LMGI COMPASS
|
Summer 2020
•
15
A
with me in the afternoon.
This stranger gave me the
most incredible gift—being
my "adult to ride with."
I don't remember any
conversation but when we
fi nished each day, he invited
me to his trailer and gave
me a cold Coca-Cola in
a tiny bottle. He worked
on the fi lm and was pretty
important because they kept
his Winnebago near the set.
I had no idea who Steve
McQueen was to the rest of
the world. To me, he was the
reason I could experience the
joy of riding Polly every day
and getting a cold Coca-
Cola, too! Our friendship
was short-lived but he and
director Mark Rydell gave
me my very fi rst introduction
to the business. From that
moment on, I was hooked.
Each year for Christmas,
I would ask for a 35mm
camera but never got one.
When I was around 10 years
old, I was helping a neighbor
unpack from being overseas
and found a plastic 35mm
camera she had bought
in Thailand with a roll of
fi lm. She gave me both for
helping her. I quickly took
all the frames on the roll of
fi lm but there was no place
to get it developed. So I
ordered a darkroom kit from
a magazine and found a book
on developing black-and-
white fi lm at the library and
set up my fi rst darkroom in
my mother's laundry room.
I took photos of everything,
developing them in the
laundry room for years. After
horses, photography was my
greatest joy.
I worked as a photographer
for my high school and
college newspapers and
yearbooks but really found
my calling as a student
worker for the Mississippi
Cooperative Extension
Service. Their media division
was awarded a grant to
document the history of
the TVA (Tennessee Valley
Authority) for one of the
fi rst interactive media
presentations. I spent
almost a year traveling with
a producer and director
throughout the Tennessee
Valley from North Mississippi
to Virginia operating a
camera. Flash-forward to
2006—I was scouting the
TVA dam in North Carolina
for A Walk in the Woods. I
walked into the Visitor Center
and the program playing on
an antiquated display loop
was my documentary from
college 20 years before.
After graduating from
Mississippi State University, I
worked as a media specialist
with the Cooperative
Extension Service, continuing
my work on agricultural
programming. One day I was
reading in the paper that the
Mississippi Film Offi ce was
looking for a location scout.
I immediately wrote a letter
to the fi lm offi ce director,
John Horn. I had never been
so passionate or clear about
wanting a job and thankfully
my letter convinced him of
that. I was hired and within
the fi rst week of work, I had
my fi rst project, Alan Parker's
classic, Mississippi Burning.
Needless to say, I was way in
Working on Jumanji in Shiprock, New Mexico.
Riding on my pony Polly (1969).
