Wallace Carothers (Ted Mills, 2010): USA

Reviewed By Katharina Martin. Viewed at The Santa Barbara Film Festival 2011

Part of the 2011 SBIFF was a Shorts Program featuring the film Wallace Carothers. As part of this production, I was intrigued to see it screened. Over a year later, this happened to be my big-screen debut and I was beside myself with excitement. I sat through a few wonderful shorts before the iconic story teller archetype came on screen; an old man sitting by an artificially lit fire with a book open on his lap. Although I had previously viewed a copy of the film (graciously gifted to me by Ted Mills himself!), it was such a different experience seeing my head multiple times bigger than normal. Even more exciting was that it was projected in front of an audience peppered with various producers and directors.

As the movie rolled, I reminisced on the day we shot my thirty-second scene for this project. I had previously helped a member of Ted’s crew on a number of other student projects, and he was the one who had gotten me the job. As I drove up to the tennis courts I was confident that this production would be ten times more efficient than any I had been part of before. Turns out that SBIFF filmmakers/SBCC film teachers face the low-budget struggles their students regularly work with. Although there was coffee and snacks provided, the shoot took a little bit longer than expected to get going due to the lack of costume design. Teds mother however was very helpful to our plight of my skirt being about five sizes too big and immediately tailored my outfit.

Going through the motions, we eventually got a few takes that got Teds “ok”. What really wrapped the scene was that I was going to be late for work, and there were people waiting to shoot at the next location. This whole experience shows that no matter how much you think you got covered, something is always going to go wrong. Even the more experienced of us filmmakers will inevitably have to face what everyone trying to make a movie faces: problems.

Needless to say, this newly-debuted actress excitedly went home to look and see if she was finally credited with a film on IMDB. Sadly, there was no mention of any association between her and Ted’s film. The only credit received was a brief on-screen flash:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaangela………………………………………………………………Kate Martin

Fortunately, I made it to work on time that day and have had the opportunity to reflect on this experience of mine. I am grateful, as any unemployed actor is, to have been given a role in this film. It was good experience and like all student productions I have been part of, it gave me an idea of things to avoid while filming my own projects. However, I am ultimately disappointed in Ted Mills.  As my former teacher for Intro to Film and Video Production, as well as a film critic himself, I would think he would understand the importance of giving credit in the film industry. Not only does it help with getting someone’s name out there, but more importantly it gives a legitimacy to my resume when its being checked against IMDB. Guess there is a reason for SAG after all!