We caught up with the brilliant and insightful LYNDA REISS a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
LYNDA, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?
There is so much to change about the education system. I’m a huge proponent of trade schools and apprenticeships. Not everyone is academic, and not everyone learns in the same way. The creative arts and the trades offer more opportunity to kenesthetic and visual learners. You will always learn more on the job than in the classroom in any career. There is such a push towards results driven success, and having a college degree, and this is unfortunate. It causes individuals who do not have a college degree to be labeled inferior, and those who strive to get one just to satisfy societies demands are saddled with extensive debt. I am often asked for advice on Film Schools. My answer is always the same, don’t go. If your child is eager to work in the business then agree to cover their expenses for two years whilst they work as a production assistant. You would be paying this anyway if they went to college. I guarantee that they will either be supporting themselves within the two years, or will have realised that the entertainment industry is not for them. And the latter result would have saved you four years of college tuition for a career they wouldnt ultimately want.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Born in New York and raised in the UK, I have travelled the world, been a nanny for the super-rich, a Prop House owner, and a single mom, as well as having had an incredibly successful career as a Property Master on projects such as American Beauty, True Detective and Stranger Things. (Translated, that is 25 years in the most exclusive Film School Grad program ever.) I have Production Designed several shorts, and been guest speaker on the topic of world building at FIDM, USC, LMU, and The Arts Center. When this work could no longer satisfy my creative soul I decided to follow my dream of directing, and made my first film. This short, Ready To Go won 27 awards on the festival circuit, and was Oscar qualified for 2019. I have made two more multi award winning short films and from this work I was accepted into the Sony Pictures Diverse Directors Program, and a Women In Film mentorship program. Discovering that as a new director I would be battling gender bias and agism I decided to write my own projects, and then figure out how I was going to get them made. I felt the chance of getting a break was slim so I would need to create my own break. I am in development on two feature films, and I have just signed with a London agency to rep a Television series I have written. I still run my Prop House in the UK, providing American Props for the UK film market. My personal brand is my humor, passion, and drive. I dive in headfirst and give a 1000%, while trying hard not to take it all to seriously.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
My prop house is on the Isle of Man, a small island in the Irish Sea, but most of my clients are in the film studios of London. We usually pack up our orders and send them overnight by air or two day by ferry and road. During the winter of 2010 there was a massive snow storm that blanketed the British Isles with snow and pretty much shut everything down. I had a large order that was needed in London and no planes were flying and no delivery services were working. I knew I needed the income for the order and could not afford to delay delivery as the props needed to be there the next day. I drive a 4 wheel drive vehicle, so I loaded it up, drove to the ferry which was running thank goodness, and then drove 250 miles very slowly on the snow filled roads to get the order in. Failure was not an option.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The journey to the completion of a project is always for me the most rewarding part. The research into whatever world it is we’re creating or helping to create. The physical building of those worlds, from the words, to the big set pieces to the tiny little details that are the icing on the cake. The sourcing or building of the elusive ‘thing’ whatever that maybe. And finally standing back and knowing that what is infront of you would have existed with out your blood sweat and tears.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lyndareiss-director.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lyndajreiss/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lynda.reiss
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynda-reiss-1521a9183/
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/LYNDASPROPSHOP/ https://www.instagram.com/lyndaspropshop/ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0718510/?ref_=nm_mv_close