Kathy Hill is a British filmmaker currently based in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, working on pre-production for her first feature Just Another Angel, a mystical romance. Re-writing at present so that the film is set in LA rather than its original Soho, Kathy has had filmed read-throughs with prominent Hollywood Actors and is also attached to either direct or co-direct
As she steers her way around the filmmaking capital of world, Kathy will be reporting back to Close-Up Film about what it’s really like to be an emerging filmmaker in Hollywood, the meetings and greetings, tears and triumps, and the downright lowdown and advice for anyone who wants to get a headstart in LA.
Born in Indonesia and Oxford-educated, Kathy is a member of the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain but began her career as a medical market researcher and became a psychological and creative consultant in advertising and market research. However, despite winning several awards for her papers on the uses of Neuro-Linguistic Programming in selling, Kathy decided to leave her consultancy business and instead followed her heart to become an artist, writer and filmmaker.
Kathy’s work is centred around her lifelong study of mythology, symbolism and world religion, reworking ancient stories and ceremonial rites of passage for the modern day.
Since 1996, Kathy has written, directed and produced six short films, and her 50 minute documentary In Search of the Muse is a ‘transatlantic investigation into the phenomenon of divine inspiration ancient and post-modern’ and which was broadcast on UK Channel 4 in 2000. It includes interviews with the aforementioned Rutger Hauer, BAFTA award-winning director Ben Hopkins (Simon Magus, The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz) and musician Mark Shaw (formerly of the band Then Jericho).
In Search of the Muse and Kathy’s full biography and filmography is available on www.3btv.com.
At the moment, Kathy is working on the preparation for a test shoot scene. The Director of Photography she was working with was asked to shoot a test scene by a well-known writer/director to show off an actress he’s interested in using for his next film, and it’s Kathy’s film they’ll be using. Shot on 35mm, Kathy is directing. “We have no money but are getting a lot of offers of free stuff” says Kathy. They’re currently casting and location scouting and Kathy will be sharing her adventures with Close-Up Film viewers from next week.
Here’s a taster of Kathy’s life in LA:
“…bumped into Jamie Bell yesterday by accident in a coffee shop. I need some English actors for smaller parts for the scene so I went up to the two Brits I overheard there. The first wasn't an actor. the second I thought looked like Jamie but then I thought ‘naaah’. I went up and asked if he was an actor and he said 'sometimes'. I told him about my project and my test scene, and asked if he'd be
interested… he said he might be. Then I asked for his email and he wrote it
down, next to his name - Jamie Bell. I then apologised profusely and said how embarrassed I was about just going up to him uninvited but he was very
nice about it and said it was ok to email. Hmmm…”
Will Jamie say yes? And how much free stuff can a filmmaker get for a shoot in Hollywood? We begin to find out these answers and more next week as Kathy stars in The Adventures of a British Female Filmmaker in Hollywood
Coming Soon: Kathy’s videoblog on life as a filmmaker in LA
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