Today we’d like to introduce you to Madeline Stephenson.
Madeline, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Film came to me in the same way it does for many of us who catch the bug young: through the work of Steven Spielberg. The thread of my interest in filmmaking can be traced back to a fateful viewing of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark with my Dad. I was nine. Indy was clinging to the underside of a moving truck to escape the Nazis who were at the wheel. The music was swelling and I was on the edge of my seat.
“Can you believe people do this for a living?” my Dad said, shaking his head in wonder (my Dad is in a constant state of wonder). In that moment, I felt reality burst open at the seams. I had always been a painter, writer, inventor of fantasy worlds, and avid reader. But this was different. Until then, I’d assumed a job meant you had to go to an office and sit in a cubicle. If this was a job I could have, I wanted it. I appropriated the family camera, a Sony MiniDV camcorder, and with my brother Thomas, filled hundreds of hours of DV tapes with plenty of nonsense. I’d never been happier!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
First of all, I need to address the fact that I am a white, cisgender woman from a supportive family, so I do come from privilege. I also want to give a shout out to my parents, who have always encouraged me to follow even my most unlikely dreams. Nevertheless, my path has certainly not been a straight one. I moved to New York City at age eighteen and studied film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. This experience changed me in every possible way. I learned and unlearned film snobbery fell in love for the first time, expanded my horizons beyond my small suburban town, made lifelong friends, and got to study directing as a technical craft. In school, I shot 10+ short films and was ultimately one of two students chosen to direct a TV pilot as my thesis film. The finished episode actually garnered interest from a few networks and got a standing ovation at its first screening. That was an incredible experience because it was the result of a wonderful collaboration with my classmates. Our film set felt like summer camp. Each and every person who worked on that episode brought something special to it. I graduated triumphantly, confidently leaping off the collegiate diving board into a bottomless freefall. If you think that’s too dark, you’re probably still in school.
In the years I stayed in New York post-grad, as I worked multiple jobs just to pay rent, sinking deeper into debt and depression, I felt myself reverting back to the puzzled little girl I had once been. The unstructured world (in other words, the “real world”) is a vast place, and I was lost in it. I began to put the why before the work. In other words, I started talking about making movies. A lot. But I didn’t make a single film. I was paralyzed. Completely bewildered. Finally, three years out of school, I realized I had to make a change. I owed it to the little girl who had once felt so at home behind the lens.
Following in the footsteps of thousands before me, I dropped everything and drove cross-country to Los Angeles. I can’t credit a city with changing my outlook. But I’m proud of myself for following my curiosity into the unknown. Taking after my Dad, I find myself saying the words “I wonder…” aloud at least fifty times a day. I will never stop searching for the truth in my work and in my life. And I’m finally learning that being an artist means making peace with that.
Please tell us about Madeline Stephenson Film.
I’m a director and screenwriter, which I consider more of an identity than a job. I’ve always wrestled with the idea of addressing the type of movies I make. Maybe it’s because there’s no limit to the worlds I’m interested in exploring. But I think it’s because I’m sensitive about getting too in my head about filmmaking. I can’t remember who came up with this metaphor but it’s wonderful: I am Wile E. Coyote running down a desert road chasing the Roadrunner. If I stop to look down and there’s only air under my feet, I’m definitely gonna fall! I have a lot more exploring to do before I can define my voice. I can definitely say my interests, at least right now, lie in how extreme circumstances push humanity to its limits. I’d like to make a war movie someday. I’ve also been interested in what isolation does to the brain, but that might just be a bi-product of filmmaking in a post-COVID world. Looking back on my work so far, I am most proud of Terry: The Serious Actor, which is an exercise I did for a class at NYU. It’s silent, black and white, and three minutes long. And yet, it seems to affect people the most. It makes people laugh and cry. I’ve worked on many grandiose films, but this is somehow the favorite. It’s the tiniest tragi-comedy. A lesson in simplicity I’ll never forget.
What were you like as a child?
When I was a kid, the world was a puzzling place. My Dad recently commented that I was a very quiet child, always observing my surroundings, specifically people, with a look of pure bewilderment. It wasn’t judgment. It was insatiable curiosity. As I grow older and wiser, I only find myself more mystified by people and more hungry to understand the depths of the human experience. I can’t remember the moment I picked up my first camera, but I do know there was something about the limits of the frame that helped me channel this curiosity. Everything just makes more sense through the lens of a camera.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.madelinestephensonfilm.com/
- Phone: 8572070369
- Email: madeline.hope.stephenson@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madelinestephensonfilm/
- Other: https://www.seedandspark.com/watch/terry-the-serious-actor
Image Credit:
Mike Sun https://www.instagram.com/mikesundp/
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