Megan Griffiths
“Our dad was a professor of chemistry, and we both inherited that scientific pragmatism and practicality from him. My dad always made us focus on things like grammar and proper speech—he was an intense proof reader. He instilled ambition in us both, I think, as well as focus and determination.”
“Mom encouraged us to pursue our dreams, and Dad never let us forget that labor and sacrifice go hand-in-hand with that. Dad’s dedication to his profession and fierce intellect functioned as a really interesting counterbalance to our mom’s emotional and intuitive personality. I feel that my sister and I ended up being a pretty good balance of the two in the end.”
“I think seeing both of my parents being so fulfilled by their jobs really influenced me at a young age. And, ultimately, empowered me to find my own place in the world where I could feel that sort of passion too.”
“Our family moved around quite a bit while I was growing up. As a professor, my dad taught at Ohio University, the University of California/Riverside and at the University of Idaho. He also took the family along on sabbaticals to Tucson, Arizona, and Southampton, England, so we lived in those cities briefly as well.”
“At the time, regularly relocating and moving away from my friends was tough. But in retrospect, I can look back at all of those moves in a positive way. They helped me to become adaptive and to learn how to socialize with new people. And I’m sure that moving around, in combination with the traveling we did to different states and countries, exposed me to a much broader scope of people, which I think is incredibly valuable to any writer.”
“I actually have a pretty vivid memory of my first spark towards a career in film. In high school, my sister rented ‘The Graduate’ one night. The transition where Benjamin Braddock comes up from the water to mount his pool float, and then instead lands on top of Mrs. Robinson in bed—that jumped off the screen for me. I think it was the first time I really considered that there was a person behind the curtain constructing these movies I loved, making choices that were designed to impact the audience.”
“During that same period, I was also very interested in politics. I was in the political science club and volunteering at the Democratic headquarters in my small town in Idaho. When I enrolled in college, I was initially a Political Science major. But after one semester, I switched to Visual Communication, which included things like photography, history of film, advertising, video production and cinema studies. There was no narrative filmmaking courses, but it was as close to directing as I could get, so I jumped into it.”
“Towards my final undergraduate year, I started looking at schools that offered an MFA (Master of the Fine Arts) in film. I was amazed to discover that one of those schools was Ohio University, the school where my dad taught when I was born. It was located in Athens, Ohio, where I’d spent the first six years of my life. I applied there and was accepted.”
“In film school, we were required to write and direct one short film a year in addition to various projects for classes. We were also encouraged to work on other students’ films in a variety of capacities. During my first year, I moved around in different roles on set to see what felt the best fit to me. My second year, I focused on lighting and assistant camera work because I’d discovered an affinity for cinematography. My last year, I worked as a DP only, and began to build a solid reel.”
“I always wanted to be a director, first and foremost, but I had that practical streak from my dad. I thought, ‘who makes a living as a director?’ So I thought I’d be a DP for others as my career, and make my own movies on the side.”
“The biggest city within driving distance of where I lived during my high school and undergrad years was Seattle, and I was totally smitten with it. Whenever I’d drive over for weekend getaways or music shows, I’d fall a little more deeply in love. When I graduated from film school, Seattle was not exactly known for being a filmmaking metropolis. But I figured why not try to live where I am happiest and see if I could build my filmmaking career around that?”
“About nine months in, I thought I would probably have to move to L.A. I just wasn’t finding my tribe—the people who shared my filmmaking philosophies and passion. The turning point for me was a $10K film called ‘Shag Carpet Sunset’. I was hired as the DP, but it was a very, very small film and nobody was paid. It was shot on a variety of formats ranging from super 16mm film to VHS, and all sorts of things in between!”
“But it was because of that film’s director and crew that I stayed in Seattle. I felt like I had finally found a group of people who I could build something with, and things just sort of grew out of that one experience.”
“The other great influence on me at the time was my job at Alpha Cine film labs. I worked there for four years on and off, and they really were the best employer I could have hoped for. They recognized that I ultimately wanted to be a filmmaker. To help me, they would allow me to take leaves of absence to go and work for a month or so on a particular film. They always gave me the freedom to work on a film when the opportunity came my way, and then welcomed me back once I’d wrapped.”
“In my first five years of living in Seattle, in addition to my job at Alpha Cine and the various production work I was doing, I also worked as negative cutter and as an assistant editor for a corporate video company. All were invaluable when it came time for me to direct and produce my first feature film, ‘First Aid for Choking’. I made it for $19k (on my credit cards) in 2003. Most people familiar with my work haven’t seen that project, but it was a huge part of my early growth as a filmmaker.”
“Around the same time, I was beginning to write a script called ‘The Off Hours’. I was working the night shift at the film lab and was fascinated by the vastly different pace and tenor the world seemed to take on in those late night hours when most of the world was sleeping. I labored on the script for several years, finally assembled a team to produce it in 2006, but didn’t actually go into production until 2010.”
“During this period, I’ll admit to being pretty frustrated and very impatient to get the film off the ground. But looking back now, I actually think it should be that hard. You should never take it lightly that you get to do this sort of thing. No one owes you the opportunity to make a movie. You really have to earn it. The process really made me value every moment on set when our time finally came.”
“I am so glad now that I didn’t make this film in 2006. It was ultimately a far better film because of all of the things I had to go through during those interim years. I couldn’t have said that to the ‘2006-me’ of course, who was just wanting to get her career as a director started. In retrospect, the delay in making ‘The Off Hours’ enhanced it in so many ways, both because of the life experiences I acquired, and because throughout this window I worked on other sets and gained a much deeper understanding of what it takes to direct a film.”
“Between 2002 and 2010, I worked on a large number of films for different people in various capacities. Initially, I was shooting mostly, and occasionally editing. Then I started working as an assistant director, which was a niche I was able to fill comfortably in Seattle for five years on progressively larger and larger projects. Working in all of these roles has given me so much perspective and far more experience and knowledge about my craft. I now have a comfort level in the set environment, and that only comes from living the filmmaking process for enough time.”
“Through working in these various capacities, you also get a very clear idea of what everyone else needs from the director. When you have a better idea of what everybody’s jobs entail, you’re able to help them do those jobs to the best of their abilities. Assistant directing, in particular, honed these skills. As an AD, you’re communicating with everyone, and you have a front row seat for every important conversation on a production. It’s an amazing training ground.”
“There are a lot of bad decisions made from fear and ignorance. I try to solve problems by looking at them non-judgmentally from multiple perspectives. I think the desire to see that applied to larger issues is what drove my early interest in politics as well. But even if it’s not globally or politically motivated, it’s still at the core of what drives me to look at things in the way I do, and it defines my approach as a filmmaker.”
“I don’t have any lack of stories to tell, or people that I am interested in. I have no shortage of energy to make films. I would make two feature films a year if someone wanted to give me the funding! I would do it everyday.”
“I want to continue to dig into human nature with my films. I have an insatiable interest in trying to understand people. It’s that drive I got from my mom to try to find the humanity in everyone (even a serial killer, like in my latest film ‘The Night Stalker’.)”
“I am so grateful for every opportunity I get to direct a film now. Being on set is where I feel most fully engaged and have the opportunity to operate at my full capacity. I honestly feel I am built for the job. I believe the people who are happiest are the people who are doing what they are good at. To feel valued and passionate and fulfilled—what more could you want from life?”