movie would not have been the same without her creativity. My favorite part of the whole experience was making those relationships. It's all about the environment and who you work with, not necessarily the project.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Tell us about the process of planning and shooting.
[SCARLETT:] I had written the script a year earlier in my junior-level thesis development writing class and I didn't think it was going to be my thesis – I just had to write something for the class. Then in the spring, before the end of junior year, everyone was starting to crew up and create teams for the thesis and I was like, “Okay, I have this idea. Maybe I can find a writer to make it better and maybe if I have the right team, it can really come alive”. We brought on a couple of different screenwriters who did drafts of it. We worked all through the summer but we worked from on post from October to March. It was a lot of work, the high intensity at the beginning of the year and then we got to spread our post out for a long time, which was nice.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Talk about your IP.
[SCARLETT:] My IP is called “My Alien Girlfriend”, and I really liked having the constraints of the IP, but at the time I thought that I was going to be doing production design, so I wasn't focused on the directing at all. I had a friend write the script and I knew I wanted something really visual because I thought I would be using that as a production design portfolio, instead of a directing portfolio piece. I wanted to do something whimsical and I ended up working with light visual effects at the end
[UNPUBLISHED:] Tell us about “Brace Face”.
[SCARLETT:] Brace Face was based on a story that my mom always told me about one of her experiences growing up. When she had kissed a boy at summer camp and their braces got locked together. I always loved that story and thought it would be perfect to tell in a short way. I met with my screenwriter starting in the fall of my junior year, and I knew that I wanted to do something really bright visually but also have heart to it. She wrote scripts that were so quirky and so weird and totally my sense of humor. My mom actually played the nun in it which was really cool. I had a lot of subscribers and my Instagram followers come and be extras which was really fun to get that sort of collaboration.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How did your mom react to seeing her experience come to life.
[SCARLETT:] She loved it. I knew that I wanted her to be involved in some way. It wasn't exactly what she had gone through, but it was definitely the inspiration and it was really fun to have her on set.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Why do you think it's important to add women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals in your narratives?
[SCARLETT:] There are so many different types of people on this planet –– why not share their stories? Our media should reflect what's actually real. Growing up, I always wanted to have films that represented queer people or more women in powerful positions, which we're seeing more and more wand that’s amazing. Coming of age stories need to be more diverse because we always see movies about boyhood like Stand By Me or The Sandlot. These films are so classic and I couldn't imagine my childhood without them, but at the same time, I don't see myself in them and I don't see my friends in them. I don't see the people around me in them. I would love to see a new generation of films that help form childhoods, but have them be about anything else other than a straight white male.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How has your perspective of the industry changed before and after film school?
[SCARLETT:] People in film school think the path is more linear than it actually is. It's a very daunting task to get your career started as a filmmaker but I see young directors getting brought to our company and having their films go to festivals.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have any upcoming films in the works?
[SCARLETT:] I wish I could say I did, I definitely have ideas. I just made a music video for a musician, Christian Aguilar, which was really fun. It's really difficult to balance having my career and also my side projects. My office and my boss are very encouraging so I'm hoping to get back into it but with COVID it's hard.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have any advice you'd give to your younger self or anybody who wants to pursue a career in the film industry, especially as a woman or a person of color?
[SCARLETT:] Don't let other people intimidate you! Know your own worth and your own power because when I first got to film school I was so intimidated by everyone else with all of their experience. I didn't know where I fit in because I wasn't confident in my own creative ability. Give yourself time. With every film, you get a little bit better.
