Producer/Director Sylvia Caminer Visits Full Sail
The Emmy Award winner shared her insights and experience with students
Full Sail recently welcomed Emmy Award-winning director/producer Sylvia Caminer to campus to share her industry insight and experience with students. With a career that’s spanned the past 15 years, Caminer’s credits include notable projects in theater, film, and television.
Starting off as a theater director, Caminer made her transition into the film industry as a production assistant on the films Age of Innocence, A Bronx Tale, and Carlito’s Way. Since then, she’s worked in a variety of producer roles television series such as Discovery/Travel Channel’s “Great Hotels” (which she won an Emmy Award for directing) and “Passport to Europe” (which earned her another Emmy nomination), and films like her most recent independent project Love N’ Dancing, starring Amy Smart and Billy Zane.
Speaking before a group of students in the Entertainment Business auditorium, Caminer spoke about the challenges that came with shooting and distributing Love N’ Dancing. While the film’s story takes place in Philadelphia, the crew found themselves shooting the majority of the movie in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“It basically came down to film incentives, which is something that you’ll all quickly learn about once you get into the industry,” she explained to students. “After speaking with the city and state’s film offices, we learned that we’d be able to make a significant amount of our budget back if we chose to shoot in New Mexico – they definitely had the most appealing incentives.”
Caminer also spoke with students about the production process, explaining in detail the tasks and responsibilities of line producers, co-producers, and associate producers on a film set. She was also able to screen an extended trailer for another one of her recent projects, Project Tanzania. As producer of the documentary (slated for completion in 2010), Caminer traveled to Africa to capture the story of two travelers and their experiences in a small Tanzanian village.
“We had a lot of locals help us out. Language was obviously a big obstacle in Tanzania, where they speak Swahili. But in some villages we traveled to, they spoke their own language,” she told students. “Our local help couldn’t even quite communicate with them. As you can imagine, that entire experience was also filled with many challenges, but the results have been very rewarding.”
Caminer also took questions from students, and offered a few valuable pieces of advice for aspiring filmmakers. “If you want to create, you’ve got to constantly be doing it,” she said. “And moving out to Los Angeles isn’t always necessarily the answer. If you’ve got a great idea and you’re passionate about it, you can really produce out of anywhere.”
Starting off as a theater director, Caminer made her transition into the film industry as a production assistant on the films Age of Innocence, A Bronx Tale, and Carlito’s Way. Since then, she’s worked in a variety of producer roles television series such as Discovery/Travel Channel’s “Great Hotels” (which she won an Emmy Award for directing) and “Passport to Europe” (which earned her another Emmy nomination), and films like her most recent independent project Love N’ Dancing, starring Amy Smart and Billy Zane.
Speaking before a group of students in the Entertainment Business auditorium, Caminer spoke about the challenges that came with shooting and distributing Love N’ Dancing. While the film’s story takes place in Philadelphia, the crew found themselves shooting the majority of the movie in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“It basically came down to film incentives, which is something that you’ll all quickly learn about once you get into the industry,” she explained to students. “After speaking with the city and state’s film offices, we learned that we’d be able to make a significant amount of our budget back if we chose to shoot in New Mexico – they definitely had the most appealing incentives.”
Caminer also spoke with students about the production process, explaining in detail the tasks and responsibilities of line producers, co-producers, and associate producers on a film set. She was also able to screen an extended trailer for another one of her recent projects, Project Tanzania. As producer of the documentary (slated for completion in 2010), Caminer traveled to Africa to capture the story of two travelers and their experiences in a small Tanzanian village.
“We had a lot of locals help us out. Language was obviously a big obstacle in Tanzania, where they speak Swahili. But in some villages we traveled to, they spoke their own language,” she told students. “Our local help couldn’t even quite communicate with them. As you can imagine, that entire experience was also filled with many challenges, but the results have been very rewarding.”
Caminer also took questions from students, and offered a few valuable pieces of advice for aspiring filmmakers. “If you want to create, you’ve got to constantly be doing it,” she said. “And moving out to Los Angeles isn’t always necessarily the answer. If you’ve got a great idea and you’re passionate about it, you can really produce out of anywhere.”
