Commentary: Young filmmaker shows stamina

By Mona AlvaradoFrazier/ Guest contributor

At twenty years of age, Bibiana Martinez, is well on her way to living her passion. She is a student at the Art Institute of California in Santa Monica, California and has already won an award for “Stamina,” a six-minute film that she has written, directed and produced. It was a pleasure to be invited to view this film with her friends and family in Oxnard.

“Stamina,” filmed locally, utilized her neighborhood and a local school as backdrops. The film’s protagonist moves to a new school where other girls bully her until she stands up for herself. To film the basketball sequences she used one of her favorite techniques, the underswung SteadiCam method of filming.

Bibi, as her family calls her, has had the opportunity to work on the set of “Between Us,” starring Julia Stiles and Taye Diggs. Recently, she interviewed to work as a Personal Assistant on the Oprah Winfrey channel but had to decline because she is still a student. This is quite a resume for a film student and attests to the hard work she gives to projects.

But producing films aren’t Bibi’s immediate goal. Her real passion is to become a SteadiCam Operator. Being a camerawoman is a challenging proposition and being a StediCam Operator even more so. A Steadicam is a stabilizing mount for a motion picture camera, which mechanically isolates the operator’s movement from the camera, allowing a very smooth shot even when the operator is moving quickly over an uneven surface. The operator wears a vest with this equipment between their neck and waist. Women shoot less than 5% of the top 250 features today and less than 1% are SteadiCam Operators. The hours are long and the work can be very challenging.

Operating a Steadicam is one of the most difficult jobs on a movie set. For a typical Steadicam shot, a cameraperson must follow a predetermined path, while simultaneously adjusting the camera and avoiding any obstacles, all the while supporting more than 60 pounds of camera equipment.

Steadicam operators have helped create some of the most memorable shots in film history. In “Rocky” (1976), one of the first feature films to use Steadicams, the operator let the audience follow Sylvester Stallone as he ran up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. In “The Shining” (1980), director Stanley Kubrick used a Steadicam shot to zip down the hallways of a haunted hotel, and another to follow Jack Nicholson through a snowy hedge maze.

Now, Ms. Martinez is a petite young woman and it’s hard to imagine her carrying 60 pounds of equipment, but she says it’s fine and I believe her. Her father, who coached her for four years, remarked that Bibi excelled in sports because of her passion, determination and discipline, which she carries in all parts of her life. This is evident when she describes writing, directing and editing the film, which took six months to complete six minutes. She says this with such zeal that we know she enjoyed every minute of filming. And it was evident that her proud parents, who she acknowledges she could not have done this without their support, are every bit as enthusiastic for her too.