Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/830466
29 by Daron James Cast on the set of Bright. (Photo: Matt Kennedy) Willow Jenkins' fi rst credit on a fi lm was "Master of Time and Space." The joke title was given to him by Producer Butch Robinson and First Assistant Director Mike Ellis on The Original Kings of Com- edy, a documentary directed by Spike Lee. But it was absolutely fi tting as his persistent hard work managed to catch the eye of Lee during production in San Diego, California. "I'm very thankful for the career I have now and I tribute a lot of it to Spike," says Jenkins during a morning phone call. A Madison Wisconsin, native, the fi lm enthusiast was living in San Diego taking on free production jobs to get his foot in the door while his wife fi nished her master's degree. "I remember get- ting a call for a two-week paid gig and I was so stoked to be there. I really worked my ass off and day one, a PA comes over and says, 'Spike wants to see you.' I thought there is no way this is true be- cause I hadn't even seen him yet, but it was. I went over and Spike motioned for me to lie down next to him as we surveilled the Navy beach set and then asked me to clean up some debris off the beach so I did. The next day, he sees me working and tells me to go get a car for lunch. When I did, he said, 'Get in, you're driving.'" From that moment on, Jenkins continued to work on the project as his driver and assistant, traveling to Hawaii, then to Texas and New York, always being there for Lee when he needed him—a master of time and space. "He saw something in me and gave me an opportu- nity I didn't want to spoil. It was my fi rst project with him and I've managed to work on almost everything he's done since." Spike was the one who suggested Jenkins to consider becoming a Video Assist Operator. "Growing up, I was the kid who always wanted to set up your home entertainment system or plug things in. I honestly just enjoyed being on a fi lm set but in retrospect, Spike nailed it. I absolutely love this job. You're right in the mid- dle of it all, seeing the director's creative process and you still have these massive technical challenges that need to be overcome." This year alone, you'll see Jenkins' name scroll by in the credits on four feature fi lms as Key Video Assist or Video Assist. "It's been busy to say the least," says Jenkins, who's schedule started to fi ll after fi nding himself on The Revenant, his most demanding proj- ect to date. "That was a fi lm where you had to push yourself to a whole new level. We traveled to the southernmost part of Argentina to fi nish the movie, which was wild because the entire crew and our equipment fl ew together on a private 767 aircraft. It took about twenty-seven hours to get there because we had to wait six hours on the ground while refueling in Peru for fog to clear in Ushuaia," he recalls. When they did arrive, the camera crew wasted no time test- ing lenses in subzero temperatures well beyond midnight with Jenkins and Video Assist Rob Lynn following suit checking their own equipment. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki ASC, AMC utilized fi ve different cameras for the swift-moving production,