The “How’d you get that job?” series examines career pathways. Caitlin Bryan is carving a path in the typically male-dominated lighting department. She talks to Denise Eriksen.
In 2019, Caitlin Bryan was working as a support worker at a homeless shelter in Winnipeg. It was -20°C outside. The middle of winter. The shelter work was challenging and the pay was terrible. She just knew she had to do something different.
“I was on a working holiday visa, in a relationship with a Canadian woman – and I knew there was a film industry in Winnipeg but I didn’t really know anyone who was working in it. So, I spent the first four months working in the shelter.”
Back home, in Melbourne, Bryan had dabbled in the screen industry – working on short films, including with her brother who works in the camera department. But, in Canada, the industry is run through the union who do all the job bookings, and it’s next to impossible to break in.
Eventually she got a permit, which meant she could get a job only after all full members had been offered it. She managed to get a place on a three-day lighting and grip bootcamp organised by the union and the provincial training body, and loved it.
“But I still felt like joining one of those departments without any experience seemed impossible. I was so desperate. One day I just went down to the union office and spoke to the steward, and I practically begged this guy to tell me if there was anything I could do to make myself more employable.”
He suggested signing up for the lighting department.
“A couple weeks later, he emailed me offering asking if I’d be interested in a three-week trainee job on a Hallmark Christmas movie. And of course, I was like, ‘yes, yes’.
“The gaffer on that job took me under his wing and he decided that he wanted to train me up as his third electrics. I spent the rest of the year working with him and with the same team.”
Hallmark Christmas movies are an institution in the US and Canada. Feel good stories with strong Christmas themes.
“It was a great experience,” Bryan says.
“I plugged up a lot of Christmas lights and I think that’s probably my secret specialty.
“At the time, it felt very difficult. I was working 12-hour days. It was really cold, but I was learning, and it was just so much fun.
“I went from being an Australian adrift in this really strange place to having a team, people I spent every day with, forming really strong connections.”
Bryan later returned to Australia – she’d hope to stay living Canada but COVID put paid to that idea. She then had to break in all over again in the Australian screen industry.
“My credits weren’t familiar to anyone, and the lighting job is different to Canada. There were some big gaps in my knowledge and I didn’t know anybody here.
“Fortunately, my brother gave me a long list of people he thought I should contact . I reckon I probably emailed every gaffer in Melbourne when I got home, and I finally found a gaffer who was prepared to give me a go.”
She worked with him on a variety of small jobs before getting her first full-time position on Netflix series Clickbait in Melbourne.
Bryan says she has found her home in the screen industry.
“I truly believe that lighting is the best department. Hands down. It’s really practical but I still have the chance to be creative and it’s also fun. There’s so much variety. Whether it’s setting up a light, trying to figure out how to create a certain mood for the DOP, building lighting effects or problem solving as a team.”
But there is still resistance to women working in this field.
“I get really frustrated when I feel a perception that because we work with a lot of heavy equipment that it’s too difficult for women. It’s unfortunate because women I’ve worked with in lighting are some of the most switched-on, hardworking lighting assistants I’ve encountered. Yes, the equipment is heavy but if I can’t lift it, it’s probably a two-person lift anyway.
“I’m still coming across people who single me out and try to tell me I can’t do my job – even though I do it every day. That’s difficult.”
To deal with that, Caitlin is part of her own small but growing network of women and non-binary technicians.
“It’s good to be able to share experiences, debrief and talk about some of the resistance we encounter. We support each other and I think it’s good to know you’re not alone.”
Denise Eriksen is Co-Founder (with Esther Coleman Hawkins) of Media Mentors Australia.
The company has partnered with VicScreen to establish Set Educated, a new skills development initiative to prepare up to 400 Victorians to enter the screen industry in the coming months. It offers an introduction to the screen industry and showcases the crewing jobs available and how to get them. The first Set Educated session will be held at ACMI Melbourne on May 20 and a second in Geelong on May 21. Registrations are $25 and more information can be found here.
Update – Set Educated Events in Sydney: Saturday February 24, 2024 at ACE in Western Sydney and Saturday March 2, at NIDA in Central Sydney. An online event is planned for Saturday March 9.