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SMOOTH OPERATOR•PAULINE EDWARDS SOC
CAMERA READY By Natasha Block Hicks
Afilm crew shooting outside her elementary school gave the young Pauline Edwards SOC the idea of what she wanted to be when she grew up. Fast-forward to today and she joins us fresh from wrapping B-camera on a remake of the 1992 classic movie White Men Can’t Jump (2023) (dir. Calmatic, DP Tommy MaddoxUpshaw ASC).
“I recall that there was a Black camera operator working with the crew,” Edwards says. “My dad always had a camera in his hand and was always photographing or videoing us, so I was used to cameras, but I never knew that it could be a profession. Seeing that cameraman operating as a job really made me think.”
Edwards was born in England, but moved to Queens, New York, aged three and has never returned to the UK. On the brink of adulthood, her family moved to Florida and Edwards followed, enrolling at Valencia College in Orlando to study film under its founder, the German filmmaker and actor Ralph Clemente. Edwards’ focus then was, as it is now, unwavering.
“I love storytelling, and when you are at the camera, you’re right there in the middle of it. Operating, to me, is the best job and I just wanted to do all parts of it. I never wanted to DP or anything else.”
On completing her diploma, Edwards and a group of fellow graduates headed-out to California for the summer, “and we never really left,” she says. “We went to David Nutter’s house for a barbecue. He wasn’t there but we hung out and looked at his awards.”
Nutter, an ex-student of Clemente’s and a successful director known for Game Of Thrones (2012-2019), proved to be a useful contact for the graduates.
“We met up with him to try to get an intern or PA position on his show,” relates Edwards, “but I told him I just wanted to do camera. I wasn’t there to PA.”
Nutter suggested that a stint at a rental house might be more suited to Edwards’ needs, advice she duly followed, which saw her joining the team of camera techs at the now defunct Rocky Mountain Motion Pictures.
Before long she was freelancing as a camera assistant on low-to-mid-budget movies such as The Nines (2007, dir. John August, DP Nancy Schreiber ASC). However, the Writers Guild Of America (WGA) strike of 2007-8 pinballed her in another direction.
“The film work dried-up,” remembers Edwards, “and so my friend Robby Lowell introduced me to line producer Javi Sulaiman at America’s Next Top Model (2003-2015) and I started to AC there.”
Edwards returned to America’s Next Top Model on-and-off for eight years, first as an AC on 91 episodes, and then as an operator on 11 episodes. There she met camera operators Gretchen Warthen SOC, Ruben Avendano SOC and Stephen Coleman, who became her unofficial mentors.
“They would throw a camera on my shoulder and tell me to get in there and shoot, then watch me and give me tips,” remembers Edwards, “that’s how I started operating.”
Though her rise was steady, it was by no means smooth. “It was really hard for me to stay on course at the very beginning of my career, there wasn’t a lot of help,” admits Edwards.
Even though she settled in reality TV, with friendly compatriots and with mounting opportunities to shoulder a camera, the climate remained challenging for the fledgling operator.
“Some directors are screamers,” reveals Edwards. “I guess everything is so in-the-moment, and the tensions are super-high, but sometimes it can feel borderline abusive. I’ve had my moments in
reality TV which made me question whether I really wanted to do this job anymore.
“But then, there are genuinely good people,” she rationalises, “and you meet so many people that do want to help you.”
One such person, Gretchen Warthen SOC, recommended Edwards for an operating job on A-camera with DP Tommy Maddox-Upshaw ASC on the Netflix series Huge In France (2019). The DP then asked her back to operate for subsequent projects – On My Block S2 (2019) and Snowfall S4 (2021), for which Maddox-Upshaw earned an ASC Outstanding Achievement Award. And now, with White Men Can’t Jump, Edwards has secured her first movie operating credit.
“Tommy just understands filmmaking,” marvels Edwards, “I’m learning all the time from him. Sometimes it’s almost too much to try and absorb.”
