By: The Don

We are back Phillytainers! We continue to grow and add to our Faces of Entertainment within the Entertainment Industry. On today’s blog, The Don had the opportunity to interview Heidi Martinez. Heidi Martinez is a freelancer within the film industry in the Miami area who has worked and experienced being in several fields on film sets. Check out her fun and fascinating story below!

Interview

1) What’s your full name and how long have you been in the industry?

Heidi Martinez. I started with Film Production in 2016.

2) What do you currently do within Film Production?

I work currently at the Coral Gables Art Cinema.

3) What attracted you to cinema?

I’ve always been interested in films and movies ever since I was young. I always go see the latest movies and I love awards season. So since I grew up with it, I wanted to get more in-depth with film, so I attended Miami Dade College and got As and Bs both in Film Production and Television. I was just interested in how the business worked the whole movie magic.

4) What’s your favorite movie?

The Nightmare Before Christmas. Anything Tim Burton, Jaws, I like a lot of movies, so it’s really hard to choose between films.

5) Nice! Do you have a favorite celebrity, or someone you looked up to in the industry?

For directors, I really like Quintin Tarantino, Tim Burton,  Alfred Hitchcock,  Steven Spielberg. I also very much relate to the director Johnathan Demme’s because I started in college as first a Veterinary Tech, then switched to film and been working with the movies as well. I’m a big Disney fan as well.

6) I am sure you have a celebrity crush right?

My Celebrity crush is totally Johnny Depp, Chris Hemsworth, and Henry Cavill.

7) That’s awesome. So what area of film have you worked or want to work in? I’m sensing directing?

Yeah, but I’ve been more open lately to everything. In school, we had to learn to do it all. Either directing, producing, or a script supervisor.

8) Nice so have you written any scripts or just have a good knowledge of it?

A good knowledge pretty much, just the ones I had to do for school

9) Nice. What type of film work have you done so far?

I did editing, camera work, writing a script,  directed a short on my own, learn about film management and business. Overall just shooting.

10) Tell me more about your short film, screenwriting and camera work.

It was one called “Noticed Me” in black and white. It was a silent film about a girl that is having a rough day and this guy sees her at Starbucks and he thinks she’s really pretty, so he decides to write a nice cute note for her Saying “you are beautiful.” Kinda dealing with today instead of texting, he made the effort. She later sees the note on the table and smiles. This was a short film I did back for my class. The other short film I did was one of two students and one forgets to study for a test, so he goes out of his way to get the study review and everything goes wrong. The printer doesn’t work, the computer is slow, only to find out at the end that the class was canceled.

11) What’s your favorite genre?

Silent films, action, comedies.

12) That’s cool! Was film something you always wanted to pursue or something you just fell in love with?

I just fell in love with it. Just the whole aspect of making movies.

13) Interesting. I see that you have met a few celebrities, did you meet them on set? Who have you met so far?

Not on set, on a press junket for their upcoming films. I have met Naomie Scott, Chiwetel Ejiofor,  one of the animators from Wreck-It Ralph 2, Ice Cube, Christiana Milian, Chrissie Fit from Pitch Perfect 3, Kelly Marie Tran from Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), Will Smith, another animator from Coco (2017), Jay Hernandez, and Cuba Gooding Jr.

14) Wow! That’s a huge accomplishment! Where do you see yourself within the industry?

Thank you. Hopefully working as a PA (Personal Assistant) and working my way up in the film business.

15) What’s your dream within the film field that you want to pursue?

Just to work with people in the industry, mostly since they have a lot of experience. Either work with Disney or universal, but I am very open-minded in big companies.

16) What was or is the hardest part of your journey in the film world?

The hardest part is still going for me because I’ve graduated trying to get more experience and not be working in a movie theater forever. Miami doesn’t film a lot, but when they do, I do apply or send emails to film Miami. It’s hard without a connection. that’s been the struggle to find a stable job in something I like. I don’t want to be in the office, I actually like being on the set. I also applied outside of Miami, but still no luck. It would be hard to leave without knowing a proper security situation. I’m still trying to be positive and just see where things go. I apply everywhere  I see in film production, even TV.  I know you start as a PA, so it works for me. I just need more experience.

17) Do you have any advice that you want to give to people interested in joining the film industry/film production field?

My advice would be to just do stories you know and you are passionate about and never let people get to you.  A lot of negativity is spreading that women can’t direct or do certain things men can, but that’s not true so it’s good to prove that with a valid point.