Film Production – Work Girlfriends


Background: From the early 1970s through the mid ‘90s I worked in film production as a studio manager, location scout, production manager, line producer and 1st assistant director.

My actual wife, Elizabeth (who is also my actual Girlfriend) and I were watching something – neither of us remembers if it was a show or news – one recent night when the subject of “work-wives” came up. I translated this as “work-girlfriends”

This was a subject to which I had given no thought at all before that moment but immediately I remembered three women with whom I had had work-girlfriend relationships during my years in film production.

(In case you’re not familiar with the appellation, it refers to a woman with whom a man has a close, symbiotic but not sexual relationship at work.)

My first one was Cathee Weiss.

Cathee Weiss

Beginning in 1977 or so I was employed as a freelance producer by several production companies. My steadiest client was N Lee Lacy & Associates whose executive producer was David Johnson, my old boss from Ansel Productions. I produced shoots mostly for one of their directors (Don Guy) who shot almost all of his jobs on distant locations. Cathee was the staff production coordinator and she was my lifeline when I was in some far-flung boondocks location such as an Arizona desert, Kansas State Penitentiary or a Louisiana swamp.

Big Boats

We had innumerable long-distance phone calls at all hours and when I needed some sort of support Cathee did everything humanly possible to see that I got it.

What exactly is a Production Coordinator? you might ask. The answer is: the line-producer’s right hand. I don’t know what it says in “the book” but PCs do all the detail work: make the phone calls, keep track of the logistics such as flights, rental cars, hotels, local crews, food, equipment rentals, paperwork. And did I mention food?

Betsy Reid started (also at Lacy) as a freelance production assistant and quickly made herself indispensable, at least to me.

Ben Bryant with Betsy Reid

I don’t know if she ever became part of their full-time staff but she was the one I wanted on all my jobs. It didn’t take Betsy very long to become a production coordinator and everyone, especially me, loved her. Between the time we met and the end of my freelance producer career I tried to get her on every shoot I produced. And when she graduated to production manager and I got into the DGA she hired me as assistant director on many jobs. Betsy Reid was a treasure and a genuine work girlfriend. And she had every important NYC film production phone number in her head!

Ellen Rappaport and I met at Ansel Productions where she was on the sales staff.

Producer Ellen Rappaport

Producer Ellen Rappaport

We were friendly then but didn’t get close at the time. Five years after we both left Ansel I was working a lot with Director/Cameraman Ken Licata as his producer and 1st AD and he signed on with Iris Films. Much to my delight when, in 1981, I got my first call from Iris to AD a shoot for Ken the caller was Ellen who was then their executive producer. A true work girlfriend relationship grew over the next seven or eight years.

From that first shoot in ’81 through the end of the eighties I worked with her more than with any other producer and we became very close. After that first shoot with Ken, she and I worked as a team with all of the directors at Iris films including Richard Avedon.

We had unconditional trust in and respect for each other as pros at what we did and as people. Working closely with someone like that is a true luxury. Our ability to ease-fully solve problems together was unparalleled in my experience and we always had fun doing it. And when we were able to get Betsy Reid on the big jobs they were even easier and more fun.

Here’s a brief excerpt from Circumstances Beyond My Control that will give you a snapshot of my relationship with Ellen. I was brought in to AD a shoot for a new director Iris Films had teamed up with:

I was … not available for the first couple of jobs he did at Iris. But finally we were in synch and I came in for my prep day, met him and had a two or three hour meeting to plan the shoot.

The commercial was a two day shoot for some kitchen product and normally it would have been a piece of cake to make a schedule and shot list. After Bart left our meeting to go to lunch I walked over to Ellen’s desk.

She looked up and said, “Got a schedule?” Dejectedly I replied, “I have no idea what this guy wants to do.” Much to my surprise Ellen said, “Oh, thank God. I thought it was me.”

I miss my work girlfriends and I miss the film crews they helped me manage. As much as I enjoy video editing and writing; both are solitary endeavors. The camaraderie of team projects is a truly wonderful thing and I am blessed to have been able to experience it with many wonderful people – especially Cathee, Betsy and Ellen – for so many years.

My film production book, Circumstances Beyond My Control, has lots of tales of my many adventures in film production. Get it here.

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