Making history
A teenage girl with a stutter falls in love with her gender non-conforming speech therapist. Lighthearted, laughable chaos ensues. Such is the story driving “Spit it Out, Margot!,” one of this year’s senior thesis projects in the School of Cinematic Arts production program which is currently in the beginning stages of production. Oh, and to top everything off, it’s a musical.
But the crew behind the film was not featured in The Hollywood Reporter last month because of the short’s fun plot or ambitious musical numbers. Rather, “Spit it Out, Margot!” sparked a social media stir because it is the first undergraduate senior thesis project in the cinema school’s 90-year history to have an above-the-line crew consisting entirely of women and gender non-conforming people.
“We didn’t intend to be all female,” said producer Caroline Quien, a senior majoring in film production. “It wasn’t like, ‘Hey let’s do that.’ It literally was like only women are reaching out, and they’re all reaching out because they’re pissed off, and they feel like nobody is listening to them.”
The story of “Spit it Out, Margot!” stems from the mind of screenwriter Miriam Sachs, a senior majoring in film production. For the music and lyrics, she collaborated with alumnus Zack Hernandez, who majored in jazz piano. Hernandez said watching his songs come to life on the screen is a dream come true.
“I could never have imagined that something like this could happen,” Hernandez said. “It just didn’t cross my mind. And now that it’s actually being made, it’s really feeling like reality now.”
The process of crafting a senior film thesis spans the course of an entire academic year. During the summer, screenwriters, like Sachs, develop their ideas and begin writing scripts. In the fall, writers pitch their scripts to their “Advanced Production Workshop” classes. At this point, producers like Quien and Madison Holbrook, a senior majoring in film production and another of the film’s producers, can attach themselves to projects that resonate with them. Directors then make their pitches to production teams and screenwriters, where Ella Harris, a senior majoring in film production, sold Sachs, Quien and Holbrook on her vision for “Spit it Out, Margot!”
“I came into the film school in general with a very concrete idea of the kinds of stories I wanted to tell,” Harris said. “And to be honest, this was kinda one of the only queer stories to be pitched in class. For me that was a huge thing. As a queer person myself, these are the stories that I’m drawn to.”
But finding an incredible production team only marks the beginning of a film thesis’ journey. In the winter, Quien, Holbrook, Harris and Sachs pitched the film to a faculty panel who decided which films will receive funding for the spring semester. “Spit it Out, Margot!” is one of four films selected for funding this semester with production having started in mid-January and a premiere date set for May 14.
“We’re getting an incredible opportunity from the school to make an all-female project, and everyone has been supportive,” Sachs said. “I feel very grateful that this has always had legs.”
Sachs and the rest of the project’s production team cite members of the SCA faculty, ranging from teaching assistants to professors, as sources of support and mentorship throughout their tenures in the film production program. The team credited adjunct associate professor Mary Posatko as an instructor who pushed them to come into their own as storytellers and champion their own stories. Professor Brenda Goodman guided them through the thesis process and adjunct professor David McKendry also provided them with skills and encouragement.
In spite of this outpouring of support from SCA, the team behind “Margot” recognizes the pressure placed on young women looking to pursue careers behind the camera.
“It’s tiring to have to constantly prove yourself and need people to also prove that you can do it,” Holbrook said. “Like you can’t just prove yourself, you need other people to validate [you].”
Part of the production team’s goal with “Margot” is to combat the biases against women and gender non-conforming folks in the film industry.
“There have been all-male crews before and nobody bats an eye, and we are looking to flip the scales and see what it’s like to make it different,” Harris said. “It’s like a science experiment, we just want to see what happens doing it the other way.”
The project serves as a case study for the all-female crew as well as a set environment that is predominantly influenced by women, Harris said. Harris hopes to cultivate a set culture that is different from past sets the team have worked on, beginning with an added emphasis on self-care. Through practices such as daily meditation, the producers hope to foster a positive environment for creative expression. More importantly, they strive for a set where crewmembers are able to expand their knowledge and improve their filmmaking.
“We’re trying to cultivate a space, we’re trying to cultivate a crew set, a set culture, where women feel comfortable taking space, and learning and asking questions and growing,” Harris said.
In addition to the attention generated by The Hollywood Reporter interview, the women and non-conforming individuals working on “Margot” are cognizant of their responsibility as historical firsts, Harris said. However, rather than view the added eyes as pressure, the filmmakers welcome the outside attention.
“It’s fun to watch people see the process because to us, so much of “Spit it Out, Margot!” is not just this incredible script that we get to bring to life, but the actual production, which is the all-women part,” Harris said. “That’s the part that we do want people to see.”
Overall, the team said it embraces the project in its totality, from its heartfelt script to its significance in the history of SCA. For the women and non-conforming people that make up its team, it marks a moment of self-realization, Sachs said.
“Women have been trained to make themselves smaller, to take care of others. And that’s what Margot, the main character of the film does: She makes herself smaller and doesn’t speak at all,” Sachs said. “I guess this film and also Margot’s journey is about taking up our expansive space and stepping into our own power and having confidence.”