Maggie Levin lives a busy, hectic and unpredictable life as a film director and screenwriter. Levin, originally from New York moved to Los Angeles in 2009 in the pursuit of her film creation dreams. Currently, in Los Angeles,she is a charismatic, vibrant artist.
The role of a screenwriter is to create the film’s storyline, characters, and dialogue. A film director, on the other hand, directs the construction of a movie while controlling and manipulating the artistic elements of the screenwriter’s vision.
Edward Muybridge created and directed the first movie in 1872. The very brief movie was shot at a race track and displayed a horse galloping in front of them. The 1920s were revolutionary for the film industry. After WWI people began to invest more time and money into personal entertainment; causing movie demands to jump to an all-time high. The film industry saw a major shift in the 1980s; movies were becoming less about the screenwriter/directors’ creativity and more about what films were the most marketable. The new millennium birthed technological advances that altered the film industry in positive and negative ways. Computers, phones, ipads all create a direct connection to the content put out by Hollywood. Since anyone can write a script there is more pressure than ever to create new and exciting movies that will make it through production.
Diversity is limited in the film industry on and off-screen. Men run Hollywood. The lack of representation of women in filmmaking is detrimental to not only what is being produced but who it’s being produced by.Over and over again we see men writing, directing and producing movies about women without women even involved in the process. A study conducted by Martha M. Lauzen, Ph.D. The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind- the Scenes Employment of Women on the Top 100,250, and 500 Films of 2019 states that women compromised 12% of directors on the top grossing films in 2019, which increased 4% from 2018 and 8% in 2017 (1).
Levin is an inspiring role model for women who wish to work in the filmmaking industry. Her successes show that although it’s difficult to be a woman in film it’s possible with hard work and making your voice heard. In an interview Levin detailed her 10 year journey in the film industry and what it took her to get there.
I find that the skills I’ve pulled from the most are the inter-personal ones,
Levin said “You have to be good at communicating your ideas to people and communication in general. Additionally, you have to be able to listen to the input from all of the department heads and your actors and everyone in production is critical ”
The Hollywood film industry is evolving every day. Projects are constantly being produced at an increasingly rapid rate due to the accessibility to film and streaming services. It’s a cut-throat, competitive dog eat dog industry that is unbelievably unpredictable. Additionally, getting jobs as a director and or screenwriter all depend on if other people are interested in your work or need your help on a project. As a director and screenwriter you are constantly meeting with people and being put in a lot of different rooms.
When Levine is not working on a specific job a typical day consists of three hours of writing and roughly 3-4 hours of meetings. When working on a film her days vary depending on what stage of the process she’s in. If she’s shooting it’s around the clock whereas now she is trying to sell scripts and writing for hours a day.
Directing and screenwriting are essentially freelance jobs therefore employment is on a need by need basis. This unpredictability leads to a chronic career of instability unless you become extremely successful. Projects can be in production one day and not the next.
“The instability and the constant practice of nonattachment are definitely the hardest parts about being a director and screenwriter. You can’t get too attached to a project; it can really hurt in the end if it doesn’t get produced.” Levine accounted as one of the biggest downsides to her job.
Due to screenwriting and directing being freelance and inconsistent jobs the pay varies between when and if someone is hired. Lower budget film scripts can go for anywhere from 6,000-60,000 whereas mainstream Hollywood film scripts can be sold for millions of dollars. There is no formal education needed to be a screenwriter or a director but undergraduate and film school are often routes prospective creators take.
The MFJS Reporter -- Winter 2020 M-W 