In my past three years of higher education, I have noticed that my major is very male dominated. Now there isn't anything wrong with that; freshman year I had a professor exclaim "we need more female DP's!" Going into my great adventure known as "art school" I knew that in the film industry there are very few women DP's (director of photography). In fact there aren't many women on set in crew positions at all. In recent years it's been changing slowly, but changing nevertheless.

As I sat in my sophomore year Cinematography 1 class on the first day, I looked around and I was one of four females in a class of ten. Now thats almost even but this year as I sat in my advanced lighting class I became one of three females in a class of ten. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. I learn a lot from my male classmates and I share some insight as to what I know with them, but about a month or two ago I was sitting in my advanced production class in which I am one of three females in a class of 15. We had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about a recent documentary he had just finished and was now on the festival circuit. He was talking to us about the usual difficulty with actors which is, they tend to flake on productions if a better offer comes up. I don't blame them, they have to make a living like the rest of us, but what he said about it really disturbed me. He said if you have a script with a sex scene, shoot it first so if your female actress backs out last second you have something to hold over her head. He then turns to me and says "no offense." I happened to be the only girl in class that day I've never felt so vulnerable or shocked in my life. All I could could say was, "That's terrible."

As I'm nearing the end of my formal education I'm learning day by day that the film industry is a male dominated world and women get no respect unless you show what you can do. I'm slowly readying myself for that challenge.