Being accepted into Maddox-Upshaw’s trusted crew meant Edwards had the chance to work with some familiar faces repeatedly over several contracts, such as B-camera 1st AC Prentice Sinclair Smith, B-camera 2nd AC Jose M. De Los Angeles,
Images: BTS photos of Pauline Edwards SOC at work on Huge In France, Snowfall and White Man Can’t Jump.
A-camera 1st AC Alex Lim, A-camera 2nd AC Gina Victoria, loader Fernando Zacarias and gaffer Justin Dickson.
“We are all friends as well as a camera team and they will do anything to help solve your problem,” says Edwards respectfully, “I just love the camaraderie.”
Edwards’ is fairly impartial about the subjective question of whether she prefers filming reality or scripted projects.
“I just want to be a camera operator and be the best at it,” she emphasises. “I’m in a really good flow when I’m handheld; I feel in tune. It’s one of my favourite ways to shoot, which I got from working on unscripted shoots.
“The transition from reality to scripted production was a little bit of a learning curve because, on reality projects, you don’t talk to the people you’re filming, you’re just a fly-on-the-wall. In scripted, you have to communicate with a lot of people and deal with so much more equipment than just the camera. But I love being in-there with the actor and being the first person to see all that emotion that they pour onto the screen. I’d only done TV until White Men Can’t Jump, and I’ve found that I do love the pace of making a movie.
“But right now, I’ll take what’s offered,” she continues honestly, “as long as I can learn something new. That excites me the most, never touching something before, grasping it and trying to master it. We had a pursuit vehicle on White Men Can’t Jump. I didn’t get to do it this time, but I was itching to get in-there.”
The Coronavirus pandemic provided a unique opportunity for Edwards to get stuck into some self-study.
“I was working on Snowfall,” relates Edwards, “so when we went into lockdown, I borrowed some wheels from Gretchen and practiced with them, every day, for hours. When we started shooting again, they decided they wanted a smaller footprint around the actors. So, two cameras were dedicated to the Ronin. The Ronin would be on the dolly, the dolly grip would push the Ronin around and we’d operate the wheels. “I would never have been able to do that before Covid,” admits Edwards, “I’ve fallen in love with it now.” Her dedication to her craft paid-off. Edwards and A-camera/Steadicam operator Manolo Rojas SOC were jointly awarded the 2022 SOC Camera Operator Of The Year In Television Award for their work on Snowfall S4 E8 “Betrayal” (2021).
“I never thought in my whole life that I would win an award for camera operating,” marvels Edwards, although she has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award in Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Programme for RuPaul’s Drag Race (2021/2022).
“The SOC Award was great because it was a team award. I go on different sets now and people will tell me, “I voted for you!” To be recognised by your peers is just amazing.”
Also during the pandemic, Edwards joined the SOC’s mentorship programme and was placed under the wing of Geoffrey Haley SOC.
“He helped me on the mental side of camera operating,” reveals Edwards. “Being a minority in this business, people weren’t that accepting all the time, especially early-on. I felt like I had to be perfect. I was cautious to step-up when I felt I didn’t know everything because I thought, if I messed up, I would ruin the chances of the next Black female operator to come along. That was hard to carry.”
With an education in psychophysiology, Haley was in a good position to offer support.
“Geoff is good at listening and analysing, he helped me to take some of that burden off my shoulders,” says Edwards wistfully, “I miss our chats.”
Edwards is now part of the SOC Inclusion Committee and has joined the 600 Black Women, “a collective of motion picture filmmakers, stills photographers, and publicists who are Black women identifying people in the Local 600 guild”, founded by cinematographer and entrepreneur Chris Wairegi.
“There’s a lot of us out there,” Edwards stresses, “we just need the chance. Often, when I get on-set, people will make their way over to me and tell me that I’m the first Black female camera operator that they’ve seen. I’m hoping that, like I when saw an operator when I was a kid, someone will see me and be inspired to get into this business. Because there’s space for us!”
